up north

While we were up north my parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. We are all so thankful for their support, encouragement, grace, and their godly examples. We have been so blessed to have parents that speak and live according to God's Word.

The boat rides are always a big hit. This year we bought kid skis that helped big time. They were attached together so that the child couldn't do the splits and a person in the boat held onto the rope instead of tying the rope to the boat. This way if the child fell down the person in the boat would let go of the rope so that the child wouldn't drag through the water, forgetting to let go. This could of gone a long ways for me if they had this invention when I was young. I had many traumatizing and embarrassing experiences trying to get up on skis...

 

As much as these four two-year-old cousins have fun together, you have to keep on top of them (or maybe it is just me having to keep on top of Tyler). They quickly want the toy that the other one is playing with and they will fight for it!

Liam and Luke. Luke is Dave and Renee's second son and he is a sweet, sweet baby.

Dave and Renee

Candy River. We have visited candy river ever since Nate was young and it is the most amazing river. You fish and you catch candy! This requires two adults - one to distract and one to quickly stick the candy at the end of the fishing line. This year we ran into two snags. When I went shopping for the candy I had Nate with me. I said to him, "Nate you are almost nine and you will probably figure out the truth. Dad and I put the candy in the river." Nate sucked in a deep breath and almost staggered. He could hardly talk he was so astounded that this magical river was not real. When we got into the van, Nate told me in a deep and dramatic voice that this was the saddest day of his life. Poor guy.
 The second snag.  When we got out to the river Adam singled for me to had over the candy. I took a deep breath. I didn't bring the candy, I thought that he did... We burst out laughing and tried to figure out what to do. We told the kids that the weather looked bad (there were very dark clouds) and that we would visit the river the next day. We arrived back at the dock just as it began to pour.

We had a cottage that had the biggest window ever. When you first walk into the cottage it takes your breath away. It almost felt like we were living in an aquarium.

                                              

All of these boys and this one girl are from two families. They have a great time together and it is neat to watch them play. Tyler refused to sit down with them and decided to stand there and cry.

And now it is back to reality and almost time to get back to routine. Gulp.