love him.

just in case you haven't laughed yet today.

the days of michigan summer.

i took ella up north over the weekend.

we captured the essence of michigan summer...

a tomato from my dad's garden.

(with a little bit of salt).

and raspberries from my mom's garden.
one in the bucket, two in your mouth.

my girls.

these are my michigan girls.

my best friends since first grade.

(and in leah's case, since birth).

we had the best time this weekend.

no matter how long we are apart,

we can always pick up right where we left off.

i love these girls.

friends at the beach.

ella has been traveling all summer.

she has been begging to have her school friends over to play.

so today, we had them all over.

we played at the house.

took them to the beach for sunset.

they had a blast.

all of them.

bella, emmi, ella, vinny, & ryan.

ryan especially loved it.

not only does he get to hang with older kids,

but he gets to hang with older girls.

he doesn't know how lucky he is...

or

judging by the look on his face,

he knows exactly how lucky he is.

our little girl is growing up.

today was a big day for this little girl.

her first day of "school".

she was all smiles this morning.

until it came time for actual drop off.
let's just say,

she didn't get kicked out her first day like her brother,

but i don't think she spent any time out of the teacher's arms either.

why couldn't they all have been as easy going as ella??

on vacation...day 6 & 7.

savoring our last two days of vacation.

on vacation...day 5.

today was perfect.

we took a real train ride.

got off at one of the stops.

had a picnic.

wchich included picking wild raspberies.

walked to a small, simple, park for kids.

got back on the train.

and returned to the station.

it was a throwback in time.

it was so sweet.

it was so relaxing.

no worries.

just fun.

all aboard.