Fun on the Water

Beautiful Higgins Lake.

Hannah and Jason's first ride in the tube.

Birthday and Father's Day Weekend

The weekend of Father's Day, our good friends the Deans came over.  Jason and Brian both share a birthday, so we thought it would be fitting to spend the day together.

Hannah and Trevor made the daddies a beautiful birthday cake.

Birthday boys

On Sunday, the kids gave Jason a stepping stone that they had made for our landscaping.

In the afternoon we headed to Grand Haven to enjoy the day.

Dinner at Snug Harbor.  A great way to end a fun weekend.

Swimming Lessons with Miss Rita - Week 2

Hannah and Jack both went back for a second week of swimming lessons with Miss Rita.  After the first week, they were both technically swimming, but I wanted to make sure they were swimming strong and with confidence.  What a difference the second week made!

 

Hannah made a HUGE improvement the second week, eager to get to lessons each morning, being the first in the pool, and willingly swimming to her teachers.

This is the girl who had the death grip on her teachers the first week of class!

Jack continued to get stronger as well.

He's one smart boy.  Notice that he's still crying from the side of the pool but he still manages to wave to me before being thrown in.  Love my boy!

The happy graduates.

Back seat driver

Hannah got a hold of my camera while we were riding in the car.  Here's her view of things.

Gun Lake

We headed down to Gun Lake to spend a hot summer day.

Jack got some rest wearing his shades on the way down.

Lunch on the boat.

Jack much preferred to stay in the boat.

However, since we've been in swimming lessons we got him in the water to give his new skills a try.  He was not thrilled.

Dinner at the Sand Bar.

Miss Rita's Swimming Lessons - Week 1

Being around water so much, it was important to us that the kids know how to swim, so we signed them up for Miss Rita's swimming class.  She's known for being tough, but I had no idea how brutal the week would start.

The first couple of days, the parents are not allowed in the pool area so that the kids can concentrate on the class and the moms don't jump in the pool to save their children!  I think nearly every kid cried the first day, including Hannah and Jack.

However, through the tears the kids actually learned to swim!  Since Jack was so little I was allowed to stay in the pool area to keep him from wandering between his turns in the pool, and it was amazing to see the progress.  By the end of the second day, Jack was swimming!

Miss Rita had 2 helpers - Mr. Mike and Miss Jenny the first week.  Hannah was so terrified that she clung to the teacher's bathing suit and tried all of her negotiating tactics to get out of the pool (I don't want to swim.  I'm a baby.  How many more times?)  We had to work on her quite a bit to loosen up and gain some confidence.

We heard a lot of "head down," and "kick, kick, kick."

 

Miss Rita about to throw Jack into the deep end.  He screamed the entire time.  In fact, I think he burned more energy screaming than he did swimming.

 

Hannah getting thrown into the deep end by Miss Jenny.

Hannah swimming!!

Jack swimming!

Date Night

Jason recently took Hannah out for a daddy-daughter date night.  She wanted to go to the restaurant by the lake (Rose's), but Jason talked her into Walker Roadhouse instead.  This was a big deal because it was the first time the two of them had gone out to a nice sit-down restaurant.  After dinner, they played putt-putt golf (Hannah's first time ever!) at the Double Dip Depot where Hannah got a hole-in-one and got a t-shirt!  Of course, they had to end the evening with ice cream. 

Festival + Birthday Party

One of our favorite summer traditions is going to Festival of the Arts, so we made sure to get there again this year.

We headed downtown right after church, which was perfect timing.  We beat the crowds and walked right up to get our food, which included Hannah getting cotton candy with her very own money.

Hannah had to paint a beautiful picture for us as well.

After festival, we headed to our neighbors' birthday party.

Rina did a great job, setting up all kinds of field day type games including tug-of-war.

Hannah helping the girls' team out.

Amani's birthday cake (her brother Ziyad in the green got a cake of his own to celebrate his second birthday as well).  Not only was the cake delish, but the food was all homemade Indian food.  So good!!!

Jack was really most interested in the playground.

Hannah and Amani

Weekend adventure

The weekend after Memorial Day Jason wanted to check out the Spring Lake wooden boat show.  It was a rather small show and pretty chilly, so we didn't stay long.  However, we did hang around long enough for Hannah to make her very own wooden boat.

Sailing her new boat for the first time.

After the show, we headed north near Pentwater to check out a fish place we've heard about for quite awhile.  We were not disappointed!

Whitefish and french fries fried right before our eyes made for a very satisfied husband.

Me and my girl.

On the way home we made a stop a Whippy Dip in Silver Lake for some ice cream and to burn some energy on the playground.  The twisty slide was really fast, and poor Jack had quite a hard time getting the hang of it.  After a few tries he was a pro, but the first few times down were a bit traumatic.

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent Memorial Day weekend up north at Higgins Lake.

The weather started off pretty cold and rainy, so much of the day was spent relaxing in pj's and watching movies.

Butterflies were everywhere!

A favorite past time for the kids was rolling down the hill on their cars.  They did it over and over again.

We're outgrowing the table, so we brought the picnic table in for the kids.

Saturday was also Jack's 2nd birthday, so we got him a cake and had a little party to celebrate.  No, I didn't make the cake but looks like I could have :-)

Jack couldn't resist taste-testing the frosting.  He kept saying "hot, hot" when we lit the candles and had to coax him into blowing them out.

Oliver and Jack playing with his new John Deer.

Donuts!

All 4 of the grandkids.

Papa's boys.

We got in some beach time while we were up there too.

Papa actually took his boat out for a ride!!  He's now already had the boat out more than he did all last summer.

Evidence that it does not matter how cold the water is for kids to play.  I convinced my dad to go in the water with Hannah so I could be spared from the freezing water.  Hannah had a ball, but we knew from her shivers that it was time to get out,.