Summer Days

Right before we left for Kentucky, we got to share one of our favorite summer pastimes with our friend Rachael. North Carolina was a great place for picking berries and the pictures below are from a farm near our home in Greenville. Every time we went I offered to pay for all the extra berries we ate in the field, but they would just laugh and say that we had to taste-test the wares! We spent many hours picking and eating strawberries, we are really going to miss it!


"Taste-testing" our wares...

Morgan dressed appropriately for the days activities.


Shortly after we made the move to Kentucky the girls got the opportunity to go and visit Iowa for a week and a half. I made the trip up to join them for the Fourth of July, and we had a mini-vacation! The girls had spent the week playing, swimming, eating outside, and hanging out with Grandma Sue, Grandpa Sam, and Tami so they were ready to show me all the "fun things" to do when I got there. Grandma Sue wanted to take a family picture of course, but it was my first one without braces so I was actually excited to do it! My camera wasn't working properly, so we only have a few pictures to show.
Holidays in Grinnell are something spectacular, the Fourth of July being no exception. There is not one but three parades, two of which the girls got to participate in! As you can see from below, we spared no expense decorating the golf cart. Everyone, well most everyone (thanks but no thanks Grandpa Sam!), helped decorate even the neighbors!
After the both the morning parades were over we went to the country club and the girls participated in the fishing derby. Abbie loved it, and she even won a prize for the smallest fish caught! We went back to the house for a quick nap and then across the street to watch the afternoon parade. The evening was spent having a backyard cook-out with all the gang and then finished with a trip to Ahrens Park to watch the fireworks. Pretty much the perfect small-town USA celebration!
The next day was Morgan's birthday and we celebrated by driving the 10 hours home, however she was still excited about her presents which were opened earlier, especially the Hannah Montana dress-up outfit from Auntie Tami, as pictured below!

I didn't get a picture of Morgan's birthday cake in Iowa, but I got a second chance when Elliott was nice enough to share his birthday celebration with her (see pictures on Desi's Blog "Birds of a Feather"). This last picture is of the girls after their Iowa adventure on their first day of daycare back at home. It looks more like Morgan went on a vacation to the beach doesn't it? She is the little clone of Tami Jane!