Summer-y Summary: July / August

(For you, Aponi, as you recuperate.)

(These 4 flower snapshots by Millie.)

Freshly cut hair.

(baby chick photo by Mama Millie)

(Piper laughing in the garlic photo by Susannah.)

(photo by Millie)



Skylark up high.

Skylark down low.

We've had a wonderful summer. I don't know if it felt stuffed to bursting because it was, or if the slower pace of wintry lockdown made the springtime thaw seem like a tsunami. Whatever the reason, we squeezed out nearly all the nectar we could. Millie and Annika each took an 8-week summer class, we shuffled through countless days of work and lolled in endless days of play, rested on a week of vacation, turned over slow evenings with friends and family, enjoyed barbeques and sparklers and summer heat, and waiting for us around every turn were yard-work, projects, garden weeds, and the friendly waters of Greenwood Lake.

Marking Millie's official graduation from high school this year and standing witness to the older children growing undeniably into young adults, while my legs are still circled around with little ones, makes all this achingly bittersweet. I know these moments will not continue as they are, and this is right and proper, but in their goodness, they are eternal. God gives good along with the hardship in each season, if we will open our eyes and receive.

Sunbeam Has a Spine...

...and a hand!

I was going to wait another month or so to go to the doctor, but I went a bit earlier instead because this babe is so consistently low that I was concerned about placenta previa or vasa previa (both of which I had with Piper). Well, the placenta looks fine! We can't say the same about the baby, though, as Sunny is breech transverse and tucked so tight and low that these are the only two pictures the technician could give me.

Spine.

Hand.

But they're beautiful ones, yes?

Happy Almost-30-Weeks, Baby!

When You're Weeding the Flowerbeds...

...and you look up to see a yellow kerchief and a Brown-Eyed Susan near the daisies, you'd better go and fetch your camera. 

Because serendipity is a rare visitor.

Before Church

The little girls have decided they want to match, always. Now, if only there were a way to match their expressions...

Jim Thorpe Getaway

Last year, my sister (in-law) Sarah opened wide the door for a visit to their town by paying for us to stay at her friend's air bnb.  We had a fantastic week with Pete, Sarah, and their gang of boys, and by the end of our stay, our girls had also made fast friends with the girls next door.

So it was that this year, when too-generous Sarah again opened her pockets to pave the way for a visit, we were greeted at the air bnb with a personalized sign Olivia hung for us. What a difference one year makes!

I took the camera on a woodsy walk. The Dages ended up coming along for the six miles, which meant there were a lot of girls on the trail.

This girl and her beloved Papa. I don't believe she has a single drop of Johnson blood in her veins.

Mopey.

For the last part of the walk, I left the camera with the older girls and went ahead with the two littlest. I found a couple of dozen pictures like this on the camera when I got it back.