Elk Rapids

Our home for our short visit at Honcho Rest. Thanks Don for a fun weekend, we can't wait until next year! All the girls... Aubrey, Lydia, Autumn, Taylor, Grace and Jenna.

Beamer and Woolman Girls. I love this picture (and this beach).

Striking a pose!
Happy 4th of July. Pancake breakfast. Jenna headed off for a swim.

Jenna found a pine cone on the beach as all the other kids picked up shells. Another fun weekend of camping down! I can't believe it is July already, where is summer going?

Catching Up

Okay, Here is my quick attempt to post some updated pictures of the past month! A couple weeks ago we rescued a baby bunny from the dogs in the back yard! It was super cute, but the girls wanted to keep it. So we played for a few minutes before we let him go outside our fence. Then to our camping trips:
Here is Jenna in Lake Port taking baby Max for a stroller ride! She really tries to be a big girl.

Cute Max. I do have to say he is looking quite different this summer as his hair keeps getting lighter and lighter. Sorry Rach, its true.

A bunch of mess kids! We had a fun trip with the O'Mara's and Grove's.

Here is quick peak at Camp O'Mara / Woolman. It looks like a zoo with all the chairs, bikes and toys!

Our new camper this year. We LOVE it! And of course the dogs love it too, because they now can camp with us everywhere we go!

Granny got the girls some cute new PJ's. They were so excited for me to take their pictures, can't you tell.

And Taylor's last day of school as a kindergartner! My baby is officially a first grader. Awwww

But after her last day of school we picked her up and headed down to OH to meet Tim, Jaime and Kirsten half way for another camping trip.

Jenna and Kirsten on the beach. Even though Kirsten is a year younger she is nearly as tall as Jen already.

Grace and Taylor at the pool. It was so hot we were grateful for the Lodge where Gary and Dianne stayed. It had a huge nice pool, kiddie pool and even better, an outside bar!

Daddy and Jen taking a rest.

The pool at the Lodge.

A view of the lake from the Lodge. It really was a beautiful state park. Even had a golf course for the guys, except the bugs were so bad that week they could barely even stand to golf.

Taylor drying off after a swim.

And finally, my new obsession of the week. Hair bows. I have been meaning to try this since I saw them at a mom to mom sale last year. I love them, not sure why I didn't make these sooner. Of course Brad is making fun of my 'project of the week'. I am always trying something new!

After a rainy day I decided why not let the girls dance in the rain for a bit. Actually, this raining Sunday was a great relaxing day. We are so busy this summer, gone every weekend, so we rested up for our next trip up north for the 4th!

Memorial Camping Trip

We had a great trip with the O'Mara's to Groveland Oaks this past weekend. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather. Cute little Max even had fun despite not feeling well. Silly little Jenna! I had to take her picture too!

The kids were so excited for the ice cream truck, I think the adults were too!

Jenna had a huge popsicle. And the other kids made a nice mess of their ice cream treats. But we let them splurge since we were deep frying pickles, mushrooms, broccoli, fish and fries for us! Rachel and I should let the guys cook more often.

Super cute Bryce snuck in a picture too!

We have already had so much fun camping in our new camper and the summer is only just starting!

Kindergarden is ending!

Taylor had her music program at school today. She has been practicing for weeks. Even though you can't tell in this picture she sang every word and smiled the whole time. I had terrible seats with too many big heads in front of me for any great pictures. After the show we went to Taylor's class room for a snack. Jenna stuck to Taylor like glue!

We had a lot of fun and we will miss Thomson! Here is a picture of Taylor and Mrs. DeLong. (The helper teacher, is what Tay calls her)

And Mrs. Swailes.

Taylor has really done great. With only a few more days of school left, Taylor will be a 1st grader!

Cocoa Beach

Yesterday we took a short drive over to Cocoa Beach and had a wonderful time. We are actually thinking about going back today. I can't believe that today is our last full day :(
The girls had a great time on the beach just running and playing. It was a nice change from sitting in the stroller and waiting in lines!
Jenna testing out the waters with dad.

Taylor on a shell hunt.

Out for a walk.

This is kinda far away, but Taylor is soaked.... this is right after a wave took her down. It scared her despite the water only at our knees! Jenna on the other had kept trying to get down in the water telling me she didn't need any help. (The waves were well over her head!) She has come to love the water this year and has no fear. In the pool at the hotel she REALLY thinks she can swim and doesn't need swimmies. She doesn't even care if she goes under. Taylor is working hard at becoming a better/stronger swimmer too.

See you all soon, we have sooo many pictures to share.

Animal Kingdom

So, I am making up for some lost time... after not blogging for so long I am sharing each step of our trip with you. We are having such a good time. We are sad to say our time is almost over. But since I do have time at night I am trying to blog now, because I know when we return home I will never have time.



Today we visited Animal Kingdom (after some debate this morning). We were unsure of which park to visit today, but I think we made a good choice. We really liked AK.



Here is a picture of Brad and the girls. Behind him is where the monkeys were playing. Jenna was asking all day to see some monkeys! The girls and I in front of the tree of life. It is a huge tree with several carvings of all different animals.

We watched a show, It's tough to be a bug, we saw Nemo, a musical, (Brad says he has no desire to ever see another musical!) and rode a few rides. He is a picture of the roller coaster Taylor went on twice. Now... she has been on several rides and small coasters at Michigan Adventure and Magic Kingdom, but this was her first REAL one. And after riding twice (once with me and once with Brad) she had enough. She was clinging to me at the end.

We stopped for a snack in shade!

FINALLY, we found a ride for Jenna. She was excited for once she didn't have to sit this one out. (I still did though, I am not a fan of spinning rides)

And then on the way out we stopped in the bone yard at the play scape to let the kids run and play for a bit.

We have had such a good time exploring all the parks we really wish we had more time (and money) to keep going! I already know I am going to want to come back and see more. Plus I love the weather. I don't feel like I am getting much of a tan though!!

Magic Kingdom

We spent a very long day at Magic Kingdom yesterday. We arrived to the park at 7:45 am for a Princess Breakfast and left at 10:30 after fireworks. We had such a fun day.

The first princess we got to meet was Snow White, and she was Jenna's favorite. Each princess came to our table and individually greeted each girl and stayed for pictures and autographs.

This was definitely worth the money for the girls experience! Snow White and Sleeping Beauty both gave Jenna lots of kisses, leaving them on her forehead!

Taylor looked so pretty in her Belle dress. I think the girls had the best dresses there! (Thanks Aunt Jaime)

Jenna posing for me while daddy and Tay were on space mountain. We didn't think Tay was tall enough, but it turns out she is 45 inches and was able to ride all the coasters. And she had so much fun. SHe couldn't wait to take me on them next. The Fast Passes and Speed passes worked great we barely waited in any lines.

Our one long wait was to see Mickey and Minnie.

We stole a few quiet minutes in the shade after letting the girls pick a prize with their gift cards from Mimi. Jenna also got a new shirt. She made a mess early in the day (Don't let your kid wear a white tank top and eat chocolate ice cream!).

Getting ready for spectromagic parade at night. It was a long day, but we had a great time with the girls. We are taking a relaxing day at the resort today and then to Animal Kingdom tomorrow!