Floating Through Summer

 We started our week off with a little slower pace with things like couch cushion forts and hammocks.  We also enjoyed a potluck with swimming and farm fun last Monday night for 4H.

After two reschedules, once due to a power outage, and the other due to doctor illness, Ezri finally got her bottom braces put on last Tuesday!

We took advantage of a very windy Wednesday afternoon to attempt flying kites at the park across the street.  We were able to at least get them in the air more often than not, but none of us being skilled at the task, it got old having to get them back up pretty regularly.

Thursday, after lunch, the kids and I headed up to Grand Rapids for a couple of hours of fun at the GR Children's Museum!  The Little GR spot was the biggest hit for our kids, who especially loved the checkout and shopping as well as the pizza restaurant and pony rides.

Upstairs, we found fun with the rescue vehicles, bubble area and even a puppet show put on by a very feisty oppossum brought to life by Alora.

The kids were sad when our meter time was up and we had to leave.

Sunday was another new adventure for us.  Though the day started out rainy and questionable for the day ahead, we went ahead and stuck with our reservation for a tubing trip on the Thornapple River our of a launch in Hastings.  The day ended up being pretty perfect with weather, enough sun to warm us up, rain holding off until we had left the river again.  We were able to tie together and float, avoiding too much river traffic, for a roughly 3 hour trip, which was about perfect.  Throw in a little snafu that delayed our start, a stop for lunch and another stop for kids to swim and it rounded out to be a really fun afternoon of floating together!

Farms, Zoos, Lakes and More!

Our weeks are including more and more farm time as we work with the growing chickens and turkeys, training them to be held, examined and fussed with regularly as well as getting in much needed practice time for the girls.  They are loving it still, learning more as they go, and becoming more involved in the care of the birds. Aunt Peggy and Uncle Don are always so gracious to let us crash their farm and willing to stop what they are doing to work with the girls and help them learn, we are so very blessed!

Although Elam cannot show a bird on his own yet, he is great at handling the little Bantams and has been told by Aunt Peggy that he can help her show her birds in open class, for which he is very excited.

Alora's work with her turkey is coming along as well.  She's been officially initiated by her bird, and handled it like a champ.

Usually when we are there, Elam is running around playing with my cousin's kids if they are there, playing in the yard, or exploring the barn yard and checking out the other animals.  The little goats are always a draw.

Last week Tuesday afternoon, we took Opa and Oma to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo with us for an afternoon of fun and learning.  The kids always love the rides and even talked Opa into going on them with him!

We also had to make sure we stopped at the interactive pieces so Elam could get hands on.  His favorite is the air pressure powered car.

We have been able to get a lot of cousin time in this summer with Aubrey & Wesley as they are staying with my parents at Sandy Pines a couple days each week, and this makes spending time with them much easier to coordinate and so many ways to have fun in Sandy Pines together.  Last Wednesday, before we spent the day swimming and playing, we went blueberry picking at Beard's Produce, coming home with about 40 pounds of berries!  We took Jamesen with us for the day and enjoyed having him along to play as well!

Of course, we had to wrap the day up with ice cream from the Dairy Dip!

Toss in a water balloon fight when we got back home, and it was a great day!

In the last week, we also got all of the new light fixtures hung upstairs and installed new fans!

Thursday, we were back at Sandy Pines with Jamesen, Aubrey & Wesley for more swimming, mini-golf and even some tubing behind Grandpa's boat!

After Aubrey & Wesley had to leave, we went to the water park to round out the day.

Saturday morning, Alex tackled a big project on our roof, cutting an opening to install a ridge vent.

Mid-morning, we got some help with Kathy's arrival.  From there, it was a few hours of slow, tedious work of chasing down proper nails at the hardware and sending supplies up the roof from my position on the ladder while Alex and Kathy worked a system of nailing down the ridge vent and the nailing down the cap shingles. 

By 2pm the job was done!  We were grateful for the cloud cover that kep the sun and heat away most of the day.