Sometime in the spring, when I could see that summer was going to be a tad on the disappointing side with zero trips to Canada, I got desperate and booked a couple vacations. I needed something to look forward to this summer! And I'm so glad I did! I book our trip to Banks Lake and our stay in Hayden Lake. We just got home today and we had a really lovely time! The weather was gorgeous and fortunately there aren't really any wildfires this year, or at least no smoke from them (yet). We stayed in a little two bedroom cabin, ate simple food and we were a short walk to the shared beach. The beach was super beautiful. It's south facing, pretty sand and the water is so clear! This was my type of vacation! We had access to a couple kayaks, a paddle board, a canoe and some other lake toys and we loved using them. Swimming out to the little dock was so much fun. I loved watching my girls play on the dock.

Coming back home feels like a downer. It was so fun to play and have so few cares and concerns! I'm so glad we went on this little vacation. Our family really needed it, I really needed it!

Our one and only camping trip this year was to Round Lake for our annual camp with friends trip. It was a lot of fun, even if I slept poorly. We forgot the pillows. And I took close to no photos with the exception of the ones below of Maeve playing with fire. We got in a lot of really fun lake time and everyone had a wonderful time!

I'm expecting (YAY!) and due March 4th. I did a blood test to find out the gender of our baby early and was surprised with the results - a BOY?!?! I didn't know my body could make those! I'll have my halfway ultrasound in October so hopefully we'll be able to confirm then!

I baked a BLUE cake for my girls to cut into! Their sweet little faces say it all. They're so happy that we're going to have a baby that we 100% get to keep!

Our second trip out to the Banks Lake/Grand Coulee area! Our girls were very enthusiastic about returning to the same place we stayed at last year and playing in the lake! Of course we had a lovely time. Highlights include: swimming in gorgeous Banks Lake, finding a ton of shells, renting a paddle board and eating super good Mexican food from a truck two nights in a row! This is a mini vacation that we would happily repeat!

We had originally planned to be in Yahk with my family for 4th of July. This summer kind of hurts. I hate being separated. It's been really hard to accept. We had a really lovely 4th of July despite the change in plans. We decorated bikes with neighbors and then had a little parade around the local park. We played some fun games. I took a nap ;) The girls decorated a very pinterest worthy (HA) flag cake. Oh gosh, it was comical and that cake is going to be remembered for all time. They were a little choked it didn't turn out exactly how they wanted it, but I don't know that I could love it more. We ate dinner and played with friends and then I took Holly and Greta to see the fireworks while Conor took care of the littles. I'm really grateful we were able to have a good day.