Beach Photoshoot

 

It's been a little over a month since we said goodbye to Panama City Beach and we've just received our photos from the photo shoot Mom and Dad scheduled.  I couldn't be more pleased with how these came out!  They look amazing!

We are so rarely at the "beach" that these photos end up being so unique in the set of year over year family photos.  I know I'll be printing a whole slew of these to hang around the house. 

Penny's Here!

 She's here!  She's here!  Penny is here!  It's the day we've all been waiting for (yes, even me!).

I'm writing this blog a few weeks later, we've had Penny for about 3 weeks now and I have to admit two things:

1. Ryan was right about getting a puppy in the summer when the kids can help take care of her, and get to play with her all day long.
2. I said we weren't ready for a puppy just yet, but honestly, she's great.  

I think Penny is going to be much smaller than Copper.  Her Mom was small in stature and based on pictures of Penny at this age vs. Rooster at the same age last summer, I'd say Penny is tiny compared to him!

But, more than bragging about Penny, what I really have to tell you about is to brag about Abby.  Abby was determined, from the day we told her we were getting a puppy that this dog was going to be hers.  That Penny would be her dog, that'd she'd take care of her and raise her and hopefully Penny would love her the most.  Ryan convinced me to just let her try.  So night one (the worst night...the night the puppies cry and cry for the whole night because they miss their families and they miss their moms and they don't understand why they are alone for the first time every) we set up the kennel in Abby's room and left Penny in there for the night.

Abby got up every time Penny cried and took her out to go pee.  She listened to her cry and comforted her from her bed.  And, here we are 3+ weeks later and Penny's cage hasn't moved.  She spend every night in Abby's room.  She's getting up sometimes 3-4 times per night (sometimes she doesn't need to go out at all) and letting this puppy out to pee.  I've done NONE of it....and it's the most amazing thing ever.  I'm so impressed with her commitment and willingness to take care of this puppy.  You could never have convinced me that this would be how it would play out.  

Three weeks in and Penny is getting bigger and more adventurous every day.  Copper is playing with her so nicely and putting up with all her shenanigans.  He's kind and gentle and willing to get down on the ground and play tug of war with her.  I love Goldens so much!  The are the perfect family dog and I don't think anyone is ever going to be able to convince me otherwise.

*A tiny gym puppy

Penny chooses to sleep and relax in some of the funniest poses I've ever seen.  This is one of her preferred positions - she does it all the time.  And then there is the "sploot".  I'll have to grab a photo of it next time, but imagine her back legs laid fully behind her - as if she was a human laying flat on her belly, legs and arms out.  That's exactly how she relaxes.  It's hilarious and I sort of hope she never grows of it.

The back seat is especially full now.  Not sure if the girls will always appreciate having two dogs in the back with them, but while Penny is small, it works out fine!  That's a problem for another day.

1 Family x 12 (July)

 

When we were in Florida Mom scheduled a family photoshoot and there is no better picture for our July family photo!  I've got a slew more to post, but for now, these this gem.

A Double Birthday Pool Party - for double digits and a teenager!

 

This summer Hazel turned 10 (double digits!) and Abby is turning 13 in just about a month from now.  Can you even believe it!?  I think that means I'm officially out of the "little kid" phase of life.  That's both exciting and a little sad - I think both things can be true at the same time.

No McGrath kid birthday would be complete without a custom cake from Auntie.  These girls are so spoiled - I don't even know if they realize how cool it is that they can dream up just about any theme and Erin will deliver!  This year's theme was "dog park" because it's the summer of Puppy!  Penny turned 8 weeks the Friday before our party and while we didn't have her yet (it felt like a little too much for a baby puppy to bring her home and toss her into a birthday party with 70 people and full of kids), the only thing the girls could think about was getting her.  So...the them: Dog Park, and boy oh boy, did Erin out do herself!  It's even gluten free for Abby.

Ryan lives for a big summer pool party at the house.  He loves having everyone here, he loves hosting and getting all our favorite people together in one spot to celebrate, so I compromised and we landed on this joint summer birthday party.  With the girls birthdays only a month and a half apart (and add in all the summer trips and camps we did between Hazel's bday and Abby's) and doing it in late July felt right!

The weather worked out - it was set to rain up until the day before...and while it started out a little cool and cloudy, in the end people still got in the pool, I still had to ditch my jeans for shorts and everyone was able to be outside.  We have such a great backyard space for hosting, I'm always thankful for being able to do parties outdoors.

This was Jamie's last drinks before she started the path of surrogacy (another story for another blog post), so we had to document it with a photo!  

Everyone spoiled the girls and they got tons of gifts and money.  This was the first time the girls really got a lot of money and I'm really very impressed - it's not burning a hole in their pockets.  They both opted to have it added to their bank accounts and they are saving it until they find something they really want.  Hazel has her heart set on some new lego sets when the new ones come out here in a few months and they are both saving some money for when we go to Hawaii later this year.

LOL!  I nearly made this photo the family photo for the month.  It made me laugh so hard...Ryan is hilarious.  

Dan got the girls what I'm going to call the most memorable gift of the party - tickets to swim with dolphins when we are in Hawaii.  It's a long play, we aren't going until November but I know this is going to be something they will remember for the rest of their lives and I'm excited to experience it with them!

Hazel went to Goat Camp (again!)

Last summer the week Abby went to Girl Scout camp lined up with Stella and Lucy's camp for the summer - Goat Camp, so they invited Hazel along.  The girls had so much fun at Grandma Jody's house and going to Goat Camp that they wanted to do it again this summer.  The stars aligned again (and so did Girl Scout camp) so Hazel spent 3 nights at Apple Canyon with Stella and Lucy.

The girls recreated some of their favorite activities from last year and tried some new things - like jumping from the rocks!  They were so brave.

They swam, rode horses, went tubing, hosted a lemonade stand, attended Goat Camp and overall it sounds like they all had a great time, except for the part that Hazel got a fever on the second day and maybe, in the end it was hand foot and mouth...I'm not really sure, but one day was a total flop for Fran.  She skipped the goats and took a 2 hour nap instead.  I think she felt a little better after that, but she wasn't herself even when she got home the next day.

I love that these girls are making all kinds of memories together!  Summers are fun...full of friends, sun, adventures and lots of laughs.  Hazel rated the week "a 4 because I was sick but if I wasn't sick, I'd give it a 5".  

Port St. Joe - A Florida Family Vacation (Part 2)

We had so much fun I couldn't fit it all into one blog post.  We're back from vacation and about to head into the 4th of July weekend and I'd be lying if I said I remembered exactly what day we did each thing (this is why I blog as quickly as I can).  So, I'll do my best to recount it.  

Wednesday we rented a pontoon for the day and spent the day on the water.  The kids wanted to fish (we didn't catch anything...wah wah...) and the adults wanted to explore.  I'm not usually the first person to sign up for water excursions - the motion sickness and all - but, how could I miss out?  So I strapped on my reliefband and off we went.  It took us some time to get our bearing straight and to figure out where we wanted to go, but once we figured out a plan it all started to come together.  Unfortunately there really was no place for us to dock and get out for food/drinks, but that's ok, it meant we got the most out of the boat.  We found a place where the kids could swim and a few spots where they could try and fish.  We docked at a tiny nature park area where we could get off and explore for a few minutes.  I wish we'd have asked the owner a few more questions before we set sail, because we didn't see a single other boat where we ended up...which makes me think we missed the memo.  But, in the end, we had a great day and that's all that matters!

One morning we followed Ryan's suggestion and we explored Cape San Blas - a TINY spit of land just north of our house.  At the end there is a huge state park (with a brand new campground!) where there was hiking and beach access.  We thought we'd try to hike, but the campground host we met advised against it.  He said it was a 6 mile out and back and that they'd already hauled a few people off the trail earlier this year and with the kids in tow, it really just wasn't in the cards for us anyways.  We opted for a shorter hike (1.5 miles) which turned out to be all any of us wanted to do...and we ended it with my favorite ice cream stop of the entire trip.  Calories were fully worth it! 

The 4 of us "kids" snuck in a quick date night on the last night and that was super fun!  We really did have a great time with Joey and Andy on this trip and I think it's the best the 4 kids have ever done.  Even Mom and Dad commented at one point.

Hazel's birthday was the day after we got back from vacation so we took the opportunity to celebrate as a family - and...nobody is sad about delicious bakery cake - certainly not me!

One adventure we wanted to do, but didn't quite have time for was to kayak the Dead Lakes.  It was about an hour long drive away from our house and it was so hot and buggy we knew that if we wanted to do it, we'd need to get up and out of the house by 5 or 6 am for it to be enjoyable.  We opted not to do it, but, on our way back to the airport on Saturday we had some time to kill so we took a slightly longer route and drove past the area to see what it looked like.  The pictures in the magazine weren't inacurate...it looked just as cool as the pictures made it seem.  If we are ever in this area again, we'll 100% take the time to kayak and explore this area.