camping

We spent 5 nights camping in Washington and the kids loved it! Emily discovered dirt and was covered head to toe the entire time.

Anika had a blast playing by the water with her cousins.

 Eric was able to go water skiing for the first time in years.

road trip!

3 and a half weeks ago we piled into the car and drove for 27 hours. By starting at 7:30pm we were able to get halfway there before the kids woke up and that is a great thing :)

We drove through Colorado, Utah, and Idaho on our way to Oregon. Utah is gorgeous and I would love to go back and see some of the national parks.

On our way home we stopped by Four Corners for a photo op. Here we all are in 4 different states. I'm in Utah, Eric is in Colorado, Anika is in New Mexico, and Emily is in Arizona.

I highly recommend driving at night when you have little ones in the backseat. It really wasn't a bad drive and we may even do it again next year.

rain

When it rains here in the desert, it pours! We get flash floods and cars stalled out in intersections. Today we had a fun downpour with some rain and lightning and thunder. When it calmed down a little we went out to play. Our gravel filled planter turned into a lake.

The garden loved the rain as much as Anika did. Here is one of our watermelon plants.

and some tomatoes

Have you washed your grocery bags lately?

Reusable bags may be good for the environment, but maybe not so good for your family's health. I'd never really thought about washing my reusable grocery bags until I read this study about bacteria found on most bags. It makes perfect sense and I don't know why I hadn't washed them sooner.