Eli's Summer

Eli has had a good summer too! He works at 3 Chefs (an Iranian restaurant) 2-4 times a week, goes to the gym 4-5 times a week (usually with friends, sometimes with Ali), had friends over for a burn-your-school-stuff fire, plays volleyball at the church, watches movies at friends' houses and at the theater, goes fishing with friends, and went to the mall with his siblings. He is very independent and hardly ever asks me for rides, even when it means biking through the pouring rain and coming home soaked, as pictured below!

Logan's Summer

Logan's summer has been spent with Grace! Unfortunately and annoyingly, Crumbl cut his hours this summer, contrary to expectations, from 3-4 days during the school year to at most one, and often no shifts at all each week! This has left him plenty of time to spend with his girlfriend (and really best friend) Grace. They eat out, get pedicures, watch movies, went to Six Flags (pictured below), go downtown Chicago, visit Ali and Eli at work, take Jake on outings, do crafts, go shopping, cook meals together, go to movies, and hang out at her house. He also picks her up for church each Sunday, takes her to her weekly meetings with the missionaries, and they read the Book of Mormon together each day. 

Ali's Summer

Ali has had a great, well-balanced summer. She works 2-4 shifts at Bruster's Ice Cream each week, goes to the gym 5-6 times a week (often with friends, sometimes with Eli, sometimes alone), and spends a lot of time with several different friend groups. With friends, she has celebrated birthdays and graduations (including one overnight at a hotel), gotten lots of ice cream, gone places to watch the sunset, gone shopping at the mall or other places, seen movies, gone hiking (pictured below), played pickleball, gone swimming, hung out and watched movies or done crafts, played at Top Golf, gone bowling, eaten out, and probably more!

Happy Forth of July!

We had a happy 4th of July! It might not be a perfect country, but I am so thankful for all the freedoms my family and I take for granted. 

Cute sparkles on an even cuter girl for her holiday work shift.

Logan and Grace joined us for fireworks! It poured all afternoon, but the town of Oswego did their show anyway. We just had to walk through a lake-I mean field- to see them!

Happy 7th Max!

Our puppy is 7! It's true I'm not really a dog lover, but Max honestly is the best dog ever. We dog-sat this summer, and this other perfectly fine dog reminded me of this fact! He is so chill, so patient, so obedient, and so trusting. I am so thankful for him. He got to go get a pup-cup to celebrate his birthday, 

Jake Outings

Summers sure look different around here than they did a few years ago. The teens are often gone doing their own things, so Jake and I adventure together, just the two of us. Hey, it's cheaper that way, I guess!

Blackberry Farm was still a hit this year. I wonder how many more times he'll want to go? Jason and I keep saying this summer how sweet it is that we still have one little one (though he doesn't like being called little!). We're enjoying his sillyness, innocence, and remnants of his little-kid-ness for as long as we have it, knowing the days are numbered.

Phillips Park pool and our friend's pool have been frequented.

We met a friend of Jake's at a huge indoor slide park.

And Six Flags, which is always a favorite outing for Jake, right behind summer vacation in fun for him.

I sure love this kid!

Youth Camp

I went to Youth Camp again this year (for the third year in a row, but who's counting). I do love being there with my teenagers, and I do really love the camp we go to, which is on Lake Geneva. Each day that I'm there, I find a half hour or so to sneak away and walk along the lake (there is a public path that goes around the entire lake). It was quite rainy one day, and we had a tornado warning, which was very scary for some of the girls, but overall I think it was a success. 

I'm always thankful for the other leaders there!

The best days are the ones that overlap with the boys!

I sure love these teens!