Last weekend we went camping with my grandparents, my sister's family, my mom and brother. It was great to be outside and spend lots of time with family. The not so great part were the mosquitoes and the fact that Naomi got sick.

There were lots of opportunities to sit around the fire,

ride bikes with cousins through muddy puddles,

and hiking walking by the river.

The Mooney family came on Saturday to celebrate Diana turning 9!

Afterwords, we went to the visitor center to play and learn.

On Sunday we went to a family reunion. Since it was at a pavilion in the campground, the kids were able to ride their bikes there.

Sunday was also my mom's 50th birthday so we celebrated with cake and presents.

We ended our camping trip with rock, paper, scissors

and giving this girl lots TLC as she wasn't feeling so well.

I don't even know where to start because it's been forever! I've missed this a lot. After a few months went by, I felt overwhelmed trying to get everything caught up so I just didn't do it. To be honest, this transition to MN has been hard for me. I'm not exactly sure why. I don't even know if this hard season was because of the move or just a build up of things that I needed to process and work through. But, I'm doing much better and we have been thoroughly enjoying our summer. I picked a couple pictures from each month I didn't blog. I'm sure I missed some really great memories but I'm just going to go with it. I dedicate this post to my husband because I probably would have decided to be done with this blog but he repeatedly told me how much he loves these updates and how amazing they will be for our kids to look back on someday.

November

This girl and I bonded like crazy this year since I was her preschool teacher. 

On November 18th we celebrated Maxwell's 2nd birthday with a sports themed party.

December

Naomi did so great in her Christmas performance for dance.

The kids fell in love with sledding

and looked adorable in their festive clothing.

Here's my only family picture from Christmas morning.

January

The girls and I spent some time at the American Girl store and restaurant

and we spent every Saturday in January at the ice rink while Mia and Naomi learned to skate. 

February

Mia got out of school at 2:30 so there was always lots of time for games and fun before Maxwell woke from his nap.

The cutest little preschooler ever. It must have been pajama day at school that day. ; )

We attended our first Fire and Ice festival, which was on a lake (of course)! 

We've loved having lots of opportunities to play with cousins.

March

This two were so cute trying on glasses at my eye exam

and the highlight of March was that Naomi took her training wheels off and rode on two wheels pretty much immediately. It was incredible.

April

We had so much fun on our cruise the year prior that we decided to do it again. This time we went for 8 nights and saw a bunch of different places. 

We had a lazy beach day in Haiti,

explored castles and learned some history in Puerto Rico,

and found the most perfect beach spot in St. Kitts.

This picture from Easter is too cute not to share.

I also snuck away to Colorado for the weekend to recharge with friends.

May

We celebrated Naomi turning 5 with a Unicorn party!

And had so much fun going up north with Grandma Esteb and bonding with cousin Sara.

June

Mia and her awesome teacher, Ms. Rieland at the end of year party.

Mia's last day of kindergarten

and first track meet!

We did some exploring.

The girls did soccer camp to teach them a few skills before soccer starts at the end of August.

July

We kicked off the month with friends visiting over 4th of July weekend.

Joe put on a pretty great fireworks show for all the kids in the neighborhood.

Maxwell drew his first person, which melted his mommy's heart

and continues to do so each and every day.