Beach Fun!

Abigail's friend Annika moved to Minnesota this Spring. We all miss her and her family so much! They came to Holland for two weeks this Summer to visit. We planned a beach party at the Mulder Beach to see Annika and have fun with our friends! We ended up with 31 kids and 15 adults at the beach for a couple of hours on a gorgeous afternoon. Even their third grade teacher, Mrs. Coon, came! Abby's grade is unique in the fact that they ALL GET ALONG. All of them. It's so awesome to see the amazing friendships! What a fun afternoon with fabulous friends!

Abby Gets Braces!

We took Abigail to the orthodontist recently and found out that she needed braces. They want to do a two phase process on her (which is apparently quite common now) starting right away. She has a cross bite and that needs to be corrected now and then once all of her baby teeth are out (usually around 12) she will get the "regular" braces. So...a couple of days later we took her back in for pictures, impressions, etc. and then two days later they put in top braces and an expander bar. We've been turning the expander bar twice a day and will continue doing it for a total of 14 days. Then the braces will stay on for a couple of more months. The first couple of days were rough, I'm not going to lie, but now she's been doing great! We're so proud of her! She looks so cute and grown up too!

Silver Lake - Mac Woods Dune Ride

We spent last Sunday at Silver Lake. We all love going up there and it's nice that it's close enough that we can just go for a day trip. This time we spent the day on the dunes, ate dinner with the family and then headed to Mac Wood's Dune Rides. The kids received a "coupon" for a free dune scooter ride in their Easter eggs from Grandma and Grandpa so it was time to turn them in and go for a ride! Abby had been on a ride before but the other kids hadn't.

We had a little fun while waiting for our turn on the scooters. Yeah, Colin looks "cool," doesn't he? Henry tried this hat on in the gift shop. Like the hair? I'm trying to convince myself that 100 other people haven't already tried it on...yuck!

 Time for the ride! Henry sat by Grandpa Bill.

 Johanna say by Grandma Rita. This was her "I'm trying to smile 

but want to see where we are going" face. :)

 Johanna LOVED the ride! Her favorite part was when the driver pointed out the 

off-road Jeeps in the distance. This girl is OBSESSED with Jeeps!

 This picture of Colin and Henry and the one of Josh and Jos are so freakin cute!

Summer Blueberry Picking

I realized I didn't blog about our blueberry picking adventure this year. We had Mila stay with us for a couple days in July so we decided it would be fun to take her blueberry picking with us on Saturday, July 21. We headed to the Gold Barn on a beautiful night. There was a breeze and it wasn't nearly as hot as it's been most days this summer. The kids had a blast and we picked a good 25+ pounds of berries. Abigail and Henry were very serious about picking and each filled a bucket. Mila and Johanna? Not so much. :) They probably ate a full bucket. We had such a wonderful night!

Detroit Weekend...Day 3

Sunday we got up and went down for breakfast. Check out these pictures below - see why the kids love it? Donuts, muffins, yogurt, fruit, bacon, sausage, eggs, french toast, omelets, cereal, hashbrowns and so much more! Yum!  We ate breakfast, packed up and headed for home. We made a stop at Ikea on the way home (thanks, Colin!) and got home at a reasonable time. Would we do this trip again? Absolutely! The kids were awesome, our family time was great and the places we went to were memorable and well-done. Best of all? We have some great memories made together.