Where Did June Go?

I'm not sure where the month of June went...! It was even more action-packed than the Nieman norm.

We've been on the go nonstop, with trips to beautiful coastal North Carolina to see old friends and play in the Perquimans River;

to Ana's mountains for hiking and cider tasting and

-kind of randomly- cherry picking;

to Carolina Beach for a too-short weekend at Aunt Bex's beachhouse;

and to the Shenandoah River to camp and celebrate Father's Day in one of this guy's favorite fishing spots.

A celebration which included car shows and river tubing

and frogs.

As all summers probably should.

When we were home, which was rare, we filled our days with basketball

and swimming 

and Bible Camp,

And now I'm recovering (at work) from a whirlwind fourth in Michigan (pics in the next batch) while the kids enjoy their first adventure in Grandma and Grandpa's new camper and Seth fishes. 

Cheers to summer, even if it's flying by! 

(Finally) a Cousin Reunion!

This may be a rehash for those of you who have seen Lisa's beautiful album of cousin photos from the first post-COVID cousin reunion, 

but it was such a great time that I can't help (over)sharing.

Ben & Lisa, because they are superhumans, brought the New Mexico cousins out to visit and it was a joyous reunion. They also left the kids with us for a night while they attended a wedding, which means we got to ignore all the Walters safety rules and let the kids act terrible (and catch lots of tree branches) on the lake.

Because Walters Family traditions are etched in stone, 

we also hiked to all the monuments,

visited the site of The Nieman Proposal on our anniversary,

and indulged in the time-honored photo thumbs-downing death marches.

We also took on the death-defying Billy Goat Trail in the rain

- seriously, death-defying-

played allthecousingames,

had high tea at the Willard,

and threw a COVID Schoolyear Graduation Party for the ages.

It was a rip-roaring good time. Thanks to the NM Walters for making the trip. We are so happy that traveling to see our best people is a thing again!

Catching (Almost All The Way) Up.

Playing a little bit of catchup here, since it's been ages. It's hard to believe a year ago I rarely missed a week! (Although we are blessed indeed that one of our biggest COVID casualties has been regular blogging.) This one will just get us to Memorial Day/ our anniversary weekend, which was so crammed full of love and laughter and cousins (!!!) that I have yet to recover and catch up on photos. 

Lisa  sent this awesome preview from her photos, though.

The rest of May included a little bit of downtime

and a lot of "on the go" time, as is our norm.

The weather was, to abuse an oxymoron, consistently spotty; so our attire ranged from this 

to this,

and even included at least one episode of no attire at all (see Finley's penchant for skinny dipping.)

We explored a super sketchy beach in southern Maryland at which only Finley was brave enough to go near the water,

played outdoor checkers in our pajamas (well, one of us was dressed but it wasn't either of these hooligans),

and flew kites at a fishing tournament in Connecticut.

We also made all Finley's dreams come true and I finally took her to New York City (she doesn't remember going as a baby of course, and her favorite Disney show takes place there)

although our sightseeing was pretty much limited to seeing the Statue of Liberty as we came out of the Holland Tunnel, and the playgrounds of Stuytown,

where they commenced the above reign of terror with my friend Christine's awesome kids. They had a blast, so we'll definitely be back for the touristy stuff.

Photo of that trip, though, has to be this one. Finley met a real Rockette, who practiced leg kicks with her. Speaking of dreams coming true.