Busy July

We have had an extremely busy month of July this summer. It started with Jeremy in Mansfield for a youth mission trip and me in Cashmere with Clara, Liz and Alex for a few days. We came back just in time for the 4th of July at the Johnsons and then traded off having the flu. The girls left (we're STILL missing them, by the way) and we went to Spokane for a weekend, then Cashmere so Jeremy could hike with my dad and I hung out with my mom. Jeremy had his annual scavenger hunt youth group event the night we came back, we went to his neice's graduation ceremony, my friend Josh's wedding, and to dinner at a friend's house. The next night, we were ready to have a quiet evening at home, and got a new set of little girls, ages 5 and 6, named Marilyn and Desiree. Jeremy took off to Creation at the Gorge for four days and I joined him with my sister, Sara, for one night of Chris Tomlin. The girls we had displayed a few behavior issues, so I wasn't completely disappointed when they left after 4 days. Jeremy came home Sunday morning, and we decided that we needed a little family time. We planned a day or two of activities, one of which was the zoo on Monday before the weather got super hot later that week. (See pictures below) That afternoon, however, we got another call about two more boys, ages 10 and 7. I'll do another post about them and our super hot weather week later. Our month ended with having them for a few days and basically trying to survive the extreme heat! I can't believe we made it to August in one piece!

Here are pictures from our trip to the zoo. We hadn't taken Clara there since last October with Darius and Xavier (gosh, it seems like FOREVER ago that we had them here!) when she was only 9 months old. We got to the zoo at 9:30 right when they were opening, and we made it around to see everything, played in the little play area, ate our packed lunch, and rode the carousel all before 1:00, at which time it was almost 90 degrees and time to head home for a nap. There were hardly any people there for the first hour or so, and we had a really fun time! Riding the carousel for the first time. She loved it!
Eating fruit snacks on a little break with daddy

Looking at one of the "ah-mols" (animals) :)

My favorite: Singing, "Itsy Bitsy Spider" while we sat in the giant spider web in the playground area. Could she be at a funner age?

Pointing at something with Daddy