July

Julia and a Heritage Camp teacher

Julia's preschool global camp

Just to prove that I can still do it

Classic picture taken by Steph

Family picture

The pen is for Stephen, but they all go in with him

Cutie. And nice looking Grandpa too

Here we go!

The end is in sight

Finished the race and got our cookies

Our cheering section

His Little Feet choir performing at church

Choir group that stayed at our house

Keeping up with the blog is proving difficult!  I need to start a page where I jot down things I want to remember so I'm not wracking my brain when it is time to blog.  I included a few more pics of Heritage Camp.  And my Mom took a picture of me waterskiing at the cottage last month.  I didn't ski last summer because I was pregnant so it was a good feeling to get up right away and find my groove again.  Wish we could ski more often! 

Stephanie came home for a visit, but the time always goes too fast.  I was a little sad that I couldn't spend much quality time with her because of some last minute busyness.  But, she was a huge help with the kids- as always!  I love the honest discussions we have and the silliness.  Love you Steph!

At the end of the month Nate, Steph and I ran a 5K.  The race raised money for adoption grants for special needs orphans.  I hate running and after the 5K I ran a couple years ago I swore I would never do it again.  However, I hadn't been getting to the gym much since Stephen was born and I needed some form of exercise.  Running was easy enough to do when Nate was home and the race was benefitting something I'm passionate about- seemed like a good idea.  It did NOT seem like a good idea while I was running the race.  It was brutal.  Steph kept me going though and I ran the whole thing.  And the race gave out cookies at the end, sweet!  Nate had a good race time and Steph would have had a better time if she hadn't stuck with me- what a nice sister.  And once again I say never again to a 5K...

The end of July also brought the choir His Little Feet to Holland.  I'd been working for a while to bring the choir to our church and it finally happened!  The choir is made up of orphans from Ethiopia and India.  The choir advocates and raises awareness for orphans around the world.  They performed at Faith CRC in the morning and then went to our old church in South Haven that evening.  Five families from our church, including us, hosted the kids and staff.  We had two boys and a staff member stay with us.  The day the choir left our homes they found out their next venue cancelled on them and they were without homes for 3 nights.  (The choir is based out of Colorado.)  We did a little scrambling and were able to find host homes.  We ended up hosting two groups.  So we had two boys and a staff member in the house and two boys and a staff member in our camper outside.  It was a great couple of days.  I had mentioned to Nate when the choir left the first time that we didn't have much time to connect with them.  But, God brought them back for an extended stay!  It was challenging to cook for 12 people, I felt like Grandma at the cottage. Our whole family enjoyed the time with the choir and are thankful for the relationships formed. 

Stephen is now crawling, here comes trouble!  He can now eat Cheerios too, I love that milestone.  It is much easier to keep babies happy in restaurants, etc when they can eat Cheerios.  Stephen had allergy testing done and he does not have any food allergies!  We are so thankful.  The Dr. said he probably has a milk intolerance.  So as he gets older we'll keep track of how his digestive system handles dairy products.  If he has discomfort we'll do lactose free products.

Now we are in the last weeks of summer vacation, hard to believe!