Happy 30th to us

We are officially OLD. The next time someone asks me my age I think for the first time I will considering lying and say 29. Lynn and Wayne had dinner for Jon and I on Thursday and then again on Friday night for our birthdays - thanks guys!

Vacation...ahhhh

It's good to be back home, but man was that vacation needed. We had a wonderful time up at Lake Michigan with my family. The complex we stayed at was adorable. All the houses were colored in pinks, torquoises, purples and yellows and they all had that great beachy cottage feel. You could walk everywhere in the neighborhood making it very charming. We were a few houses from the pool and about a block from the entrance to the beach. This the adorable house we stayed in all week.

The beach had perfectly soft sand and the water was great.





We also celebrating the summer birthdays (Jon and I turning 30 (ouch!) and Jeremy and Renee turning 28.

Running through the sand dunes...



Family photo

Swingset

I can't believe I have yet to post pictures of the new swingset on here. I want everyone to awe at all of Jon's work, I'm not going to take credit for any of it. My biggest contribution to this project was pretty much staying out of his way.




Obviously Madeline loves it, but surprisingly Cooper may love it more! It's become his favorite place to sit all afternoon and sunbathe.



Also, no more mud and overgrown weeds at the back of the yard! I can proudly say that the newly planted hydrangeas haven't died. They are actually doing really well. I may just have gotten the hang of this gardening thing, at least this season. We'll fill in the rest of the bed next year but I think we had our fill of landscaping for this year!

Happy 4th of July!

We went to the Indian Hill Fourth of July parade and had a great time. No rain this year yeah. All her cousins were there so Mady was happy. Afterwards we grilled out and hung out at the pool. The perfect 4th!

Nap Time

Deer Creak Resort

I'm exhausted. We had such a fun weekend at Deer Creak with Jon's family. I think we'll definitely be making another trip back there. We spent all day Saturday hopping between a speed boat skiing and tubing and a pontoon boat lounging and tubing. Although Madeline was very excited at the idea of being a boat...

It took a good hour of screaming and realizing that we were not getting off anytime soon before she starting having a good time.The kids all enjoyed tubing. Here's Harris and then Lily and Tre.


I got in the tube with Madeline on three separate occasions, but we were never able to actually take off. Maybe when we head to Michigan City she'll get the courage to go!


Chris and Holland

Swimming in the lake.


Liz and Charlie (and that is Jon with Paul Jr. on the tube in the background!).

Holland and Madeline enjoying a snack on the boat.

We had dinner in the lodge where we stayed and right outside the window was a family of deer. No wonder this place is called Deer Creak. The kids all really enjoyed watching the adult and baby deer sharing dinner time with us.

Brave Weekend

Madeline had a brave weekend venturing out on some activities. She rode the big pony for the first time and loved it.


And she FINALLY got in the pool. I fear now we will never get her out without a fight. She loved it and even went off the diving board. Here's to a great summer now that she will finally get in!

Magazine shoot

The June issue of Cincinnati Parent comes out this week with the little girl on the cover. These are the images from the photoshoot. This is the cover shot...

And these are some of the other images...



I'll also put them on Shutterfly in case (Mom) you want to have prints.