Hot and humid

I guess we're all trying to beat the heat these days. We've been going for fairly regular swims at our local pool. Owen is getting more and more enthusiastic about being in the water - he loves to sort of plop/fall off the pool edge into waiting arms (especially his Daddy's arms), and we even got him to tolerate some "swimmies" (those arm floats you have to blow up) over the weekend.
Another way to stay cool is to just keep clothing to a minimum.....


We've been eating some delicious peaches and good corn on the cob from local farm stands; we tried to show Owen how to hold the corn in both hands, but he much preferred the "knaw on one end" approach.
We're headed up to Michigan's Upper Peninsula next week, hoping to escape to cooler and less humid conditions. This will be Owen's 7th round-trip plane ride, and his last as an official 'lap' baby before his second birthday in September. Once Baby Girl Bacheler arrives in October, I doubt we'll be flying anywhere for a while!

Parting video: our musical prodigy

Aunt Rosie visits

We had a full house over the 4th of July weekend, with Owen's Aunt Rosie down from DC, and our good friends Mara and Kelly also visiting for a few days. Owen reveled in all the extra attention and positive reinforcement to his steadily-improving walking abilities. Aunt Rosie brought Owen many nice gifts, the most popular of which was a giant beachball with sprinkler capabilities. We had a lot of fun with it, both inside and out.



On the 4th, Nate and Owen and I (with houseguests all gone by this point) headed over to Pivers Island to hang with many of our other friends and their kids. We couldn't stay out late enough to actually see the fireworks (which started at 9:15pm), but we all enjoyed some fun socializing, a great grassy lawn on which to practice walking, homemade ice-cream from an antique churn, and lots of other tasty treats, including Rosie's left-over sour cherries (which were a big hit, so thanks for leaving them, Rosie!).