July 2024

 

Hez' favorite place-Pineapple Park

Judah and his ice cream

Okuma Beach

Had a great time staying at Okuma

Hot pot and Korean bbq for the win

Extra day in Chengdu=touring a nearby monastery

We saw 20 pandas!

Panda sanctuary

Sichuan style opera in Chengdu

We were served A LOT of food

In the same Jinan hotel as when we adopted Lexi

Jinan orphanage

Visiting a local family in their traditional hutong

Enjoyed our rickshaw ride

Great Wall

Hez at the wheel

Calm day on Lake MI, but cold water

Hez and Steph

Siblings

Hez loved watching his cousins on their Switches

Family cookout

Cousins visiting Julia at Dutch Village

-Nate, Stephen, Lexi and I went to Asia on July 6-20. We visited Beijing, Jinan and Chengdu for a week. We then (eventually) flew to Okinawa and stayed with Steph's family. I am only putting a few pictures on the blog as we are making a separate photo book. It was a fantastic trip and we are so grateful we could go! Tim/Jenny's family stayed at our house with the older 3 kids while we were gone and that went smoothly as well. 

-Tim/Jenny were in MI for a month and Steph and her boys flew back to MI with us from Okinawa so we got some fun family time. 

-Julia did a WO vball camp and Isaac did HC's soccer camp

-Julia took a health class over the summer and tested out so her schedule will be more open her junior year

June 2024

 

Stephen the wizard

Found a Korean restaurant near Mayo

Avalon end of the year recital

Last day for WO, end of 9th grade for Julia

Last day of 5th and 4th grade

Forest School friends

Mr. Harig (kids K teacher) came back for the Forest School graduation

    

Isaac's trip to St. Thomas

Caleb and Grandpa working at Chips together

-Stephen's Forest School K-5th grade journey came to an end-what a great experience! 

-The kids finished their school year; Isaac-10th, Julia-9th, Stephen-5th, and Lexi-4th

-Caleb spent the month of May working at Chips landscaping where Grandpa works part-time

-Caleb worked at KRS moving June-August. He drove around (and out of) the state moving classroom furniture. 

-Isaac went with our church youth group to St. Thomas. It was a vision trip and the students spent time with residents of St. Thomas-learning about the strengths and challenges and serving with various organizations. 

-Nate and I made a trip to Mayo Clinic for a second opinion. We stayed at a nice hotel and found a great Korean restaurant, cancer-cation. 

-Someone generously paid for our family to have our pictures taken. It was a windy evening at the beach, but the pictures are great.

-Stephen's musical theater class had their end of the year recital. They performed parts of Newsies.

-Stephen also performed in the musical Once Upon a Mattress, Jr version. It's the Princess and the Pea story and Stephen was the wizard. He sang a duet and had so much fun with the cast.

-Lexi attended Jr Adventure Day camp for a week

-Julia worked at Dutch Village again this summer

-Isaac worked for HC's outdoor crew again this summer

-Julia attended WO volleyball open gyms throughout the summer

-Lexi went to Camp Roger for 4 nights with her friend Emery

Emery and Lexi

May 2024

 

Building a shelter

Forest School Celebration

Wicked

Isaac's USA soccer team

Orchestra concert

Choir and Band concerts on the same night

Mother's Day

Tulip Time Kinderparade

Tulip Time 5k

-Nate, Caleb, Isaac, Stephen and Lexi ran the Tulip Time 5k

-It was a rainy and cold Tulip Time Kinderparade this year. Isaac and Lexi were our only kids in the parade this year.

-Nate had a PET scan on April 10 and we finally got the results on May 9 that Nate's cancer had returned. 

-Isaac had a band concert and Julia had her choir concert- divide and conquer. 

-Lexi played in her first orchestra concert

-Stephen auditioned for a part in the summer children's production of Once Upon a Mattress (The Princess and the Pea story) and was excited to get the Wizard role. 

-Stephen's 5th grade class was the first HC Forest School class and they had a celebration in the forest to recognize the end of their Forest School journey. Who would have thought this kind of crazy sounding idea in kindergarten would turn into six great years?