Happy 80th MOM!

We celebrated my mom's 80th birthday in true Mary Ellen class and style with a fantastic dinner at Myrtle's in downtown Sioux Falls. We had fantastic food, some gifts, flowers from each of our gardens, homemade birthday cake, and an 80th birthday mashup video curated by Maggie, everyone's contributions fit my mom perfectly, it was such a great evening, I'm so thankful for each of us. 

The original 7.

The whole fam. 

Girls' Week at home.

While the boys were away, we found so many things to keep us busy, enjoy the low key week in photos

 below...

Squad. 

Avera Column Signing event. 

Lillys bloom! 

Cotton Candy date. 

Legally Blonde musical with the neighbors. 

Girls go to Coronado while the boys go to Scotland.

After lots of planning and prep, Dave and Sully finally boarded their plane to Scotland with my dad and Isaac, only to deplane an hour or so later, this was what the next 48 hours looked like for them until they finally drove to Mpls to catch a flight that felt foolproof. sure maybe a small delay here and there, but they were finally on their way! Their week was pretty much: eat, sleep, and golf, they experienced lots of great courses and witnessed first hand my dad's obsession with the sport. The daily photos were fun and we were so happy when they returned, but even happier that they had a great trip together. 

The boys recreated a photo of Maggie and I when we went at 14 year olds. 

Meanwhile, the girls and I made our way west to enjoy Coronado for a long weekend, which was also cut short due to flight delays going west. Darn it! We missed our connecter by about 5 minutes so had to spend hours in the Denver airport. The girls didn't mind, they were able to get Starbucks and do of the things we don't usually have time for. We finally made it and had a great 36 hours doing all of their favorite things: the beach, the candy store, Moo time, the skin care store, the pool, and the hot tub. We crammed it all in and hated to leave. Until next time...

Candy store decisions. 

One of many weddings on the beach. 

Shopping sisters. 

Muncestream Advenutres: Fourth of July at Snake Creek.

We had a great long weekend at Snake Creek Rec Area celebrating the Fourth of July. We were able to get out of town on Thursday afternoon and were welcomed by an awesome campsite with tons of space and an awesome view of the bluffs, it was peaceful and relaxing (once the set up was done ;)). 

We spent the Fourth in the river, the first spot we picked out was windy and far from pleasant, so we moved to an area just enough out of the wind and inflated alllllll of our inflatables and enjoyed the sunshine and let the kids explore until the weather turned and we were forced back to the camper for some downtime and naps (amazing!). When the sun came out, we made burgers and had a good old fashioned cookout before going into Platte for their hometown baseball game. It was really fun, the kids get cash for foul balls, so every time one was hit, about 30 kids would chase after it. Our kids kept a safe distance from the hometown chaos, but we got a kick out of watching it all shake down. Fireworks followed the game, it was a great day. 

Saturday's weather was perfect, we spent all day in the water, playing catch and floating on floaties, we had a picnic by the water and simply spent the day together, I wish I could bottle it up and dip into that feeling of family when life gets too busy. We took a break from the beach long enough to go into town for ice cream and then dinner, and made our way back for a sunset swim. Perfection. 

We returned home on Sunday with full hearts, so thankful for the weekend we had.

Settling in.

G

Pip

Fourth ready! 

Top Chef

xoxo

Annual family 4th photo.

Postgame fun. 

Five minutes of relaxation. 

Back of the truck rides. 

Sunset swim.

Golden hour. 

Piper on floatie duty at sunset.