Church Camp

Alyssa, Emily and Kaylee in their dorm

Waterslide and canoes

Bounce pillow and swimming dock

Kaylee and Emily

Pastor Janet with kids from our church

Kaylee spent the week at Waters Edge Church Camp in Howell, MI. She went with one of her friends, Emily Willet. Her camp counselor's name was Alyssa. There were 10 girls in her group and six of them were from our church. The camp was from Sunday at 4:00 PM until Thursday at noon. This was Kaylee's first time away from home for more than a night without family. The hardest part for me was that this was the first time I was out of phone contact with her. It was very difficult not being able to talk to her each night to hear about her day. Thankfully our children's pastor, Janet Benjamin, was the camp speaker, so she would send me updates on how Kaylee was doing each day, which helped.

Kaylee had a fun week, but was worn out from the long days. They were busy from 8:30 AM until 10:45 PM each day. Kaylee said she wished the day ended at 9:00 PM instead. She had fun canoeing, swimming in the lake, going down the giant waterside, and playing the group games. When she got home she went to bed at 6:30 PM and didn't wake up until 6:30 AM the next day and she was still tired. I guess she has time to catch up on sleep while we're in South Haven...

Silly Kids

Plaid Boy

Crazy Hair

Meet the new Kianna and Trace

Crazy Kids

Quote from Kaylee while trying to cook something in the microwave: "Where is the play button?" #digitalworld

Baseball

It seems like whatever sport Trace is playing at the time is his favorite. He gives 100% to each sport. He has been playing Coach Pitch Baseball this summer and is loving it. It has been fun watching his team's game IQ improve each day. Last game Trace made two outs. He made a good throw to first base for an out and got another out at 3rd base. Trace loves to slide into bases. Whether he needs to or not, he slides...

Flender's Visit

Our friends, Mike and Angela Flender, along with their kids, Chloe and Zach, came to visit us. They were on their way from Iowa to Pennsylvania and decided to stop on both their way there and on their way back to Iowa. They ended up spending three nights with us. We introduced them to The Spotted Cow on several occasions, as well as, The Dog House. We also spent lots of time swimming in both our pool and at The Corner Park. We invited The Johnson's over for a night swim one night. It was fun having a bit of our old small group together again. We had some good laughs, especially in regards to the croaking frogs...

Zach and Trace got along splendidly, as did, Kaylee and Chloe. The former swam together and played legos. The latter two, did make-up (Kianna did too), hair, played games, and made a video together. It was great catching up with our friends!

Fun Night

We had another especially fun night with our kids. Kianna still had a gift certificate to use up at the climbing gym in Ann Arbor, so this time we took our friends, Jen and Ada Marlatt with us. We ate dinner at Panera's and then went climbing. While we were having our fun, Trevor took Kaylee and Trace out to dinner to Applebee's and then to the new "Minions" movie in 3D. Another fun night in the books...

Fourth of July Fun

Pretty Nails

Jenae, Kianna and Cameron

Fireworks on the lake

Paper Lanterns

Good times

Usually the kids and I are back in Iowa for the fourth, but this year we decided to stick around. The weather was perfect all weekend. The best it had been all summer, so we decided to spend the day/weekend relaxing by the pool. We worked on our tans, played some "Pig" in the pool and some pool dodge ball. It was a great day.

Later that evening, we were invited out to Devil's Lake to watch fireworks with our friends, The Coles. They had a bon fire where we roasted marshmallows and ate S'mores. It was a great evening on the lake and the fireworks were very pretty. Unfortunately, Trace had a little mishap with the poppers he was playing with when one exploded in his hand. The flecks inside the popper flew into Trace's eye causing him an immense amount of pain. Thankfully, we were able to get them out, although it was difficult since it was dark outside. No damage was done thankfully! The night ended by letting off paper lanterns into the sky.

Frogs, frogs, and more frogs

For the past few weeks, we have listed to frogs croaking loudly outside of our sunroom window. It got to be so loud, that is was hard to watch TV at night. Finally after weeks of hearing them croak, Trevor decided to go frog patrol. It didn't take him long to catch two tree frogs next to our pool. He surprised Kianna the next morning with the frogs. She was super excited. This girl has no fear. She lets them climb on her. They even swim with her. She simply loves frogs!