OH...SUMMER!!!

I'm two weeks into summer vacation and loving every moment. It's my favorite time of year! I'm so much more relaxed and I spend more time doing things I truly enjoy...spending tons of time playing with Gracie, going for walks, relaxing, cooking, keeping up with all the housework, catching up on a few projects, spending time with family and friends and catching up on sleep. It's simply wonderful! We had a very busy start to our summer with Pao, our foreign exchange student from a number of years ago, and her husband, Julio, spent the past three weeks visiting our family. Here are a few highlights over the past few weeks.

On June 4th we celebrated the wedding/marriage of my cousin Jonah to his now long time girlfriend Kelsey.

Gracie with Isaac and Ava - she loved hanging out with these two.

My cousin, Kari, and I

Julio and Pao

Pao and Julio spent some time with Steve at the fire station. They got first class treatment...they tried on the uniforms, received a ride in one of the fire trucks and got a couple Chanhassen fire department T-shirts.

Pao and Julio are from Paraguay, which unfortunately they do not have marshmallows. So of course, we had to have the traditional bonfire and make S'mores. Julio loved them so much that he brought marshmallows home with him.

Even with our cool summer we had one hot day that we enjoyed at the beach. It was Gracie's first time. She was a little uncertain about the sand and water and she preferred watching everyone else play.

She did of course love the slide at the beach's playground.

Grace and Pao

Baseball was another new adventure for Pao and Julio. Since our family practically lives and breathes baseball/softball, Pao and Julio certainly got their fill of the game. Pao and Julio saw two Twins games and three softball games while they were here. Julio even played in two of the softball games!

We also celebrated Steve's birthday. Pao's family in Paraguay owns a bakery where they specialize in wedding cakes. Pao was kind enough to make Steve his birthday cake. It was delicious.

The beautiful dress Gracie is wearing is from Pao and Julio.

We also made a day trip to Rochester to celebrate Steve's birthday with his family and celebrate Father's day. Thankfully we had a little bit of sunshine during the day for the girls to enjoy some swimming.