Marsh's Visit

Our good friends from Michigan, Dawn, Darrin, and Jackson Marsh, came to visit us for a couple days before we move to Florida. We tried out a new pizza place called Fong's Pizza with them. It is a unique pizza place with an asian influence. It was very yummy and super fun to try Kung Pao pizza, pizza egg rolls, etc., In addition to eating yummy food, we enjoyed visiting with the Marsh family and playing lots of cards. They also helped us with a bit of our grunt work and packing as we prepare to move to Florida. They are such dear friends! We are blessed!

The Empire Spikes Back

One of the many things we love about our church is the summer sand volleyball league. We decided to invite a few of Kaylee's volleyball teammates to join us as The Empire Spikes Back. Our team consisted of: Dan Hartman, Trevor, Keri, Anthony Issa, Cory Miller, Isabel Lovetinsky, Keara McGuire, Kaylee and Natalie Hartman. We ended up getting 3rd place overall, but more importantly we had a blast playing.

Omaha Zoo

Grandma Jacque and Papa took all the grandkids minus Matthew and Andrew to the Omaha Zoo. They had an awesome time. The highlights were touching a stingray and petting a bat. Gross! After the zoo, they swam in the hotel pool, and had an awesome meal at The Spaghetti Factory. Kaylee was raving about the pasta and salad bar. Lots of fun and great memories!

Church Camp and 1st Century Church

Trace, Kianna and Bryker all went to the Wesley Woods Camp with our church. It was Trace and Bryker's first time at an overnight camp, but they both did great! It helped that our children's pastor, Tory, went so they had a familiar face. Tory was Trace's counselor, so he graciously sent us pictures. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of Kianna sent to us. The kids had a great time worshipping, rockclimbing, horseback riding, creek stomping, and just being with their friends.

On Sunday, our church did their first ever reenactment of a 1st Century Church. They had a marketplace full of booths setup with various crafts. We were all able to get dressed up into 1st century robes, which was kind of fun. Kaylee and I both volunteered at two of the booths. It was a fun morning!

Sister Camp 2018

Our kids have been busy with various camps this summer, so I decided to create my own camp and dubbed it "sister camp". So while Trace and Kianna went to church camp, I flew out to Colorado to spend those same days with Debi. Trevor and Kaylee held down the fort back home. Kaylee spent the week relaxing with friends and having sleepovers, while Trevor had his own "work camp". He said his camp was not near as fun...

I flew into Denver on Monday and Debi picked me up at the airport. We drove to Breckinridge to spend the night with Katie and Jonathan. Katie loves to cook and made us a lovely meal. It was great catching up with them and getting to know Jonathan a little better. We finished off the night with a hot game of peanuts.

The next day, we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a yummy lunch in Grand Lake, CO before entering the park. Within minutes of entering the park, we saw two moose, a mom and baby, along the road. They were standing near a stream with the mountains behind them. We drove from one side of the massive park to the other, enjoying the beautiful mountains and scenery along the way. It was an absolutely beautiful drive. We setup our campsite and then headed into Estes Park for a little exploring before dinner.

On Wednesday, we got up early and set off to do some hiking. We decided to take the shuttle bus to the trailhead, which ended up being the plan of about a hundred of our closest friends. Needlesstosay, it took a bit longer than we had expected. We did meet a gal traveling solo from Cedar Rapids. Her travel buddies had backed out on her at the last minute, so she eagerly accepted our invitation to hike with us. The three of us hiked to Bear Lake, to Nymph Lake (lots of lily pads), to Dream Lake and to Emerald Lake which was at the base of Longs Peak. We had an awesome time enjoying the beauty of God's creation. I'm so thankful He chose to bless us with a beautiful world to enjoy. He could have made everything brown and dreary...

We drove to Colorado Springs after lunch where I was able to meet Libby's boyfriend, Kevin, while spending time with Dad and Libby too. We played some peanuts with Kevin and had some laughs. The rest of our time was spent playing cards, visiting, doing a bit of gardening, giving massages, and getting pedicures. Sister camp was so awesome, we are thinking of making it an annual event!

Middle Finger

While the kids and I were off enjoying our camps, Kaylee was at home enjoying her week as an only child. Grandma Becki had Kaylee over to get some help with her landscaping. In the midst of trying to relocate a cement bench, Grandma Becki tripped and fell backwards, causing her glove to fall off and her to severely scrape her left middle finger on the cement. The result was a partially amputated middle finger. Kaylee helped grandma get the first aid kit and then called Trevor for help. They ended up in the ER where they all having week stomachs, were unwilling to look at her mutilated finger. 

Thankfully no surgery was required, however, close supervision of her finger is required to make sure it will heal properly, especially since she is diabetic. Grandma Becki was proud of Kaylee was staying calm. Kaylee admitted she was pretty shaken up by the whole incident and definitely does not want to go into healthcare...

ADDENDUM: Grandma Becki had to have her finger monitored weekly to check for infection and have the bandage replaced. Thankfully although a slow process her finger is starting to more normal, despite it being about 1 cm shorter than her other hand.

Bruxen's 6th Birthday