traverse city

We took an overnight trip with friends up to Traverse City to go wine tasting.  What a riot!!  We crammed 7 of us in a van and 7 of us into a hotel room!  El cheapo!  Many laughs, more memories!  Love these people!

The kids stayed with Jess and Jeremy and of course had a great time.  We got the guns out when we came back to pick them up and each of the kids shot for the first time.  Another great weekend!

bible camp 2014

Sometimes in my pondering, I think about how it must be for God to know intricately every detail of our lives before they happen; if He is eager to see our reaction once a time of revelation comes.  I believe that as we make important choices, He rejoices even though He has known how it would be since the dawn of creation.

Eighteen years ago, I went to my church's Bible camp and continued to go for some years following.  Each summer, I was greatly affected by it.  From the worship to the messages and our intentional quiet time... I was on a spiritual cloud nine after each week away from home.  These weeks have always stood out as building blocks in my faith.

Now all of these years later, I've gotten to go back to camp as a counselor!!  And it was amazing!  I thought I was primarily going there to serve but knowing that I would be worshiping ,engaging, and learning as well and I knew that I'd be blessed.  But God went far beyond my expectations!

I was able to be in a cabin with my niece, Anna, which was so special and bonding!  I was and am so proud of her and to deepen our relationship was such a blessing.  And Sam, my nephew, was along as well and our relationship also reached a new depth!  But camp was also much more of a challenge than I thought it would be.  I had to plead for wisdom, strength, and boldness!  And I cried a lot concerning some tough choices that I had to make.  But because I went through all these difficult decisions, doubt, and sadness, God also provided and answered prayers in ways I wouldn't have witnessed had I neglected to ask Him.  Specific answers to prayer!!

There was also a moment in worship where I had to grieve the loss of my relationship with my dad.  Again, unexpected!  What in the world?  I was more hormonal than my 13 year olds!  But it was worth it!  I was prayed over by one of my sweet cabin girls!  So special!!

By the end of the week, all of the turmoil that I had encountered was resolved with a hug and an affirmation.  I was also able to pray with someone who gave their life to Christ.  And my one-on-one conversations with my girls were amazing!

I was exhausted but enriched in a way I hadn't expected!  Once again, Bible Camp built up my faith and ignited a fire!  I am so grateful to have had this opportunity!

chicago with the fam

Chicago in the summertime.  It calls to us!  Plus we had an errand to run so we packed up the family and we were on our way.  We had to pick up a large load from Ikea for a client.  We checked the kids into the Ikea playroom and had one hour to grab and load what we needed before having to pick them up again.  And then we were off to the city.  The weather was just perfect!!  We stopped at the Lincoln Park Zoo again after having been there with the family this winter.  We parked and walked downtown and strolled over to Billy Goat's Tavern.  Good times!  We continued to walk and shop and since it was so gorgeous and the kids were angels, we decided to stay as long as they were having a good time.  We ended up by the river at the end of the night and finally at 11:15 pm, we decided it was time to go.  The kids, minus Natalie, we asleep almost instantly but our eldest had to pee.  About half an hour later we found an exit outside of traffic where we could pull over and let her go.  Jordan had taken an energy shot and talked us all the way home.  Usually, that is ideal, but I was so tired!  I just remember he kept saying in between his jabbering that he didn't know if the shot was working.  It was!  Such a great time!

 We couldn't find a sitter but needed to get to Ikea for a client, so we brought the fam with and tucked the boxes around them.  It was a really tight fit.  Kudos to Odysseys!!

july

This is what our July consisted of:

Swimming lessons for Ruby and Charlie and one lesson for Emma.  She loves the water and the kids' teacher thinks that she may be a swimmer by the end of the summer if we keep working with her!

We had a quiet Fourth of July- swimming lessons in the morning, relaxing afternoon with some bottle rockets and then to the beach to visit Nienhuis', and dinner and fireworks with the Bakkers in the evening.  It was a gorgeous day!!

To finish out the holiday weekend, we went to an air show.  The kids loved it at first but got a little bored with the lulls in between.  It wasn't the best air show we've ever been too.  Charlie's favorite was when a souped up school bus raced an airplane and the bus won!  I had made him guess which would be fastest so he was blown away!  The Thunderbirds wrapped up the show which was of course, Ah.Mazing!!!

The rest of July, we had cooler weather.  We didn't get to the beach as much or swimming pools :(  But the kids were outside with the neighbor friends every single day.

We went to the street performers with the Brunink kids and had a great time!  Man I love those kiddos!  They're only an hour away from us but the busyness of life distracts us from seeing them as much.  Over the summer we were on a good streak of getting together with them each month.  So proud of them all.

Ruby lost her first tooth in July!  Of course, she was pretty proud about that!!  I think she believes that she's a woman now like Natalie!

I was gone for 5 days near the end of July for camp and I feel like the time I spent preparing for it really made my July just fly by.

And of course we end every July with Charlie's birthday.  He is FOUR!!  What?!  My baby boy!!  But what fun he is!  Charlie is my laid-back little buddy.  He's such a great big brother to Emmy, always rubbing her back and gently guiding her along.  He's my cuddler, which I cannot get enough of, and he loves a good back scratch.  He's got a great sense of humor, too!  He loves to make us laugh but he can instantly turn bashful.  He's so bashful!!  But once he's caught up in playing or making someone laugh, he forgets all about that and is crazy!  We just love this little guy so much!  I am so proud of who he is!!

We had a small crowd over for his birthday.  Some of the grandparents and then our close neighbor friends and Alec.  He was proud to have his two best buds, Gage and Alec, by his side and then to have them sleep over.  What a blast he had on this birthday!