First Weekend Of The Season At The Lake

  

 There is nothing like experiencing the first sunset at the lake of the season.

 

The kids were excited to take in the sun, sand, water and fun at the lake.

 

Good thing Grammy has a big hammock at the lake!

 

Max and Bailey decided to be Emma's helpers on a frog hunt. They were so cute following her with their little frog cage. They didn't have any luck this time out.

 

The weekend was filled with .....the big kids tubing .....

 

the littles tubing .....

 

swimming ...

 

digging in the sand with a naked little cousin ....

 

jumping off the raft ....

 

getting up on skies for the first time ....

   

 another successful ski run by Emma ...

   

 and some slaloming by Eric!

   

 At the end of a long day at the lake there is no better place to lay your head than on papa's shoulder.

 

As the sun was setting the kids were still in the water jumping off the raft

 

and relaxing on the rafts.

 

What a great weekend at the lake. We are so thankful for an amazing place to spend time as a family, make special memories and soak up God's creation and all the blessings and fun that come with it.

The Tulip Festival

We headed to my home town last weekend for the annual Tulip Festival. The kids were so excited to see papa, grammy and all their cousins. They were anticipating all the fun that was in front of them.

 

On Friday we got to town in time to watch the parade. I wish I would have gotten a picture of Max on my dad's lap during the parade. Max isn't afraid of too many things. One thing he isn't a fan of is bugs and we quickly found out bands are not a favorite of his either. When the bands would come by he would hang on to papa's neck for dear life.

  

  The kids could hardly wait to hit the rides with their cousins. It was a bit of chaos for all the adults to keep tabs on everyone as kids were wanting to head in different directions. Good thing there were 8 adults with 16 eyes to keep tabs on everyone. The excitement was running pretty high!
 

Max was beyond excited as he jumped in the puppy with his brother. I am pretty sure you can see just how Shane feels about life by the expression on his face!
 

The big girls are growing up ... insert sign .... they no longer love the little cars and slides. They have moved on to bigger and better things. I couldn't keep up with them and most of the rides they chose moved so fast or were so high I couldn't even get a picture of them. You can see the top of Darby's head in the bottom of the octopus. This is about as good as it gets.
 

The three middles also thought they would move on to a bigger and better rides. They decided to hop on the Ferris Wheel. There was a bit of screaming coming from the bucket #11 when it reached the top. I wonder who was in there?



 Shane wanted another shot at the Dragon Roller coaster. We reminded him that just 2 years ago he was in tears when he rode it because he was so scared. Well this time around his expression was a little different.
 

The Tulip Festival is not complete with out all the yummy treats. Papa treated the kids to some mini doughnuts and lemonade. Max was happily sharing his doughnut with papa. This will give you an idea of the eating rules at Tulip Festival ... for lunch on Saturday papa had purchased some funnel cakes for the kids to munch on while their parents were getting them some real food. No wonder we are chopped liver when papa and grammy are around.
 

On Saturday we put on the Dutch Costumes and headed to main street to get the streets ready for the queen and her court. Max was the cutest little Chinese Dutch boy around.
 

I can't believe how fast these little Dutch girls are growing up! We had such a nice spring that we actually had a stem fest, there wasn't a tulip in sight.  We had to find some other flowers to take pictures by.
 

Shane wanted to take his pictures by the windmill!
 

A few other pictures before the street scrubbing began.
 

The boys headed out and filled their buckets with water to pour on the road so the girls could come behind with their brooms to scrub the streets. I love Shane in action getting the water out to those ladies. Max was pretty excited about throwing the water out too!
 

The girls were ready. We pretty much fill up the road here and Alexa and Darby are even a few steps ahead!

Max was loving life!
 

The girls had a great time too. Look at Mataya, the cute little Dutch girl I am holding. I can't wait until next year, hopefully our little Asian princess will be home for the festivities.



  The boys reached the end of the route! What a fun weekend with a lot of fun memories.

Eyes That Are Opened

A desire that Eric and I have for our kids is that their eyes may be opened to the world around them. We are blessed and so often take what we have and the way we live for granted. We pray that our kid's eyes and hearts would be opened to those around in need. We also pray that they can experience and appreciate other cultures and diversity around them. We want to expose our kids the beauty of other cultures and feel blessed that we had the opportunity to do that during our get away! 

This is one of my favorite pictures of our trip to Cabo with the kids. I feel like this pictures speaks for itself.

It was fun to see the kids eyes being opened to the Mexican culture as we journey to town most nights. We were staying at a beautiful resort but that is not the real "Mexico!" As they walked through the markets they took it all in and we were able to have great conversations with them along the way.

 

The markets in Mexico are such a fun experience.

 

We would spend about an hour or so each evening walking through the markets after dinner before heading back to our resort.

 

The kids had so much fun checking out all the amazing treasures.

 

They also experienced little ones coming up to them trying to sell them stuff right on the street. It is a way of life for the Mexican culture but once again a eye opener for our kids.

 

They were troopers and tried new food!  Some nights they resorted back to chicken fingers and french fries but they did have fun trying new things. The classic nachos were a favorite of theirs.

The first night they discovered Shirley Temples and it was all over after that.  

    

At many of the resturants they had local people that would come in an try to entertain you with singing, magic tricks, balloon creations ... you name it. The kids thought the balloon guy was pretty cool.

 

We had such an amazing time seeing the Mexican culture through the eyes of our kids. Their eyes were opened in a new way on our trip!

Fun In The Sun

The kids could hardly contain themselves with they saw the pool when we arrived at the resort. 

They were excited to spend the week swimming their hearts out. Well you could say things started a little rough our first day in Cabo at the pool. We had been up really early, the kids so excited they couldn't wait to get in the pool. In a matter of minutes Shane had his shirt of and had jumped in the pool and just seconds later Eric jumped in to save our little boy who was quickly sinking, and not moving his arms at all. Shane is a good swimmer but after a long winter in South Dakota and the factors of the day it seemed like he had totally forgotten how to swim. Eric brought him safely to the side. Not even an hour later it happened again. Eric looked at me and said I think we are calling this a trip not a vacation. We shook our heads not sure what got into Shane and what our week would bring.

 

By Day 2 Shane was back to being a fish and Eric and I were breathing a little easier. The kids had so much fun together. Of course the weather was picture perfect and they were loving life in the pool.

 

The kids had fun jumping, diving ....

 

and playing dolphins. Notice Emma is the trainer and Shane and Alexa are her dolphins. It was so much fun seeing the kids have a blast together and also using their imaginations.

   

 The kids enjoyed taking some breaks from the pool playing horse shoes, putt putt golf and one day they even painted a tile.

 

The kids also loved the slide. It provided hours of entertainment for the kid. Notice the friendly little guy that sat on the rock every day and watched people go down the slide.

 

I love see the pure joy that is in the kids face in this pictures. There is no doubt about it, they are loving life!

 

The beach was another place the kids loved to spend time. They were in awe of the ocean.

 

The kids loved running on the beach.

 

I loved watching the kids put their toes in the water for the first time.

     

They loved running in and out of the waves.

 

I loved watching Shane and his dad play in the ocean together. Their faces say it all.

 

The kids also loved playing in the sand and building sand castles.

 

There were some days that all the sun and fun proved to be too much for our little man and he crashed for a little nap poolside.