Let's begin with trip to Holland #1. We wanted to get there with Mark, and after looking at our busy August calendar, realized we had about one day to go. So go we did! I'm guessing it was about 100 degrees, but couldn't remember for sure. : ) Mark was on call and had to do a little work in the morning, so we decided to go mid-afternoon and take a picnic dinner. It was a good plan because everyone who got there really early left as we were arriving, so it was much less crowded. The waves weren't too big and we had lots of fun swimming and splashing in the water. The kids were much more confident in the water after their swim lessons (yea! money well spent!). It was the first time that we could remember being in the water more than playing in the sand (consequently, not that many pictures were taken).
Two days later (literally) the kids and I went back to Holland to visit Mom & Dad who were RV'ing there. It's always nice to go while they are there (besides the obvious of seeing them!) because they feed us, have a clean bathroom, easy access to water (the kind out of a faucet, not a Lake), and changing facilities.
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| Cole, showing off his new swimming skills |
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| Is it any wonder that it several washings to get all the sand off of Kara? |
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| I think originally this picture was to remind me of Kara playing bake shop on Cole's wake board. But now, I wonder what Cole is doing? |
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| Thanks for entertaining us! |
Next up was a session with Ruff Readers for Cole. The library offered 15 minute spots for kids to read to therapy dogs. Cole was excited then nervous about doing it, and almost didn't go. When we got to the library, the earlier group was finishing up so the kids were peeking through windows to look at the dogs. Almost immediately, Cole yells "He looks like Brutus!" (who you may recall is Mark's Bulldog Webkinz). Cole was the second reader to go in so he got to pick his dog, and he immediately went to the Brutus look alike, who was named Kallie, and actually a 110 pound Bull Mastiff (not quite a Bulldog). She is 4 years old and just had puppies, and oh! one was still available. Two sets of eyes turned to me. They got a quick shake of the head and went back to patting Kallie. As we later discussed, 110 pounds is in the 'enormous' category for dogs! Kallie has quite the resume for a 4 year old. She participates in the Ruff Readers program, visits nursing homes, is a physical therapy dog, and has won several awards (and most of her work is volunteer work, and her trainer has a full time job!) Cole was very cute reading to Kallie. She wasn't terribly interested in the Star Wars book, and would often shift her position and turn her head away from Cole. Cole would then follow her to wherever she was so she could see the pictures. He ended up having a great time and enjoyed reading to Kallie.
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| Mercy! Kallie is a big dog! |
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| While Bull Mastiffs and Bulldogs do have similar faces, that's as far as any similarities go! |
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| Kara enjoyed her time with Kallie too. |
It was then time for our first camping trip. It was not our best trip for a number of reasons (mainly rain - lots of rain), but we did have some fun times. We had fun playing in Lake Michigan, climbed an enormous dune, Cole braved a very tall water slide, and we found a little inland
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| Waiting for a wave to come in to jump |
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| Surveying the dune |
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| The view from the top |
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| Awesome water slide! Cole rode it twice, with each of us |
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| Nice, wave-less water for the kids to play in |
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| Cole was very clever and created a boat! |
Another thing we did a lot of in August (although we have very few pictures from it) was go to our community pool to swim. The kids had been asking why we didn't have a membership, and I told them that I couldn't take two non-swimmers to the pool, and that when they learned how to swim, we would consider it. Friends invited us to the pool as guests, the Friday before their swim lessons started. They had a great time, even being limited to playing where they could touch, wearing their life jackets, etc. I was talking with our friend about possibly buying some passes so we could go a time or two after their lessons, so they could keep up with their skills. Another friend overheard, and had a punch card available, so I told her I would purchase it, pending the kids learning to swim. After the two weeks of lessons, we picked up the punch card and went many times. We ended up buying some passes from another friends so we could keep going! I foresee a family membership or a lot of passes in our future!
Steve, Hilary, and Nicholas came to town for almost a week. It had been a year since we'd seen each other, so we decided that playing at the pool would be a good place to have everyone get reacquainted. We had a great time, and it was the start of a fun week together.
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| Kim & Cole vs. Steve & Nicholas in a made up game of pool chicken. I can't rightly recall, but I'm pretty sure Cole and I won! |
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| Did find carrying Kara around the pool was pretty easy this way (later we found our floaties that allowed them to have a little independence in the deeper water) |
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| Vying for turns to be thrown |
Then we took a day trip down memory lane and went to Silver Lake, our vacation location growing up for many, many years. Some things remained the same, some were different. Steve and I would comment on something in surprise or disbelief (a fact, the appearance of something, etc.), and then we did a little math and realized that we hadn't been there for 20 years, and that things were likely to change in that amount of time. What didn't change, however, was the fun that being at Silver Lake demands.
This was the Mac Woods Dune Ride that we started the trip with. A fun start to the trip and the littles loved it!
Next we drove to the State Park and climbed up dunes, ran down dunes, splashed in the water after running down said dune, lost a shoe (permanently), lost family members (temporarily), and generally had a great time!
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| Could Kara be any cuter? |
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| Running (and then walking) up a ginormous dune. |
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| Running (boys) and walking quickly (Kara and Uncle Steve) down the ginormous dune. Cole is closest to the bottom, Nicholas is halfway down, and Kara and Uncle Steve are towards the top. (you can click on the picture to enlarge it) |
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| We braved it and got to the top! |
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| 5 way frisbee game |
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| And on our last night together, a great family picture! |
And last up for August is camping trip #2. This time we went to Muskegon and had such a good time! We had a really nice site, there was a private beach just for campers (and it was beautiful!), we only had rain once (which we were prepared for, and not trying to cook a meal during), the kids got along beautifully, and there were some nice hiking trails (oh my goodness our kids are good sports and can walk a long ways!). This is definitely a spot we'll try to go back to.
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| Custom built lounge 'thrones' |
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| We ended up taking a round about way on this hike - estimate we hiked about 4 miles, most of which the kids walked |
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| Kids playing nicely #1 |
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| Kids playing nicely #2 |
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| Handsome beach bum! |
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| Just relaxin' while I await my Shirley Temple to arrive. |
So, that ends our full and fun August re-cap!
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