Melissa and Cousins

The Lauritzen family reunion gave us an opportunity to get these four cousins, all born in the same year, together again for a new picture. This picture was taken a little over eight years ago.

This is what they look like now. I guess Joshua has a thing for leaning on Ella, and it looks like she's taking it better now. Melissa's a little happier, too.

Luna Moth

I was out for a walk early one morning when I saw this beautiful moth on the road. His wings were very damaged, but these things only live for about a week anyway. The girls were amazed at the size of him. He was able to fly away when the girls let him.

The Ceiling

This was the nasty basement we had when we moved in. The ceiling is the part you should look at, because the rest of the room isn't quite complete yet. Just some trim around doors and a window, then you can see that. For now, here's the before:

...and the after. Ashley and Melissa have been sleeping down there since November without a ceiling. They are braver than I would have been. Lots of spiders! Now the noise is significantly reduced, and it looks so much brighter and cleaner.

Knoebel's

Jason took the 5th of July off so that we could do our traditional 4th of July trip to our local theme park, Knoebel's. Of course it had to be the hottest day so far this year. It was 101 degrees and miserable. Still, nothing gets these girls down when there are fun rides to go on. They loved the train with Dad.

Melissa was all alone on this one, but loved it.

The 4th

For our Independence Day this year, we went, once again, to the Bloomsburg Town Park to hear the local Catawissa band play and to watch a very impressive fireworks display.

The 4th, Continued

The girls had fun playing on the Iphones while they waited for the sky to get dark.

Frog Hunting

After our weekly trip to the library, the girls and I took a short walk to the river to look for frogs. They usually come out around the 4th of July. As we were getting closer to the river and not seeing any, I thought they just weren't out yet--but Ashley started finding them!! They are tiny right now, so they were hard to spot!

Sara loved her little frog.