The traditional photo by the pool with Olive taking part this year

On Wednesday we drove to Iowa for our annual summer trip. The kids have had a great time with their cousins and grandparents. They have had a lot of time by the pool, been bowling, watched movies, played games, went shopping and Jude even took a ride in the MG. And Grampsy let him drive, it was his first experience of a stick-shift and apparently he did ok.

Because we won’t be back for Christmas, the kids got their next birthday cake early

It has been really warm which has meant lots of time in the pool. I played golf with Nate On Saturday and Sunday but today, July 4, we all stayed home and just hung out. Games were played, we watched the movie Independence Day and we had a typical American dinner: burgers and hot dogs.

Opening their stash of goodies from the Easter Egg hunt

This afternoon the kids did a July 4 Easter Egg hunt. Baba had stuffed over 100 eggs with goodies and we hid them around the house. It was a nice break from the heat. This evening all the kids went to see the fireworks with Baba.

Waiting for the fireworks to start on July 4