Summer Research

Nathan's summer research students are all finished for the summer. Here is the whole group. :)

31st birthday

I opened 3 gifts the morning of my birthday. Loaf pans from Levi, pie irons from Dorian, and information from Nathan about the upcoming online photography class he had signed me up for. Yeah! I have looked into taking a photography class for a long time, but just never found the right one at the right time. This looks like a perfect fit. I can do it on my own time since it is online, and it looks like it will be a class about the basics...of which I don't know. Thanks Nathan...this was a great idea!

We asked our sitter, Kelsey, to come over so that we could go out for the evening without the boys. Since it was a beautiful summer day, we went out to Holland State Park with food we had taken out from Qdoba. We ate while watching the beautiful sunset and enjoying a relaxing conversation. I did become convinced to go in the water for a little while even though the water felt cold. After the sun had set, we packed up and stopped at the General Store for ice cream on the way home. That place always looks busy, and we'd never tried it out before, so I was curious. After finally arriving at the front of the line, we picked from the many, many options and enjoyed our ice cream while browsing in the General Store. Now there was no need to be curious anymore about why that location is always busy, because we'd checked it out for ourselves. :) A fun birthday.

blueberry picking

We now have a new family tradition...blueberry picking at the S. Kamphuis Blueberry Farm! We went this afternoon and had a blast. The boys could easily reach the blueberries and help with picking and we all enjoyed eating them. :) They also had a little store with delicious blueberry yogurt!!! Yum!

finished!

I'm not really quite sure when the upstairs hallway project began. But for now, it's finished. :) It's taken me quite a while to get used to the blue color that I picked out for the walls, but it's growing on me. I decided to hang up all of the Michigan scenic pictures that I've taken over the past 5 years. And the window is our old garage window. I imagine that this space and the old laptop will get used more and more as the boys get older.

first time...

to the beach with just the boys and myself and it went very well! It was a sunny summer day, Levi was having a pretty crabby morning, and I knew it would be best for all of us to get out of the house. So since Nathan still hadn't left for work, he helped by packing us our lunch and I packed up towels, sunscreen, the beach umbrella, sand toys, etc and put on our bathing suits and about 15 minutes later we were heading out the door. We dropped Nathan off at his office and we were off. The waves were too high for the boys to enjoy the water, but they played in the sand for a couple of hours before we started to pack up. The boys were great and I'm excited to do it again sometime.

sofball champ

Nathan played softball this year with the Maranatha team. We were hoping to join him for more games, however, there were only 2 games that started at 6:30 and the others started too late for the little boys. We were quite impressed to see Nathan hit a home run at his game a little over a week ago. And then after their last game of the season on Monday night, the team won first place in their league and received new shirts and a trophy! Way to go Nathan.

cabin camping: July 6-9

Tuesday

What a great vacation! When we arrived, we were highly impressed with the cabin and it's location! We had our own private dock, the cabin was only a few years old so everything looked nice and new, and we were right by the water and away from many of the other campers. And we soon discovered that it was a very short walk down to the beach, a short walk over to the fishing dock and a short walk to the bathrooms/showers. We also loved the fact that it was only a 2 hour drive there. We drove both ways over nap time so it was perfect.




We took out the rowboat after we ate supper the first night. The boys sat very well and mostly enjoyed holding the fishing pole (even though it wasn't possible for them to catch a fish).

Levi had just gotten over 2 consecutive ear infections and just the day before we left, was needing nebulizer treatments. :( It sure seems like he is sick a lot. We had to give him pulmacort twice a day and albuteral every 4 hours. :( We did this throughout the first couple of days and then his symptoms were improved.

Wednesday
A thunderstorm rolled in shortly after we had taken showers and gotten all settled in for the morning. Dorian took his first ever shower and he thought it was a blast. :) So during the rain we took out the Legos and some games and had fun in our cabin. For lunch we ate on the covered part of the porch and stayed nice and dry!

We had a campfire before the boys went to bed. It was mostly because I felt like you wouldn't officially be camping without one. :) The boys and I enjoyed our smores.

Thursday

Nathan was itching to take the boys fishing on the fishing dock. It was shortly after lunch time that we finally got that accomplished. However, the fish don't bite at that time of day. The only thing that they caught was daddy's finger. Ouch!

In the afternoon I stayed back at the cabin while Levi napped (it ended up to be the whole afternoon...he slept for 3 hours). Nathan and Dorian went over to the beach. I was able to read some Parents magazine articles that I've been wanting to read and Nathan was able to read as well. It was quite relaxing!

The nature trails would have been fun had there been no mosquitoes, so we weren't there very long.

Insead, we made stick creatures with the googly eyes that I brought along. An idea I found out of a magazine. :)

Friday
Dorian and daddy woke up first and went right out on the rowboat to catch some fish. And they did, even with a kids size fishing pole and some rusty hooks. :) Levi had a short turn, but wasn't nearly as patient about the whole process. After we got home, Nathan cooked up our fish and we ate them. Well, I was quite nervous about eating it so I had a small bite.

Before it was time to pack everything up and head home, we decided to spend some time on the beach together.

Packing didn't really take too long and we were on the road by about 12:30.

The wildflowers were so beautiful. It was a peaceful ride home.

Since this day was our 6th wedding anniversary, Nathan had planned on making a nice dinner for the 2 of us after the boys were in bed. So the unpacking certainly didn't get done, but we were able to eat a very delicious meal together. Thanks honey! A great way to end a great trip!