Wrapping Up Summer

We didn't intend for it to be this way, but our August turned out to be a fairly busy month. We had visitors, I had a work retreat, Nick went to Boston, tennis wrapped up, soccer continued, and then the school year was ramping up.

Lilly absolutely loved tennis. We are very glad she did it and she had such an amazingly fun time. Lots of laughs and she really worked hard and improved tremendously. She's looking forward to next summer when she can play again.

I am a member of our building leadership team at the high school. We had a two day retreat at this boat house. Not a bad place to spend a couple of days if you must be in a meeting all day for two days.

Lilly's kindergarten class hatched duck eggs. One of her classmates lives on a farm, so his family took the ducks. The family that took in the ducks hosted a Mrs. Gierczic class reunion. Greta, Lilly, and I went. It was really interesting to see the class dynamics and how Lilly fit in to the picture. She is definitely an outside observer who likes to play with just a small group of kids. Greta will have a lot of fear conquering to do if she ever wants to live on a farm or be a veterinarian. She was not at all a fan of any of the animals - the dogs, cows, goats, etc. She'd panic and ask me to pick her up.

Summer brings corn on the cob.

Such focus

August also brings lots of hot soccer games. We had our first soccer "tournament" in Iron River. We were really hoping that Lilly wouldn't want to play in the game, but unfortunately she did. So we drove over to Michigan, she played on hour long game (we normally only play 30 minutes) with a goalie (they don't play with a goalie), and the other team was full of GIANT kids. Oh, and they still play co-ed teams, we don't. So her team was a hodgepodge of 6 and 7 year olds who have never played together, wearing giant yellow t-shirts. However, she had fun and that's what matters. Right?

We then turned around after the game and drove right back home. We were having company, friends from grad school. John and Danielle and their two kids, Forrest and Seneca. It was so amazing and fun. The kids all hit it off perfectly (Lilly was a year older than Forrest, Greta and Seneca were only a month or so apart). They played, we could hang out and talk - it was fantastic. We've realized we need to get together more often. While they are only next door in Michigan, it is still about 8 hours between our homes. Hopefully we will get together with them again soon.

The two of them reading together will never get old - and I hope it never stops!

Nick took a work trip to Boston. My parents came up to hang out and help out with the girls while he was away for awhile. We had lots of fun.

Pictures by bike racks became a thing after this trip. I can't believe my parents haven't seen the murals in the underpass before, so after a dinner at Burger Barn, we took them through the tunnel.

We also took a trip to the NGLV while my parents were there. We did the kid hike and then also fed the fish. The girls had a ton of fun feeding the fish.

The main reason for the trip to the NGLVC was to get this picture for Nick.

My parents had to go back to Eau Claire on Tuesday, which meant me juggling two soccer practices and dinner between them solo. And - done!

One of my favorite parts of summer is Rec and Read. Big crowd at Maslowki Beach.

This girl takes her stories seriously.

All summer Lilly has been talking about having a lemonade stand, we finally got around to it. This year she didn't make quite as much money as last year, but we did get some random people stopping by, not just our friends (who we texted and let them know we were having a stand!).