what happened to the summer?!?!!!

It's the last day of July! Where have we been? Why no blogs? I really don't know myself! We have been camping a few times and have been around the state visiting friends and family.
Here are the highlights...


June -
Bradley turned 3 and we camped at East Harbor State Park
the water guns were a hit...so was t-ball
This is also when we became obsessed with getting a kid trailer for our bike. That is our newest family toy. We found a used Trek trailer on Craig's List for a great price the next week and went to Mason to pick it up. We have used it at least once a week since then. It is a great Saturday or late evening activity for the whole family.

We spent a weekend at Devils Lake with my whole family. My cousin, Brian, and his wife, Heather have a second home there and we enjoyed jet skiing, kayaking, and just hanging out with the family. Enjoy the many pictures from that weekend...

Cheri (Neil's girlfriend) and my sister, Leslie

Grandma and Papa Box with Lucas
Richard kayaking with Josh
Leah, Josh, Connor, and Ethan in the pool...playing with bubbles
I stayed up with Mom and Dad after the lake trip because Richard was scheduled to be out of town for work. He didn't end up going, but I had already promised Josh a week of play with his cousins, Tristan and Leah, so the boys and I had a week in Grand Rapids. We had a great time going on walks to see the cows. My brother has 20 cows and 2 more babies due this summer! It is an exciting field trip for my guys. Lucas especially LOVES them! He can say Moo! which is sooooo cute. Josh went to Vacation Bible School while we were there and Josh and Leah gave me daily concerts of the new songs they learned.

We were home for 2 nights and went to an outdoor wedding where it POURED!!!! The rain didn't start until the reception, but we listened to the wind pick up and the thunder start while we hoped and prayed that it would hold off until the ceremony was over. We were under a tent for the reception, but still got wet.


July -
We went camping in Indiana with my parents, Leslie, Leah, and Tristan. We canoed 2 days. Lucas even canoed for about an hour. He was fine, but really didn't like it when I had to get out of the canoe to pull us over a fallen tree. Richard was like a camp counselor there. He taught Leah, Tristan, and Josh how to collect and cut firewood, took them on a hike and played Capture the Flag with them.



Leah and Josh - canoeing buddies
(Richard was a brave man and took the kids in his canoe.)
Hot chocolate -YUMMY!!

We went to Cleveland for the 4th of July and went swimming in Lake Erie. While we were there a dead rat washed up on the shore and a little toddler girl started petting it! YUCK! It was so gross.

The next week I went to Lakeside with Kate, Liz and Tamara. We all brought our kids so there were 4 adults and 6 kids. Josh is the oldest of the bunch at just over 4. We took the golfcart around with all 10 of us and probably looked pretty crazy. While we were there we went to a puppet show which was Josh's favorite thing of the week. We also went to God Squad, got ice cream, and swam in Lake Erie again. It was great spending a few days with some of my best friends from college.