hello summer

Hello summer. And hello hot weather. We've used our "new" yard sale trampoline twice in a month thanks to this weather. Jumping around in 95 degrees is quite a sweaty activity. Buxton has learned to jump with his knees tucked pretty well. Elin prefers to lay on her tummy and get bounced...no getting sweaty for her. 

We've had a very eventful July so far and started it off with a long trip to Blowing Rock. Elin and Buxton sat on Mom's horse, Secret and while Buxton wasn't too sure, Elin loved every second. She cried so much when I took her off. 

This was the 1st year we didn't attend the picnic Hound Ears does on the golf course. Instead we attending the Blowing Rock Country Club picnic.  

Ben's good friend Brandon Viebrock, and his girlfriend, Emily, were also in BR for the weekend and joined us for the festivities. 

This is the view from Mom and Bill's deck, and yes Elin is too close to the rail even with that plexi-glass wall. Good thing she is more interested in picking Mimi's flowers than climbing.

Right after our mountain trip we had a wonderful surprise party for Ed to welcome him home from Afghanistan. And it doubled as Cooper's 2nd bday party. It was great to spend time with Carla, Ed, Cooper and Grace. The cousins had a BLAST together and of course we loved being with Ed after having not seen him for so long.

Another big event was the first "real", and by real I mean not at Kristin's Home Salon, hair cut for Buxton and Elin. They both did awesome!

Elin enjoyed the reading material Aunt Bridget had available. 

We only cut a little off her ends but now I'm thinking a few more inches would be better so her hair can start to thicken up. This baby fine stuff is torture to brush in the morning. 

We spent a lot of time in the pool with Grace (who is an awesome swimmer) and Aunt Carla. Carla has done an amazing job teaching Grace to swim and it was Carla that got Buxton to finally jump off the diving board. First with his swimmy float, then without! He's not scared at all now and the week before he was just about terrified. Carla also helped us with some swimming techniques and since Buxton had just completed 2 weeks of lessons with the famous "Mrs. Betsy States" of Gastonia, it was perfect timing.