Our Memorial Day trip was to the Tri-Cities to visit some of our oldest friends. The kids all get along so well! My girls are eager to get back there and Maeve floated the idea that we move in with them... Haha! It was a fun weekend of pickle ball, yummy food, movies, video games, hot tub and ticket to ride + late nights and good conversation. Cheers to forever friends!

It's May and I had hoped that the weather would be reasonable for Enoch's birthday party, but no luck! Instead of sunshine, it rained buckets. I had originally planned to have E's party outside at a park (taking the easy route!), but at the last minute we moved the party into the house. It was really fun to gather with family and friends to celebrate Enoch's second birthday! Enoch usually loves to sing happy birthday and blow out candles, but he had some stage fright on his birthday. No worries, Maeve was more than happy to step up and blow out his candles for him.

Last year, Conor and the big girls learned to nordic ski while I stayed home, took care of little kids and my pregnant belly, and baked muffins (so many muffins - some sort of weird nesting). This year we all get to get out there! And it's a total circus just like we guessed it would be! My friend, Amorette, and I drove up during the work week just the two of us to initiate me into the ski crew and I'm really glad we did that before taking up the entire family. Our friend, Parker, was so generous to carry a baby or pull the sled the entire time! The weather was so wintery and it snowed the entire time we were up there. We had a great time and returned home tired. The babies were troopers and so was Maeve. We didn't end up getting Maeve on her skis because oh man, everything else was so much work! But next time, Maeve!

Things to note in the photos:

• Conor's pink boots that gave him wicked blisters
• Ira's snow encrusted hoods
• Snow in E's eyelashes
• Maeve and Ira asleep in the sled
• the sheer amount of snow on the ground and falling

For our 4th of July, we spent the weekend with some of our oldest friends. We've known the Blodgetts for 14 years. We had an awesome weekend filled with treats, swimming, playtime, movies, late nights and babies. I came home feeling really grateful for long standing relationships and looking forward to more fun memories! The kids all got along so well and they played so hard!

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!