Loving Life

WARNING: This post will be long and full of piles of pictures! We took our annual family vacation last week. This year we decided to head north and cross over the border into Minnesota. Here is our obligatory beginning of vacation everyone stuffed in the van picture. Aaron took the first leg of driving, so I got to be the picture taker.  My favorite husband. David's my favorite son and Aaron's my favorite husband.  Letting Keilah take a turn driving. This is how the girls kept her occupied at each campsite as we would tear down and pack things up. She loves to drive.  Our first and most important stop on Day 1 was in Decorah, Iowa, where I went to college. We stopped at the Whippy Dip for our first day's allotment of ice cream.  Eating our ice cream by the Upper Iowa River.  We stopped at nearby Dunning's Springs in Decorah for some hiking and cooling off in the ice cold water.  Keilah was terrified by the noise of the falls and...

We had a great day yesterday with the 4th of July celebrations going on around town. It was very full, but also very fun. The morning started off bright and early with a 5K run through town. David, Ana, and Aaron all ran it. The race course runs right by our house, so Abby, Keilah, and I waited on our front porch to watch our favorite runners pass by. David (in red) was in 5th at this point. He finished 3rd overall and won his age group. He was pleased! Aaron (in black and gold) finished a bit behind him. Ana ran it with her best friend TJ. Here they are happily running by a few minutes later.  Our local bank is sponsoring kids little lemonade stands by giving them a cute little start up kit. There were many little lemonade stands up and down the parade route. Abby and Ana had one and got a few sales from it. Abby got it set up while Ana was finishing up her run.  The parade route is also right by our house (we picked a good spot to live!), so we got to see our fa...