Summer Casual

One of the best parts about summer is the chance to chill.  Granted, Annika may take "summer casual" to an extreme.  Since I work every other Sunday, she usually gets herself ready for church.  I came home one Sunday and discovered that she'd gone to our sacrament service dressed like this.  She insisted it was fashion.

"Camp casual" makes for great fashion as well.  Talia and her bestie Danyn got to attend Brighton Girls Camp together as older girls.  Their matching attire on the first day was complete coincidence!

Of course, Talia is quite used to dressing as a twin.  Even when Ultimate isn't in season, she and Brooklyn end up wearing matching Krakens jerseys all the time.  

Anyway, back to Brighton camp, Talia and Danyn had a fantastic time.  Danyn even forgave Talia for dragging her along the 12-mile Seven Peaks hike.  (In Talia's defense, the hike was beautiful and completely worth the effort.)

Speaking of "camp casual," Annika had her first overnight camp experience this year when she went to horse camp at Camp Trefoil for five days.  I was pretty nervous about sending off my baby, but she did great!  

When picking Annie up at the end of the week, I got the biggest thumbs up when I asked how she liked camp.  She knew the names of all fourteen horses (hers was Rosco), as well as most of her campmates.  We've been serenaded by camp songs ever since. 

When it comes to yardwork, summertime is anything but casual.  Keeping up with the ivy on our house is no small task.  Many thanks to Jason for risking his life every year to tame the madness.

As long as we are speaking of Superdad, he and Annika have started reading the Chronicles of Narnia together now that they've finished the Harry Potter series.  Annie loves Aslan and made this flag in his honor.

With long summer days, it's easy to exercise early in the morning.  My friend Sonja and I started biking up City Creek Canyon, at least up until she had ACL surgery.

As for Eli, he's been training for the Big Cottonwood Half with Launch Team again.  (Talia too, although she's done more of her training with West's Cross Country Team.)  It always makes us happy to run with Coach Tara!

For one of our training runs, we ran the Hyde Park 5K as a family (Annika excepted.)  Talia's putting on a brave face, but she was not in the mood at the start.  She crushed it with Eli anyway.

This was Brooklyn's first time running a 5K in its entirety, and she did fantastic!

Brooklyn sprints to the finish while Jason skips rocks.  (Or at least retrieves her fallen Airpod.)

Another fantastic Wheeler Wobble.  Sure love this crew!

Sir Pancakes greeted us at the finish, begging for belly rubs.

No better companion for watching the parade...

...excepting the human companions, of course.  I think Charles enjoyed being a spectator instead of a participant this year.

They saved the best float for last--the giant bubble machine.

Hyde Park always puts together a great celebration.  I love the connection that we feel to the community, even though we've never lived there.

Breaking into the churro truck.

A bag full of sweets, a river of bubbles, and a game of Settlers.  Life is good.

Concrete evidence of how lucky we are.  Charles and Susie's backyard has a whole patch of four-leaf clovers.

Luckiest moment of all--marrying this amazing man.  

He makes my heart go BOOM.

Love you, Peanut Butter.