Often Imitated, Never Duplicated

Wyss Vacation 2015

29 years.  It makes me all sentimental just thinking about that number.  We had a great trip.

After our late night we packed the van full and headed for Luddington, Michigan.  

 The girls traveled really well which is great for a 6ish hour trip.
We made it to the shores of lovely Lake Hamlin in time for supper- baked potato bar, just scratching the surface of the food amazingness to come. hehe.  There is good food in great abundance on Wyss Vacation. 
Our home sweet home for the week, we got the 'rustic' (but thankfully clean!) cabin on the left. 

 The girls checked out the playground with Aunty Shelly.

 Little Bee loves the slide.

 And she loves food.  I think she ate all day long, every day.

 We got Cecily some new Legos to bring on "the 'cation."

 The girls loved all the attention...  Coloring with Daddy and Aunt Lena before church.

 Cecily wanted to sleep in the bed with the woodland themed quilt- it was the 'sven bed.'  Ha.

 On one of the many Walmart runs they brought back a kiddie pool for the babies. 

 The weather was so perfect.  It was chilly in the mornings and at night and warm during the day.  And it wasn't humid!  So wonderful.  So we wore our sweatshirts in July....  Kandace and Cliff tried to teach Cecily how to play Spot-It on the deck of my parent's cabin. 

 The girls enjoying the sunshine (and a snack) on our front steps.

 One evening we drove into Luddington and walked out to the lighthouse.  It was a half mile out on this narrow concrete sidewalk.

While we were at the lighthouse, the Car Ferry went past.  It shuttles passengers (and their cars) from Wisconsin to Michigan and back again.  Cecily thought it was cool until it sounded its horns... it didn't help that she was running a low fever and was full of Tylenol and extremely emotionally fragile.  It was a big boat! 

 Lake Hamlin is a fishing and boating lake just over the dunes from Lake Michigan.  So there was boating and fishing (Bob caught three!) by the cabins and a lovely beach a short drive away in a great state park.  Cecily spent an afternoon on Uncle Ron's boat fishing.  They said she did good, and when I asked her if she caught anything she said- "I caught TWO worms!"  hehe.
The water was too cold for Cecily.  Matt and Bob are visible in the background building a sand Bag End. 

 Emmy and William played in the little pool.  We took Emmy down to the water and she really liked the waves on her toes, but it was sooo cold we didn't let her spend too much time in the water.  *grin*

 Cecily and Cliff made a tent. 

 The resort had an old restaurant that we used for meals.  Grandma likes to feed us well.  One morning I had a pancake and some fruit on my plate and I was helping Cecily get her breakfast and wasn't paying attention... somehow she thought I needed three strips of bacon and a cinnamon roll too...  *grin*  The diet starts tomorrow.  Hehe.  
Emmy and William playing before the feature presentation.   

 Another snack...

 Cecily and I went for a short hike, a.k.a. walk, in Luddington State Park one day.
We went swimming in both lakes.  We being Emmy and I, both lakes were 'too cold' for the little miss. 
Abby and I took the jet ski out and screamed all around the lake.  Just like old times...  good times. 
One afternoon the girls and Mom and Lena and I were going to go get ice cream when a snake slithered onto our steps.  I shrieked. 

 It was icky.  Aaron disposed of it for us. We were all relieved. 

 Cecily was super excited when Jaci and Kebe and Shena showed up! 

 We rented a pontoon boat for G and G and Pearl (they aren't fans of the speed boat or the fishing boat- I'm pretty sure there is no way we could get them on a jet ski!).

 Dad took us on a tour of the lake.  Emmy was so bored she took a nap. 

I actually got to play a game of Rook this vacation!!  It was fantastic.  Nathan and I won, and we never actually got the bid.  So great.  I'm pretending that it was my years of experience and superior Rook skills all coming back to me.  Or something. 
 On our last evening, the girls and I went to the city park with Shelly.

 It was out on the sand which was fun.  Emmy is swinging in the background.

 Rolling down the dune.  They were both filthy and happy.  Emmy got a bath and loved it, Cecily refused because the tub had a crack and she freaked out about the drain in Shelly's shower.  Poor Aunt Shelly gave her a sponge bath.  *sigh*

So then we packed up for home.  *sigh*  I'm always sad when vacation is over.
The trip home was not quite as smooth.  Rita had bought the girls some new toys so that kept them occupied for a while, but then Emmy poured out half my water bottle onto herself and soaked her car seat so she was wet and grumpy.  Cecily whined to watch a movie barely an hour in, and we ate a late lunch so I was 'hangry'... But we made it safely and mostly sane.  And we can't wait for next year.
Blessings. 

Busy little Bee and the Great Flood of 2015

At least we hope it is the Great Flood of 2015, because I don't really want to do that again...

Little Bee officially started walking July 1st, but she really started walking more than scooting the week before vacation.  So now I come around the corner to sights like this:  trying to get daddy to open the cereal box she pilfered from the kitchen.

 I took the girls to the pool one morning.  Emmy loved the water.  Cecily is afraid of drains and spent most of the time out of the water. 

 Cecily wanted to water flowers (not that they need watering) and Emmy decided she wanted to play in it.

 She got very wet. 

 Walking seems to have sparked a whole new wave of busy-ness.  Woot.  She makes me tired.

 One brief instance when they were playing together nicely....

 She finished off the goldfish that I thought I had left out of reach.

 

Thursday night we got a lot of rain.  And a lovely thunderstorm.  We were downstairs with the girls for a while before we put them to bed.  And it rained and rained and rained.  And the sewer backed up because some genius thought it would be a good idea to tie the footing tiles from the houses and the storm drains all into the city sewer system and it can't handle that much water at once.  Thankfully there is a check valve in our yard that keeps the sewer from backing up into our basement, however it does not keep ground water from filling the clay tile line....  so at some point in the night the drains exploded and the basement got wet.

I discovered it when I went downstairs with a basket of laundry... and my foot hit wet carpet.  Aaaaaahh.  I was planning on spending the day packing for vacation.  Instead I got to clean up a wet basement.  woot.  Poor Bob got a slightly tearful phone call and came home from work early (thankfully he could do some work remotely), Emmy took a surprise super long nap, my Mom came to keep the girls out of the way, and Sharon loaned us their super wet/dry vac.  Once I got over the initial shock, it really wasn't horrible.  We had puddles, but not inches of standing water, and wet carpet.  Once we carried out all the sopping wet cardboard boxes I was hoarding it was just a matter of mopping the concrete floors and vacuuming the carpet. 

Most of our 'stuff' was off the floor or in plastic tubs.  I had a trunk that I thought was plastic... it's plastic coated plywood that was not water tight.  It had some sentimental treasures and my scrapbooks in it and they all got wet.  Sad news.  I think most of it is salvageable though. 

There were some Legos left on the floor the night before that I found by the drain in the other room...  they floated there.  So weird.  We got done with clean up by supper time and had lots of fans and a new dehumidifier going full blast on the carpet.  I'm so glad it happened Thursday and not Friday.

Then we got to start packing for Wyss vacation. And Emmy decided she wasn't tired since she slept half the afternoon.  So she would undo everything I had just packed.... and she didn't go to sleep until 1 am.  We did not get an early start in the morning. 
Blessings. 

For the July! And Bouncing! And Swings!

How are we halfway through July already?  I feel like we've spent summer watching it rain.

Happy 'For the July!'  We all wore our 'July clothes.'  And flew the flag.

And enjoyed the brief sunshine.

Take a picture of me with my flowers and the flag!

We didn't do anything super special on the Fourth.  I made a flag fruit pizza... woot woot.  In the evening we headed to Ron and Kary's to watch fireworks. 

Cecily and Emma ran around together and watched fireworks together. 

Emmy loves to slide.

Trying out Ron's bottle launcher.

Then it got too dark for pictures, but we brought sparklers (from Tate), Aunt Shelly brought glow sticks for the kids, and of course we watched the fireworks.  Emmy loved it all.  She would point and say 'ooooooohh.'  She was pretty much having the best day ever.  *grin*  We stayed for snacks and got home late... oh well.

Sunday evening was the annual Koch family water fight.  There were kiddie pools and a slip and slide for the kids.  Emmy especially loved the slip and slide.  It was rather funny to see. 

She would also scoot after water balloons.....even onto the gravel. 

In context:

I didn't get many pictures of Cecily since she didn't stay in one place long enough.  And then my camera died and it has been deemed not worth fixing.  Cecily was done with swimming and inside as soon as they started shooting off some fireworks.... it was 'too loud' for her. 

So the next pictures are cell phone pics and I have an old phone....  they're not very good. 

Someone takes full advantage of the fact that we don't have cabinet doors yet.  

The girls and I went to the farm on Wednesday to make applesauce.  I'm not sure why, since Bob and I don't love applesauce and I don't love making it.  The girls do though.  Grandpa was twiddling his thumbs a little since it's so wet so he got to play with the girls too.  And clean out the chimney access... haha.  We came home with 15 pints of sauce. 

I have no desire for a strawberry patch so I stuck some everbearing plants in with my flowers.  She's tall enough to reach in and pick them even if they aren't even pink. 

On Friday we went to a birthday party at Monkey Joe's- for two boys that Cecily has never met.  So weird. *grin* Bob works with their dad so we all got invited to the party.  It was fun, even though I didn't know anyone and most of the guests were Spanish speaking family.  They served us pizza and cake and we all sang happy birthday.... and it was not in four parts like I'm used to singing happy birthday.  Ha!
The girls both loved it.  This picture is posed because she wouldn't stay still long enough for a picture. 

Emmy loved bouncing and would point at the big slide until Bob would take her down it.

I forgot to warn Cecily that 'Monkey Joe' would be coming to the party.  She was very unsure, poor girl.  The boy next to her in the red hat was one of the birthday boys.

So Alex and Rafael's birthday's were well celebrated, and the girls each got a goody bag to take home and a balloon to share.  I tried to figure out my new camera while they checked out their loot... 

Candy and toys... they loved it and now Cecily thinks she's going to have a birthday party there. Sorry, not going to happen.  *grin* 

Saturday morning was rainy, but we put together our new swing set anyway.  Poor Cecily had been waiting days to get her slide. 



Susan was home and helped for a while.

Don't mind our dirty garage.  This is just as much fun as sliding!

Silly girls.

We got the frame set up during a break in the rain.

And then put the slide on after the storm went through.  She was soooo happy.

Trying out the swing.  Emmy was pretty excited about it all too.

And we got the seesaw done just in time before I needed to leave to drop the girls off at the farm for the evening. 

I'm blaming it on 3 short nights in a row (getting to bed late, 3 bed wetting incidents, and a 14 month old who won't sleep all night) but I changed Emmy's diaper before we left and forgot to put her pants back on... oops.  They had a great time and we had a good night at testimonies. 
The girls were not deterred by the heat and humidity after church and wanted to be outside swinging and sliding.  I think it was a good purchase, even if I'm not looking forward to mowing around it!
Blessings.

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain...

The bugs and spiders are coming indoors... I do not like the damp.  Thankfully, we've had a few dry days.  My flowers and the garden love the rain.  They have never looked this nice! Minus the hollyhock rust... at least we can make hollyhock dolls.  Ballrooms full of them.  *grin*

 Let's go pick flowers!

We hosted potluck babysitting last Friday.  I told Cecily the kids were coming waaay too early in the day.  "Can the kids come now?"  "I want the kids to come." "Can it be supper time?" "Now can they come?"  I told her they weren't coming until the clock hand was at the bottom.  So she sat and watched it. 

 Feeding 13 kids is so much fun.  Or something.  Plus the 7 adults... our house was feeling full.

 Emmy just took it all in.

It had rained all day (of course) so we had to play inside all evening.  I was worried that they would run out of things to do since we really don't have many toys for kids older than 3...  but the older kids had a great time with the Legos downstairs, and the littler kids were pretty happy with the toys upstairs. 
We spent a perfect Saturday afternoon flying Cecily's "Anna" kite.  Bob got it up really high.  It was pretty great. 
The rain moved the Sunday School Picnic to the fellowship hall.  Emmy had been running a low fever at night so we didn't take her to church...  Cecily thought it was great that she got to go with me (and then Bob) all alone.  We took them both to the picnic and Emmy just sat there and stared and ate food.  They both had a great time with all the sidewalk chalk after supper.
Our new countertops came bright and early Monday morning!  Yay!  I think I like them.

Haha.  I do like them, I was just not sure for a bit if I really liked how they looked with the cabinet color.  I decided it was just the light and me second guessing myself because I am NOT repainting. 

We lived without the kitchen sink until Tuesday.  The girls loved the extra you-have-to-stay-out-of-the-way attention they got both mornings.  Sleepy, happy, baby.

Tim installed this lovely new sink and faucet for us.... Yay for a deeper sink!  The old one was also white but the finish was wearing off.  It never looked clean; as soon as I rinsed fruit or spaghetti sauce off of dishes it turned yellowish/reddish.  And the old faucet had two knobs which is so annoying when you have dirty hands. 

I neglected to measure, so the new faucet handle did not fit under the DIY extra wide windowsill/shelf.  Sometimes I wonder why they had to use such cheap low-grade wood for everything.  *grin*  We had replaced the original longer brackets so that the countertops would fit and there was an extra screw hole that I didn't bother to fill.  And then I started noticing small blobs of pine sap on the counter below....  the windowsill was oozing sap.  So we are scrapping it and starting fresh on the windowsill.

Wednesday morning the girls were grumpy and needed a change of scenery so we went to the farm for the afternoon.  We had to wear our mud boots to get to the cows... and we saw the horses, and Gus.  I forgot swimsuits so they played in grandma's kiddy pool in their undies.  *grin*

Cecily was using a watering can to get the entire patio wet and Emmy was helping with the measuring cup. 

And then Aunt Shelly had today off and she wanted to go swimming.  So we went to her house for lunch and then went to Fritz's pool for the afternoon.  Checking out the neighbors with Grandma.

The water was a little bit chilly so they didn't spend much time in the pool, but they had fun kicking their feet in the water and swinging and visiting the goats. 

I picked a whole safe-guard bucket of green beans yesterday.  And today something ate all of my lettuce.  All the way to the ground.  That I planted three times and hadn't even gotten to eat a single leaf.  I almost cried. 
Blessings.