Back to School

It was fun buying the new school supplies, and packing the boys' backpacks!

The boys both did an excellent job at the back to school night!  I think this was the first year that I remembered to take my camera and also had boys that cooperated with me taking pictures of them.  :)

 Dorian's 3rd grade classroom!

 Mrs. Wieringa is his teacher!

Levi's 1st grade classroom is in the new addition!  Ms. Van Otterloo is the year long student teacher from Dordt who will be in his classroom Monday through Thursday mornings.

 A nice and neat desk!

 Mrs. Rozenboom is Levi's teacher!

We are so excited about the new addition to SCCS.  In my opinion, it was much needed!  The lunchroom improvements are also wonderful!  I'm thankful that the boys have a brighter and bigger space.

August 25: The first day of school.  The boys each picked out their favorite shirts to wear.

 Mason and I waved good-bye as they left at 8:00.

And after a day of baking, cleaning, playing and other random things, we were excited to meet the boys at the bus stop at 3:15!!!

We sat to eat snacks together and I loved hearing about their days.  I especially loved how excited and happy they were!!!  So far, this year has been the best transition for the boys.  For this I am thankful!

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!

MN vacation!

July 25 to August 1
Spirit of the North Resort
Leech Lake, Minnesota

We stopped for lunch at a park in the middle of our 6 hour drive to the resort.  It was a perfect time to stop and burn off some energy!

It was quite difficult for Nathan to use his own advice (to Dorian who turned him down) of using the women's bathroom to refill water bottles while the men's bathroom was in use, even though we were the only ones at the park.  :)

Our van was packed full in the back and so the 3 boys all sat in the middle row!

The cabin was great!  There were 2 bedrooms and the boys shared one room but each had their own bed.  There were 2 bathrooms that included a whirlpool tub which Levi was very excited about.  He took a bath shortly after our arrival while we were unpacking and getting supper ready.  :)  We went for a short boat ride before bedtime, but it wasn't too relaxing since it started to rain!

On Sunday morning we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast!

It was a gorgeous day so we packed a lunch and went out for a boat ride.  Woohoo!

Dorian couldn't wait to get his fishing pole in the water!

Nap time is best when it's on the water!

He caught a fish!!!  Unfortunately it wasn't a keeper, but he was still very proud.

We spent the afternoon on the beach trying out all of the fun toys!  Paddle boards, kayaks, hydro-bikes, and a trampoline on the water!!!  It was a blast!

Monday was my birthday!  We rented a tube for the day.  Dorian had a lot of fun riding on it, but we couldn't convince Levi to try it.

We ate lunch on the boat and then went to skiing lessons.  I was very proud of Levi and Dorian for giving it a try.

36 years old, and I can still ski.  :)  Yeah!

But the highlight of our afternoon was that Nathan gave it another shot, and for the first time, he skied!  Unfortunately I didn't get a closer picture of him.

That evening we took the boat across the lake to get ice cream from Dairy Queen.  We had a good trip there, but the return trip was a little more adventurous than we were hoping for.  Levi was trying to warm himself  up with an additional life jacket.

Mason fell asleep, but I had fun cuddling with him!

And then the wind picked up.  Our boat couldn't handle the waves and we started having boat trouble.  It seemed like the slower we went the better it was for the boat, but the sun was going down and we didn't have a lot of gas left.  The boys didn't sense any trouble, they were having a blast jumping up and down with the waves and pretending that they were surfing!

Then we started getting splashed and more cold.  I wrapped up Mason in the only towel we had taken along and he was able to stay sleeping.

The sunset was beautiful!  And we did make it back safely!!!

On Tuesday, we went swimming at the indoor pool, and went tubing.  Nathan went to buy more fishing tackle, and we played at the beach.
Tuesday's beautiful sunset!

On Wednesday Nathan took Dorian and Levi golfing.  There was a wind advisory and it was clearly not good boating weather.  They had a great time together, and Mason and I were content hanging out at the resort.

Bud, the dog, was a huge hit.

Mason loved the sand digger.

All 3 boys loved the bunnies and spent hours feeding them grass and petting them!

The resort had activities for kids daily and Mason especially loved the train rides!

He also thought the game room was pretty cool!

Here is the cabin that we stayed in.

Levi named the bunnies Fuzzy and Brownie!

On Thursday we rented the tube again for the day and Dorian had a blast on it, even though it was a little more rough on the water.

I had fun driving!

Our boat ride ended when we were unable to get it started again!  We tried everything that we knew how to do and finally ended up drifting to someone else's dock and calling the owners for help.  I was very thankful to be back to our resort after that adventure.

Levi was most content when he was with Bud!

It was fun to eat supper in the screened in porch!

This was our view from the porch on our cabin.

Since the boys didn't have any luck catching fish on their own, they called a guide to take them out on Friday morning.  They caught 13 fish!  And we enjoyed eating some of them for supper!

While the boys were out fishing, Mason and I were happy that there were some fun activities at the lodge.  He was thrilled to have another train ride.  And we raced a turtle!

In the afternoon, we went swimming.  Dorian and Levi had a lot of fun jumping in the big waves as it was still windy.

On Saturday morning, Mason and I packed up our stuff while the rest of the boys went out fishing one last time hoping to catch some on their own this time.  While they were unsuccessful, I think they deserve a medal for their perseverance!

You know you've had a good vacation when at the end, everyone thinks that they could have stayed another week!  :)
Feeling very thankful for all of the fun memories that we made!