It's pretty hot here in the PNW. Last week, we picked the coolest day, woke up early (summer early anyways) and the girls and I picked strawberries before the day got too warm. We left the babies at home with Conor and had a delightful morning together. My big girls are really cool and wonderful. And they're at an age where they actually help picking strawberries, unlike Maeve, who only consumes. I'm glad we made it out to the strawberry fields. These little berries are the best!

Here we are last year picking berries. I can hardly believe we're repeating activities with our little man, E! I love him so much!

Happy Father's Days to one of the best!

Conor, Holly and Greta did a local Dad's Day Dash, a 5km run. They trained and fundraised previous to the run and then did the run together! I tried so hard to get there in time to see them cross the finish line, but I just missed them. I'm proud of them!

Another hot day, another day in the water! On this day, we went to Liberty Lake when Holly was done with school for the day. We invited our best friends and loaded up the paddle boards and played in the water! The day was record-breaking hot and so being in the cool lake water felt so good. Maeve ran around in her own little world playing on the dock and swimming where she couldn't touch (all while wearing her life jacket of course). E loved being thrown in the air and caught in the water and having his body swished in the water. Ira fell asleep in Amorette's arms with his feet in the water. Snapping a photo of our girl gang kicking off another summer of fun was really wonderful. SO many happy memories with these dear friends of ours!

On our way home, we stopped at Cafe Rio, picked up take out and had a picnic and late night at our house. It was one of those magical summer afternoons into evenings that was just right!

At a nearby park, we came across a massive chess set. Chess has become something of an obsession for some of our family members recently so this was quite an exciting discovery. Greta and I played a round of speed chess. Girl kicked my butt!