Lake day (or, four-out-of-five ain't bad)

We recently spent the day at the Chatfield Reservoir with family.  It was so fun!  (Kaitlyn and Biniam seem pretty thrilled at least!)  There was a nice little swim beach where the kids splashed, played, and dug in the sand.  I pretty much sat on the shore and enjoyed the sun and good company.  Oh, and worked to keep needing-a-nap Mary happy.

Speaking of Mary, here she is in her shade tent, all smiles because (as you can see from her messy face) she was eating one of her faves, pureed garbanzo beans + olive oil.  She makes me so, so happy.  I love this little bug!

This is Anna in between her two cousins, Aubrey (on the left) and Ainsley (on the right).  My kids LOVE getting to see their cousins, and it's pretty sweet that we only live forty minutes away from them now (as opposed to 18 hours, back when they lived here and we lived in California.)

I don't know who Biniam thinks he is, but he was sure enjoying the good life when I snapped this photo.  Kicked back in an innertube, floating away, not a care in the world.  Oh, to be a kid again!

For some reason I don't have any pictures of Yosef to share from our day!  (This seems to happen when you have five children.  So if you have one child, and you have photographed him or her meeting every single milestone (and you artfully display them in a big fat baby book filled with lots of memories and anecdotes), you are not allowed to judge.  Four-fifths of my children captured on camera is a definitive success in my book.)  I can assure you that he was there as well, digging lots of holes and filling them with water.  He is an extremely focused child and does great with detail work.  So he got really into those holes.  (He of course also had a ton of fun IN the water, too.)

Have I mentioned I love summertime in Colorado?  :)  I think I maybe have.  My formerly-California-kids, sadly, are no longer fifteen minutes from the ocean, but they seemed blissfully happy at the lake with their cousins.  I love doing fun stuff like this, and knowing that my kids are making memories and building relationships that will last a lifetime!