We've been keeping plenty busy with trips to the Yankee Springs State Park and the Allegan County Park. Who needs swimming lessons when you have a couple of inflatable rings and you can chant "motor boat, motor boat" a thousand times? Lauren and Nick are getting so brave in the water and are starting to get the hand/foot synchronization down. I am betting that they'll be all out swimming by the end of summer. It's so much easier to teach kids to swim when it's a zero depth entry (aka BEACH) instead of just jumping in and suddenly the water is 3ft deep.
We've come up against some challenges since Memorial Day, specifically the transmission on our van went AGAIN. Thank goodness for family! Matt's uncle Larry towed the van from his house to Detroit where my brother fixed it. That alone saved us well over $1500! Not to mention a friend of mine from work graciously drove me to/from work for many, many days and we were able to survive with one vehicle. It's been a challenge, but we've come through it!
I was looking at our calendar today and getting an idea of what's to come, and so far we've got the following on our summer agenda:
1. Saturday, June 25: Wayland Main Street Celebration and PAWS Open House. Lots of free family fun! We'll be busy all day with activities and food, and we might stay that night for the free family movie (How to Train Your Dragon).
2. Sunday, July 3: Gun Lake Fireworks! So excited! We usually have a BBQ that day with Matt's family and then head out in the evening to watch fireworks.
3. Wednesday, July 6: Here we come, http://www.miadventure.com/. We get a small discount because our health insurance is Blue Cross, and we'll pack a lunch and spend the day there. It's close enough to be a day trip, so no hotel costs to deal with. We'll pack up the cooler and eat on the cheap instead of eating in the park. The kids are already talking about how many hours they want to spend in the water park and how many on rides. Oh yeah, it's my birthday that day too :)
4. July 11-15: Vacation Bible School at church. We had so much fun this year that we got this on the calendar MONTHS ago. I hope to be assigned the kindergarten group again so that I can be with Nick and Lauren. Rumor has it a couple of Nick's friends will be there, so that will be a great time for him!
5. July 23: The annual Ward Family Birthday Bash! We had a party last year for Nick and it was just so awesome that we're thinking it needs to be an annual event! We pulled a bunch of picnic tables at the Allegan County Park and grill hot dogs, have cupcakes and just enjoy the day. Thinking that a pinata this year might be necessary, but otherwise we just bring the chairs and relax! Let the kids swim, let the adults fish, and just enjoy each other in that laid back kinda way.
6. July 25-July 30: Nate is headed off to Lake Ann camp through church. They had a special rate if you registered early and if you were a certain age, and Nate just happened to meet the criteria! I am so excited for him to have this time to explore his relationship with Jesus and grow his faith with his friends.
7. August 8-August 12: Nate and Nick head off to daycamp at Camp Maintou Lin! We registered early and took advantage a lot of things to make this happen. I know that they are both going to have a great week. It will be Nick's first camp experience (kindercamp) and Nate's first time at watersports camp.
8. August 22-August 25: We'll be (tent) camping at Jellystone Camp Ground in Silver, Lake MI. Aside from all the fun at the camp to be had, we'll be visiting the Silver Lake State Park and the sand dunes (of course).
9. August 26: Scout overnight camp out at the West Michigan White Caps. Yes, it's minor league baseball, but it's so much fun for the kids! They get to camp out on the field and watch a video on the scoreboard.
Here's to another GREAT summer!
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