Visit with Helen, Ed and Luke!

Matt's aunt and uncle were in town and they brought their dog, Luke, along with them. They are headed to Michigan for a family reunion and stopped of in DG for a visit with Ruth and us. It was fun to catch up with them. Milo had a blast with Luke. Luke was not all that impressed with Milo. :)

We all went out to dinner on Sunday night... can you guess where based on this picture? :)

Yep! We went to Olive Garden. The girls love the breadsticks!

We came back to the house to let the dogs play together. Or actually, Milo tried really hard to get Luke to play with him, but Luke was not into it. Luke liked playing catch with the ball, but didn't want to play WITH Milo. So, Milo just chased Luke around the yard when Luke was fetching the ball. :) At least they both got some exercise!

Morgan loved Luke (of course she would - she just loves all animals!)

We had "Taco Tuesday" on Monday night and they brought us Crumbl Cookies... so delicious! We cut them up so we could try all the different kinds they brought.

On Tuesday, we ordered Lou Malnati's and let the dogs have some more playtime. I think Luke enjoyed all the attention! Morgan was so sad when Luke had to leave. :(

Another fun summer break week

At karate, they were working on their accuracy and control. So, they had to kick a Dixie cup without smashing it or hitting it out of their partner's hand. Morgan got to be the demonstration helper with Miss Loula.

Then, she and Rachel paired up to practice.

A beautiful day for a walk with her favorite dog!

Volleyball with Emily... the girls jumped on the bench and said "take a picture" - ha!

I feel like the summer is flying by! It's already the middle of July! The girls have been having a great time at Avery Coonley summer camp. They are sad that next week is the last week of it. The fire alarm went off yesterday and the kids had to evacuate, fire trucks came, the whole thing! Morgan was texting me from camp to let me know what was going on. Luckily, it was just a false alarm!

Milo just chillaxin'

Don't mind me... I'm just here relaxin' in my bed!

Short week at camp

With the holiday, the girls only had three days of camp this week. They finished off this session with a play for their Theater Arts class. All the kids had a few lines and it was really cute! After the play, the kids were able to do some random skits, pantomimes, monologues if they wanted. I thought this was a great chance for the kids to practice speaking in front of a crowd. By the way, Morgan was so nervous all morning about this play. She would not stop talking about who would be watching her and what if she messed up. She did great though and didn't seem nervous at all!

Getting ready to start

All done!

The final bow!

The teacher had all the kids introduce themselves. 

Morgan did a skit with a few friends about getting pulled over for speeding! Ha!

Avery did a skit with some friends about 3 girls who wore the same dress to a party!

The teacher gave each kid a certificate at the end of class. When she handed Avery's to her, she said that Avery was very organized and made sure everything was running well... no surprise there! Matt said "in other words, she was bossy!"

Happy 4th of July

We spent our 4th of July at the pool. We grabbed sandwiches from Jersey Mike's (and Subway for Avery) and got to the pool when it opened at 11:00. We were lucky to grab a nice shady spot. Morgan was the very first one in the pool for the day! :)

There she is... all by herself!

Such a gorgeous day!

The girls played with their friends for hours. They swam, dove, played water games, played volleyball and gaga ball, had loads of snacks and enjoyed the day! I think they finally got tired and wanted to come home close to 4:30. At home, Matt grilled out, we had dinner and crashed.

Playing Gaga ball with friends

 It was such a nice day and our shady spot really helped, as it was REALLY hot!

Blizzard

At Avery's request, we had to stop on the way home from Quincy at the Dairy Queen... they had peanut butter puppy chow blizzards! Yum!

Family Reunion - Part 2

On Sunday, we slept in a bit, swam some at the pool and then headed to Chuck and June's for more family reunion fun.

Baby Henry with his grandpa

We took family pictures at Chuck's house.

The whole Otte crew!

Just the little ones

Just the little ones... being silly!

More silliness!

June, Rebecca, Chris & Henry, Chuck

Matt, Morgan, Avery and me

The Texas crew

Brett, Sandi, Nolan and Calvin

Pat, Kyle, Kelly and their families

The old "kids" - all the cousins!

The "old" kids - being silly!

Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad with the grandkids (minus Grayson who was at a baseball tournament)

Chuck and Mom

Avery holding Henry

After the pictures, we went to the swimming area at the clubhouse. My aunt and uncle live on a golf course and they have this lake for swimming with a slide and some floating trampolines, mats, etc for the kids to play on.

The kids under 13 had to take a swim test to be able to go in the deep water. We were waiting on Matt to bring the swimsuits, so she did the test in her clothes. It involved swimming out into the water from the dock a ways and coming back (where the water was over their head). Then, they had to tread water for 60 seconds.

Here she is treading water

Avery also did the swim test... here she is swimming back towards the dock.

It was a gorgeous day!

Baby Henry got lots of attention!

Morgan chilling on the mat with Hunter and Beckett

The girls liked the slide... until Avery smacked her head hard on the way down once.

They all loved getting dirty in the sand and washing off in the water.

Charlotte, Avery, Morgan and Madeline on the water trampoline

Ice cream!

After swimming, we went back to Chuck and June's house and celebrated June's birthday.

We went back to the hotel after dinner and jumped in the pool for a few minutes. The boys all showed up as well, so we ended up swimming for a little longer. I can't believe the girls weren't falling asleep on their feet after this day!