your trip begins at michigan.org

Or alternately expedia.com....because you should come here in the summer. It's so fabulous.

It's pretty in the late afternoon.

 At night.

 At 9:00 in the morning when you've already been telling your kids they can't go to the beach for 2 more hours.

 
Mark participated in his third annual M22 Challenge this year and conned his buddy Ben into doing it with him. The Ferwerdas rented a cottage just down the way and we had a fun weekend!

 A rousing game of hi-ho cherry o... (if i may: who in the world thought a kids game with 304 cherries smaller than a marble would be a good idea?! i'm so annoyed at that person.)

 Snuck out for a date night to celebrate Ben's big 30th Birthday! Welcome to the club, Bud!!

 Dual purposing the tube...

 Saying adios to Daddy on an early morning bike ride...

 Sibling cuddle time

 Reese climbed up and went to sleep on Allison. I was jealous, but took a picture anyway so I could try and seem like I was happy about it.

 Naptime for the rest of the kids on the tube! Will is seriously sleeping...I think the rest were just VERY relaxed.

The Dads got the kids all excited about building a sand castle. Unfortunately the kids weren't really allowed to help as they created Ft. Manly. Once they were done the kids were allowed to enter. (As long as they didn't ruin it.) 

 Ava providing moral support through a tragic toe injury.

I feel like these pictures are a thing of the past-I certainly have one driving with my Dad. Church is just down a dirt road but we were too lazy to walk that morning. Judge at your leisure.

 

 For the 30th celebration and "fathers day" for Mark-we sent them out fishing on Lake Michigan.

 The fruit of their labor.

 Ava and Will were the only kids brave enough to get close...

 The skeptics on the side!

 Grilled it out on his real birthday. Yum!
Also: remember to bring candles so someone doesn't have to blow out a lighter on their 30th bday.
 THE BIG RACE!
Kiddos watching....

 On the side of the road:

 Way to go Mr. Ben!

 Way to go Daddy!

 Mark is the second guy from the front-

 Woo hoo!!!!!

Proud of our husbands for their accomplishment and thankful for a fun weekend in the best place on earth!

baby birds have it figured out

Here are our birds which have become quite the part of our life the last few months. This was the first batch...

One of the girls said "all that mama does is go get food for her babies and feed them and then go get more food..." 

uhhhh, yep

 And they just wait-with their little mouths open. Really makes me feel compassion for their mama. :)

 One of the Rees-isms to take place in the last few months. She had a field day with the garage door opener while I was taking groceries in and somehow welded my van door to the garage door. Nothing the Overhead Door man couldn't fix for a small little asking price. :)

 My own little baby bird.

 2 and 4

 Aunt Ann came to visit...we loved having her!!!!!!

 Second string mama

 First string Dad

 We don't drink beer much-but had gotten some for a party...the leftovers sat on the deck for a long time-(procrastination is one of our strengths)...one day I came out from a shower to find the girls on the deck having a great old pretend frat party. (like my christian liberal arts self even knows about frat parties)

 Double fisting.

 And we wrapped up a fun semester of gymnastics with the world's best teacher...so great that she welcomed all the kids who weren't in gymnastics to participate every week-

 and this cuddle picture is with MORE who weren't even in the class. Three cheers for Ms. Dawn....

Oh happy (memorial) day

While we were gone, one of my most giant sadnesses was our kids not getting to grow up going to the lake every few weekends in the summer.  Therefore, it's one of the biggest highlights of being back, and Memorial Day was the kickoff of our summer of happiness at the lake.

We loaded the whole team up and hit the road.

 And landed amongst a gaggle of cousins and aunts and uncles and spiders. We kept the cuddling to things with only two legs.

 We got to eat at some of our local favorites.

 And play at our local beach.

 And there was plenty of fraternizing with the locals as well. (I love how Grandma and Mark are hugging and Reese is clinging on, too.)

 Beach bum.

 Have I ever mentioned the impossibility of decent pictures? I won't talk about it again.

 I'll just show you.

 Late night Monopoly. (I'm a huge supporter of this because a)I hate Monopoly and b)I love going to bed. It's a win/win for me.)

 Lemonade at Grandma's...

 More of the gaggle.

 Family meals.

 And the traditional Monday hot dog roast.

We are in love with Glen Lake and so thankful to be back to enjoy it. Yay summeR!!!!!

May Days

Dear iPhone, Thanks for having a decent camera so I can have some documentation of this period in our lives. 

Dear Children, sorry that all we have from this period in your lives are crappy iPhone pictures. It could be worse. There are none of me that even exist. You're welcome.

Dear May, Thank you for your lovely days that made my heart swell even more about being back in Michigan.

The highlight of our month was Grandma and Grandpa visiting...

 Grandpa started intense measuring doing the groundwork for a new gift in our backyard. The girls played in the dirt. Both were entertaining.

 Love this of my cute parents chatting with Hutch. They are always concerned that he is cold. (and that everyone else is cold for that matter. And they always are cold. This is why they live in Florida where it's virtually impossible to be cold.)

 We got a new toy that has been loads of fun.

 You'd think she had 4 kids or something with how well she handles the brood.

can't

 get

 enough

 I love when the girls are coordinating and we get beautiful family photos.
 At least our grass was still green back then.
The current brown would have been a much less desirable background for this prize winner.

 All dressed up with nowhere to go. But pretty cute in the meantime!

Word to your Mother.

Way back a long time ago, it was Mother's Day. It was a lovely day. 

All 4 of my children took a picture with me. 3 of them even smiled. One broke her glasses. But that doesn't have anything to do with Mother's Day.

 But I was not the only mother in town on Mother's Day... my nephew Q did some stealth climbing on the bannister of our deck and snapped a photo of these little beauties--

 We are now on our second round of robin hatchery-as my own cute mama said: "that mama bird must know your house is a great place for babies!" :)

 Pardon my obnoxiousness here-but another picture from a different publication of my same family. I guess the camera man was loving them that day!

 Aunt Lindy and my pretties at church on m.d. (it's so much fun going to the same church as my sis!!)

 Let's just get right to the point here. Nothing could be better on ANY day of the year than the first bite out of a new bag of Ruffles. One of many reasons Melinda and I are such kindred spirits.

 And just because he's reaaal dear to this mama's heart...a picture of my littlest love.

All I ever wanted to do was be a mom-so very, very, very grateful to get to do it!!!