Happy Birthday Amy and a Visit with Grandma Collene and Mike

We had a good week of swimming, warm temps, and enough rain for the gardens.  We hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of August.  We are sending good thoughts to all our family and friends!!!

On Tuesday, Amy and Addie discovered a gorgeous monarch that may have just emerged from it's chrysalis (it's colors were so vibrant - BUT we did not find the chrysalis)!  SO, we had to look for more butterflies and caterpillars :)

We followed this monarch as it flitted from milkweed plant to plant.

Goofball Ayson

Swimming pool fun

The kiddos playing catch with Adam on Wednesday.

Even more pool fun.  Ayson was trying to flip the girls off the mat.

Happy Birthday to Amy!  Amy requested a carrot cake and a family kayak trip to Labrador :)

Grandma Collene and Mike visited on Saturday.  Thanks for the birthday gift, Grandma!!!

Addie eating a green pepper from the garden like an apple.  

The garden tour.

Saturday night, Addie and Kate went monarch egg hunting AND found eggs and caterpillars!!

The pool is so normal now that both sets of kiddos won't swim (too boring) unless the other family kids will swim.

A perfect night for smores!

Monarch egg

Close up of the egg

LOOK at the itty-bitty caterpillar - too cute!!!!

We got up early on Sunday and were on the water at Labrador Pond by 7:30!  What a gorgeous morning for a kayak excursion with the family!

We discovered more areas with pitcher plants!

Water lilies

Addie was looking for turtles while we were kayaking but we did not see any until we were loading the kayaks back on to the truck at 9:30 SO Amy had to get a picture of a turtle for Addie :)

Flowers from the week 

A crazy tall sunflower that seeded itself from last summer.