The Kavanaughs

Ella's cabin

The third weekend in July we headed up to Northern MN to the Brown's cabin to celebrate Ella's 2nd birthday. We really couldn't have asked for better weather than last year, but it was great again! Not quite as hot, which was fine by us, and the water was still perfect.

Ella, Merilee, Grandma Mac and Mom having a little breakfast

Look at those handsome guys!

Our big 2 year old!

Rylan, Mackenzie, Jocelyn and Ella

The Brown girls making yummy pancakes

There was lots of sand castle building taking place this year

I didn't even pose them for this one...poor Ellie was so tired out after a long weekend.

And a lot of swimming too. Ella loved going out to the raft, but once she was out there just wanted to sit and watch.

You could tell the girls were a year older - they were way more brave and didn't need anyone's help!

Friday night Katie and Dad blew up 45 balloons! Luckily they had a hand pump, or everyone would have passed out.

Yes, Katie freehand drew and decorated this cake. Her skills amaze me!

I don't have any pictures from the party - I'm sure Brian and Katie do. But with 2 little kids, I'm not sure how they make it thru the day, let alone have time to get us pictures.

We love this little girl!

Cabin 2013

We spent the 4th of July up at Deda's cabin once again this year - I love that annual tradition. And it was great that the 4th was on a Thursday this year - extra long weekend for me! I didn't take many pictures; I wasn't feeling to great a few of the days, so spent some time in bed chilling out. Which was okay too - always nice to get a whole book read!

Adam & Angie brought special things for the kids to do and they got right to work! The weather was nice and warm, but we had such a rainy June that the mosquitoes were horrible. Jocelyn looked like she had chicken pox by the end of the weekend.

Jocelyn and Elliot trying out her camera

Deda's grandkids - Lucas and Elijah

I've had to resort to bribing her with a promise of silly pictures after nice pictures

This boy loves the sandbox!

These two are the same age and get along wonderfully. These could be their future engagement pictures.

And then the sillies come out...

Elliot accidentally got paint on his face...

which turned into face painting for everyone! What a good Ama.

It's very important to look fancy when fishing

The tiniest fish I've ever seen anyone catch

Proof that we were all here - some of us got left out of the other pictures.

We can't wait to go back next year!

The random summer

Now that summer is over, I guess I should put up some summer pictures! Although it's 90 degrees today and we had to turn the air back on, so maybe it's not over. We did have a good summer - it was great having Calvin around to do fun stuff! But I feel like it took me a summer to get used to having him home and being able to do family things on the weekends. We were stuck in a Mommy and Jocelyn routine, and I feel that was hard to break out of. Next summer will be different!

We planted our garden again this year, but while we were cleaning it out found we had some critters living in it! The mama had built a nest under some brush that was in the garden. Jocelyn thought they were really neat, and my softie husband wouldn't let us kick them out. So, they stayed there, under a box he made for them (so they could still get in and out) until they were big enough to be on their own. And come back and eat things out of our garden.

Sisterly love...they do get along most of the time!

Building sand castles

Wearing the matching softball jerseys

Doing projects

The first weekend in June we headed over to Appleton for a friend of the family's wedding. See all the fun stuff Calvin was missing out on before?!

This is Madeline, my friend's daughter. She was the flower girl, and was so excited there was a pond at the reception site. She wanted to catch a frog so badly. Amazingly enough, Calvin caught one and didn't even get too slimy. I'm pretty sure she would have brought it home with her if she could have.

Jocelyn thought it was cool, but not cool enough to want to hold it.

Around Father's Day, Cory came home for a week. Then it was back to Germany for the remainder of his service. He's back now - hooray! And going to school at the Tech. We're so thankful he made it home in one piece and are looking forward to seeing a lot more of that boy.