Thanks for a fantastic summer!

We want to send a big thank you to all of our friends and family for such a wonderful summer, we couldn't have planned a better one. I didn't want a summer that was so tightly scheduled that would have us running all around, and we wanted to be able to play with our friends and go on summer adventures. And this is exactly what happened! There were so many fun moments this summer, and I didn't do a great job of blogging about it all... so I want to just give highlights and then we are rushing on to the first day of school! So here you go, a look back over June, July, and August. . .

What's a summer without baseball? We kicked off our summer with a trip to visit Stomper at the A's game!!



Thanks to Iris and David who came with us on our first Summer Adventure to the Aquarium in San Francisco. . .

They have matching crocks!

Millie loves David, and they had fun on the train. . .

kissing the fish. . .

in the aquarium bubble!


We spent many Mondays at Golden Hills park with the other Valhalla kids... Millie's favorite activity is to swing. and swing. and swing. in her princess attire, no less.

new dress, same thing...


We spent a family day at Fairyland in Oakland and watched 12,000 rubby duckys cross the finish line for the Children's Derby.





and of course we had swimming lessons! Penelope and Millie love swimming. . .


Our Annual 4th of July bash was the best attended ever! The firework show was fantastic...


p & m are cool cats in the car... spending time here to and from our adventures...

Visiting the Bates cousins at their End of Summer Bash... love these gorgeous Bates girls. If my girls grow up to be as beautiful both inside and out, I'll be thrilled.

love this one of Christian and Millie.... someone is not thrilled to document the moment...


Summer Adventure to the Children's Museum in San Jose to see Clifford, the Big Red Dog!





Check below to see highlights on our trips to Bend and Bear Valley!

Penelope and Gabbie, BFF! We had the most fun this summer with the Ferron crowd. Here they are about to get their school pictures for FIRST GRADE!

A final Summer Adventure: the State Fair!!

Holding baby pigs, milking cows, it doesn't get anymore FAIR than that!! We spent most of our time with the animals and the girls were thrilled. Uncle Jeffrey came along and so we got to hang out with him, which was great. He saw a hip-hop dance troupe, we saw the band Daugherty (he's pretty good in concert), and the Governator, Mr. Arnold also came by to check out the livestock! Millie rode a pony and Penelope lead a tiny pony! Of course lemonade and Cotton Candy was consumed...

A fabulous week at Bear Valley with family!

This was definitely the highlight of my summer, a relaxing (well, at least it was fun) week at Bear Valley with my sis, mom, brother, and friends the Ferrons! Check it out below, from a swanboat to a ride down the creek, there was lots of fun to be had at BV this year. These pics are from the fabulous jules bianchi ... so great to have a photographer in the fam.

Miss Millie, trying her hand at piano. Check out the buck in the corner. It's a talking buck! No, really.

Here's the stone house, a historical landmark on Lake Alpine, and you can even see Mr. jack in the corner.

The famous Swanboat and Swancam!!




Ok so hiking is not high on the priority list of my girls.... good grief they made a mile long hike into a nightmare. We were going to Slide Rock, where it's really fun to slide into the water on a natural rockslide, but they would have nothing to do with it!



Even JULES went down, and OLIVE! It was a blast!

Browns in Oregon

There are many Browns in Oregon... but the cutest is Great Grandpa Brown, who we went to visit on our trip to Bend. He is adorable, and the girls were so cute with him. They loved playing with his collection of doves--well, Great Grandma's collection that she left behind, and they loved collecting tomatos in his garden! I wish my thumb were so green!








More images from Oregon.... hiking by the Deschutes... riding the ponies in Sun River (poor Millie got her finger nipped when she tried to feed one!) Thanks to Grandpa Brown and Grandma Gale for a great week!