Night at the Beach-Part 1

The 2nd weekend of July, there is a fireworks display along the beach. The couple from our church who has the home on the lake invites the youth to come for a cookout and to watch the fireworks. Colby wasn't too terribly dismayed that we decided to tag along, so we tagged along!! It was fun. As the fireworks display was winding down it started to rain. Hearing the thunder roll across the lake was a great display of God's power, that's all I can say. It was the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my life. Here is Dalayna in the lake before it started lightning. It looks like it was completely dark when she was in the water, but it wasn't.

By the time we ate, it was completely dark. It was good food!!
One of our recent high school graduates, Matt. Matt has been a good friend to Colby. We pray he will do well as he goes away to college.

One halfway decent picture of the fireworks.

Dalayna loves playing in the sand.

Abby and Zac digging a hole.

Jadon and one of the youth girls, Hannah. She is so good with the kids!!

Colby and some of the other youth playing football. How you can see the ball in the dark I am not sure, but they managed. My friend Lisa took these pictures for me. I knew if I got anywhere near my son with the camera I would embarass him to pieces, so I sent someone else instead!! He had no idea Lisa had taken pictures for me until we got home.

Blueberry Picking

In early July, we did something we had never done before; we went blueberry picking. Blueberries have never been my favorite fruit to eat, but after this, they are in my top 5. The bad part is, when I have eaten them, they were from the store. Picking fresh blueberries just ruins the thought of store-bought ones. I was in the store on Monday and saw some blueberries. I thought blueberries sounded awfully good, but just couldn't bring myself to buy them because the thought of fresh, sweet blueberries right from the bush was in my mind. If you ever get the chance to go blueberry picking, do it!! It will be on my calendar for next summer for sure. In the meantime, I have 2 large bags sitting in my freezer to give me a taste of summer when the lake-effect snows begin to fall. Here is Dalayna with some of her friends.

Colby was a great helper. He is not one for eating fruits and vegetables, but I think he had as many handfuls of blueberries as I did. Good news: we DIDN'T eat so many we made ourselves sick.
Can you tell how big those blueberries are? We picked 6 pounds of them.

They give these little cups with strings to the kids so they don't have to carr around large buckets. I thought that was a great idea.

4th of July Fun-Part 2

In must be ingrained in me that on the 4th of July you have to be surrounded by people. In my family, that's the way it's always been , and I enjoy every minute of it. Last year we spent the day surrounded by friends in F.W.. This year it was no different. We were very thankful to have not only my parents with us, but friends from church and Terry's work. We were supposed to be able to see the fireworks from the local fairgrounds, but the view wasn't quite what we thought it would be. So, we enjoyed the view we had, and most importantly , the fellowship. Here is our new favorite game:Ladderball. We went and bought one(on sale at a local store) for this day.

Our friend, Frank,competing against Colby, who is really good at this game. I came close to beating Colby once, and coming close was something to be proud of!!

Terry with our friends from church, Jillian and Nate. Jillian is the friend who had the pedicure party that Dalayna and I enjoyed attending.

My wonderful parents.

Jadon, who is a huge Spiderman fan.




In the middle is Ryon, our assistant pastor, guitar teacher and dedicated youth leader, and his wife Lisa. We are extremely thankful for their work with the youth, as well as their friendship.

Frank and Diane, who came over a few nights ago and participated in catching lightning bugs. I took a few pictures, but they didn't come out so good. Instead, I wound up blinding everyone with the flash on my camera. I do have to tell this: At one point( it was very dark), I took a picture and Terry came rushing my way, thinking it was a lightning bug, then discovered it was just my camera flash. Now that was funny!!

Lisa and Ryon playing bean bag toss, their game she was kind enough to let us use.

4th of July Fun-Part 1

As you can see I am not the best one-handed photographer, but I wanted to get a picture of Dalayna in action jumping rope. This is part of what we spent our 4th of July weekend doing-jumping rope. Yes, even I got involved . I figured it was a way to celebrate being another year older.

Don't you love the pony-tails in the air? Dalayna learned to jump rope in our homeschool classes this year. We had tried it at home, but she really got the hang of it in class.
Here is my moment of glory(HA!) I was laughing so hard I messed up!! The good news is-I can still jump at my age!!! The flip side of that is I need more exercise, so the aftermath of this is I am walking 2 miles a day now.

Terry didn't want me to post these pictures, but I just had too because hey, I don't get good action shots very often, but this is a good one. He can still jump too and he is several months older than me.;) The aftermath for him involves running 2-3 miles a day!!

Colby's turn.

Back to Dalayna.

Visiting around the table. This usually involves everyone but me eating some form of chocolate, but we must have all had our fill of food for the day!!

Dalayna's attempt to jump rope before everyone got involved; using the garden flag as a "person" holding the rope.

Pedicure Party

Last month Dalayna and I were invited to a pedicure party at my friend's house. Of course we jumped at the chance since we don't always have time to do our nails and such. It was just a little mommy-daughter time. It was also a great chance to get to know a few people at church better. Dalayna soaking her feet. We decided this is a must when the weather turns cooler. Let's hope that is a way off!!

Here is her very first time painting her own nails. One of her friends was at the party and since she paints her own nails, I thought Dalayna should try it for herself. She did a pretty good job!!

Another first: Dalayna painting my nails!! Her friend Sarah is watching intently.

Would you believe these things are cookies? One of the ladies at church, who bakes cakes for a living made these. Are they adorable or what? And they tasted great too!! So our party was complete with soaking our feet, painting our nails and cute feet cookies!!

June Visitors

In June, we hosted our very 1st overnight guests:My in-laws. We always enjoy their visits and this time was no different. My father-in-law wanted to be put to work, so he started mowing grass. Unfortunately our John Deere mower started giving him problems and as of right now, is currently out of comission. We are getting plenty of exercise mowing it by hand. Anyway, we appreciated his help since our yard is so large. He also did some of the mowing using the push mower, which is not self-propelled!! My kids love being outside.

Grandma and Dalayna getting ready to play solitaire.

A refill on coffee anyone?

At the European market, where we tasted some of the best jelly ever. It was cherry jelly made from Michigan cherries. It was so good, but economics won out over taste since it was $10 for a little jar. We did buy a bag of kettle corn, my favorite, and a loaf of fresh french bread. There were fresh pastries, cheeses, fruits and vegetables; lots of good food!!

We also took them to the beach. It was around 90 degrees that day and the water felt wonderful. As you can see, there were lots of people there.

Colby's Acting Debut

Back in May, Colby took part in a play with teenagers from our homeschool group. It was actually one of the classes they offered for the semester. He wanted no part of it. He wanted to do behind the scenes stuff like lights, props,etc. They needed people to take parts, so Colby was drafted. He had 3 different roles. They performed the play "Pilgrim's Progress." Maybe I am partial, but I think our group did an excellent job. The moms who led the class put together the costumes, props, everything. The teens also did a great job memorizing their lanes, and some had quite a few. I am thankful Colby got to participate in an event of this kind. I will probably NEVER get him to do this again, so I enjoyed the moment. Colby, as Mr.Worldly Wiseman talking to the character "Christian."

Mr.Worldly Wiseman

Part of the group photo.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!! Dalayna designed this post for me. She did a great job!! Take time this holiday weekend to thank God for the many freedoms we have. Thank God also for those who fight that we may have those freedoms.