Some Catching Up to Do

So this summer is about over for me! I head back to school next week already for teacher meetings. The students come on the 12th--and that afternoon is the CVS testing. I figure I better get this updated!

July was full of trips. We went to Wisconsin for one of Dan's frat bros. weddings. It was so beautiful, they got married in the gardens behind the bride's parent's house. We stayed in a hotel on Lake Geneva. I would love to go back sometime for a family vacation. It was such a neat little town. Dan's parents were on our way up to the wedding, so we dropped Anika off there for the night. It was our first entire night away from her. I think it bothered Dan more than me! It was nice though. The day we got back from Wisconsin, we had to get all our laundry cleaned and pack back up for our annual trek out to Boston the next morning. My sister, her husband, and her son, Fisher, live there and every 4th of July we switch visiting each other.

This time, instead of staying in Boston, we all rented a little cottage in Damariscotta, Maine (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). Anika flew great on the plan. She loved the hustle and bustle of the airport. We all packed up the rental car and drove the 2ish hour trip up to Maine. Anika absolutely loved riding next to her cousin. Fisher (who is almost 2) learned to say, "no, no baby!" very quickly. We really enjoyed seeing the sites in Maine...the lake, the ocean, the little quaint downtown where we were staying. We even hit the 4th of July parade...that was a laugh. Almost all the floats are made to be politically incorrect-very East coast.

Just when vacation was great our little one spiked a 102 fever and we had to take her to the emergency room. We thought ear infection, turns out it was only the beginning of the first terrible bout of the flu. The poor girl threw up on me more times than I could count, she couldn't eat any food for 3 days and she was just miserable. It was so hard to see her this way. One night Dan and I prayed for her health and we practically broke down in tears!

Finally when it came time to head back to Boston, she was on the mend. Thank goodness she was feeling much better the next day when we flew home. We hadn't been so happy to be home
in a long time.

End of July brought us lots of visitors. Dan's brother, Drew came out to get the shed going. His mom came out to love on Anika while her mom felt like junk and took lots of naps. We also found out that Dan's sister will be married next summer! How exciting!

Lately, more work on the shed, more feeling pretty icky, and lots of photography. My parents came out recently to help out too. We are really lucky to have such great families!

Anika has become quite the little lady. She waves her hand "hi," she blows on Dan's duck call, she tries her darndest to crawl, she stands with help, and she says her first word, "doggie" often. We just love watching her grow up.

Check out our family webpage. Dan made some updates (most of you who know him, will be able to tell right away). Anika's pics from 9 months are up (they include the Maine trip) and there's a new video of our future duck caller.

Hope everyone is well. Send messages!