Tubing the Maquoketa River

This year our float down the river looked a little different, as we added a few more to our crew. This year Libby and Kevin and Sam and Mike and Thomas Issa joined us, in addition to our normal participants: Our five, Bryker, Bruxen, Bree, Matt, Aliyah, and Shelli. The weather was gorgeous. It was a beautiful, hot, sunny day. We had a great day on the water. What a fun tradition we have. I'm so glad we were able to fit it in this summer!

Kaylee's Iowa Graduation Party

 

We had Kaylee's party at Oakland Church in the fellowship hall. It was the perfect location and was a huge success. Debi, Libby, Kevin and Addy came all the way from Colorado to show their support. She had a great turnout of both family and friends. The decorations turned out great. The food was amazing. We featured pulled pork, baked beans, pasta salad, watermelon, mini fruit pizzas and graduation hat brownies.  

We had so much help to pulling off this amazing party. Uncle Mike did an amazing job smoking the pulled pork and baked beans. Grandma Jacque was a tremendous help with food prep, decorating the church and cleaning up afterwards. Grandma Becki made her delicious pasta salad and was a great help with decorations. Aunt Debi helped with the balloon arch. Brittney and Kaylee did a wonderful job on the fruit pizzas and helping with all the decorations and cleanup. Kianna did a great job making the graduation cap dessert. Trace and Trevor were a big help with decorations and tear down. John was an awesome help obtaining and transporting the pallets. Thank you all for all your help! What a fun party!

Vero Beach with the Issa's

Our latest Noles fan

The Issa's were on vacation in Vero Beach at the Disney Resort. They invited us to come up for the day. We had a great time catching up with our good friends! 

 

Wedding Day

 

Today was the day of weddings. We were invited to two weddings, one in Iowa and one here. We weren't able to make it back to Iowa for Sam and Erika's wedding because the kids had church camp. I did get a nice picture of Dad and Erika together, which was sweet. I was proud of my dad for going to the wedding. He's pretty fragile and he was dreading being around Sue's family, as it's extra hard for him. Debi came back for the wedding, which helped a lot. Dave, Darla, Rod and Jada were there too, so they had a "Gaskill" table which was helpful. Dad said it went better than expected.

The wedding we did attend was for Cameron and Lyndzey, a couple we have been mentoring the past few months. It was the most beautiful "farmhouse" venue and the most Christ-centered wedding I've ever been to. They even washed each other's feet. One thing that wasn't so wonderful was that they forgot to put our names on the seating chart, so we didn't have chairs or table settings. It created a very stressful situation, but once resolved, we had a great time! Lol.

Church Camp

 

Our kids finally made it to the Family Church Summer Camp. Last year, we accidentally scheduled the cruise the same week, so they couldn't attend. Trace was gone the 9th through 12th at the Middle School Camp and the girls were gone the 12th through 15th at the High School Camp. Both camps were at Lake Placid in Central Florida. It was a very positive experience for each of them. Kaylee especially got closer to her friends, Olivia and Lily. Kianna thought the games were fun and got to know Lucy better. Trace had a blast and loved it all.