We're home!!

Hello All,

We made this trip in 13 1/2 hours and got home last night. We got to sit at a stand still for 1 1/2 hours in Indiana, didn't enjoy that part at all, luckily the kids were sleeping. I got my house re-organized today (mostly) now I just need to relax and recover from my vacation. The kids are in bed and Gary is working late...so I am having some computer time :)

I took my cell phone in today to see if they can repair it and the nice people gave me a loaner to use. Justin starts soccer practice tomorrow and is really excited about it. He tromped around our backyard in his new cleats for several hours this afternoon and kicked the ball around. Wednesday evening we are going in to meet his new teacher, he will start school Sept 4th.

vacation is almost over...

We have been having a good time hanging out at my mom and dad's this past week. We have been really busy visiting and running the kids around to keep them busy and out of Grandma's knick knacks. I will have lots of photos to scrap when we get home and things get settled down. The kids have enjoyed swimming every day in Grandpa and Grandma's pool. Justin learned to swim without his life jacket and even goes off the diving board without the life jacket. Megan is progressing to a smaller life jacket and will jump off the diving board with the life jacket on. She is developing more confidence in her swimming abilities. Kyle keeps his life jacket on at all times. Just tonight he fell in...the deep end....the life jacket worked beautifully and he wasn't harmed at all...can't say he was too happy however. I was sitting on the side...fully clothed and had to jump in after him...wouldn't have minded so much if my cell phone hadn't been in my pocket.....I wonder if it will ever work again. I took the battery out and plan to let it dry for a few days before trying. BIG BUMMER!! This week we also went to the zoo, the science center, shopping, for a train ride in Boone and to Adentureland. I am exhausted from our vacation!! :) We plan to leave early in the morning and are hoping for a quicker return trip to Michigan than our trip to Iowa....15 hours is too long!!! I have got to remember to give Megan her medication in the morning before we leave...I forgot on our initial trip and the poor kid was sick 3 times before we stopped for 45 minutes and let the medication kick in. Motion sickness....YUCK!! I will keep you posted. Meanwhile I need to go pack :)

new layouts

Backyard Fun

Summer Fun

The kids love playing outside in the water!

My Sweet Monkey

my sweet 2 year old

Tennis Lessons

DK Playdate

This summer we met Justin's teachers and friends from his young 5's Kindergarten at the park. We had a good time catching up, I am really going to miss his teacher next year, she was the best.

Camping with Friends.

A few weeks ago we went camping with some good friends. Here are some pictures.

New Layouts

2 new layouts done

The first layout is from our camping trip a few weeks ago. The kids went fishing for the first time. The picture in the background is the scene we saw from the bridge, it was very pretty and green. We didn't catch any fish but they had fun. The second layout is of various pictures from this years T Ball season. Justin is really improving and he really enjoys the game. Just recently he switched from throwing Right handed to throwing with his Left hand (he is predominantly Left handed) It seems smoother for him when throwing now. When the season is finished next week, Gary is going to work with him to try batting left handed rather than right and see how that goes :) Tomorrow we are leaving to go camping. This is the weekend that we meet up with other families from our church in Muskegon. There will probably be 25 other families, most with young kids that our kids know, camping all around us. It should be a great time for the kids. This is an annual event we have done for the past 2 years. Hopefully, I will come home with lots of fun pictures.

Tuesday

Just sharing this layout I finished. Not much else going on, I have been packing to go camping this weekend. It is really hot here!! :)

Megan Beach layout

4th of July Tigers game

4th of July we went to the Tigers game. It was Megan first time at a baseball game. She enjoyed the rides and food more the game, but she had a good time. We all enjoyed the fireworks after the game.

Justin

I finished this layout of Justin today. I took this photo this morning and in my photo editting program layers a B&W photo on top of the same color photo. I then erased the eyes from the B&W photo leaving Justin's real eye color showing through. I thought it turned out well and it was fun.

Aquatic Center

Here are some pictures from a place we spend a lot of our time during the summer. There are so many fun things to do and a lot of our friends hang out here as well.

Camping / Beach photo layout

These photos are from our camping trip last weekend. The weather was cool, but we still had a good time. This layout is 2 pages and will go side by side in an album.

Monday

Here are some pictures from 4th of July while we were watching fireworks nearby.

Basketball Camp

This past week Justin did a basketball camp for a couple hours each morning. For a kid who had never really played BBall before he did pretty well. He got alot of the fundamentals down and is now excited about practicing.

Butterfly photos

We took a trip through the butterfly house on our last trip to the zoo. We were a little nervous that the kids might step on some of the beautiful creatures, but they did a good job. I was really neat to see so many butterflies in one place.