July.....

Soccer
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

The kids started soccer this summer. Jake's friend, Ryan, is on his team, so he's perfectly happy to clown around with him on the field. Megan wasn't very interested in it at first, but once she got into the game, she took a real liking to it. It helps that she's pretty good at it. She's not afraid to mix it up with the other kids in order to get close to that ball - and she's fast!

For the 4th of July, we went to the Grand Geneva resort and stayed at their Timber Ridge facility -- with the water park. Of course, it took a little while for these two to get warmed up, but once they discovered how much fun it could be, they didn't want to leave.



They had a good fireworks show, as well. We had to hide out under a bridge to avoid a little bit of rain, but it all worked out. The kids had a good time running around on the big hill. They stopped for two seconds so I could take a quick photo:



The girls were a bit more cooperative as you can see:



We've been keeping busy this summer. We made it out to the beach a few times. On this particular day, a bunch of neighbor kids were with us.



I brought the kids to the Firefighters' Run for the Kids 5k a couple of weeks ago. They have a really nice kids' race that Megan has done every year since she was two. I didn't realize until afterward that it was Jake's first race. I probably would have taken more photos. He had a great time.



This photo made the pages of Chicago Athlete's August issue:



And here's Jake on the start line:



Afterward, they got to cool off in the spray of the fire truck. This may have been the highlight of the evening. It's a good thing they gave the kids t-shirts for their race. At least they had something dry to wear home!



And on our way to the parking lot, they found a fun hill. Looks like they're on top of the world!