July

Kai and Stephen- so cute

Nate did some backyard camping

We caught a bunny!

Zipline fun

Watching the fish

Bath Time

Cuddling with Uncle Mike

Movie time

Fun at the beach

Watch out for the 3 year old with a sparkler

Uncle Nate's breakfast crew

Captain Sundae

Celebrating Adoption Day at Culvers

Older brothers are so mean fun

Canoe ride- a Mom and 5 kids, what could go wrong?

Backyard campfire with Grandpa

She's using chopsticks!

Running down the Tunnel Park sand dune

Ferris Wheel at Dutch Village- Lexi did not enjoy the ride

Blueberry picking- Lexi picked them and stepped on them

Top of Mt. Pisgah

Grandpa love

Camping at Ionia Recreation Area

Hey look, a picture of me on the blog

Our flotilla

Grandpa found some granddaughters in the water

Water balloon on Isaac's head

Who doesn't love pigtails?

Wow, that is alot of pictures for July!  Maybe I should just leave it as a month of pictures and no words? We began July with a visit from Mike and Colleen's family.  We had a fun weekend with them! Jack slept with the older boys and Abby, Ashley and Kate slept with Julia.  We moved Lexi to our room and Stephen had his room to himself. He wanted to share his room with a cousin, but it didn't work out this time. The kids enjoyed being together and playing outside.  We spent an afternoon at Tunnel Park and had some pizza for supper.  We also did sparklers, bottle rockets and poppers to celebrate the 4th of July.  Our neighbors put on an impressive (and noisy) fireworks display too.  Nate, Caleb, Isaac, Mike and Colleen went to watch the fireworks on Lake Macatawa.  I stayed home with the 7 children who were in bed.  I was praying that the noisy fireworks in our neighborhood wouldn't wake any of the kids up- the ratio of children to adults was not in my favor! Thankfully no one woke up.  Nate made breakfast one morning and ended up at the table by himself with all the kids.  It's funny now, I don't think he found it funny at the time. Colleen's family went to Dutch Village to look at the shops. Our kids have experienced a lot of Dutch culture, so we went for a bike ride.  We ended the visit by walking to Captain Sundae of course.

The older 3 kids and Nate and I went thru a Compassion Experience at a local church.  You get to walk thru replicas of homes/Compassion centers in other countries and learn what life is like for a child in the Compassion program.  We have Compassion children for our older 3 kids and we found a new child for Stephen! His name is Cesar and he lives in El Salvador.  He and Stephen are 1 month apart in age.  Stephen is so excited that he has a friend Cesar and he prays for him every night.

Nate was gone the 9th-17th for the youth group's trip to Colorado.  They drove out, spent a couple days backpacking in the mountains and then some days in Denver with homeless youth.  They went with an organization called Dry Bones that serves homeless youth in Denver.  Nate learned and experienced many things.  And of course he loved backpacking.  His low point? When a bear walked past their camp and everyone saw the bear, except Nate.

While Nate was gone the kids and I kept busy.  I took the kids to Windmill Island for a water conservation event.  We went for a ride in a large canoe and learned about the French fur traders who used to live in this area.  There was a fishing area set up, but we didn't catch anything.

Then Grandpa DeMaster arrived! We spent the week taking kids to swimming lessons, picking blueberries, eating donuts, playing at the park, taking bike rides, eating ice cream, going to Dutch Village, climbing Mt. Pisgah and going to the beach. Anything I forgot? Oh right, and he painted more of our kitchen.  It was so nice to have him here while Nate was gone.

We finished out swimming lessons.  Apparently Caleb is too old for swimming lessons now, he was not happy about doing them again.  All three of the older kids are good swimmers.  The older 3 had playdates with the Gabrielse kids almost every week this summer.  Karin and I took turns hosting and it worked out well.

We went camping for the first time as a family of 7.  We went to Ionia Recreation Area, near Grand Rapids.  It was very hot, but we had a shady campsite.  We no longer all fit in the camper, so the older boys slept in a tent- which they thought was great.  We hiked one morning and spent the afternoon at the lake.  On Saturday morning we rented kayaks/canoes and paddled around the lake with Grandpa Jongsma.  We spent the afternoon back at the lake.  Around 9 pm that night I heard a fellow camper mention packing up because it was supposed to rain on Sunday. I mentioned it to Nate, but he thought it was too late to pack up.  It poured on Sunday.  As soon as the storm broke a little, we threw the younger kids in the car and had Caleb help us pack up in the rain.  Nate said, "you should have advocated more for packing up Saturday night." Ha!

We finished out July with a church picnic that had water activities.  Nate then worked 4 night shifts, which we hadn't experienced in a long time.  July was a fun and busy month for our family!