The 3rd, 4th, 11th, and 13th of July

So these are the most eventful dates of the month so far.  At the end of June, Mallory and Tyler invited us to Tyler's family's 3rd-of-July party where they have catered food, snacks, drinks, fireworks on the lake, and swimming just outside of their home.  It was a hot and beautiful day and we loved watching the Whitmores dote on Josh and Kelsey.  We loved swimming just off their private beach and all of the food.

Mallory and me--they moved a couple of days later and we miss them!

The Monsons!

 Just before it got dark, they pulled out all of these glow-toys.  Kelsey didn't care for having this wig on her head, but she liked chewing on it.  Josh practically collected the toys and Tyler was more than happy to give them to him. 

Just before the fireworks

Mal and Tyler are on the right

 The aftermath--we wiped them out and couldn't stop talking about how we had had such a terrific time there!

 On the 4th of July, we didn't actually do a whole lot since we were all pretty exhausted from the long night before.  We did go and buy me some fabric so I could start my first patterned quilt.  It was a blast and I finished the quilt top on Steve's birthday as a surprise to him!

After buying the fabric, we headed over to Jamie and Ben Curran's home where lots of us gathered for a barbeque.  It was fun to be with lots of friends and watch Josh and Kelsey play with all of their children.  We didn't survive very long because the kids were seriously cranky from being up late, but we got to see the Forest Park fireworks from our front window and enjoyed watching "John Carter".

I needed to include this picture because this girl is just a doll.  For a long time, whenever Josh wasn't looking, Kelsey would pick up his stuffed dog and cuddle her face down on it while she walked around sucking her thumb.  Of course, as soon as Josh saw it, he would yell at her and put it away.  So we decided it was time to get a stuffed animal ALL of her own and we got this darling duck.  She LOVES having one of her own and I like seeing her excitement when ever I say "Where's the duck?" and she starts looking around for it.

 On the 11th, Steve turned 27!  In the morning, I surprised him with the games Nintendo 3DS Lego Harry Potter and also For Sale.  He also got seasons 3 and 4 of the Bill Cosby show (which we have become addicted to...)

After dropping him off at work, Josh and I picked up a cake and surprised him with the cake and the quilt top.

 Snuggling on dad's lap like this:

 ...only lasts for about 1 picture...

 That night, we dropped our kids off with Lindsy Hartsock and went downtown to Navy Pier where we rode the Tall Ship Windy for 75 minutes of touring Lake Michigan, watching the beautiful skyline, and listening to real pirate stories.  It was fun and we really enjoyed ourselves!

On Friday the 13th, we got to go camping with the Coons' family (Steve's sister).  We had a bit of a fiasco heading down there.  So after 2 hours of trying to get past Chicago, Steve and I realized that Kelsey was running a very high temperature.  Since we were kind of in the middle of nowhere, we drove to the next city (about 40 minutes) and bought a thermometer and Children's IBUProfen.  We found out that her temperature was 103.6 under the arm, which of course set me in panic mode.

We couldn't get a hold of Laura's family (who had been there for a few hours at this point) because of the lack of cell phone service and I also couldn't reach the doctor.  I was really panicking, but finally the doctor called back and told us what to look for and informed us of what point we would have to have her seen.  That helped, but then we ended up getting extremely lost (having mistakenly taken the wrong road out of the city).  So after stopping at a farm house (seriously in the middle of NOTHING) we got directions to where we were going and pulled into our camp spot 3 hours late!  

I felt ridiculous, but Kelsey was ornery, we had to set up camp before dark and we hadn't eaten.  Chris and Laura were so understanding and helped us out with everything--including entertaining Josh while we worked.

We had a good time talking while we waited for kids to go to sleep.  The only scare we had was the sound of raccoons fighting over our trash bag at the Coons' site (whoops).  Otherwise it was a REALLY beautiful night and I wasn't pleasantly surprised at how few bugs there really were.

The next morning, we had breakfast, talked for a while and then broke down camp.  The original plan had been to stay until dinner time and then pack up and leave, but I had a very severe headache and later found out that Chris was hurting from his surgery a few weeks ago.  (Many MANY kudos to Chris for even camping!!)  Here are a few of the pictures I took.

Kelsey and Lizzie in the Pak n Play

Breakfast--pancakes, bacon and orange juice

Josh and Rachel have become REALLY good friends and I love it!

Here is another sweet picture.  Since the campout, Josh has been infatuated with flashlights.  We have lately been letting him point the flashlight at the book we're reading and he's been very good at giving it back when we ask.  I love this kid!