cousins!

This summer, we did not have a beach week (cue the sad faces). However, the cousins came for a week! Yay! It was a fun, fast week, and I took very little pictures. Oops. But we were very busy and spent a great deal of time at the pool, where I do not usually take my camera. I did take a picture of my minivan, which looked like this all week (and can I say, I loved filling up those seats, but Gavin and Merritt should NEVER sit next to each other. ever.):

 The kids happily attended VBS at our church all week long in the mornings, and Carrie and I got - gasp! - time to hang out as friends. It was lovely. We got coffee every single day from somewhere different and got a lot of shopping and talking in. Funny thing, we didn't even get to do everything we talked about doing. Apparently we have a severe adult fun deficit going on. Cannot imagine why.

Our afternoons were filled with pool time. What a difference a year makes! We now have 6 swimmers, which certainly lowers the stress level a little bit. Every child can now go anywhere in the pool, and each of them took turns going off the 3 meter high dive (Ian included!!) Now if only they all applied their own sunscreen and packed their own pool snacks...

Evenings were spent preparing and consuming yummy meals. Carrie and I share the same food ideals for our families, and it was magical to put together nutritious beautiful meals and have the kids excited about it. And Carrie is an amazing cook so it was inspiring to have her in the kitchen! Last night we had our last meal together: grilled pork tenderloin, pesto salad, and a beautiful caprese salad made with fairy tale eggplant and heirloom tomatoes from our CSA. The kids had almost cleaned their plates before we sat down to join them. It's a good problem to have!

Yesterday we went up to Fews Ford on the Eno River to explore and play. We got dirty and hot and had a great time!