Summertime really slows time down. The weather has been fickle, an inbetween of hot and cool, cloudy, overcast, rainy, and sunny. Since school let out mid-June, we've been busy living up the summer time goodness with activities and friends. July brings a road trip to Wyoming/Colorado and then August an camping adventure around Iceland. Here are highlights from our summer shenanigans, thus far.
Crafting
We started our summer out with some crafting projects, making tye-dyed t-shirts and painting river rocks. When we walked down to the river to collect said rocks, we thought Big Foot was throwing large boulders down around us, as we heard rocks smacking one another. However, it turns out it was only a huge tree falling over on the opposite side of the river that created the huge crashing sound. We had fun creating cool scenes on our rocks. Maddy made one with her and the neighbor across the way, Barb, and gave it to her. She's our "egg dealer," as we tend to get plenty of fresh eggs from her. Great start to our summer!
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| Getting ready to paint his rocks. |
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| Painting their rocks |
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| My little camping scene |
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| The kids finished products |
WW2 Planes
The Wings of Freedom tour took place June 21, so the kids and I went to check it out. WW2 Bombers and jets were on display for the kids to go into and explore. It was really cool. It held a special place in my heart, as my grandpa used to work on these during war time. The best part of my day was running into my former student, now entering her second year of college and licensed commercial pilot. She gave Madelynne some background on the planes and Maddy asked if she could be a pilot someday. I told her anytime! We got to see the planes land and take off, which was pretty exciting. When they were taxiing one, the force from the propellers was amazing.
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| Getting to go inside and checkout the bombers |
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| Wheels are bigger than him |
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| My former student, Maria. |
Homemade Ice Cream
We started the summer off right by making some homemade ice cream in our Pampered Chef ice cream maker. It was delicious! Fresh strawberries with a light sweetener, made it airy and perfection! I love that the kids wanted to help make the frozen treat.
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| Adding strawberries to the bowl |
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| Mixing the sugar and strawberries |
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| Determined mixing face |
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| Taste testing the final product |
Pool Time!
End of June brought a camping adventure to Lake Crescent, where we enjoyed hanging out lake side. We shared a cabin with our friends, told scary stories, prayed, played games, swam in the lake, and enjoyed the beauty of being unplugged for a few days. Maddy loved the fact that she knew the majority of the kids at camp because they were either our church families or kids from school. Jax enjoyed being loved and doted on by the big kids, and was easier to handle this round than last year. He was slightly more independent, and able to run around and have a blast with some of the younger kids, but still needed to be within reach of an adult, aka mom. :) We lucked out with the final day getting a torrential down pour, while all the days we were out there we had almost perfect weather. We couldn't complain!
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| Smore time! |
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| Lake ready! |
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| Crazy pic with our cabin buddies: Josie, Collin, Maddy, and Charlie. |
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| Dock running |
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| The Ruddell's (Amy and John on the left, and Collin, Little Charlie, Anna, Josie, and Anna's mom. |
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| Collin and Jax feeding some ducks. |
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| Jax, Morgan, and Anna coaxing the ducks with some chips. |
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| Faith showing Jax how to play |
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| Josie loving on Jax |
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| Jax by the lake |
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| Noodle fights! |
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| Loving on his sister at the lake |
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| Bubba carefully painting his birdhouse |
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| Charlie, Maddy, and Josie working on their arts and crafts |
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| Jax working on his |
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| Morgan reading the kids scary stories in the bunk |
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| At the lake |
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| Making a terrarium |
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| Playing with the tether ball. |
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| Bff hugs |
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| Checking out the size of his marshmellow |
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| Showing Peppa the lake |
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| Jax, Emily, Maddy, Little Charlie, and Josie |
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| Maddy at the campfire |
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| Same jammies! Jax and his new friend Peter |
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| Singing campfire songs. |
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| Jax joined with "Happy And You Know It." |
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| Big kids taking a liking to the little kids |
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| Throwing rocks lake side. |
Good bye Grams.
In the midst of everything, we have sad news to report. Brad's beloved Grams passed away Friday June 28, 2019, at 4:26 pm. She was battling pneumonia and a viral infection. Brad was able to be with her during her last few hours, and we were all able to say our goodbyes. At least she is no longer in pain and is in a better place. She will be greatly missed and we are so fortunate that she had the opportunity to live with us for the past month and the kids got a chance to get to know her prior to this. She was 94.
Until next time...New adventures await in July!
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