Fun in the Summer

Casey and Carter were making fun magnetic faces while we were at my parents celebrating my Dad's birthday the other night...
Emily and I got pedicures and manicures for some much needed mother daughter girl time...



Emily's sidewalk art...

We've been keeping busy, busy, busy this summer. It's soo fun to do; I hope I remember all the fun times!!!

Camping - Day 3

Day 3 was the best!!! It was warm and we got to float the river!! Carter got to float in a tube for a while, but Al got tired pulling him so he got back in, but we stopped and played and all around had a great time. Al's sister and her family came with us.
Al and I think this looks like an alligator/crocodile!!! Cool!

My dad and dog came along for the float. But I missed the funniest picture of the whole trip. Dad and Trapper flipped the kayak over trying to get situated!!!!! Dad says the best picture I missed was a baby bird on a branch that almost let you touch it!!! Oh well. Can't get em all and I still have the memories.
Emily wanted to float, but kept getting cold and tired and flopping onto the kayak. I thought she was going to dump me!!!

Here, see, I really did go floating. My feet are proof!!!

Camping - Day 2

We now have a regular playground for the kids out at my uncle's place. This teeter totter merry go round thing must have come from an auction or some place one time....the kids don't quite have the hang of it yet....(Al is putting his chain away from having pulled the merry go around out of the weeds with the 4-wheeler.) But they have fun on it just the same!!
Here is a rope swing where they almost always get hurt, but also almost always have fun.
My dad climbing up the tree to put up another rope swing so the kids can play and hopefully not get hurt.
Casey waiting patiently for the rope to get tied so he can swing...
The one thing about the weekend that was a bummer, was that it was cold, cold, cold!! Mom was a bit surprised when Casey stuck his cold hands in her shirt!!

We had a great time with my family hanging out. Even if it was cold!! We don't do that near enough. And since it was so cold we weren't on the go the whole time so we actually relaxed and spent some good time!!!

Camping-Day 1

This weekend was nearby town's summer celebration. Waverly is turning 150 years old this year. My family always camps out on my uncle's land and marches in the parade for the library. This weekend was really quite cold, but we had fun anyway.

The kids love riding the 4-wheeler with uncle Stevie! If one goes, they all must go! What is going to happen when they all get a little bigger?
Here is my uncle's dog, Trapper. He followed us everywhere we went. Emily thought it was so neat that he walked with her, stopped with her, stayed by her, etc.
The beach is one of our favorite places to be. Here's Carter singing "The Sand Blues"
And Al always skips rocks. He can almost make it across the river. It's one of his talents and it's fun to watch. He tried to teach Carter, but he still throws the rocks like a frisbee.
I'm not sure what Casey is doing. Showing off for the camera, I suppose. Definitely posing.
Our other grandma, Al's mom, bought a couple of fairy books this year to share with the kids during summer vacation. Emily really took to the idea of fairies and building places for them to live and visit. Out at Grandma Lucille's all of the cousins made a fairy house in the grove. Here at my uncle's beach, Emily made a Fairy Vault.



I love the beach too and building in the sand with shells, etc. just adds another element of fun. I always enjoy this extra time with my family and this weekend was no different, cold or not.


More pics and fun to come.

Fond Du Lac KOA

I know that I am skipping around a lot, but I was looking through my photos for pictures to enter in a contest and ran across these fun ones to post before I get back to putting up the rest of our vacation!! (Entering Photo contests is my new addiction according to my friend Beth. As far as addictions go, that's not so bad, I guess. Anyway, I think I am just a glutton for punishment, but it's fun so...)

Back to my story...This was our last night of vacation, last Thursday. We made it to Fond du lac, Wisconsin from Indian River, Michigan. We had reserved a site in a KOA there and had to make it that far. We didn't pull in until 8:30 p.m., but the kids still had fun and in the morning we were able to get up and play some more before we headed back home to Iowa. The highlight was this jumping pillow. Kind of like a trampoline...I had fun taking some jumping shots, again like my friend Beth. I wanted to see if I could catch them in the air. But then I had to stop because they wanted me to jump, too!! Fun Fun!!




Here, I wanted to catch them all jumping, but Casey was just using them, I think...

What a fun vacation!! I hope to go back to this campground again! It was way cool!!! Hang with me, I will put more up soon!!!

We're on Vacation

We're on V A C A T I O N and we're havin lots of fun!!! We left July 2 at 3:00 in the afternoon and headed to Michigan!!!


There are lots of pine trees and azure skies, but it's very different from out west. For one thing, I believe seagulls must be their state bird!! They are everywhere and they cry kind of like a child! Very hard to get used to.

Here's Mackinac Bridge the 3rd longest suspension bridge in the world!!! Impressive!! We haven't crossed it yet, but we will...

Stopping to see Lake Michigan!! Wow! It looks like an ocean and you can see Canada across the way.

Enjoying our time here. Will update again soon! Hope you all are having fun in such hot weather back home! We're cold here!!!!

Gardening

This year we decided to plant a small garden, emphasis on small. We have a short row of lettuce, a bean plant Carter grew in school, 3 potato plants, and 3 tomatoes in pots, and 3 pepper plants. I thought the kids would be interested in seeing things grow and they are old enough this year to help. Carter especially loves gardening..

Anyway, I actually took 1/2 hour the other day and weeded the garden. It really needed it, but I hadn't felt like I'd had time. I've mentioned that this summer feels busier than the school year did!! Wow! Except now, it's all fun stuff!!

So I weeded and look what I found!!!! I am going to weed more often!! I don't even care if Al planted it to help me weed... it's money either way!! Woo Hoo!! Go gardening!!