just beachin'

lake michigan.

fruit stripes gum

afton, dallin, danton, summer, bene, eli, caleb, derek, luke.

not pictured: soren matthew young, who was born five days later.

wisconsin state fair

by which i mean, cream puffs.

by which i mean, holy most-delicious-cold-and-light-and-airy-and-rich-whipped-perfection-cream(puffs)-on-the-planet, batman!

and some additional, not cream puff related, family fair fun pictured below:

bean there, done that

home again from two weeks worth of epic shenanigan-ing out in the midwest.

we hit up milwaukee (wisconsin), chicago (illinois), michigan city (indiana), and even jaunted over the state line to have dinner one night in new buffalo (michigan).

much, much more to come. including, but not limited to: skyscrapers! cream puffs! ice cream! baseball! beaches! cousins! pizza! burgers! hot dogs! harleys! and F-16s!

so basically, an all-american summer.

swim season success

dallin wouldn't even put his face in the water at the beginning of this year's swim lessons, and by the end was diving down for torpedoes. twenty-eighteen was an unmitigated success for all the little wheelers' swimming skills (making the sum total twenty-four hours of commitment worth it for sure).

i was especially impressed with the risks taken and improvements made by my sweet afton. summer girl put polish on all her strokes and dives. caleb leveled up for next year and, perhaps most importantly, discovered the cannonball.

slip and slide and rock and roll

we headed up last weekend to one of our favorite summertime destinations: denny creek rock slide. it was a hot, bright, sunny day, and a good one to get wet.

not too wet, though, cause those water temps be near glacial.

bryan never did meet a body of water he didn't want to jump into. this time he got caleb and dallin to join in on the fun. (the girls and i were good, thanks.)

bringing in rocks for dam building.

afton found a tadpole that she named froggers and carried around (scrambling over rocks) with her for a couple of hours. 

pictured in the orange bucket: froggers.

we made it over the first waterfall (very top picture) and up to the second waterfall (above) for the first time this year. 

achievement unlocked.

birthday cupcakes

afton's requested birthday treat hearkened back to rainbow birthday treats of yore.

happy birthday, afton!

our sweet afton is nine years old.

july eleventh, twenty eighteen.

whatever it is that makes up my afty bay is the most magical and delicate and closest thing to fairy dust around. 

afton is still most at home in the out-of-doors. scavenging through leaves and rocks. looking for little creatures. feeling the warm sunshine and the cool breeze. exploring. there is nothing she loves more than another living thing.

afton is a creator. she writes. she draws. she imagines. she plays. she has a singular intellect. a deeply poignant way of thinking. she notices the unnoticed and sees much of the allure and enchantment that passes the rest of us by. the world is much clearer, bolder, and brighter to afton. 

she loves tiny things. and warm things. and beautiful things. and sparkly things most of all.

afton is everyone's favorite sibling. she is that glue. that perfect playmate. the one the rest are drawn to.

she has the best laugh. almost like she's surprised by how much joy and happiness and fun can be felt at one moment in time.

afton is my orchid. what a tender treasure it is to help her grow.

we love you, aton aton aton!

our bestest faerie sprite.

back in the berries

as promised.

we brought home twenty-seven pounds of raspberries, celebrated our efforts with bryan's world-famous raspberry milkshakes, and spent three late-night hours whipping up thirty-four pints of jam with our fingers crossed that that much'll last us the year. 

the wheeler kids can tell you exactly what month we ran out of last season's jam. 

(hint: it was march, and they were not pleased.)

stars and stripes