the end of summer vacation

Here is what we've been up to so far this month!

We got home on Saturday, August 1st, from our vacation to MN.  It was a quick turn around to get the laundry done, get unpacked, and then repacked to spend a few days (3rd-5th) at my mom and dad's house.

The cousins had fun playing together and Emma graciously gave many mower rides!

We enjoyed eating smores by the firepit.

 Dad is so proud of all of his slides!  It was fun to see a few of them with the boys.

 There is one of my grade school track meets!

One project that we set out to accomplish was to transfer all of mom and dad's slides into a digital photo album.  It was not a small project.  After many hours we accomplished our goal!

We also went one afternoon to swim at Mill Creek State Park in Paullina.  It was fun to spend some time together!

Levi has been begging for his own pet to take care of (especially after falling in love with the bunnies and the dog on our MN vacation).  If it would have been my decision alone, we would not have added another pet to our home.  But after some discussion, we agreed to letting him get some fish. He was thrilled and has been doing a good job feeding them on his own each morning.

Jayden spent a lot of time at our house the last couple of weeks.  Dorian loved playing pool downstairs with him and playing with Ninjago Legos.  Dorian is excited that Jayden will be in his 3rd grade class!

All of the boys like to walk on the treadmill.  I wish I loved it as much as they do. :)

Nathan had an all day work trip so I took the boys to the Fireslide Park for the evening!

It was fun to swim on the beach, have a picnic, and go boating with Grandpa and Grandma at Lake Okoboji one evening.  And it was especially exciting because Levi was brave enough to go tubing. Dorian tubed as well and thought it was the most fun to go out of the wake!

July 18:  I took the boys to the Brookings Children's Museum for the day!

Mason was old enough to also enjoy climbing on the cloud tower!

We all had a fun day exploring and playing together!

Some other memorable events so far this month:
1.  We had water in our basement which wasn't cheap to get cleaned up.  :(
2.  The boys are registered for school!
3.  We went to the Saarloos family's house for supper.
4.  We had a picnic at the Zonnefeld's house with the Math Department.
5.  We also had a picnic at President Hoekstra's house with all the Dordt faculty.
6.  Derek Schuurman (new prof in Nathan's department) and his family came to our house for supper.
7.  We ate supper at Erik Foreseth's house with another new Dordt professor and his family.
8.  We went to my cousin's wedding.  Congrats to Tyler and Katelyn!

In some ways it really does seem like it was last week that the boys started summer vacation, but tomorrow begins another year of school for them!  And Nathan starts another semester as well!  Last summer was way too busy, but I feel much more on top of things this year.  I think I'm ready for this new season to begin!