The best of summer so far

 It's the dog days of summer, nauseatingly hot and sticky, when I tend to stay inside and just look out my windows a lot. The control panel of the pool chiller is broken, and as fixing it is not a priority, our pool is now a gigantic hot tub and the kids can't get enough of it. In late spring and early summer it was me you'd see floating blissfully around in the cold water and warm sun, the kids not so much.

It seems like a good time to look at the season's highlight reel. Delaney graduated high school in May. Was that really not even two months ago?!

We went on our annual Topsail vacation with my side of the family. We stayed in the same triplex as last year.

My mom and dad stayed at our house for a few days afterward.

We had a profusion of blooms after the rainiest June I can remember having here in eastern North Carolina.

Tim, Delaney, Annie and Joey went to Delaney's orientation at Appalachian State, and did some hiking too. 

We made our annual summer trek to visit Tim's parents and sisters in Massachusetts. It was kind of a whirlwind few days, with lots of memories made.

In front of Paul Revere's house

Alexa has been working and saving to buy her own house since she was 16. She's 21 now, and just closed on her home purchase a week or two before we arrived. It's a nice little house with a big back yard for her dog and all the others she takes care of with her own dog-sitting and boarding business. An entrepreneur and homeowner at 21--pretty impressive!

We gathered there for a housewarming, had sushi for dinner, and played bingo, per Grandma's request. It was fun. I think sushi and bingo at Alexa's should be a new tradition. 

The next morning we drove home. The three oldest kids flew both ways. 

Thomas has come a long way in his swimming. It's hard to believe this is the same kid who cried every lesson and asked to be done.

Usually by this point in the summer, we would have taken a family picture either at the beach or in Massachusetts, but for some reason we hadn't this year. I decided that for this summer, what better setting than our own backyard. I put it on the calendar, and on the appointed day at the appointed time we got a little dressed up and went outside for a photo with the camera on a tripod with a timer. I am grateful that everyone was so cooperative for me, and that we have this great photo before Delaney heads off to college. Sidenote: since when is Timmy taller than me?