summer fun

I have so much to catch up on!  We've been doing so many fun things lately, and we're all wiped out, but I wouldn't trade a thing.

I'll pick up where I think I left off last time.  My sister was still in town with her youngest, and the boys had so much fun hanging out.  On that Monday morning, they hung out at my sister-in-law's while my mom, sister, myself and Jackson went to Countryside Greenhouse.  We're so used to having plenty of greenhouse options around here, but my sister has nothing like it where she lives, so it's pretty cool to go to a place like Countryside and wander around.  Unfortunately, she was going to be flying home, so she wasn't able to get anything other than a couple seed packets.  :)  That afternoon my mom stayed with Jackson while he napped and my sister, sister-in-law, and myself took the kids mini-golfing.  It's about as much fun as you might imagine it would be with a bunch of 7-10 year olds....  :)  And then that night we went over to my parents to give the kids a chance to get some farm play time in.  What could be better than making memories with your cousins, running around your grandparents farm, playing in the hay loft, walking in the corn field, and spraying each other with the hose??  I sure hope my kids cherish all these moments.

The next day was the last day of the summer Bible study I went to.  It was so great to have a summer study to attend.  Now to figure out what to do for the rest of the summer before the fall study begins!  In the evening was the Zeeland Zoom 5k race.  So, even at the ripe old age of 37, I make impulsive, foolish decisions.  Caleb has been wanting to participate for a couple years now and it just hasn't happened.  Just a few weeks ago my dad said something to Caleb about the race, he wanted to do it, and I figured being a young, energetic child he didn't need much time to prepare.  I wasn't real comfortable with him doing it just with my dad, so I went ahead and signed up, too.  Yeah.  I haven't run at all in years and now I signed up for a 5k that was less than 3 weeks away...  In case you're not familiar with running, that is not enough time to train.  Caleb ended up not being up for the 5k, so he did the 1 mile "Little Zoomers" race and loved it.  Given that I only fit in 4 runs before the race and they were VERY slow, I would have been happy to finish the race in 40 minutes.  I completely surprised myself by running the whole way without stopping to walk at all, and finishing in 35 minutes!  Obviously that's nothing stellar compared to other people, but personally I was thrilled!  I wore my "I hate running" shirt for the race and felt like I was getting some dirty looks.  Apparently not everyone has a sense of humor??  My dad finished just ahead of me, and got 2nd place in his age group - out of two people.  :)  It was a fun night, I felt great, and I may just try to keep up this running thing a little bit.  We'll see - heading into Mike's busy season makes that a little more difficult.

On Wednesday the kids and I were able to go to a friend's house to swim.  It wasn't the warmest weather, but that doesn't stop the kids, they had lots of fun swimming then playing on their playset.

Thursday was our first day just spent at home in so long!  It was wonderful.  I loved all the stuff we'd been doing, but it was good to have a little break.

Friday I got the kids packed up and headed to the cottage just after lunch.  It was not fun getting everything packed by myself, but we survived.  Soooooo thankful that Jackson naps well there.  I had the afternoon to recover while he napped and the other boys played.  Mike's brother and his wife who are in town from Kenya were also there and it was great to have the time with them.  Mike made it up in the evening after work and we spent the night there.  My favorite is being there early in the morning and sitting on the deck with a cup of coffee while everything is so quiet and calm.  Later on Saturday was a family reunion with the Krol/VanBeek's plus Mike's mom's side of the family, the Sjoerdsma's.  We had a beautiful day, and it's fun to see everyone, but there are so many people it's hard to connect with everyone!  Oh yeah, it was our 13th anniversary, too, but we didn't really have a chance to celebrate at all.  Maybe we'll have a date night soon...

We came home Saturday night, had Sunday to go to recover, go to church, and prepare for the coming week; and then Monday I headed back up to the cottage with the kids for the 4th of July.  Thankfully packing went much better that time and wasn't as stressful.  The packing would be fine, we don't need THAT much stuff, but when there's a toddler running around that just makes things a tad more difficult.  We had a fun afternoon hanging out, and Mike came after work again.  This time he made a splash with his entrance.  :)  Came right down the dock in his work clothes, boots and everything, and jumped in the lake!  It was another beautiful evening, and at around 10pm were the fireworks.  They put on a pretty good show there!  Tuesday I was pretty tired, and could definitely see it in the kids' eyes as well.  We had a fun day, though, got home and to bed on time last night, and it's after 8am and the house is still quiet!  I feel bad for Mike having to go to work.  :(  I guess I'm at work, too, and have a lot to catch up on after being gone, but at least I didn't have to get up quite as early as he did.