Pictures!

Nathan on his last day of school. He's now officially a second grader! I can't believe we had to wear sweatshirts that day, it was so chilly.

I bought Nathan several art projects and different things to do throughout the summer. I'm just giving them to him one at a time. Here he is with one of the projects, a wooden puzzle train. He's been so busy with these little projects and just playing that he has hardly watched any TV.

I just love this pic of him.

Nathan and Ashley at the ocean. We went to Willard Beach.

Another ocean picture. Ashley was so cold that day. I thought the air felt nice, but the water was definitely cold, only 55 degrees!

Dan, Nathan and Ashley at the temple

Nathan in one of his new shirts from Hanna Andersson.

Ashley, Dan and Nathan on Fathers' Day. Ashley gave him a card she made with some money in it. Nathan gave him a little dog that plays, "Bad to the Bone" with a card that said, "Dad, you are bad to the bone, but I still love you." Dan got a kick out of that because he's always sung that song, just joking around. He also gave him a frame and a card that he made at school. I gave him an apron from Pampered Chef that says, "Caution: Extremely Hot." I knew he would get a kick out of that, but he can wear it when he's grilling. I also got him a grilling basket, which looks really neat. You can put small things in it, like vegetables and put the whole basket on the grill. Yum!

Temple

We've been busy since school got out, but a nice kind of busy, not a stressful kind of busy. We've been doing lots of things with Ashley. We went to see my mom's pony, we visited with Mike and the girls, we've watched a few movies here at home on Netflix, we've played games like Hand and Foot a lot, we had Allyson over to spend the night, we went to the ocean, we got frozen custard, we went to church, we've gone to the movies (she saw Super 8 with my mom, and Nathan and I saw Mr. Popper's Penguins, which Nathan loved!), we celebrated Fathers' Day with my dad and Dan';s dad, and she and Felicia went on a trail ride. She's also ridden Chance another a couple more times, too.

On Saturday Dan, Nathan, Allyson, Ashley and I went down to the temple because when I asked her if there was anything special she wanted to do while she was here, she said, "See the temple" so we drove down and walked around for a little bit. It was beautiful and peaceful, of course. Then we stopped in Kittery on the way home to do some school shopping for Ashley. She had her own money with her, plus we gave her some for school clothes. Ashley discovered outlet stores last summer and she loves them! We went to American Eagle, Aeropostale, Adidas, etc. She got a lot of cute clothes. Nathan was getting a little bored in the clothing stores, so we went over to Lindtt. Oh, my goodness, talk about heaven! They gave us two samples each, then we bought some that were on really good sale. Lindtt is so expensive at their normal prices! Then we went to HannaAndersson, which is a really awesome children's clothing store. I got Nathan a vest for church and two tshirts for this summer. They were so cute. One has a dog on the front, the other has a robot. He also needed shorts, so we went to Old Navy and got two pair of shorts and some flipflops. He also found some noise putty, which he wanted really badly. It was only two bucks, so I let him get it. He was so amused by it. He kept playing with it all the way home, laughing hysterically. We all got tired of it after a while, of course, so he was the only one laughing. He said, "Come on, where are the laughs?" He's such a riot.

Today, Nathan and I had to drop Ashley off in Auburn so she could go to her grandmother's for a couple days. On our way home, we stopped at Jeff and Sue's and spent some time with Scott, Kristen, Jeff, and 6 of their grandchildren. It was super busy, but fun to see everybody. I had picked up a couple of paint books for Maddi and Sydney because I wanted to do some art projects with them this summer, so we brought those. They loved them, especially Maddi. She's such a cute littler artist. She concentrates really hard and takes her time to make it look nice. Nathan was running around with Justice most of the time, sweating like crazy, of course.

This afternoon, Nathan and I took a bike ride. I decided to try riding Dan's bike, since no one else would see me, besides Nathan. The seat is way too high for me, but I did it. It was actually pretty fun. We went down the camproad for a bit and then stopped before we got to the hill. Then we went swimming at Mom and Dad's for while. It was so peaceful and relaxing. The water was cold, but the air was perfect. There was a little breeze here and there. I leaned back in a really comfy lounge chair that Mom has and could have gone to sleep, it was so nice. I wanted to stay awake to keep an eye on Nathan in the pool, though.

School's Out!

Right now, I'm sitting in my living room typing this. It seems really strange because it's very quiet in here. Nathan is out playing with Branson and Kaedon and Ashley is swimming with Felicia. They just went riding and were really hot, so they decided to take a dip.

Ashley flew in on Monday night! It's been so fun to have her around. We've been playing games, watching movies, eating and talking. She also does a lot with Nathan, which he loves. She's always tickling him or being silly, which makes him laugh and laugh.

I've been sick since Saturday, and I'm still not feeling much better. I was dealing with some seasonal allergies before that (which I just developed last year) but I got a really bad cold on top of that. I even missed church on Sunday, which is extremely rare for me. But that tells you how bad it was.

Our last day of school was yesterday! I'm so excited to be on vacation. I've been really looking forward to this summer. Nathan is super excited, too.

Yesterday, when we got home from school, Mom, Gram, Felicia, Nathan, Ashley and I went to see my mom's new pony. He's so cute! I think the kids will love riding him (and my mom, too). He's really easy going and calm, which is the kind of horse my mom needs.

Olivia & Felicia's graduation

Olivia and Felicia graduated (or gradicated, as my Dad likes to say) on June 4th! It's amazing to me that they are old enough to graduate. Here they are on their special night.

With Papa and Hilda

My girls! Felicia is not really taller than Olivia. She must have been standing on a hill or something.

With Nathan. He actually wanted his picture taken with them. It was so cute.

Last night, they had a graduation party for the family (They were having a separate one for their mom's side and their friends). We had a barbecue with hamburgers and hot dogs and lots of great food. They both got lots of cards with money in them! They seemed really happy. The guests were, besides our immediate family, Jake and his mom, Chris and his parents, his sister Katie, Dick, Denise, Nick, Kathy, Owen, Uncle Ken, Aunt Lorraine, and Aunt Diane and Nicholle. It was a fun party.