If you read this - you must like us, cause it's LONG!

We spent a good portion of our summer in Boise again, and as always it was glorious! Someone recently told me to enjoy doing this while my kids are young because they will get older and it will become hard to keep up our summers in Boise. I sure hope not, because I will really miss them while I am there each summer!

We started out with a BANG - firework style to celebrate the 4th.

Can I just talk about the weather there - oh it is AWESOME! Perhaps you can only fully appreciate it when you come from the heat and humidity, but either way it makes for the PERFECT place to be in the summer. The weather AND the fact that it doesn't get dark until close to 10 each night. (To be fair I should include that while we love summers out there, we sure love our cozy winters here in the south:)
These guys were thrilled to be together, and together they stayed for 5 weeks - inseperable!

We tried to plan "adventures" for each day. Trips to the fountain downtown, picnics at the park, a day at the zoo, days at the pool, trips to McDonalds, bumper cars on ice were just a few of our weekly activities.



We were able to celebrate my cousin Kinzie's wedding in Eastern Idaho - it was beautiful. Being with cousins was a blast!

On our way home we stopped at Shoshone falls - who knew how awesome it was? I didn't, but it was!
This summer, us girls decided to take some time during the week to be together and have adventures of our own. Getting pedicures, going to lunch, and shopping were just some of our fun.

Celebrating Natalie and her baby bump made for one of those perfect days! We went to Cheesecake, then on to Motherhood where we made her put on one of their bigger bellies and try on clothes. She always looks great, but some things she put on made us laugh and laugh - she was a great sport though.Oh and another thing I can add to the long list of great things Tammy has taught me to make is this diaper cake - so fun to make, and cute right?

We also took family photos - if you want to see more check out Tammy's blog at tammyhawkinsphotography.blogspot.com. And if you live in Boise - she is by far the best! I didn't even know when she took some of my favorite photos - she just get's awesome shots and makes it seem easy (is that even possible when it comes to family photos?)

And then just because we always like to spice things up - our little girl fell down the stairs and broke her arm. She was a total trooper though. It was just a buckle fracture, but she was very proud of her wrapped arm. She even started using it as a little billyclub to hit her cousins with - aawww, that's our little sassypants.
(after noticing my double chin in this picture, I went to edit/crop it, but then I thought, "no that is just all the more proof of the fun I have in Boise" - 10 lbs in a month baby!)

Because of her arm, Lars and I decided to take her with us to Palo Alto to enjoy our friend Marisa's wedding! It was a wonderful weekend! Friends, travel, food, late nights - ahhh, it was great!She was beautiful and I don't know that I have ever seen a tinier bride - everything was magical.
This is how we all look when asked to say cheese, but really this is how we all are:
obnoxious and loving every minute of it!

While we were in SF, my parents had the kids - adventures continued and I think the boys loved every minute of having alone time with their grandparents. Trey recently told me (through tears) that he thinks he didn't spend enough time with grandma and wants her to come as quick as possible for a visit!

The below picture is of Toby and pretty much sums up how he handled the love/tease relationship that only our cousin little T can display so perfectly. Hug and then tackle was his way and JK learned it well - oh we miss you little T man!

Last but not least we celebrated D's bday at PoJo's - a fun place if you ask me, especially on a week night when you get double tickets and dollar rides - to bad this was the same night the kids had to say goodbye. A bittersweet night.All in all it was another successful trip! Did I mention we drove? I think I will try to do a post of the great things we saw as we came across the country. It's hard to believe our summer is over, but I hope and believe that we are making important memories for our kids (and us). We love our family - we love being so close to the the Longneckers and looking forward to our summers with all of these guys:

And these guys always make it hardest for me to leave:

(This pic was taken at 2am at a dive called Merots that Kelsey and Tammy woke my mom and I up to go to)

Thanks everyone for a great summer! It always goes by way to fast.