swimming and date nights

 I'm playing catch up a bit from the last couple days.  Thursday was Avery's last day of swim for the first set of lessons.  Next week she'll likely have a new swim coach and they also recommended her to bump up to level 5.  She'll miss Miss Sabrina.

Zara keeps insisting she doesn't want to take swim lessons but she's already such a great swimmer!

 Rupert does this thing I call lip snuggling.  He's not a thumb or finger sucker like my other kids but when he's tired he does purse his lips and do a sucking motion on his pillow or, preferably, by neck.  It's kinda my favorite thing.  We have a special bond.

I took the kids to get Thrifty's ice cream cones for the first time.  Overall we decided we prefer Zoyos because frozen yogurt is better for you than ice cream and mostly they love picking their own toppings but they all loved Thrifty's.  Their flavors starting with Avery are rainbow sherbet, circus animal, chocolate. chip cookie dough, and cotton candy.

Yesterday we swam at Sara's parents for the first time this year!  I think this is our 3rd or 4th summer of memories here.

Tonight Andrew and I went on a double date with our good friends Brooke and Dan McKay.  We looked around Floor and Decor so they could make some tiling decisions.  They're in the process of remodeling both bathrooms, doing the kitchen  and installing flooring in their whole house this year.  This is something we hope to do in a couple years so it's nice learning from them.  Afterwards we had dinner at Fudruckers, an old favorite burger place of ours.  So good!

After dinner we watched Wonder Woman since Andrew and I have heard good reviews and we liked it!  I loved the beginning part that sets up the movie and think the premise is really creative.  I guess it's a lot like the comic but I went into this movie fresh, never having seen the original movie or even seeing the trailers so it was all a surprise.  It is now midnight and I'm biking and swimming in the morning so I better get some sleep!

Summer break is nearly here!

School ends in two days! Elliot is finishing up 4th grade, Avery 2nd, and Zara her last year of preschool.  This picture is super random.  My brother DJ graduated from law school a couple Saturdays ago.  The picture I wanted to share from my phone wasn't working, or anything else, and this one was on my desktop so here you go!

^^^ Porters on the left, Sara and DJ in the middle, my parents on the right. ^^^

Last summer I had a little goal to share a blogpost every day and I did pretty well.  It's time to start that up again, since I haven't shared anything here since last summer!  I never shared our CA trip with my in-laws at the very end of the summer last year and that was sooo fun!  We need to get back to the beach soon, for sure.

Summers are great because I get so much more time with the older kids.  I want to remember these summers and all the fun we have.  I think I might also share some catch up as well like that CA trip last year :), Avery's baptism, and our Seattle trip last fall.  

Are you ready for summer?  What are your plans? I'd love to hear.  So far we have one trip to Missouri planned.

summer activities: water

This summer has been hot!

There has been a lot of

sprinklers,

water parks,

and

swimming pools.

Anything to keep cool!

How are you staying cool?

summer activities

I don't have any kids in school yet but summer still feels like summer.

I just wanted to share some summer activities we have been doing.

{dress up}

{side walk chalk}

{painting}

What have you been doing this summer?