fourth of july

It was another Fourth of July at the lake for us!  Amos has realized this year how awesome summer is.  He thought June was pretty cool, that was until July rolled around.  In the car, coming home from swimming, he listed his top three favorite things about summer.  1) Swimming!  2) My birthday 3) Dad's home  and then he added 4) Getting to see our family a lot.  I couldn't agree more!

The fourth was overcast and a lot cooler, but the water was warm.  We shot off some noisy fireworks and then hit the water.

 Silas was a little more cautious, but he was brave eve when he was scared.

Ivan would have lit them all up if we weren't watching him.

The boys tried out some new moves this time.  They were getting braver and doing spin and flip moves off the mat.

Amos came up and said he thought he was dying.  He decided not to do anymore flips into the water after that.

We saved a few more fireworks for after swimming.  We didn't exactly wait until dark, be we were close enough.

jason's 33rd birthday

How did we celebrate Jason's birthday?  With quality time and ice cream!  Two of his favorite things. 

Jason's been wanting to take us to see some of his favorite biking trails in Northwest Arkansas.  We packed a lunch and headed out.  The boys are always ready for an adventure.

And these trails didn't disappoint them.  I think they could have spent the entire time in the caves.

Someone got caught by a spiderweb.

But once we made it up to the bluffs, they thought that was pretty cool too!

Dad in the front...

Mom in the back!

Not pictured are the ice cream cones we cooled off with or the date night we had thanks to Miss Sarah watching our boys!!  

more summer

June's amazing weather has allowed us to keep up with our morning nature walks!  We never go home disappointed because there is always something to see.

The boys always want to keep any animal we find, but we're working on appreciating them in nature and leaving them be.

It's been neat to see how our common trekking ground has changed over the last month.  Old flowers die and new ones bloom.  The boys have even started coming up with their own names for them because we are flower illiterate over here.

This is the cauli-flower

This one is happy to come along.  He's even happier if he's holding a stick.

Mud puddles turned into arm tattoo ink!  

We joined our church family at the Lake of the Ozarks to celebrate with our extended church family of the midwest.  We left the youngest two with Jason's parents and took the older two boys.  They had a blast in their classes during the conference and I was able to sit by the pool and read while they swam!

This is how they felt about sleeping in a hotel.  Luckily the conference went til 9:30 each evening so they were quickly out like a light.

Cool weather brought a hiking trip with Dad.  We visited Walter Woods for the first time and we're quickly impressed with it.  We will definitely be back.

Everyone wanted to follow Dad's lead...

The one left behind.  Not for much longer.  He wants to do everything brothers do.

Our hike there was cut a little short, so we went on to Wildcat Glades and did some rock climbing.  We go to Wildcat Glades a lot, but save the rock climbing for only when Dad is around.

We are always delighted to spy butterflies on our hikes.  This one is a Red Spotted Purple and we've seen a few of them.  

We always come back with something new to add to our nature journals.

Our last nature day with friends got a little rained out.  But we made the most of it.  Or I should say, they made the most of it and got soaking wet.  Even Conrad!