BEFORE summer vacation trip

June 28, 2009
BEFORE summer vacation trip

I just didn’t have time to get this off before we had to leave for St. Louis.

Scout Camp: Tyler had his last year of cubscout camp. We had record heat and humidity that week and it was the worst on the day that Bob chaperoned! Maybe Tyler or Bob will write up how the week went?

Girls Camp: My fingers are crossed that Kayla and Marisa will write up about camp on their blogs (hint hint) We had a major storm with 60 mph winds and tornadoes come through so they had to be evacuated from camp. When they came back, all their tents were flooded and all their stuff was wet. So they slept in cars and other tents I think. They came home on Friday and were out cold.

Alayna and me: We had a fun week together with just the two of us. We went to see “Monsters VS Aliens”, we went to lunch with daddy, played some games, and watched some shows. We had so much fun.

Ok, that’s the week in a nutshell. I wish I had written it while I still remembered details.















Kayla with the gorgeous sunset!






















Unpacking girls camp and scout camp and packing for St. Louis. Yikes!

Canoe trip

Canoe Trip

Yesterday was such a fun day!!! Corey and Hal came up and we went canoeing on the Wapsipinicon River. You can choose a 2 hour, 4 hour, or 6 hour trip. We chose the 4 hour. We got 3 canoes and they shuttled us farther up the river.

We stopped at a sand bar for lunch and we called the place “Butterfly Beach”. It was more like “Attack of the Butterflies” though! We kept stopping on sand bars along the river to swim and relax. Sometimes we canoed and the kids floated along side us. (But it slowed our flow down)

We put on sunscreen, but it didn’t hold all 5 hours it took us. Some of us ended up a little “krispier” than others. Marisa and I had to make a late night run to get some aloe. Ouch! We had some pretty sore arms today too.

Anyway, it was a very fun trip and if anyone ever wants to come visit and try it with us, we would love to have you!!

Summer Vacation begins

Summer Vacation begins…
June 21, 2009

Well, we started out our first full week of summer with a bang! Man! Have we needed this break or what? We have a daily schedule to keep us in line and so far, so good.

We have a daily workout routine and usually workout both morning and night as a family: family walk, tennis, bike riding, etc. We love it except when the humidity becomes unbearable. We also signed up for the library reading program.

Exciting News: Alayna learned how to ride a bike without training wheels!!! We took her up to the big school parking lot and it only took her a couple of times and she had it! She was so excited and so were we.

We kicked butt on the Spring Cleaning. We spent hours on the shed and storage room. We are so close to being completely done. I can hardly wait. Only the kitchen left.

Off topic: Our new favorite way to eat French Crepes is to stuff it with cut up strawberries and bananas and top it with nutella! You have to try it!

We had a good Father’s Day! Happy Father’s day to all you Dad’s out there!

This week:
~The girls leave for girls camp tomorrow. It may be a little wet, but they will have a blast.
~Tyler goes to cubscout day camp on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
~Alayna and I are planning a mommy/daughter fun week since everyone else will be gone. I think we will go see Monsters VS Aliens. Anyone wanna come?
~On Saturday, we pack and then head out to Columbia Missouri to take Marisa to EFY. While she attends that, the rest of our family will be spending the week in St Louis going to six flags, etc. We are so excited!!

PS- see my next Blog entry for our exciting trip yesterday!

WE SURVIVED SCHOOL!!!!

We are officially out of school! Hallelujah!!!!! We are so excited that it is summer and we hope to soak up as much sun as possible. I am not writing my normal newsletter today. Instead, I helped the kids update their blogs so you can hear how things are going here from their perspective. We have a ton of summer plans and will keep you updated as they occur.

Shopping Day 2

Celebration of summer

Enjoying the sunset