Jason’s aunt Renee, cousin Nikki, and Nikki’s family moved into a beautiful new home a few months ago, so we decided to go out for a visit over the past long weekend. It was really hard to come back to real life.

Iris had just been born on the 19th, so there were a fair amount of new baby cuddles.

Lily wasn’t quite sure about Iris, so we took a few selfies (of her) together. She also tried on my sunglasses — I’m sure they’ll fit better in a few years.

It rained a little bit, but otherwise I tried to get outside as much as I could. Summers in the midwest just don’t last long enough, so I always want to soak up as much of the warmer temperatures as I can. I did a lot of knitting (my hands hurt on Monday night, in fact) and even got Jason and his nephews out on the paddle boats with me a couple of times. I would love to show you photos of the magnificently huge bullfrogs, except I figured that something terrible would happen if I brought my phone anywhere near the pond. Next time I’ll have to bring my dSLR, which can be secured around my neck, at least.

There was a bit of blue gill fishing on Sunday, though. They are overpopulating the pond, so there’s an effort to remove as many as possible. Most are too little to eat, so the birds in the area are getting quite the feast! Nick was pretty proud of his lunker.

I want to be there right now. Sigh.