Summertime - June

Our June has been very very busy! We packed in a lot this month including a trip to the zoo, gymnastics, two 4 day weeks of swimming lessons, Father's Day, VBS, Strawberry picking and a little family getaway to Michigan (separate post to follow)!

One of the highlights at the zoo for Jade is feeding the parakeets! At first she would just throw the stick when a bird would land near her, by the end she got the hang of it! We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch, played at the park, and managed to see almost every animals on Jade's list. The last stop was the giraffes (not really visible, but pictured behind Jemma and I in the last picture) before heading home for naps!

Swimming lessons did not go so well last summer, so I was nervous to tell Jade I had signed her up again. She assured me she would do a good job this year if she could just have a rainbow swimsuit. Luckily, I found one! She wore it to every lesson and did such a good job! Jemma was a trooper and hung out on the sidelines for the 40 minute lesson and never ran into the pool! ;)

Jade's biggest accomplishment this swim session was becoming more comfortable and going underwater! She still needs a lot of work on the whole swimming part, but she now LOVES going underwater and has made significant improvements with her floating. I'm so proud of her, she truly gives 110% to everything she does!

I don't have any pictures, but last week Jade attended VBS at the church affiliated with her Preschool! She went in without knowing anyone and had the best week! The theme was Cave Quest. She came home singing and telling me all about it every day. She was so bummed when it was done and asked if she could do it again!

We also had a blast at our 3rd Annual Strawberry picking day with Grammy! Weather was perfect and many strawberries (and donuts) were enjoyed by all! 

Amidst all the running around, we've been doing lots of playing outside! A new family moved in down the street with a little girl Jade's age, so that has been fun! Also, the "big girls" right across from our house have come over to play with Jade and Jemma, and even invited them over to play on their swing set (this was a big deal)!!! They are going into 4th and 6th grade, so Jade and Jemma are basically obsessed with them!! :)

Flower Girl

Jade had the privilege of being one of the flower girls in Nate's cousin's wedding last weekend, and she LOVED every minute of it! Here comes picture overload, SO many good ones!

First stop was the salon to get her hair done!

Dressed and ready for pictures!

Receiving a special bracelet from Amy!

Pre-Wedding smiles!

My favorites!

The Wedding Party! 

Jemma joined us early for pictures and the ceremony, then headed back to our house with Grammy & Grampy!

Terrible lighting, but cute picture!

The flower girls and junior groomsman (Nate's youngest cousin Michael). He was the ring bearer in our wedding!

These two were running around like a bunch of crazies for about 2 hours prior to the start of the ceremony! :)

The only photo I could snap during the ceremony as I was also wrangling Jemma!

These two!

Gorgeous couple!

The venue had the most beautiful country views!

Jade was a party animal and was nonstop eating, dancing running etc. until we cut her off at 10 p.m.

Congratulations to Matt and Amy! Your Wedding was beautiful and we are so happy for you! Thank you so much for including Jade in your special day!

The Big 3-0!

Just a few pictures to share from my birthday celebration last week!

Day began with amazing donuts from Mariano's and coffee from Starbucks!

Jade picked out a candle and a bag of Hershey hugs for me on a trip to Target with daddy! So sweet! :)

Nate & I got out for a delicious dinner date at my favorite restaurant, Wildfire!

Such a fun day with my favs! I also had a girls night the day after my birthday with 3 of my closest friends from high school and have dinner with my parents and Grandma to look forward to on Friday! Thanks for making my day so special everyone! :)

Last Day of Preschool

I can't believe Jade has completed her first year of Preschool! Here is a look back to her first day of Preschool alongside her last day! She has grown so much in so many ways this year! I loved seeing her love for her teachers and preschool shine through each and every morning as she hopped out of the car and ran inside!

She made a lot of new friends this year and is already bummed that certain friends will be in different classes next year! Some highlights for Jade this year were definitely Godly Play on Tuesdays with Miss Karen, Music on Thursdays with Mr. Todd, Kid's Kitchen, learning to write her name and the playground!

On the last day of school families were invited to come the last hour of the day for "The Last Slide" and popsicles. Here is a video of Jade's "Last Slide" with teacher Ms. Lori waiting at the bottom!

:)

 With friends Tegan and Maddie enjoying freeze pops!

Joined by a few more friends, Chandler and Kara!

With teacher's Ms. Pam and Ms. Lori. These two were so loving and the perfect first preschool teachers for Jade!

Next year Jade will be moving on to the Pre-K class at the same preschool....but for now, we're just gonna enjoy the summer!!! :)

Cabo San Lucas

Nate and I got back super late Wednesday night from our 5 day getaway to Cabo San Lucas Mexico! We had so much fun with our traveling partners Dave and Katie! We traveled to Mexico with them in 2013 and had so much fun, we had to do it again! Katie and I went to high school together and Nate and Dave get along great! Last time around we each had one kid, now we both have two!

Ready to go!

View from our room!

We spent the first few hours by the pool, then got dressed and had dinner at the Italian Restaurant at the Hotel

 View from our Hotel's beach area! You are unable to swim here (and off most of the beaches) due to dangerous riptides. 

We took a walk down the beach the first morning!

Saw some awesome waves!

 Did a little rock climbing and saw some amazing views!

We spent the rest of the day by the pool!

Such amazing views!

Dinner was at the Steakhouse that evening and we actually had a pretty decent Filet Mignon! We had plans to venture into the downtown that evening, but the service was pretty slow at dinner and by the time we finished most everything but the restaurants and nightclubs were closing up! We briefly popped into Cabo Wabo for the "experience". 

One of the only pictures either Nate or I took that night! 

The next day was Dave and Katie's Anniversary, so they headed for a massage after breakfast and Nate and I grabbed some coffee and enjoyed some gorgeous views of the Marina.

One of the most amazing things about our resort was the views! Marina, mountain or ocean views depending on where you were in the resort!

:)

We spent the rest of the day by the pool and then headed into town that evening for a sunset dinner boat cruise!

We stayed under the umbrellas most of the day, Mexico sun is pretty strong in May! 

Fun sign on our walk to the Pier!

 Beautiful!

Selfie! :)

The Arch!

Passed by our resort on the ride!

On the last day Nate and I did a quick excursion to the beach where we rented a wave runner for an hour. We had so much fun! We then spent the rest of the day by the pool and headed down to the beach for some fun pictures!

Ready to ride! 

Don't know why, but I always love the jumping pics!

Apparently it was too bright for Nate to see that my hair was in my face! ;) 

 Names in the sand, our usual!

So pretty!

One of my favs from the whole trip! <3

Nate!!

Love these people!

Rounded out the trip with dinner at the Bistro restaurant, and this amazing view!!

Our only hiccup was on the way home. We were supposed to arrive at O'Hare around 8:45 p.m. on Wednesday, however after an hour or so of circling in the air due to weather, our plane was diverted to Kansas City to refuel. We arrived in Chicago about 3 hours late, but so thankful we did not get stuck in Kansas City over night! 

We are so thankful that the weather was beautiful every day, and we got to catch up on sleep and do a lot of relaxing! We are even more thankful for my mom and dad for so graciously watching the girls while we were gone! I loved that we were able to facetime with them every day and hear about all the fun they were having! Thanks mom and dad, you're the best!!