The Donoghue Family: Summertime!

Wow, this summer is speeding along so quickly! We have had a lot of fun, and I've had a hard time getting this blog updated... my bad!

Our little unit took a vacation to the east coast to visit with Erin's family at their beach house in New Hampshire. On the way there, we stopped in Ithaca, NY to sleep and got to explore some really beautiful waterfalls.

A beautiful waterfall from the lookout point

These two are such buddies lately

Hiking to get a closer look

We made it

Sisters tolerating each other

So wrapped around his finger

Team Donoghue

We had a lot of fun at the beach in NH, and all three kids were really into the ocean waves and sandcastles! We also did some little outings for the kids and hit a couple breweries.

Good friends, good brews at Bissell Brewery

Beach playground

We spent a day in Boston

Erin and sleepy James on our little
boat ride through the park

This was so peaceful, one of my favorite
spots on the trip!

Evie girl

Boston aquarium was incredible!

So many beautiful fish!

Cute little penguins!

Got a little date night together

For a guy that hates sand, he seems pretty happy

Erin taught the kids the dribble-castle art form

Arcade isn't just for kids

Skee-ball!

Putt-putt

They survived the pirate course

Maggie conquered these slipper and scary
rocks - victorious!

Found a beached mermaid

Beach day!

Really digging this sand

Bowling was a huge hit

The Cryptozoology Museum was a bit of a hilarious letdown

All the bigfoot stuff

Maggie thought she was sooo cool drinking her rootbeer

Stayed at Drury Inn on the way home - best hotels ever for family trips

On the way home we had a big surprise for the kids. Jamie and I have been planning to get a puppy for several months, but were keeping it a secret in case we got cold feet! Maggie wrote us a really impressive persuasive essay at the end of the school year about why we should get a bird, and one of her points was that she knew we were NEVER going to agree to get a dog. It kind of broke my heart, and I didn't want to wait much longer since she's already 10! We are getting a mini labradoodle, and went to visit all the puppies in the litter on our trip home (they were 6 weeks old). We picked out a little girl puppy and have been preparing for her ever since. We finally agreed to call her Maple (full name Maple Dip Donut-hue), and Jamie will be driving to Ohio to pick her up this Thursday!

Puppy cuddles - such an awesome way to end our trip!

I don't know if Maggie's ever been so happy

It took a little while, but Ben finally got the
courage to pick one up

I'm pretty sure this was the one we picked...
so many puppies!

Maple's headshot at 8 weeks - swoon

We celebrated Violet's 5th birthday with an amazing Barbie-themed party! I love a good theme!

Having fun with the birthday girl!

Snagged my very own Ken

Jane and Ben had lots of fun playing

Pink shirts for the win!

We had a fun 4th of July with beautiful weather and swimming with the Rabines. We went to the top of the parking deck to continue our fireworks tradition!

Ah, this is the life

Plotting their next movie

Dinner on the diving board

Triple trouble

Pool yoga

Watching all the fireworks around
Oakland County

Cuddles with dad

We also celebrated my mom at her surprise birthday party (that she planned for herself, ha ha!). Luke created a zombie movie that was pretty great (and the reason the kids have really weird makeup in the photos).

Happy Birthday, Grammer!

Ben is ready to shoot the cake if necessary

Is the bag really big or is Mom really short?

Luke creating his movie gameplan

Zombies:

Mid-year height checks!

We took the girls to see the Counting Crows along with Grandpa at Freedom Hill. It was Evie's first concert, and we had a pretty great time! Bobby and Allison watched Ben for us that night, and he had a great time... but kept repeating that he was NOT spending the night there to make sure everyone in the world understood his position.

Evie being Evie while waiting to go in

Concert vibes

Family

Chill session

Not really a "head banging" kind of band,
but that didn't stop Maggie!

Happy first concert!

We finally got around to updating our TV room, which was super dark and dungeon-ish. We hired a drywaller, electrician and painter, and then Jamie figured out how to do crown molding and faux built-in cabinets for us. We'd like to get some new furniture eventually, but figure we should probably wait until our doggy is trained!