Our first third of the summer also found us hustling to Basketball, Volleyball, Nature and STEaM camps ... 

On many mornings I had to literally be more than two places at once ... and I felt a growing frustration that this is not the pace I hoped to set for our lives in general, but for summertime especially. I felt more than ever, like I had succumbed to the Midwestern life I had dreaded.

This summer I also traded my fun car for a more practical and fuel friendly mini-van. The girls quickly grew to love the van and the myriad of features that they feel have enhanced road trips and jaunts to Target.

{After six weeks of ownership and logging a whopping 5,000 miles of road trips and running I have grown to appreciate the fuel economy and comfort of the van. I have also stopped announcing to Mr Johnson in feigned alarm each morning, "Hey, there's a VAN in our driveway!"}

Thankfully as June drew to a close our summer pace became more summer-like.

We kick started our summer by celebrating our oldest daughter.

MGJ graduated from our little K-8 building across the street as co-salutatorian, and will move on to high school and a new school district in the fall. She was also confirmed in our Lutheran church.

These two events convened at roughly the same time, and our extended family (including my 92 year-old grandma Lilly Lew) sweetly arrived to help us celebrate her along with local family and friends.

{Please note that my Dad is enjoying a Dad's Old Fashioned Root Beer a week shy of Father's Day ...
I didn't think it was fair to him to not clarify that point, especially since I posted it because it is such a classic face for my dad when he's being silly!}