Shopping and Swimming - You gotta' love summer break!

I don't know about you but I can't believe how fast this summer is flying by!  It's been a little crazy around here, but we have managed to pack in some great summertime fun.  First, our family fun weekend became the extended version and lasted all the way until the next weekend.  Jeremiah ended up going home with my parents after their visit here last weekend and I joined him there last Wednesday.  We were getting ready for our big fundraising yard sale.  My sister was kind enough to let us have it in her yard and my mom, my sister and various wonderfully generous family and friends donated items for the yard sale to help us raise funds for our adoption travel.  Jeremiah and his cousins had a hot dog stand and I totally meant to take picutes of it, but it was too busy!  To say our yard sale was a huge success is an understatement.  Thank You God!

What I really wanted pictures of were the signs Jeremiah  made for his hot dog stand.  He is serious about getting his baby sister here as quickly as possible and about going with me on at least one trip! I tried having my Dad take pictures of the signs but you can't really read them, so to get the full effect pretend you are reading this off of hot pink poster board with black letters done in my son's handwriting.  "Help me bring my sis home."  And he drew a picture of Ethiopia with a heart in it under this.  Then he did a green one that said, "There are 4.5 million orphans in Ethiopia.  Help us save one please!" I have to tell you, it made me teary eyed.  He thought of these all by himself and was so careful to make sure he was neat.  He had a ruler and a marker and was crawling around in the kitchen floor measuring his poster board to make sure his letters looked right.  I sure do love that kid!

After we recovered from the yard sale my friends Jodi and Carol, and her daughters Megan and Emily and I had a great girls day out.  We did some shopping and had lunch and just basically had a great time! 

                                                        Ready to find some bargains!

                                              Looks like a shopping strategy discussion to me!

Jodi bought an awesome new skirt and spent the rest of the day trying to find a sweater to match it!  I'm pretty sure she tried on every orange sweater at the mall. 

Emily's fabulous bargain scarf. 

Who would think they would be on clearance in the middle of summer?

A side trip to the Boy Scout store to get Jodi's son Grant's supplies for boy scout camp turned out to be almost as much fun as finding bargains at the mall. 

Oh, good a fire - it's sooooo cold outside after all.

Megan modeling the newest fashions in boy scout gear.   

All the best dressed boys scouts will be wearing this great hat. 

Who knew the boy scout store was such fun? 

Today we had great fun at Jeremiah's friend Coleman's house.  The boys got in some good swim time and the moms had time to chat without being interrupted a hundred times!

Two boys: one innertube. 

This could be a problem! Actually, later in the afternoon they had three boys in one innertube but I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of that feat.

I'm pretty sure the next two pictures were taken as the boys were planning the innertube adventure.  You can almost put words in their mouths.  Jeremiah says, Hey Coleman do you think we could both fit in one innertube?  Coleman ponders for a minute, hmmmmm.

Then says, Dude that would be awesome - I'll go get one and we'll try!

And what's a day at the pool without a little wrestling? 

 

And a little bit of throwing Jack to see how far he flies.

Aaron is more fun than any other pool toy out there!

So happy it's summer vacation!