4th of July

We started out our July adventure by staying with my Mom and Ron for a few days.  We made a homemade pool with a rubbermaid storage container and Svea had a blast on the front deck while Dan and Ron worked on some landscaping to get ready for the big sale.  My Mom and Ron are planning on trying to sell the lake place for a home in town.  It'll be really sad to give it up, but there are tons of exciting things for having a home in town.  It's always just great to be at home.  It was just nice to relax and enjoy watching Grandma and Grandpa interact with sweet Svea.

 

I LOVED our 4th of July this year. Dan was able to get out to his favorite 4th of July place this year and it was so much fun bringing our daughter to Bismarck where we met, got married, and where Mommy is from! I promised Dan I'd keep things simple this time as I usually line up a bunch of people to see. I love and miss SO many people and I wish we could have seen many more, but it gets pretty crazy when we try to pack in everyone in three days. So, we got to see a group of our friends at a barbeque the first night, my Dad and Lynn, Jane and Ron and Kathy, and my Carter family. My favorite parts of the weekend was everything! It was just a wonderful weekend. One of the nights we stayed up late laughing with Jill and Matt....sigh....It still feels like home:(

Owen, Svea, Sophia, and Quinn (2nd cousins, or cousins once removed....however that works!)

Visiting my Dad:)

 On the actual 4th we went up to Lake Sakakawea to my aunt's brother's new house on the lake.  It's really hard to explain, but my whole family was there along with a lot of other people who are all from Mayville and we're all like family anyway....not literally, but I know them well enough to be family:0  Ha!  Svea slept the whole way there and home.  We obviously wore her out.  It was beautiful outside! Mommy got to swim, Dan got to hang out with my cousins, and of course, with all the people there Svea was in heaven.  My cousin Joe was even doing cannonballs, go figure!

We stopped at the Garrison Dam on the way home to take a picture at the spillway, which has never been used since the dam was first opened.  When we got home Jill had a party to go to so we fed Svea her nighttime bottle, put her in the car, and drove over to our old neighborhood where we used to live to park on the hill and watch the fireworks. Wonderful long weekend with our little family of three! At the very end of our trip Dan headed home to get ready for his mission trip and we stayed in Jametown for a few more quality days.
(Grandma Kathy....Svea wore the little outfit from you on the 4th.  It looked adorable on her, but she spit up on it midday! You can kind of see it in the second picture of this post:)