Blog Catch-Up!

Well, it's been awhile so here is a little bit of catch-up from the last couple of weeks!

We of course had to go Blueberry picking!  We picked about 15lbs of blueberries.  Ty was very much into filling his bucket this year. He actually did a great job of picking the good ones!  Addi, started off wanting to pick but just ended up sitting in one spot and eating as many as she could :)

Addi found a nice spot to sit and eat

YUM!

SO, orginally we thought we might be redoing our deck this year. I've really wanted to get stairs down to the backyard so we could have easier access to the sandbox/play area. Well, we decided to wait another year or two, but in the meantime we decided to get a little creative.  So with a little luck from Craigslist and some help from a cousin we took our deck from.....

this......to.....

this!  There are gates to close as well to make sure it's safe for Addi on the deck too!  Ty loves it!!  

The one thing Nate has had on his list to do this summer is a campout with Ty!  Ty has never slept in a tent before and he was so excited for this night!  

helping set up the tent

Having fun in the tent after it was all set up

After it got dark we had a campfire with s'mores, and then we had an outdoor movie - which Ty picked a Bug's Life 

Picking a movie to watch

Yum!

 Nate even figured out how to project the movie onto the side of the house (kind of hard to see in the picture)

Ready to hop in the tent for bed!

good night!

Ty slept AWESOME, and now he has been begging to do another campout :)

Playdate Fun

These are slightly out of order but had to record some playdates that happened before Canada :)

Kelly and I got a babysitter for the two little ones and took Ty and Taylor on their own special day.  Unfortunately, it wasn't the best day of weather, but we got in a good 20 minutes of fountain fun before  it poured, then we browsed downtown Holland, and ended with a fun lunch!

Next playdate that week was with Amy and Ryley!  We had beautiful weather and we went out to swim at their pool and have lunch!

We love summer, and we LOVE playdates!!

Canada: Mountains and Swimming

Nate proposed 6 years ago on top of Candy Rock Mountain (2007).  Each year we climb it on our anniversary, it's fun to see how we change and the additions that were made over the last 6 years :)

I was SO proud of Ty. He climb the whole entire hike except for one small part where he rode Nate's shoulders for a couple minutes.  What a big guy!

Nate and Ty get a picture in between these trees every year

HAPPY 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

My little companion for the hike

Of course there was plenty of time for some water fun!

Ty AND Maggie love kayaking

Ty did SO well swimming.  He went from not stepping a foot in the pool in Arizona to swimming with just his swimmies! 

Bella and Ty would swim out and "rescue" us from the tubes

Addi girl enjoying the sun

The crew this year

Bella and Ty were such buddies this week.  So fun!

Ty and Addi relaxing with a show before bedtime

Well...countdown begins until next Canada trip in 2014!

Canada Take 1

It has been a very busy summer of traveling for our family, and our final travel destination was our traditional trip to Canada!  This is one of our favorite weeks of the entire year, and we were excited that it finally arrived! It is so nice to be completely disconnected from the world. I always forget how much we actually use the internet, our phones, TV, etc. There is no choice of that in Canada, and I absolutely love it!

Packed up and ready to go!

We usually leave Friday afternoon and get across the border and spend in the night in Sault Ste. Marie (Canada side) so we can get to the cottage right early Saturday.  Nate unfortunately, had a massive paper due for his grad class so on Saturday morning, Nate stayed in the hotel and we ventured around Sault Ste. Marie and found a huge park which we explored for a couple hours. 

Nate finally got his paper done enough where we could take off, so off we went.  We unpacked and relaxed Saturday and caught up with our other family that was there. 

Sunday morning was the traditional pontoon ride with coffee and homemade muffins :)

Ty taking his driving VERY seriously.  He was SO focused haha. 

 Sunday we also took the kids on a boat ride and tried some fishing

Trying out his new Cars fishing pole

Mine always seemed to swallow the hook...

On Uncle Tom's dock catching some fish

Got one!

 We spent quite a lot of time at my Uncle Tom and Aunt DeeDee's cottage, they have a great dock to swim off of, lots of yard games, and hammocks to relax in

Addi loves pointing at everything

What could be better than relaxing and looking at that view!?