Welcome baby cousin Emma!

My brother and his wife Jess had a sweet baby girl on July 30th.  Emma Larkin Wood
Isn't she sweet :)

Making fairy gardens with Great Aunt Joanie!

My Aunt Joanie brought over all these supplies to make Fairy Gardens with the kids. How cute is that???

Library discovery day, lego camp, Bowen park and Pool day with cousins

The kids really enjoyed the discovery day at the library. 

Clayton attended an engineering/lego camp. He learned a little computer programming and got to build and program legoes that hooked to the computer and moved! Really cool stuff. 

 Lake County play date at an AWESOME park - Bowen Park. They were OBSESSED with this rope climb/merry-go-round.  It's too bad it's pretty far away and in a not-great area (Waukegan).

POOL DAY! This was a pretty cool summer - not a lot of hot and sunny pool days. When they did come, we tried to take advantage.  Caroline has been a good swimmer for a few years, but the boys really make HUGE strides this summer and learned to swim!

 Pool day with cousins!

Independence Grove Concert

Independence Grove summer concert and picnic with our neighbors!

Pontoon Paddle Boat with the Cordovas

We met up with the Cordova girls for a visit to Independence Grove. We rented a pontoon paddle boat. It was fun, but man, not easy to steer!

Lake Trip #2

Kevin, the boat driver

Wow - who is this woman in all of these pictures? Oh yeah! It's me! I finally have had others get behind the camera lens so I can be part of our photographic history!

 Swinging on a rope into the lake ... how "idyllic summer" is that???

 My boys :)

 Mama and Caroline tubing!

Goofy siblings

 Rainy day lego activity. They were SO excited to put together a lego jeep and jet ski trailer!

 Gamma and Austin                                              Clayton on the beach

Making "nature forts for bugs"