Summer is Here!!!

So they say that here in western Washington,

you can usually count on summer (dry weather)

showing up right around, and usually not much sooner than, July 4th. 

That's about when we all take a collective breath of warm and dry summer air,

and thank the Lord for all the rain we've HAD . . . IN THE PAST. . . ALL SPRING LONG . .

that makes summertime here sooooo beautiful . . . 

and provides all that wonderful food for our farm animals. ;-) 

 

And boy, did summer come in with a bang this week!

It has been unusually warm for a few days!!

So, one day, a few of us that were able to,

had fun visiting our summer neighbors and playing in the lake near their home.  

 We only wish we could have spent more time with them during their week here!!!

We regret it happened to be such a crazy busy week for us!

Hopefully, we'll get to spend more time together soon!

 Every night last week,

many of us went to the nearby NW Strings' camp nightly concerts and dance.

Brielle even received a new hair-do! 

 The concerts were awesome, and the dance was fun!

 

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Then, Friday, our very special case worker from Antioch Adoptions came over for a marathon interview day as part of her updating our domestic home study for Brielle's adoption . 

Bless her heart,

with her internal heater (pregnant belly) and all,

she sat in our VERY warm house for 6 1/2 hours to interview each one of us!!!

What a blessing she is!!!
I so wanted to get an updated family photo with her,
but by the end of the long, warm day, we forgot!!! :-(

We'll just be waiting for all of our background clearances now before being able to receive a court date for finalization! 

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Yesterday, we were very blessed to have the V. family,

(a very special family of 15 : -) come by for a visit. 

They are one of the fun families we first met at the Christian Heritage Homeschool picnic last September, and we have kept in touch with throughout the year. 

They live about an hour and 45 minutes south of us, so it was a real treat for us to have them stop by our place as they were en-route home from a family reunion at a camp east of us. 

 

We were expecting it to be another hot day, with forecasts predicting around 95 degrees!

So we had lots of water activities planned!!

We put up two canopies for some shade from the sun,

and Ted even rigged up a misting system to try to keep us cool!

As it turned out, it was cloudy and/or overcast for most of the day,

COOL, and we even had some surprise rain showers!!!

So the canopies that were planned to keep the sun off of us,

actually worked great to keep the rain off of us and the desserts! ;-)

 

First up was trying out the water balloon launcher. . .

 with also using the good 'ole fashioned method!

 Then, on to the bucket drench!

 And the sneaky swimming pool dunk . . .  

 and the "innocent" hose spray!

 Ah ha! It was just sweet little Jo-Jo!! ;-)

 We were very blessed that Richie and Lydia could join us for lunch!

LOVE having them!!!!

 Lots of volleyball!

 These pictures were taken after we moved the table of desserts under the canopies to protect the sweets from the rain!

 It was at cozy time for two large families huddled under the canopies!

 Frisbee football!

 And then lots of playing a new game called "dynomite"!!

 I wish I had taken more pictures of the little ones playing together.

They did lots of water ballooning, slip-n-sliding, sling-shot practice, etc.

  It was so fun having all ages playing all around us.

I know Mrs. V. took lots of great pictures, so maybe I can get some good ones from her! ;-) 

 

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So, as I type this, the house is quiet as I man the fort and chores while  . . .  

Kyle left at 5am for a full day of his landscaping business work,

Valerie is at her all-day summer rental cleaning job,

Victoria and Caroline are out collecting hay bales,

Ted is at our family doctor getting his physical for our home study update,

and the boys are outside playing!  

 Summer is definitely here . . .

which also means it's blueberry season!!!

Woo hoo!

We picked up our first 10lbs and they're almost gone!