Good-bye Greenhouse

 I always thought it was a bit odd that someone would put a greenhouse in the front of the house. I always thought it was ugly looking and was a bit happy that a tree branch fell through the window. We had to get an estimate to turn the claim into insurance and they wanted $4000 to fix it. Ummm...no thank you.

I couldn't wait to tear her down. It only took us a day to take it down. It was rather easy. Mike unscrewed the windows, and I took the windows from him and placed them in our driveway. They sat in the driveway for a few days until we decided to rent a huge dumpster. We were contemplating hauling the scraps to the dump ourselves, but it was easier, and probably cheaper, in the long run to get the dumpster. 

 I think our house looks naked now! We are now trying to decide what to do with the huge hole in front of the three windows. It goes down 5-6 feet.  We'll probably end up buying some window wells and fill it with dirt. We got an estimate from a company and they want $1300 to fill it with dirt. WHAT?!?! That seems crazily expensive to me.

We want to try and get it done before winter, but I guess it's not a huge deal if we don't. I don't want any little kids falling in the hole, however. The only drawback to taking down the greenhouse is all of the storage space we lost. We stored the kids' outside toys in there during the winter. We'll need to figure something else out.

4th of July

 We traveled back to Chamberlain the following week. I'm sure Mike's parents were sick of us by the end of the weekend! Mike's dad's side always get-together the 4th of July weekend. This was a small group compared to other years. I think 20-30 people came for the weekend. Usually, there's 50-60 people.

 The kids had plenty to do. They must have done a hundred sparklers. Nobody was burned, which I was thankful for.

 We did even more boating and tubing. We also did some fishing. I'm proud to say that I caught a 19 inch walleye. It was the biggest one caught that day!

 Ethan and his dry skin. I was afraid people were going to think it was impetigo. He kept licking his lips and caused his skin to dry out.

 The girls asked for my camera and then proceeded to take a few dozen pictures. They did a decent job at taking pictures. They photographed all of their great-aunts and uncles. I have some interesting pictures! They took all of the pictures below.

 I really like how this one turned out. I'm not sure what they did, but it's a really pretty picture of Grandpa Tom.

 They liked all of Grandma's flowers. I have quite a few pictures of her garden.

 We shot off a ton of fireworks. We saved the biggest ones for the end. The kids had a blast watching them.

 Andrea is going to love this picture!

 We waited until it got dark and then went to the bridge to watch the firework display. Chamberlain always puts on an impressive show. It was a fun weekend!

Ethan and his third-cousin, Reese. They play so well together. Reese is such a nice boy and Ethan always looks forward to seeing him.

Family Get Together

 My side of the family wanted to get together some time this summer. It's difficult planning a weekend get-away with everyone's schedules. We had nailed down the time, but when we started looking at cabins/houses to rent, they were out of our price range. Some of them rented for thousands per week. There are 20 people in our immediate family, so we needed a large house. We had given up on vacationing together because of the price.

My mom found a cabin that was available and reasonable to rent in Chamberlain. We were able to go for the weekend at the end of June. The only one that wasn't able to make it was my older sister, Amber.

The cabin had three large rooms with bunk beds. Most slept there, but we also set up tents. There was a nice campground right across the street from the cabin. Mike even convinced me to sleep in the tent one night and I will never do that again!! At night, we sat around the campfire and had smores. Yum!

 Chamberlain is such a pretty town. It sits right on the Missouri river. Mike's parents live in Chamberlain, so we were able to use their boat and go tubing and skiing. We also spent time at the beach and the pool. It was a nice relaxing time. The kids had fun playing with each other and stayed busy the entire time.

 We split up the meals and each family brought the ingredients and prepared one. This made it as stress-free as possible. Once your meal was done, you didn't have to cook any more. Mike and I made brauts and Mike and his mom (thanks, Andrea) made a few different salads to go with them. We ate good home-cooked food all weekend.

 We set off a bunch of fireworks. The kids' favorite were the parachutes. Even the men got in on catching the parachutes. The poor kids were trampled if they weren't watching out for the "big" kids.

 It was fun seeing everyone. The summer has gone by way too fast. Before we know it, school will start. I love making memories like these. I still remember spending time with my cousins and shooting off fireworks at my grandma's house.

 My brother-in-law, Steve, was deployed a few days after our vacation. It was good spending the weekend with him. He'll be gone a few months so my sister, Sarah, could use some prayers while he is away. It's never easy being a single-parent.

New Bikes

 Mike's parents wanted to buy the kids bikes for their birthdays. They had outgrown their other bikes, and they were sick of sharing them with each other.

One Saturday, we went to Toys R Us. I didn't realize how many bikes they had. There were dozens of them. It didn't take them too long to find their favorites. There were some Hello Kitty bikes, and I was sure the girls were going to choose those. They surprised me! Mia picked a princess bike, Riley picked a pink bike with a baby seat on the back, and Ethan picked out a spider man bike (no surprise there!)

I know the kids felt pretty special each having their own bike. They have to share a lot of things, so it's nice when they get their own things.

  Unfortunately, we live on a gravel road with no sidewalks. We do have a large driveway that has cement but I think the kids get kind of bored riding their bikes in our driveway. We have a duck park that is a mile away from our house. They have perfect little walking paths, so I loaded up the kids and their bikes and we headed to the park. There is a huge sign that says no bikes, but I ignored it and hoped no one would say anything to me (and no one did.)

The girls were so excited and hopped on as soon as their bikes were out of the van. Ethan was having a fit over something (I can't even remember why.) By the time I had him calmed down and looked up, the girls were gone. I could barely see them up on the path. They were pedaling as fast as they could.

I had to run a 1/2 of a mile to catch up with them. I am NOT a runner and I had shoes on that aren't meant for running. It was a good 5 minutes that they were completely out of my line of vision. That's a long time when you start thinking of all the things that can happen. I was pretty mad when I caught them. They both got in trouble for that one.

They all had a ton of fun, even after their scolding. I didn't hear one complaint from Mia or Riley. They could have stayed out there all day. Ethan was being a stinker that day, and I heard quite a few complaints from him, but he still had fun.

 It's such a pretty park. We always bring bread and feed all of the ducks. They're used to being around humans and you can get really close to them.

 Riley has been wearing this crown for weeks. She even wore it the last couple of weeks of preschool. I was wondering if her teacher was going to say anything, but she never did. She looks so cute with it on!

Packing

 The kids received luggage last year for Christmas and they LOVE packing their stuff. I always double check to make sure they have everything they need because they pack some pretty interesting stuff. I was loading the car to go to Grandma and Grandpa's and here is what I found in Ethan's luggage.

I guess you never know when you need chocolate chips and peanuts!

Japanese Garden and Museum

 We were trying to figure out what to do while we were stranded at the closed zoo. Mike had his smart phone with him and found this Japanese garden within a mile of the zoo. Sure, why not. It was very picturesque.

 There were lots of koi fish and turtles.

 And a beautiful waterfall...

 We walked a couple more miles to a museum. Apparently, I only took a few pictures while there, but they had a dinosaur exhibit and a mummy exhibit.

It was a nice get away for us. It's always good to get away and spend time together as a couple.