I took the girls the other day to a trail and we FINALLY have perfected riding bikes!!!! Now the girls are obsessed. Sweaty, stinky bike riding fools. Up and down the street, around and around. It is so awesome to see the sense of freedom in their faces. 
Other than that, this week was fairly easy going. Last week was vacation Bible school. I was the co-director and that went fairly well, in the end it was all worth it to see 140 happy little kids.
My sister Sarah came to visit the second week of July. We took the train downtown and had a blast! We walked the kids to Buckingham Fountain, spent the afternoon at Shedd Aquarium, took the bus around the loop, played at Millenium Park, and ate at a sidewalk bistro. It was a late night getting home and every minute was worth it.
Tanner still talks about how, "Dolphins jump out water. People carry penguins. Penguins hop, seal climb rock, me LOVE it!"
Jeff has bottled the pear wine from last year finally and has another batch of cherry wine brewing. I am enjoying a glass every evening. Especially now that Jeff is back home to enjoy it with me!
We crashed my parents house with some friends for the 4th. We had a lovely picnic, fireworks, and swimming. We also spent four days there in mid-July (Mommy needed the down time that visit). Each girl spent two days and nights individually in June. And we are trying to set up another trip for the girls.
I took the kids to the Naperville children's museum. Jaxson (that I babysit) threatened to ruin it all with a tantrum, which made me appreciate how well behaved in public my kids really are. My kids loved it. Lots of super science stuff, right up their alley. This is them making a giant bubble around the three of them.
In June the girls took two weeks of swim lessons. Annika passed to the next level, and now that the pressure is off Phoebe is actually swimming better than her. We have made numerous visits to the Plymesser bed and breakfast pool, and some best friends in Lockport have a little patio 3 foot deep pool that the girls practice in. They have both learned to dive to the bottom, somersault, American crawl, front float, and are diving in off the side! If you know Phoebe (and know that until this summer she was deathly afraid to get her face wet) you realize how HUGE this is! I love letting them just GO and watching them love every minute!
Jeff is home and is working his very own business Full Time now! He loves every minute of it. Makes us wonder what he was thinking being a banker in a cubicle for 12 years. Silly. Central Crating is the perfect thing for him...the tools, the truck, working with new people constantly, and then using all of his management and finance skills running everything himself. He is the happiest I have ever seen him. And the business is flourishing.
This was the serious photo on father's day. Seriously.
I discovered a fishing hole in a subdivision nearby. We went the first time Father's day, and have gone twice more since. Perfect place to fish with kids: no weeds, no bugs, and zillions of little hungry fish. The family loves it!
Took the kids strawberry picking. YUM YUM YUM! i know we ate more than we took home.
Annika finished her softball season with two catches! We were so proud. Quite the little slugger too.
The kids and I hit a Joliet Jackhammer game. I have no idea how it went for the kids. Luckily we had friends there, I spent 45 minutes in line to find out they were out of hot dogs, so I missed a majority of the night. I think the kids had a good time.
I let the kids go out and play in one of our many many rain storms. Phoebe collected a whole family of worms.
The Carsrud cousins came in for the recital and the kids had a blast in the yard and riding scooters. We introduced them to Bandz bracelets, IKEA, and drive up Dunkin' Donuts. Lots of good city stuff. :)
The amazingly talented and gorgeous dancer! Phoebe is quite the little entertainer on stage and did a wonderful job in her tap, ballet, and jazz dances. It was a long recital (almost 3 hours), but we all enjoyed it. Especially me. Brought back all sorts of memories from when I was little and dancing. I am so glad that Phoebe loves it so much.
The Tan man LOVED touch a truck day at the park. He climbed in and on dump, garbage, snow, UPS, fire, and digger trucks, a bus, a crane, and so much more. He was in HEAVEN to say the least.
I never would have survived Jeff being gone for 2 and half months without our trusty babysitters Carmen and Hannah. We will miss them greatly next year when they go to college! I also relied heavily on my parents and several of our friends. Thank you anyone who let me have an hour or two to myself every once in awhile!!!!!!
One of the weekends that Jeff was not home at all we conducted super craft day. We baked, made stepping stones, wall hooks, super balls, gummy martians, lip gloss, and I can't remember what else. We cleaned out the craft closet it was awesome.
And I don't have pictures of some of my big accomplishments. One: I am the tannest in my life ever thanks to all of these activities with the kids. I painted a bathroom and our master bedroom (the first time out of 9 houses). Both are shades of green, and I love them both. AND I read the entire Twilight series. I am still on the fence about how well I liked the style of writing, but the action and story line sucked me in. Enough that I read four 500 page or more books in four weeks in addition to everything else going on. Ok. I guess I liked them. But only Jacob, not Bella. Whew! I think I need a nap from typing all of that! I can't wait to scrap it all and remember even more of the fun ness of this summer.
