The interior of our house was to be painted while we were at Diamond Lake, which required almost all of our closets and a few cupboards to be emptied, in addition to moving most of our furniture.

We had hoped they'd be done by the time we got home, but they weren't. Our house was crazy junk piles coupled with paint fumes to make you instantly light-headed.

This is our closet, with our red comforter in the corner, Liam's changing table and Megan's toy chest.

Our bedroom didn't need much painting so we got to build an impressive mound in here. Megan's bed is on our bed, and all of her closet contents are scattered about, with our curtain rod on the very top.

Oh yeah, and the air was so dusty, I couldn't even get a good photo!

Liam's "room" is mostly back to being a closet (though he is still sleeping here). It is now housing all of our curtains and the rest of Megan's bed.

And the laundry room got all the rest of the furniture (the very astute might note that the laundry room was not part of this upgrade and painting project. Maybe this winter...anybody interested in stripping wallpaper again?)

To top things off the painters backed into my sister's car which was parked at our house for the week and totally smashed in the passenger side door.

We took a quick look around, wrestled all the kids back into the car (and they were ready to get out!), and headed straight to a hotel for the rest of the weekend.

The painters and carpet guy worked diligently through the weekend, so by Sunday afternoon, we could at least come back home. We still haven't put anything away because we have a lot of paint touch-ups that need to be done. On the bright side - things are looking great inside the house and I love how fresh the new white trim looks. Sunday afternoon I read and did push-ups in our empty living room just to admire the paint! I can't wait to move in and start living again!

Our cabin was right on the lake. Unfortunately the weather didn't quite co-operate. We had three straight days of blustering cold wind and lots of rain which limited our enjoyment of the lake. Of course, the cold didn't stop Megan from trying to enjoy the lake.

After about 5 minutes, Megan declared,"I'm too chilly!" But did she call it a day? No, she decided the long swim suit might keep her warmer! So after a quick change, she was back in the water.

Liam is turning out to be a bit of an ice prince - he wanted nothing to do with the water once he realized it was cold!

One of the cold days we took a side trip to Crater Lake. We took in the view quickly to keep from freezing our butts off - it was only 45 degrees without the wind! It certainly didn't feel like a summer vacation.

My brother wasn't too happy with Mac, who convinced him to wear shorts. Mac wasn't all that pleased with his decision either!

In between rain showers, we did get out a bit to "hike." Megan did all the hiking herself - she even helped Brooke along at times.

Liam also liked walking a lot more than riding in the backpack or the stroller. He was quite content if you just let him be (which was painfully slow and he often wandered off the trail).

Liam also took his time to smell the roses, er um, grass. Actually, after falling in the wet bushes and getting his face all wet, Liam kept purposely trying to get the wet grass to hit him in the face.

Megan didn't want to be outdone, but her version of the game was to eat the raindrops off the grass!

We tried to get a few family photos but this is as good as it gets with three toddlers.

Liam:"This tree bark is way more interesting than anything you could do to try to get me to look at the camera."

Liam: "Hey, do you think this bark is edible??"

By the end of the week the weather cleared up and the Sea Cloud sailed again! Check out Liam (in my lap) enjoying the ride, too.

After a few more days of splashing in the lake, it was time to head home.

Liam: "Hey, do you think my toes are edible?"

(It is a hot summer day. Don't even ask why the kids are in footie pajamas - it was Megan's idea!)

The kids get a little dirt with the berries, too, because they can't even wait to get them in the house to wash them.

We have a second wave of raspberries coming on the ever-bearing canes ('amity'), but everything else is pretty much done. The berry season was short, but very sweet!

I have been rather uninspired in the garden this year - our veggie patch is nothing like last year's - but perhaps you can see why when this is what my garden looks like.

The guys doing the project are super hard workers, staying late and coming on the weekends, even on 4th of July, so I think we are still pretty much on schedule, but that still means one more month of all this mess.

Too bad kids can't seem to learn to do anything without making a mess in the process!

I tried to take another more posed picture, but Zeus would have none of it, and as you can see, Megan was pretty skeptical.

Around Memorial Day she mastered the playground art of pumping. And by that I mean she can get on the swing, get herself going and keep going without a single finger of parental assistance. At the time, I didn't realize how huge this was, but now I have come to believe this is a bigger deal than walking, because this means Megan can be completely independent at the park (under parental supervision, of course). This couldn't come at a better time, because we need to focus all of our parental attention on Liam these days, as he seems utterly determined to jump off cliffs and other dangerously high objects. And as he has become an excellent climber, the park offers many such opportunities, requiring constant parental vigilance.

The other reason Megan's pump accomplishment seems big deal to me is that I have always thought of Megan as being "motor retarded" as she crawled late, walked late, fed herself late, etc. But she seems to be ahead of the curve on this one and a few fine motor skills, too (like writing and drawing). Nice to know it all balances out.

Megan is also obsessed with winning, but not in things you would normally want to win, like games. Mostly she has to get someplace first and then she needs to tell you, "I winned!" even if you had no idea you were racing.

And lastly Megan has made a couple of new friends in the last month. Actually, it would be more accurate to say, Megan has made up a couple of new friends in the last month. As Megan told me tonight,"Kate is my real friend, Christina and Melissa are pretend friends, and Christina has a friend named Megan but it is different than me because she is a pretend Megan." Are you keeping up?

Christina first joined Megan on car rides. She sits in a car seat under Megan's car seat. Melissa came along later. She sits in a car seat under Liam's car seat. As Megan says,"Christina has long hair that is straight and blond like mine. And she has a little brother named Liam, but his hair is different from Liam's because it is black. And also her brother is not fussy because he is already three." Christina, by the way, is going to be five on July 23rd, which coincidentally, is Melissa's fifth birthday, too. Melissa's younger sister, named Anabelle, is also three. But Megan doesn't seem to want to hang out with the siblings that are her age; instead she is always hanging out with the big girls.

Perhaps we are a little too isolated out here in the country.