Summer

 

First day of high school 

Farewell to Katilin off to Hong Kong

Mike's bday lemon cake and crabs for dinner as usual. 16 years old

Diana's YW leader sent me this pic as Diana was teaching. Looks like a future missionary to me!

Beach, endless beach.

Stunt kite attempts with no casualties = success

Temple trip

Katy found SO many shark teeth!

Family!

Ready for Jacob's first church dance

Dahlia in bloom

Beach sunrise

Moonrise

Keeping fish in manmade tide pools

Nicole caught some crazy stuff with her cast net

Crab hunting

Shark teeth

Love how the south end of Topsail Island is just a magical tide pool adventure with nobody else around.

Cast net queen

Sunrise

The tide left behind a mirror for the sunrise

Moonrise

John greeting the ocean

Crabbing

Surfs up

hello there birdy

Skim boarding

Cousin fun

Jim ready to surf

Golden sunrise behind Katy

Morning of my dreams

Fishing and kites

Nicole with more baitfish!

I read the kids a few chapters of Little Women to improve their character. The boys were very polite and fell completely asleep in minutes.

Clear beautiful day for bobbing around

The best steps you'll take all year

Dinner date with John and he points out the minecraft doors to Longhorn Steakhouse. Yes, that is definitely why they are shaped that way.

Crazy windstorm. Our neighbor is slowly poisoning his trees so huge branches blew all over.

Visiting Duke Gardens with Jim for inspiration

Family campout! Super long hike where we almost went around twice. The view was meh. But the character building was priceless :)

Swimming despite the crawdads everywhere. Wishing I'd remembered my swim shoes!

Icy, refreshing and fun

Dinner took way too long in the dutch oven but it was SO good it was worth it. You can see food-deprived low energy vibes here.

Family fun in the trailer

Our site was near a bunch of sunflowers

Tubing

Quick beach trip

Boys campout with Jim

Duolingo with John and Katy. I LOVE hearing their pronunciation. So entertaining.

John was baptized! SO much sweetness. He felt like he was "on the right path" and his sincere acceptance of the gospel of Jesus Christ is such a blessing.

Worms and trucks on a cake with green frosting, as requested. The giant gummy worm was so gross lol

Birthday pancakes

Jim's run for liberty! We didn't play the family band this year so I ran instead. John was cooling off in front of a fan.

I made a goal to never stop jogging and that was good enough for third place. With all the health challenges I've had, this was just kind to my heart to feel good about something.

I will never tell the kids that the hill at WakeMed is not steep. I could barely think after that last climb!

The kids did the 1 mile fun run and crushed it!

Hydrangea and hibiscus are an incredible color combo

The red is fun, but I'd not put these three together again.

\

We are building a house! Our builders had a great plan, we added a rec and band room, and it was good to go!

Nicole's internship at Lenovo was incredible. She took on projects, had lots of interaction with business professionals, and interviewed/presented findings.

Off to girls camp!

Summer blooms

Evening walk with Jim has replaced our 5am morning runs. I love the time talking and unwinding outside.

12 years old!

Our new home backs up to this section of Jordan Lake so we went exploring.

Just killing a snake in the driveway before church.

Mike's new cybertruck.

Just kidding. But they got to check it out which was SO fun.

Mike soccer team was the league champions. Mike was the goalie. It was fun to see the skills and teamwork of a winning team.