More Vacation Fun...

The last few day's we've spent pretty much around the house. Most of the time we've spent at Papa Don's pool... No matter that the High this week has only been 80F! They still go in and splash around!

Here's Sam's first ever jump off of the diving board. He did it twice but then said the water gets up his nose and he doesn't want to do it any more!


Today we went to Seven Pond's Nature Center in Dryden. We had a great time and we never left the reception center!

There was a man/guide there that was really great with the kids. He showed us the working bee hive and explained all about the bees and the hive.


Then he got out three salamanders and let the kids touch them.



He answered questions for us and told us about the animals and displays they have there. He was so nice and patient. It was lots of fun. I'm sure we'll be going back next week as we didn't even get to do our nature walk!



After we were done at Seven Ponds we drove up the road to my dad's club for lunch. We usually go fishing there every year with the boys and I expect we'll be back fishing next week too!

My parent's dog is there in "Summer Camp" learning to hunt so she'll be ready for hunting season this fall. While we were there, Grampa got Annie out and the kids loved all over her! You can see Josh and Sam were happy to see her!


We're coming back up there to pick her up on Friday. Grampa has arranged it so the boys can watch Annie work in the field and they can see how she helps him when he's hunting. I'm quite excited to see he working!

And the kids ran around, made daisy chains, looked at the fishes and just had a great time running around.

I love this picture of Chloe so I just had to add it in!

And Grandmother was happy to have five of her grandchildren around her, plus her honorary granddaughter, Ava!

Images from Vacation

The boys and I are on vacation in Michigan for the next few weeks. We had a great time at my sister's cottage northeast of Muskegon. We stayed there for a few nights but packed in tons of fun!

Here are just a few images from our three days there!

We went tube surfing....

Josh & Sam with Aunt Katy. Sam kept saying "Go Faster, Go Faster!"

And Josh and Chloe. Josh fell off shortly after this picture and said it was the scariest and best part of the ride!

We even went to one of the beaches on Lake Michigan. The water was sooooo cold! But that didn't stop the kids from getting in and having fun! The boys were a bit disappointed there were no waves today, but it was still fun!


My niece Hannah


Chloe and her dad, Uncle Steve

We got to go fishing with Uncle Steve...

Sam's first fish. They were biting right away!


Josh's first fish.

We did so much more too! And to think we only spent 3 nights there!

We're now at my parents' house with the five kids for a week. The girls go back to Chicago on Friday. I'm sure I'll have more pictures to post through out the week!

Girls: Gabby (6) Chloe (8) Hannah (2); Boys: Sam (4) Josh (8)

I don't know if you've ever tried to get five kids to look at you while taking a picture and all smile at the same time, but it's near impossible! Especially when you try to do it at the petting zoo! But I gave it a go!

Wordless Wednesday: Engineers-R-Us.

This is what you get when you take one rainy day, two curious kids and and their Engineering Father...

Sam is first.

Then Josh

Now we're adding masts and sails.

Hope they don't fall down!

TA DA! I made it (almost) all by myself!

Come on Mom! Just take the picture!

Now to sail our boats!

The Pirate Ship!

Hall of Fame! Those that either didn't sink or they didn't want to try in the creek.


For more Wordless Wednesday, visit Five Minutes for Mom and the WW HQ!

Rewriting History

The following "History" Lesson was taught at our house this weekend.*

*I may have allowed for some artistic license in transcribing the exact verbiage, however the basic message has been left unaltered*

Scene: Kitchen - July 3rd. Just as Rich comes home from work...

Dad: Happy "We finally got rid of the Yanks Day!"

Son #1: What?

Dad (repeats) : Happy "We finally got rid of the Yanks Day!"

Son #1: I don't get it.

Dad: You do know what tomorrow is don't you?

Son #1: The Fourth of July.

Mom: And that's our Independence Day.

Son #1: I don't know what "Independence" means.

Mom: It means that's the day the day we became our own nation. "Independent" means you can do it on your own.

Dad: And before that, America was part of Britain. But we got so sick of the Yanks we decided to kick them out.

Son #1: But wasn't there a war?

Dad: Yes. We wanted to get rid of the Yanks, but they wanted to stay a part of the British Empire so we went to war. And the Brits won so the America had to leave.

Son #1 - looking confused: Really?

Mom: No, honey, America wanted to be free and July 4th is the day we gained our Independence.

Son #1, still looks confused.

Mom: So Son, who do you believe?

Son #1: I don't know....

---------

The sad thing is, I can see it now. He'll be in History class learning about the Revolutionary War. He will tell his teacher the story his Dad told him and insist he's correct!

The boys and I are off to Michigan tomorrow for a few weeks. I'll try to update and post pictures of our trip.

Back to the Future?

Yesterday I took the boys back to the Tellus Museum. If you hadn't guessed, it really is one of our favorite places to visit!

This time, we brought our friends, Mary, Cade and Jack Felts. It was there first visit and the boys had fun while Mary and I talked and watched the kids!

It was so much fun! Jack loved the dinosaurs! His little face lit up like it was Christmas when he saw them! It was so cute!

We went to see one of the Planetarium Shows, Two Small Pieces of Glass. It was our second time watching this show - it is absolutely amazing! It's about the history of the telescope, but it's put in a context that kids of all ages will love. Highly recommend it if you have it showing near you!

At the end, there's talk about the Hubble Telescope and it talks about how we can look back in time as we look at the stars because the light from the stars is, sometimes, millions of Lightyears old.

After this part of the program, Sam whispers to me: "Mom! Do we have a telescope?"

I said, "No, but Grandmother and Grampa have one and maybe we can find a place to set it up when we go visit them."

Then he said, very excitedly, "Well can we get one because I want to build a time machine and go back in time!"