Sep 23, 2018

School

And just like that summer is over and school has begun!






Cort's first day riding the bus in his favorite socks!



Tripp started school a week later! He is now in 3-school two mornings a week. I was so impressed how well he did the first day!  And every day since then he tells me that he had fun and he likes school!

Getting a 'first day of school' picture wasn't quite as easy... 








Peach Pie


The kids and I picked peaches so Ella and I made a peach pie! This is her first peach pie and she did a great job!


We had plenty of peaches left so after the first pie was gone, I made another one with my little helper. There was a lot of clean up when it was done! But he sure had a good time!

August


Ella still does gymnastics all over our house. Her legs are getting longer now though and there isn't quite as much room for her tricks!

Before school started, the boys had a veggie stand on a weekday lunch hour.  All of the vegetables were sold in 20 minutes!


We went to the museum one day and I caught this picture of ALL OF THEM SMILING AT THE SAME TIME!! It's a miracle!! 

Camping


Yup, another camping trip. The boys love spending time with their dad!  He reads to them before bed and takes them fishing.



Tripp's shirt says "I do my own stunts" - and yes he does!

 



This trip was cut short when our little guy fell sick.  We packed it up and headed home!



Aug 10, 2018

Canada

Canada

We took our entire family to Canada for 5 days for the first time.  Ella had been up twice before, as well as Ty. Cort had been up once before when he was 1 year old.  This was the first trip for Tripp.  They did great on the drive up as well as the drive home.

The kids had a great time while we were there! The weather was perfect!   The only rain we had was the morning we left.  We were up there with Grandpa Elzinga, as well as Peter's sisters' family.  Barb, Eric, Heidi, Bradley (Heidi's boyfriend) and Henry. They brought their dogs too; Luna, Harper and Titan. They were great dogs!!  We went swimming every day and took some boat rides.  The boys went on the quads with Peter and Bradley and Aunt Barb.  We did some fishing and Tripp and Henry caught us fish for dinner. 

Here are some pictures!

On the way in to camp, we stopped at the huge Adirondack chair, and the little  Adirondack chair.



Cabin 4 has 4 bunks and a king size bed. Perfect for all of us!


A beautiful day to enjoy nature!
 

Usually at home, all the boys get up at the same time. But at camp, Tripp just kept sleeping after everyone else was up!

Grumpy??

Nope, just kidding!

Heidi brought her dog Harper, and her life jacket.  She is a great dog! I can see Ella getting a dog like Harper when Ella gets older!

 Quad rides! This one was with Peter and Bradley.




 Kayak rides! This is Barb with Tripp and Heidi with Cort (I think)

Ty

Ella got up on the paddle board with supervision. Barb is swimming in the background!



Elzinga boys

Searching for frogs.

Tripp caught his first fish!  We used minnows as bait, and every time he reeled his line in and saw the minnow, he got excited and said he caught a fish!! It was hilarious!  Then he caught this nice one and wasn't interested in getting too close.  He wouldn't take his eyes off that fish for this picture, 
then he ran away...

and fell asleep.

Ella had nice sling shot form!

Who knew that Bradley could braid hair!

An afternoon boat trip around the lake.

 Swimming at the neighbors cabin with shallow water for the kids and dogs!

And Tripp fell asleep again. Don't worry, he does not have a bruise above his eye. It was dirt.

Not much wildlife this trip. There was a family of loons on the lake.  A few snakes, one of which met me at the outhouse late at night.  A bunch of frogs and tadpoles. A couple beavers swimming in the lake.  And one very large mama spider. Very Large...


A loon

One of the snakes

 So much fresh air and nature that Tripp fell asleep again! That must be a comfy chair.  I think Grandpa Elzinga might have fallen asleep in it as well.

Grandpa Elzinga reading the camp journal

The ladies.

Peter and I
Camp hair, don't care.