We all just barely fit on the boat...especially since state law requires we have life jackets out and available for everyone on the boat. It made for a cluttered, but fun time out on the water!
Shawn's sister-in-law (Stephanie), his mom (Jan), and me floating around with Laura, Sydney, and Ava playing in the background. We all spent a lot of time down at the beach. The weather was a little hot, so if we were outside, we were mostly in the water!
A fun picture of Laura and Shawn...she loves to be thrown in the water. And I was so proud of myself to snap the picture when she was in mid-air! One of my proudest picture taking moments, ever:)
Baby Addie and MeMa enjoying the sand and shade from the beach umbrella.
MeMa reading a night-time story to Laura, Ava, and Alec.
Stephanie, Shawn's sister (Kelly), Shawn's brother (Jimmy), and Shawn's niece (Tiffany) playing an exciting game of Blokus. 
Shawn and his nephew Titus playing a game of cornhole. We had a big tournament one night and Shawn and I emerged as the team champions! The next night we did an individual tournament and Jimmy reigned supreme!
Laura and Ava just happened to have the same shirt --they loved being twins! Laura had just recently watched a Dora about twins puppies and said to me, "Momma, we are like the fwins on Dora da Efflorer!!" Laura and Ava were fast friends this weekend and are very much looking forward to seeing each other over the holidays. 
Since it is so rare that all of us are together at once, we decided to do a large family photo as well. It is really hard to get this many people (especially the little kids) to look at the camera at the same time, but we are still pretty pleased with how they turned out.
We also got a great picture of the 3 of us! I'm just glad we don't have to try to take our family picture alone at the beach again. Propping a camera on a cooler and trying to get a good picture is a nightmare!
Laura's Gigi (great-grandma) came to visit for a few weeks at the beginning of the month. We had a great time...especially at the lake for the 4th of July.
We participated in the July 4th parade...well at least we tried to! We had the date wrong so we ended up walking around the neighborhood by ourselves singing patriotic songs. Laura looked at us like we were crazy half the time -- but we still had a lot of fun!
We all went out on the boat to watch the fireworks over the lake. The big display was beautiful -- and one of the most fun parts was watching all the smaller, individual fireworks displays all around the lake as we rode home. Laura said her favorite were the pink ones!
The last highlight of Gigi's visit was taking her for a ride on the jet ski (Laura just sat on the ski for the picture). She had never been on it before and really enjoyed it, I think:) We always get a 4 generations picture when Gigi is in town, and decided the jet ski would be a great place to do it this time!
Another big development in July is that Laura has finally (kinda!) learned how to ride her tricycle! We have been working on this for almost a year! She is thrilled and very proud of herself and told me after we went inside that she wants a "big-girl" bicycle now. I think we need to master the tricycle first!!
We have also spent the better part of the month at the pool. We joined the same pool as 3 of Laura's best friends and we have had a blast. Laura is a fish! And I have enjoyed chatting with my friends while the kids play.
Laura's swimming (or "fimming" as she calls it) was getting so good, we decided to enroll her in a week of swim lessons. She learned to swim underwater, get rings from the bottom of the pool, and started learning how to breath while swimming (using a kickboard). She was so excited to go every day and was very disappointed when the week was over. 
Laura, Nana, and Granddad blowing out the candles on Laura's "Dora da Efflorer (exlporer)" cake.
Opening Laura's present from Nana and Granddad...a really cool new bike.
