Swimming Lessons, G's Birthday, Camping, and the 4th!

Busy, busy, busy is the word of the month, but we are LOVING every minute of it! Grant had swimming lessons for two weeks in mid-June, and it was so much fun watching his progress from last year to this year. He can now swim unassisted (although not too far - when he lifts his face out of the water for air, he tends to sink :)). He thoroughly enjoyed each day of lessons and loved jumping off the diving board and the free time at the end!

Grant and Trent - partners in crime (at least they didn't pee in the rocks this year like they did last year!)

With the end of June, comes another major milestone for our son - he turned 4!! Wow! These past four years have been such a blast with him. He's always been such an outgoing and friendly kid, and he has never ceased to amaze us with the things he says and does. He loves to play outside (and hopes that his "neighbor friends" will come down the street to visit and play with him). He likes to ride his scooter and his bike. He's always been so good at constructing things out of blocks (and now legos!), and his latest craze is math. He frequently asks us to give him problems to figure out, and he has done incredibly well (he's able to add in his head already). He can answer most addition problems when you're adding numbers between 1 and 9, and he even floored us the other night when one of our friends asked him what 5+5+5+5 was. You could see his wheels spinning in his mind, and then he proceeded to answer 20! We celebrated his big day out at the beach with family, and as he does each year, made a haul. He's put all of his gifts to good use already (and Brooke has tried to as well! :)). G - we love you, dude and look forward to spending many more birthdays with you!

Last week, we had the opportunity to camp out at the beach. My parents normally spend two weeks at the lake in late June/early July with my friend Marcy's parents, but because they had a trip to Canada planned, we were able to use the camper for the week (and Eric and Marcy were able to use their parent's camper, too!). We had a riot!! While naps were at a premium (Brooke hated sleeping in the pack and play) and it was rather exhausting chasing her around at times, the memories that we made were TOTALLY worth it (and confirm yet again that I do want to own a camper some day). It was a gorgeous week, and we spent a lot of time down at the beach. We also climbed Mt. Pisgah and hiked the trails a number of times. The General Store was a hot destination, and I think Grant wore a hole in one of his sandals from riding his scooter everywhere. We had numerous visitors as well. Our last night was spent watching the fireworks. Needless to say, we were one pooped out family at the end of the week, and have all been catching up on our sleep.

Grant, Reese, and Ava
Tim, Grant, Luke, Aaron, and Grandpa P.
Brielle and Brooke
Isaac, Reese, Eric Y., and Grant (No, they're not skinny dipping - they all have bottoms on! We made an unplanned visit down by the water and the kids wanted to go in.)
Got the bikes and scooters all decorated and ready for the 4th of July parade!

This past Monday we decided to venture over to my home town of Overisel to check out the fireworks that the Broekhuis family puts on each year. Having grown up in the area, one would think that we'd been to them a few times, but this was my first year attending (and in hind sight - I sure wish we would have gone sooner!). The evening was AMAZING!! Food, games, hay rides, face painting, and a spectacular fireworks show (one of the best I've ever seen) - all in a country field! :) I still stand in awe of the events of that night, and appreciate ALL the time and energy spent to put on such a fabulous evening. THANK YOU!!

Brooke, Grant, Reese, and Hannah playing around in the yard waiting for the fireworks to start.
This picture was too funny not to post. G rarely gets pop to drink and so he thought he was such big stuff drinking a can of orange pop at the Broekhuis' Monday night. Like the orange 'stache?

Lastly - as you know from my previous post, our first attempt at getting a family pictures went horribly wrong. So, we made attempt #2 while we were out at the lake. We still didn't have an incredibly cooperative crew, but better than attempt #1, so these will have to do -


OK, now I'm going to blink and it's going to be August. Ahhhhh!!!