"Summer Solstice Extravaganza"...

When Elon and I were newly weds, we would curl up and talk about what kinds of traditions we wanted to infuse into our own family someday.  There I would be with paper and pencil in hand, jotting down whatever we managed to spout off, and feeling the butterflies of excitement at the prospect of these traditions actually becoming a reality one day.

One of these traditions (and probably my favorite one), was thought up by Elon, where on the longest day of the year, we cram as much fun in as we possibly can!  After all, it's the longest day right?  Eventually our kids will get to choose one activity each that they want to do, and then we will all, as a family, go and do them!

We named this tradition our "Summer Solstice Extravaganza"....because we're corny like that :)

So this past summer we put it into practice!...And I can't believe it's taken me until October 23rd to post about it.

Luckily we couldn't have asked for a better day weather wise, and we started the day off with puppies!

I mean seriously, can you think of a better way to start off the longest day of the year for an almost five and almost two year old?

Our friend Sue has several female golden retrievers that she breeds, and she just so happened to have a litter at her house....aren't they adorable?!

Hallie was probably the most entranced by the whole thing:

Chandler had a death grip on his puppy that really had me worried for it's life:

After these two got their "puppy fill" we decided to return them to their very concerned mother who was so patient to loan out three of her newborns, but was obviously a nervous wreck about the whole thing, (and I can't say I blame her).

Then it was time to explore the other fun things to do at Sue's house, like jumping on the trampoline they were just sitting on:

 I even decided to give it a whirl...(and every one of my body parts reminded me that it's been a while.)

Then Sue pulled out her four-wheeler and gave these kids their own personal ride.

Which I'm not sure if you can tell, but they thoroughly enjoyed it:

I'm so grateful to Sue for being willing to pause her "to do's" for our little family :)

Then we were off to embark on our next adventure!:

At Damrascotta Lake!

Which just so happens to be one of this girl's favs:

This lake is awesome when you have little ones because it has all the sand your kids could ever want, and it's a lake, so there's no scary under-toe or glacier-like water.  I'm sure at some point they'll want to go to the actual beach, but for now, Damrascotta Lake is our family's destination place several times throughout the summer.

And Chandler was a complete fruit loop:

He also made sure to eat plenty of sand:

The day ended right in our very own back yard with lots of grahm crackers, marsh mallows, and chocolate!  Naomi was still living with us so she helped start the fire:              

I sure do love these three favorite people of mine.