July has been such a fun month. I'm hoping to hold on to these memories well into the winter, since these have been the kind of days you pine for all year long. Consequently, I have taken a LOT of pictures. Posting them all would require four or five blog posts, so I'll just showcase some of my favorites, but if you click any of them, they'll take you to my Flickr photo stream and you can peruse at your pleasure!
We picked raspberries at Grandma and Grandpa's, and the kids dubbed it "Raspberry Wonderland". As adults, sometimes we lose sight of the simple pleasures and beauty around us, but hearing the kids as they hunted for berries made me so happy and reminded me of picking berries with my cousins at G&G Gessel's house.
Maesa's basket only managed to hold one berry at a time before it made it to her mouth.
Last weekend we went to Bear Lake! The kids have been talking about it for months now, and were so excited to actually sleep in our tent. Connor was an eager helper as Daddy set up the tent!
As soon as it was up, Alaina told us that Bootsie needed a nap. She loved to escape the action of Bear Lake and roll around in the tent all alone.
Anthony saw the old, decrepit float that was awaiting being burned and took it upon himself to make an entirely new one out of completely repurposed materials. Gotta admit, I thought he was crazy for taking on such a project, but after seeing it done, I'm proud of my helpful hubby.
Even though we had clean sand with seashells just a few yards away, Connor just couldn't stay out of the ashy sand around the firepit. He was black for two whole days. Maesa loved to rearrange the chairs into rows and yell, "Kids!" when she deemed they were ready.
Grandma also took on a huge task, cleaning out the shed!
In Dave's words, "Two days of Bear Lake".
The campfire is always the best part of the day.
Anthony and Dave with their masterpiece.
While there will never be a replacement for my childhood memories of buying penny candy at the Old Rock Store, the Gessels did a great job of making new memories for the little kids. I thought it was pretty funny that inflation had been taken into account and candies that I bought for 1 cent 15 years ago are now 3 cents. :)
Bear Lake is a much different experience now that I'm a parent. Much more worrying about campfire burns, too much candy consumption, sunblock reapplication, and achy joints from sleeping on the ground, but I cannot describe the joy it brought me to see my children making memories with their cousins the exact way that I did as a child.
I've attempted some star trail photos in the past without much luck, but I'm elated with this 27 minute exposure. I set up my tripod with a view of the characteristic Bear Lake trees and hoped for the best. I may have scared Kristina a little bit as she was walking to close the gate and I was lurking in the darkness! :) I was so pleasantly surprised with the fact that I got the North pole in the frame (it's the star around which all the others rotate) and the orange glow from the campfire on the trees. This was taken within a few minutes of my 26th birthday, so it's a cool memory to have!
We picked raspberries at Grandma and Grandpa's, and the kids dubbed it "Raspberry Wonderland". As adults, sometimes we lose sight of the simple pleasures and beauty around us, but hearing the kids as they hunted for berries made me so happy and reminded me of picking berries with my cousins at G&G Gessel's house.
Maesa's basket only managed to hold one berry at a time before it made it to her mouth.
Last weekend we went to Bear Lake! The kids have been talking about it for months now, and were so excited to actually sleep in our tent. Connor was an eager helper as Daddy set up the tent!
As soon as it was up, Alaina told us that Bootsie needed a nap. She loved to escape the action of Bear Lake and roll around in the tent all alone.
Anthony saw the old, decrepit float that was awaiting being burned and took it upon himself to make an entirely new one out of completely repurposed materials. Gotta admit, I thought he was crazy for taking on such a project, but after seeing it done, I'm proud of my helpful hubby.
Even though we had clean sand with seashells just a few yards away, Connor just couldn't stay out of the ashy sand around the firepit. He was black for two whole days. Maesa loved to rearrange the chairs into rows and yell, "Kids!" when she deemed they were ready.
Grandma also took on a huge task, cleaning out the shed!
In Dave's words, "Two days of Bear Lake".
The campfire is always the best part of the day.
Anthony and Dave with their masterpiece.
While there will never be a replacement for my childhood memories of buying penny candy at the Old Rock Store, the Gessels did a great job of making new memories for the little kids. I thought it was pretty funny that inflation had been taken into account and candies that I bought for 1 cent 15 years ago are now 3 cents. :)
Bear Lake is a much different experience now that I'm a parent. Much more worrying about campfire burns, too much candy consumption, sunblock reapplication, and achy joints from sleeping on the ground, but I cannot describe the joy it brought me to see my children making memories with their cousins the exact way that I did as a child.
I've attempted some star trail photos in the past without much luck, but I'm elated with this 27 minute exposure. I set up my tripod with a view of the characteristic Bear Lake trees and hoped for the best. I may have scared Kristina a little bit as she was walking to close the gate and I was lurking in the darkness! :) I was so pleasantly surprised with the fact that I got the North pole in the frame (it's the star around which all the others rotate) and the orange glow from the campfire on the trees. This was taken within a few minutes of my 26th birthday, so it's a cool memory to have!
1 comment:
I love all of these pictures! (I hope you don't mind if I steal some for my blog, hehe!) We had such a fun time. Great memories were made, that's for sure. And I just loved how much Lainey talked to me this trip! She is so cute. Many times were Connor and Alaina brought up on our way home...mostly Tori was making Mae say repeat things like, "Donny! Come here!" It was so cute.
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