It has been HOT here. Well, over 100 degrees for quite a few days! The girls are going stir crazy in the house, but I can’t take the baby out into the heat for too long.

Compromise: backyard bubble pool time. So much fun! I love how their independent enough now that I can actually make dinner while they’re playing!

But by Far my favorite activity of the week: river swimming with our good friends Jen and Abel!

We spontaneously invited ourselves up for the 4th of July. Next thing we know, the girls are riding river currents and flirting with Abel. Which I guess is appropriate because Abel was one of the people that I first swam in a river with!

The girls love this! But it took each one of them a special measure of courage to give it a try! Aeralind eased in after watching Abel do it (she had a bit of a crush on Abel… as you can see with that voluntary hand holding: not something she’s prone to do!)  Bronwyn kept announcing “I do it myself!”  And then walking in just far enough to sit safely on the rocks.  She slowly inched forward over the course of 15 minutes or so… and finally daddy gave her a subtle nudge!  Bronwyn came right back upriver and did it again so quickly that we had to holler for Abel to grab her before she bumped into the shallows!