Summer fun!

Elena went to Girls State in June. She had a great time, made a lot of friends and learned a lot. One thing she learned is that she definitely does NOT want to go into politics. All the meetings were long and tedious. In her words, "If you agree with someone, just say 'I agree.' You don't have to repeat everything they just said over and over again!"

I already posted about Olivia's 5th birthday in St. Louis, but we did have a follow-up party with an actual cake after returning. She wanted her cake to look just like last year's cake. And she did all of the decorating herself, which explains why there are way too many candles.

One of the biggest June highlights was a visit from Uncle Joe and the Boston cousins!! All the cousins except for Alex (who had a baseball tournament) were able to get together. The girls were reintroduced to life in small town Minnesota. They were shocked by things like driving on gravel roads and the way we knew practically everyone - and waved even if we didn't know someone! 

Hoku accurately pointed out that this view looked just like the original Microsoft background. 
In case you forgot, here it is:

Grandma and all the granddaughters

And of course, we've gotten in lots and lots of swimming. Olivia has been working hard on swimming without help or a life jacket, so she asks to go to the pool almost every day no matter the weather.

Frank's friend, Teddy, successfully buried Frank up to his neck in sand at Camden Park!

And Charlie's baseball team won first place this year in the championship! There were enough 5th and 6th grade boys in baseball this summer that they had 3 teams. Thankfully, they put these 3 cousins all on the same team. 

And here's one random quote from Olivia: 

I don't know what you're talking about....but I do know what my coffee is talking about: drinking coffee!