Michigan Vacation

We headed out for a five-day vacation in the Sleeping Bear Dunes region of Michigan. It was so beautiful. The lake was so clear. You could walk out for about a half mile and still only be up to your chest. I like the fact that you could see your feet (not a huge swimmer in mucky water). We canoed, which will go down as the "Claire-hates-canoeing trip". She was bit grumpy about following directions (hmmm - where does she get that from?). We hiked the Sleeping Bear Dunes. See this picture -- that is just the first crest of the dunes. It goes on and on, up and up after that. Who knew walking uphill in sand for over an could be so exhausting? We all slept like babies that night.

A quick stop at South Haven on the way home to see the lighthouse. The kids thought it would be bigger. This isn't Maine, ya' know?

AND, back to reality. How do six people make so much stinky laundry? Poor me.

Roadkill Rescue

Before: Brant and I found these lockers on the way home from one of many softball games this summer. They were just sitting on the road waiting for the trash man. I could not allow this travesty. After shaming my husband into pulling over and helping me smuggle these big boys into the back of our mini, these then sat in the garage for about a month. Well . . .

AFTER: A thorough scrubbing and about $12 dollars in spray paint brought forth these awesome babies. They work great in Brant's Bear Cave and also work great for hiding a lot of our junk.

Half Way

Summer is zipping by here. We are officially half way through and none of us is ready for it to be near over. We still have so many things to check off our summer to-do list, I don't know it we will possibly get it all done. It will be fun to try through.

We visited family over the Fourth, and we are now blessed with an Aunt and Uncle with a pool! Every time we step on our back deck now, my children reminecse about "how great that pool was. Gee, it sure would be nice to have one of our own." : ) With the 97 degree spike like today, I too, think a pool sound better and better.

New Dress for an Old Girl

More pictures to come, but here's what we've been spending the majority of any rain free days on -- painting our house. We trying to give our old girl a new dress. Every inch of our big, old house is getting freshened up. I love what it will become, but we have many miles to go before we sleep on this project.

We have the hardest, three-story side of the house done thanks to help from Grandpa. What a load! That one side took 10 hours due to the 40' fiberglass ladder we had to use. Glad the roughest part is done. Now if we could just get some time without rain to work on the rest of the house.

Softball

Softball season isn't quite over yet. Another week and two more tournaments. Ava is soooo over the whole thing, which is sad because she is really, pretty good. I think once swimming season started, Ava was ready to toss the ball and glove in the closet. She normally plays third base. It's her best position. Catcher is her least favorite, but how cute is that little Bird in all that gear? Her team had a rought start to the season. The coaching was way out of control, but after a few conversations with her young and punky coach, everything started to get on track. The girls started having fun, and the team started winning. Win, win situation.

Claire and Paige had a great season too. Claire has really started learning strategy this season. She now really gets what base to throw to for the best out. She also has a bit more finesse to her batting. Paige has fallen in love with catcher. It just became her passion. It's too cute to watch her throw the mask off to try to catch foul tips. She did actually catch a couple, which always brought the fans to their feet. It was a great season, but I think we are all ready to spend a night not at the ball fields.

Spring Showers

Where has the time gone? We've been so busy since spring. Time has just flown by. We've spent much of our time ferrying four kids on three base/soft-ball teams back and forth to games, practices, and tournaments. Zing -- there went April through June.

Anyway, we had a lovely spring for mushrooming in the backyard with all the rain and sun. These were just a sample of what the kids found. We had quite a few more. Only one of the kids actually ate them, but that just left more for me and Brant.

Happy Mother's Day!

You gotta' love Anita Renfroe. I think if her kids have turned out o.k., mine are safe. I handle way too much of the craziness around here with a heavy dose of humor. Hope everyone has a Mother's Day full of burned toast and dandelion bouquets!