Happy Birthday Mommy!

Me and Daddy both love you sooooooo much! We hope you have the most super funnest birthday in the world!

Love,

Hopey (with a little help from Daddy)

One Year Blogging Anniversary!

I missed my one year blogging anniversary by two days!!! I joined this wonderful world of bloggers on July 27th, 2008, so I'm feeling like I finally passed my initiation period! :) So to celebrate this momentous occasion, here's a picture of Hopey hanging out at our neighborhood ice cream block party!! :)

Wonderful Wawasee

So I was going through my old blog posts, and I saw that my second blog post ever was about my very first trip to Wawasee!! Almost exactly one year later, I get to write another post about that magical place! This year, Hopey was old enough to actually really enjoy herself and join in all of the fun and games. She was also old enough to throw a wicked tantrum when it was time to come home. Apparently, last year I took 441 pictures, but I outdid myself this year and took 656! :) I promise I won't make you go through all of them, but I do have to share a few. :)

This is Grandma and Grandpa Isch's adorable little cottage that we get to stay at every year.

The entire Witzig family got to spend one full day together at the lake this year! Sadly, this is the first family picture we've taken together since Brian and I got married!
I just had to get a picture of Brian's dad with all of the grand kids. Can you tell he's never loved something so much in his life? Love you Bill! :)

We actually had a somewhat normal family picture taken of us too!! Thanks for the awesome job Tyler!!

Of course the boys needed to have some battle tubing, so even though it was barely 60 degrees, Brian, Robbie, and Tyler got out there and showed us how it was done!

Brian was absolutely vicious on the tube, that's his nephew he's flipping...

And then, he and Robbie showed us some real brotherly love...

Don't worry though, Rob was fine, and he even became Hopey's new favorite person!

And I just had to throw this picture in here just because I think it's so stinkin' cute!

Hopey played a fun game called "slide down the back seat of the pontoon" for an hour or so everyday.

And she absolutely adored pontoon rides!

Almost as much as she loved being dunked by daddy!

But getting out of the water did NOT make her happy.

Brian had a blast testing out his old wake boarding skills.

And Grandpa made Hopey her very own water slide!

Apparently, the water slide tugged at her suit a bit... :)

And this is the glorious sunset we got to watch every evening. Sigh...I miss Wawasee so much!!

Kisses

Hopey recently figured out how to give someone an actual kiss rather than an open mouthed lick. The only problem with this new found talent is that she wants to give everything and everyone she meets a big smooch. For example, last weekend, I was trying to get a picture of the beautiful cookie mess she had all over her face. And apparently, this must have seemed like the perfect opportunity to show the camera her appreciation.

Fourth of July Blues

I don't know what the weather was like for you and your family on the Fourth of July this year, but for us, it was pretty gross! All of our plans got cancelled due to the rain, and this is the first year ever that I didn't see the fireworks. Yes, I was sort of devastated. BUT, on the sunny side of things, we had a really super 3rd and 5th of July! :) We got to spend Friday with my entire family, and we spent Sunday with Brian's family! Even though our 4th of July was a total bummer, the other two days of the three day weekend were just super! I know this may come as a shock to all of you, but I took about 700 pictures over those two days, so I thought I might share a few!

Please note: Brian got sick of buttoning the legs on Hopey's pj's, so he just tied them up like bunny tails under her hiney!

Summer Craziness!

Has it already been a week since I posted last?? So much has happened in such a short amount of time! Rather than bore you with the details, I'll just post some pictures and add little comments so you know what's going on.

This was Hopey's first swim in her own little pool! And yes, she's posing! :) Katie and Jenn took Hopey and I to Hopey's first outdoor concert and then to her first splash park! Needless to say, we had a blast!

This was the day of our anniversary! Sadly, we both noticed we look a bit older this year than in the pictures from the past three years!

Meg, Kara, and I decided to go to the zoo on the hottest day of the year!! We've also decided to wait until it's cooler to try that again!

This was day one of our anniversary getaway weekend!! We thought it was hilarious that the flowers were almost as tall as me!

Grammie and Papa Schell also got Hopey her own little pool. Apparently, it's the greatest thing that has ever existed!

Chris threw Kara a surprise birthday party on Sunday, so we thought it would be the perfect time to try to get a group shot of the kids...this was the best of the bunch!

For Kara's actual birthday, we took the kids to the pool. Was I the only one that had a super time that day?

To calm Hopey down after all of the birthday fun, I gave her a large piece of Kara's cake, and this is the outcome! :)

After that crazy week, Hopey took a few minutes to just relax in the rocking chair.

And of course I just added this one because I think she looks adorable!! :)