Summer Fun

So technically, the first day of summer is not until Sunday, and in some parts of the country, it may not even feel all that much like summer yet. My dad took a motorcycle trip out to California and is coming home via Utah and Colorado where he's spending time with friends, and he says everywhere he's been, the weather has been "unseasonably cool"--temps in the 70s during the day. Well, that is not the case here in Texas. We've had highs around 97 or 98 for the past week, and it'll continue like that for at least the next week. No rain in sight--we're on our way to the driest June on record. So what do we do to stay cool? We set up the pool almost every weekend; the kids love the water and have a blast!


Ryan likes the floatie, although he'll sometimes lean way over the side so he can splash both hands in the water.


Ryan with Daddy, and Todd and Breeleigh


Todd, Breeleigh, and Rachael

Where were Cherish and Jen, you might ask? Well, if I remember correctly, we were cooking.
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Another day last week, early in the morning before it could get blazingly hot, we went blackberry-picking. This was our first time to do this, and Rachael really enjoyed it. She learned pretty quickly to only pick the black ones, that the red ones weren't quite ready. We picked probably 3 quarts of blackberries before she was tired of doing it.








OK, this was where she got tired of picking blackberries and just wanted to play in the dirt. How fun is that!


Showing me her dirty hands--a result of squeezing blackberries in her hands and then playing in the dirt.

It was a fun day, and I made a fantastic blackberry pie that night. I still have maybe a quart of blackberries in the freezer that we'll enjoy another time.