Just me & my Dad

On Saturday I had coffee with my Dad on the front porch. I admired the flowers while he read me Pickles comics from the paper...and if you are guessing I loved every single second of it, you are right :) 

Kayak Point

Things that make my heart happy:

- Enormous tents, pop-up trailers from 1979 and bright blue lawn chairs

-  A husband that delights in finding and whittling the perfect weinie roasting & marshmallow toasting stick

- A husband that delights in creating the perfect perimeter of citronella candles around the campfire to ward off pesky mosquitoes

- S'mores with homeade graham crackers, gigantic marshmallows and Reeses Pieces

- Three walks to the beach in two days

- Having filthy feet from traipsing through the forest and along the sand in flip-flops

- Breakfast followed by a nap followed by lunch followed by a nap, all under a canopy of green

- Crabs scuttling at break-neck speed from the shore to deeper water

-  A 3 1/2 year-old niece who very gleefully shares her special Gorilla Munch camping cereal with her uncle and auntie

- Snuggling down for the night, the two of us in our mansion of a tent, in my brother's old baseball sweatshirt and a pile of sleeping bags

- Sharing our campsite with a squirrel, a bunny and a flock of chirping birds 

- Sunsets over the water

- Planning for next year's trip :)

A camping bus?! Yes, please! 

Giving the 3 Stooges a run for their money since 1987 :)

Julia and the fairies

Our sweet friend Julia turned 7 last week, and what her dear Daddy & Mama did for her is so precious, I'm not even going to try and explain it with words.

Please, just take a peak:

There's even a tiny fairy wood pile, for goodness sake!

A hiking we will go

On Saturday we drove through the valley and up the pass in order to traipse through the evergreens and up the creek. I can hardly think of a better way to whittle the day away :)

July 4th

This year's holiday was the perfect mix of everything we love about celebrating our country's birthday: A slumber party at the beach with Eric, Tessa & Miss E and the harbor's annual firework extravaganza on the 3rd, and then a whole day of family and stuffing ourselves silly and more fireworks on the 4th. It's hard to beat meandering our way across the sand to the marina, homeade vanilla ice cream with blueberries and raspberries, a small town parade, a barbeque two days in a row, sunburns from sitting around on the patio all afternoon, the sun setting over the water, and - forgive me for sounding like a broken record - the very best part by leaps and bounds, experiencing it all with the people we love. 

'There's a boat!' :) 

  

Somehow this is only picture I snapped from all of the fun on the 4th, but it's one of my favorites from our summer so far :)