K-zoo

On Saturday we went down to Kalamazoo to hang out with some of Mike's cousins.  One cousin (Joe) lives there, two of his siblings drove up from Indiana and Illinois, and another cousin came from Hudsonville.  We decided to go ahead and take the truck down because sometimes it's fun, and Levi especially likes it.  (The other evening Caleb and Logan went out with Mike in his truck and Levi was NOT happy.)  Anyways, it was not fun this time.  It will probably be awhile before we take the truck anywhere as a family.  :)  The kids are not only too close to each other, they are too close to us.  With Mike being full swing in celery harvest, our conversation time is at a minimum, so here we were with a ride to Kalamazoo trying to talk, but the three little boys behind us made that very difficult.  Not to mention the fighting, and the getting out of hand with the pop they earned earlier in the day...

Anyways, first we went to a gravel pit lake to swim and plat for awhile.  There's a rope swing where Mike and Joe could have their manliness competitions, paddle boards, kayaks, and we took the pontoon boat to a mud pit area where the kids could play and then wash off in the water.  Mike and I also took Joe's ATV for a ride to an area with some hills.  I got off for a few minutes so that Mike could tear around a bit without me.  :)  After a few hours there we headed over to Joe's house where we had supper, the kids played in the yard (the boys found a ton of toads), and went next door to see his neighbor's animals (horses, pigs, ducks, chickens, cats).  The boys eventually fell asleep on the way home, but it took awhile!

This year's garden has been going pretty well.  I'm getting zucchini like crazy.  The cucumbers are doing much better this year.  Seems like the peppers aren't doing as well - maybe it's been too wet.  I'm not sure on the tomatoes either.

family

Wow, what a fun, crazy, activity-filled, tiring week we've had!  My sister and her family came into town a week ago, so we've had lots of family activities in order to really soak up having them here.  Mike and I always enjoy the family time, but now Caleb and Logan are old enough to REALLY enjoy playing with their cousins, and that is such a joy for us to see.  We love it that on both sides of the family they have cousins that they just love to play with.

The main focus of the week was my parent's 40th anniversary of being on the farm.  They had a couple events in order to celebrate the occasion.  Tuesday evening was a personal concert for the family and some friends.  A couple from their church has a barn on their property where they host things like this, and they play organ and piano.  Now, this isn't just any organ - it's a theatre pipe organ.  It is really cool to be up close and personal hearing and seeing it.  Unfortunately, Mike had a meeting that night that he couldn't miss, so I took the boys by myself.  They almost made it through the first half, and Caleb was sitting great for the second half (and was very interested and didn't want to leave), but Logan and Levi had had enough, so I had to get out of there.  What I did hear of the concert was really neat.  :)

Wednesday afternoon Caleb and Logan were able to go to the park with a bunch of the cousins while I stayed home with Levi so he could nap (Thank you, Lea Anne!!).  Thursday evening was a trip to the beach.  Perfect beach night other than the water being a little chilly - that didn't stop most of the kids (and big kids...), though!

Two of my beautiful nieces, who, after years of hiding, will finally let me take their photo again!

Friday evening was my nephew, Boden's, birthday party, plus I managed to take in the wedding ceremony of my cousin.

Slip-and-slide at Boden's birthday party.

Saturday morning was breakfast with my parent's, sibs, and their spouses; and then it was prep time for THE party!  My parent's threw a big bash to celebrate the farm's 40th anniversary.  The whole fam plus a couple good friends chipped in, and it really turned out well.  Bounce house, hay rides, ice cream machine, goodies from Casey's Bakery, and on and on...it was a great party!  It was so neat to see all the different people that showed up to celebrate.  I'm sure my children consumed way too much ice cream and pop, but oh well, it was a celebration and now we're getting back to normal this week!  :)

Ready!

The whole fam.

Mom and Dad with us kids.

Mom and Dad with all the grands.

Mom and Dad.

Yesterday Mike, my dad, my brother Mike, Eric, and three of my nephews went to a Tiger's game (couple more years before Caleb and Logan will go...).  I was thoroughly exhausted after the week we'd had, so the boys and I pretty much crashed.  We only made it to Sunday School at church, and then for a bit in the afternoon we went to hang with my mom (since the bounce house was still there, we had to take advantage of it!).

And, since I know everyone (all two of you who read this) is hanging on the edge of their seat to know about this - the crazy week totally threw off Levi's "doing his business" on the potty.  He'll only tell me he has to go when we're at home, so I ended up having to change more dirty diapers than normal (he was off schedule, plus we weren't home much).  I was wondering if we'd have any trouble getting back to him using the potty, but today he did it - thank goodness!  :)

fourth

It worked out so nice this year that the fourth was on a Friday!  Now next year it doesn't work the best that the holiday will be on the weekend instead of extending it, but oh well.  Friday morning we headed up to Harold and Kara's cottage.  We spent the night there in our tent, and stayed most of the day Saturday.  The weather was great, both Caleb and Logan made progress with swimming, we enjoyed the fireworks Friday night, and overall just had fun.

Mike and made a deal with both Caleb and Logan that if they swam out to the raft on their own (with a lifejacket, just not hanging onto one of us), they would get a remote control car.  We really wanted to get them swimming again since two years ago they were doing great, then all last year they decided they were scared of fish.  So, last weekend Logan did it, and then Caleb did it this past weekend.  Of course, Caleb did it the one time to get the reward and didn't want to do it again, but Logan has really warmed up to the water again.  He's even swimming out there just hanging on to a noodle and not wearing a life jacket!  Levi loves riding the waverunner (or the "rogue wave" as he calls it - learned that term from the boys watching something about the Bermuda Triangle).  He asks about it all the time!  It was out of commission on Friday, but then we were able to go on Saturday and he loved it.  Caleb really likes it, too.  Levi also enjoys riding in the boat when Kara's pulling tubers or skiers.  I guess it's no surprise that on Saturday afternoon, after no nap Friday and getting to bed late, he fell asleep in the boat.  :)

Overall the boys did great.  Logan and Levi were starting to show their tiredness as they day went on Saturday, but it wasn't TOO bad.  It's amazing how much difference a year makes - going to the cottage this summer is already a lot easier than it was last summer.

(When we talk about swimming to the raft, that's the yellow thing out there.  And, due to the lake level being way up, it's shallow for quite a ways going out."

washer

Two weeks ago our washer started acting up.  Long story short, we decided it was best to just get a new one.  The new one came last week Wednesday, and so far I am VERY happy with it!  I decided to go "old school" - not just a top load, but one with knobs and dials, NO COMPUTER STUFF TO GO WRONG!  :)  Apparently the durability on this washer is great (mostly due to the lack of computer components...).  It really seems like it's great job washing our very dirty clothes.

anniversary

Last Tuesday Mike and I celebrated our TENTH anniversary!  It has gone fast and A LOT has happened - a lot that we never would have planned on.  :)  House changes, job changes, kids, etc.  Wow!  I've learned (and am still learning) not to set any plans in stone and to trust in the Lord that HIS plan is best.  I don't have time to wax eloquent, and that's not really my forte, so I'll just say that I am incredibly thankful for the husband God gave me, and that through the challenges we've faced we've been able to grow closer together rather than have the trials tear us apart.

Even though we took our anniversary trip in May, we were still able to go out for dinner on our anniversary.  We enjoyed a quiet, delicious meal outdoors at Alpen Rose in Holland, and then walked around downtown for a bit.  Then is was still too early to head home (going out on a date you have to at least wait to go home until the kids are put to bed!!), so we drove out to the lake.

zoom

A couple weeks ago was the Zeeland Zoom 5k.  Nobody in our immediate family was running this year, but we couldn't pass up the chance to go cheer on my dad, my brother, and his whole family!  Right before the race Mike and I were talking to the boys about cheering and that watching their cousin Jason in a race is fun because he really gets into it.  So, when I got this shot when Jason and Dad were running past at the start of the race, I was THRILLED!  :)

We had fun watching the race, and the boys hung in their pretty decent.  Being a smaller race and the way the route is, we're easily able to see the start, catch our runner's at some point in the middle, then see them finish, too.  Caleb seems interested in running the race - we'll see, maybe in a year or two!