Ryley is 8, isn't it great!

 Ryley turned 8 years old!  We had a scavenger hunt activity on a trail by our house with all of her friends.  It was a cool idea I found in the family fun magazine.  They called it "letterboxing," but basically I took pictures, ahead of time, of all the places along the trail that I wanted to hide stuff and then hid the clues and a stamp at each place so they could mark up their notebooks.  We were literally running to keep up with these kids.  They were so excited to find the next clue!  I decided I should do this every time we hike.  There would be a lot lest whining, that's for sure.

Then at the end they found their butterfly trail mix bags to eat on the hike back home.

 And finally, we ate the giant cupcake at our house when the kids were all worn out!

 Then on Sunday, Ryley chose to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  A special day for our family.  Even Grandma and Grandpa Posey and Ammon's little sister Amy made the trek out to Baltimore for the occasion!  Everyone wanted their picture with the special girl.

And afterward, we all enjoyed Rootbeer floats in our tiny, cramped apartment!

First day of school

 Well, school started up again, and this time Jensen gets to join Ryley!  He just started Kindergarten and Ryley is in 2nd grade now. 

The first day Jensen just came to school for a little bit and met the teacher, Ms. Tirocchi (in the background).  Then they had a half day.  Finally, the big day came for him to ride the bus to school with Ryley.

He was so excited, waiting here at the bus stop!  Then, when the bus actually pulled up he panicked and didn't want to get on that thing.  With a little persuasion, tough love and Ryley holding his hand he finally went to school on the big, yellow cheese box. 

The ride home was much funner and he loves taking the bus now.

Swimming

We love the pool!  We swam almost every day this summer.  It was the activity of the afternoon.  Evy even learned how to swim a little ways underwater this year.  Jensen and Ryley are already fish.
The pool is open for the last time tomorrow.  We'll be so sad to see it close.  It's still hot here. 

Slip N Slide

 Our pool is closed on Mondays.  This is what we do on those days.  Thanks to River for the great Bday present.

Jensen's Birthday

 Well, Jensen turned 5!  We had a day full of fun to celebrate.  First, the bouncy gym, then the swimming pool, then sponge Bob cake!  I'm sad to say, though, I haven't gotten any pictures of swimming yet this summer.  I haven't dared bring my camera down to the pool for fear of breaking it, or fear of kids drowning while I'm messing with a camera.  So even though that's what we've done all summer there is no cute swimming pictures yet. 

 Evelyn always wants to hold the babies.

 Jensen and his buddies Oscar and River don't like to hold still for pictures.

 Who lives in a pineapple under the Sea?  Jensen Square Pants!

 We put our smoothies inside pineapples.  Weird idea, I know, but it went with the theme.

The lucky boy got two birthday cakes since we celebrated at my parent's house that weekend as well. 

Camping at the Beach

 Jensen wanted to go to the beach again for his birthday, so we went camping with two of his buddies (River and Bennett) and their families at Assateague Island, just south of Ocean City. 

 Oh look, there's horses walking through our campsite.  How about that.  We were smart this year and made sure out coolers were in the car.  Our camping neighbors were not so fortunate.

 Oh, and look, a deer wants a snack too.

 The waves were Perfecto.  We got some great boogie boarding done.

 Jensen and River enjoyed getting knocked over repeatedly by the waves.

 Evelyn Loves Bennett and his little brother Camden.  She does whatever Bennett does, like a little shadow, and always wants to "hold" Camden.

 Autumn, the photographer.  I need to get some of her pictures that she took on this trip, but haven't yet, so you just have to deal with mine right now. 

As you can see, the thunderstorms were closing in on us a few times.  We were actually really lucky with the weather and only got hit with the full force of one storm in the middle of the night.  The lightning and thunder were constant that first evening, but the enormous clouds kept circling around and around us and permitted us to cook our tin foil dinners.  At night though, our tent totally blew over and Ammon got soaking wet trying to save us.  The next day was cloudy, but warm and the rain waited politely until we jumped in the car to go home and persisted heavily until we arrived in Baltimore.  I should be a weather lady.  Didn't you enjoy that weather report?