Happy Independence Day!

Dear Friends and Family,

This week we had a blast seeing friends who were visiting from out-of-town, swimming in the bay/playing at the beach and neighbor pools, visiting D.C., watching fireworks, and picking more crab! It definitely feels like summer here and we are loving it!

Last week my high school buddy Krista and her friend (and now my friend) Amy came to visit and spend a night with us.  We had so much fun! Especially since my awesome husband said, "Hey, why don't you girls go out and I'll feed the kids and put them to bed!" OK!  So I took my friends to Coconut Joe's, a bar and grill located right on South River.  The weather was perfect for eating out by the water.  Then we went into Annapolis to wander around downtown. It was a great time and a fun girls night out!

Me, Amy, and Krista - picture courtesy of Claire!

Will snaps a picture of his buddy, Krista!

Before Krista and Amy left, we took them down to the secret beach for rock collecting!

We love when friends visit!

After our friends headed out on Thursday, the weather was so gorgeous I took the kids straight to our neighbor's pool to swim. We swam until lunch, ate lunch in our swim suits while our next coating of sunscreen soaked in and then headed back to the pool for another two hours.  We came home to clean up, only to head right down to the beach for some chill time before dinner. In typical kid fashion, Will proclaimed that he had to go poo-poo just as I had our beach camp set up so I asked our neighbor friends at the beach to watch our camp while I took Will home.  Upon arriving home we saw Chris and again, my amazing husband said, "I'll take care of Will, you go back to the beach!"  OK!  So Claire and I came home from the beach about 45min-1hour later and Will is passed out on the couch!

That exhaustion just sneaks up on you!

And it happened again later in the week. One minute he is eating yogurt, the next minute he's drooling on the counter! Pool days are exhausting!

On Friday, my friend Aubrey was in town visiting from Arizona!  I was so excited to see her again. She is definitely one of the sweetest people I know.  She has two adorable kids, Aiden(2) and Lucia(Not yet 1) and she is expecting a third!  God bless her!  She is such a good mom though. I was totally impressed. We decided to meet up at Natural History Museum since the weather was turning hot and humid. It was a great idea. The kids had lots of fun!

The Natural History Museum's iconic Pachyderm.

Claire marvels at the Hope Diamond!

I love reading the history on these pieces!

But this bit of history is my favorite!

That's right, her dog got to wear this priceless gem and she hid the necklace in her couch! Evalyn Walsh McLean sounds fun.

Claire captures this interesting rock!

And Will enjoyed carrying the camera around for most of this visit.

Tossing paperclips at the magnetic rock!

Will takes a picture of his Sissy!

Hunting for rocks! 

Claire does her best moose impression!

Claire snaps a shot of me, Aubrey and Lucia!

After the museums, Aubrey headed home and we decided to head to the Commerce building to see if we could surprise Nan at lunch!  As luck would have it, she was just getting in line to buy her lunch when the kids ran up to surprise her! She was so happy to get their hugs!

Claire was really excited to surprise Nan!

On Saturday the kids had their first gymnastics class!  They were both really excited and the class turned out being very cool.  The gym is a legit gymnastics gym and they had lots of obstacle courses set up to gauge the kids' coordination levels. Claire proved her upper body strength while swinging her way down a bar and Will proved nimble doing a bear walk on parallel bars.

Will and his buddy Mason giggled their way through the class!

Madison and Claire loved doing gymnastics together too!

We spent the rest of the day just relaxing around the house. After dinner, Chris and I grabbed a beer and the beach chairs, Claire pushed Will in the stroller and we headed down the street to be greeted by many more neighbors with the same idea!  We had a great time hanging out and watching the kids play.

Claire - our designated stroller pusher!

I tried to take a selfie of me and Chris, but between the height difference and he's standing up the hill behind me, I barely make it in the picture!

Will had so much fun playing with Avery that the next time he saw her he ran and gave her a hug. He later told me that when he hugged her he cried a little bit because he likes her so much! 

Cuties! Claire, Charlotte, Avery, Ava, and Will

Sunday, July 3rd was our unofficial Indpendence Day celebration.  We met our friends Andrew, Betsy and their son Eddie for dinner at Old Stein Inn and then headed over to our friend and neighbors Kim and Gil's to watch their firework show.

A walk to the pier after Old Stein! Will, Eddie, Claire, Andrew and Chris look for fish off the pier.

Adorable Eddie! 

One of my most common pictures of Will - in mid-stride! There's always a smile when he is in action!

Kim and Gil have an amazing backyard - right on the water!  The kids had fun playing chase until it was firework time!

Sparklers!

Happy Birthday America! Love, Chris

Sarah and Avery!

The girls and their sparklers with the firework show just beginning!

Will liked them as long as he had his ears plugged! 

Ooo...ahh...Oh! Snap, crackle, BANG!

On Monday the morning was clear but the rain started around 2pm.  Lucky for us, our neighbor Mike went out crabbing and came back with a whole bushel of crab! He asked us if we thought we could help them eat some of it. I told him we would be glad to try!

That's a full keg of seasoned crab!

On it's way to be steamed!

Post dinner carnage!

Our sweet friends Laura and Abby!

In other news, Our roof is almost finished. All of the flashing has been attached and now we are just waiting on the gutters and downspouts to be installed!

Also, Claire got her first pair of lace-up sneakers!  She was so excited that she wanted to wear them immediately.  And thanks to a lesson in how to tie shoes with MiMi in Rochester, she was ready to put her knowledge to use!

Shoes are tied and she is ready to go!

I'll close with a picture I took of Will while we stopped at the ATM.  He does this every time!  I decided that it will probably resurface at his high school graduation party.

I hope everyone is having a great week!
Love,
Bethie