Just so I can give these documents a URL

 

Summer Highlights

Here are some highlights from our very busy so far.

This is basically a photo bomb...just so you have been properly warned.

This little girl of mine turned 5 and celebrated with ice cream sundaes instead of cake.

 The day after her birthday, we left to go to Utah.

Here's some fun at the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point.

 Then there is always a lot of fun with the cousins.

 Here we were waiting for the guys who were doing a 20 mile hike (Scouting merit badge requirement for Jakob) along the Jordan River.

 A view of Utah Valley from Camp Williamson (I think that's what it's called).

 Then there is the trip to the 'Y'...

 this time to the Wilkinson Center...

 to go bowling.

 On the way home we stopped at the St. Louis Zoo.  We made it just in time to pet the sting rays

 and the goats.

 My favorite was the butterfly house though.

Then we were home for 2 weeks in which the girls swam with the rec center swim team.  That was kind of fun to be introduced to the world of swimming.  By the end Clara had improved her time for free and back by 15 seconds and Sophia was able to swim the 100 IM.

 Then it was up to PA, just in time for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

There we had all sorts of fun.

 Here are the girls playing in the stream at Caledonia St Park.  We were waiting for the men folk (Jakob, my uncle Adam and his son-in-law Rob) to finish up a 10++++ mile long hike on the Appalachian trail, which cuts through the park.  They had a good story to go with the hike and Rob, who is from England and doesn't really hang around kids that much got to know Jakob rather well.

 Then there was the battlefield...

 and Pickett's charge.

 Fun with sparklers and fireworks on the 4th of July.

 And there was swimming lessons. 

 And a small town carnival with turtle races,

 and rides.

 A quick visit to Devil's Den on the very crowded battlefield.

 Jakob and I also did a 10 mile hike around the battlefield early one morning.  That was one of the highlights of the trip for me (besides getting to see family).  The battlefield is rather quiet early in the morning and it was fun to have Jakob as an exclusive 'captive' audience/companion for almost 4 hours.

There you have our summer so far.

Guess Who Just Finished His 4th Decade

Yes, he is 40 now.

Here is the timeline of his life in pictures that I made.  Here's the rundown of his life:

There are 5 pictures of brand new babies

-4 baptisms

-3 graduations

-several science fair projects

-1 mission

-1 wedding

-countless trips

-lots of fun 

Here's to a wonderful 40 years and a wonderful 40+ more to come!

Our Thanksgiving Camping Trip

We did the unconventional for Thanksgiving this year and went camping for the week...on  the beach.  What an experience!  We've really never taken a family vacation that didn't involve visiting family and we've never been camping on our own for that long either.

Using a Budge phrase, it was a family bondage experience...a lot of fun, but a little trying at times.

 All packed up and ready to go.

We decided to camp at St. Andrew's State Park (highly recommend!!!), on the panhandle of Florida, right by Panama City Beach.  The kids had never seen the ocean, so this was a big deal.  This was the view from our campsite.

 Here's the kids first experience at the beach/ocean.

 The shelling wasn't that great, but they did manage to come home with a bunch.

 The kids asked me what my favorite thing was and I said besides spending time together, the sunrises and sunsets over the water.  I have a thing for them.

 A picture combining my favorite things.

 Since our campsite was right on the water, we had fun exploring and finding the wildlife.

These are all hermit crabs we found, watched for a little bit and let back in the water.

 Playing on the beach was the favorite thing for the girls.  Not so much for the boys, but they did manage to entertain themselves. 

 "Be hold, the ocean!"

 Sophia the Mermaid

 Sophia the Sea Serpent 

 One day we rented a paddle board.  Phil was pretty good at it.  I was not so good.  The girls took rides with Phil. 

 Sophia is holding up a sand dollar that she found.

The boys dug bunkers and had a sandball fight.  Their foxholes were deep enough for them to sit in and only have their heads sticking out.

 Of course we also had the traditional burying in the sand.

After complaining how boring the beach was, Jakob found chopping would very entertaining.

 Clara got up with the sun each morning.  This meant really early, because we were right on the timezone (this also meant the sun had set by 4:30 and the kids were in bed by 7 every night).

 Because she got up so early, Phil or I would get up and take her on a walk.

 We usually ended up down by the boat dock away from all of the campsites.  There was a heron that hung around there and a bunch of pelicans as well.

 If you look close, you can see the pelican in the water has a fish in his pouch.

 One day we took a hike.  We learned a little bit about turpentine.

 We also found a great place to go miniature golfing.

 The mini golf place also had this giant maze.  You had to make it to each of the 4 little platforms, punch your card and make your way out.

 If you were fast enough you got your name on the board.

 On our last night the girls and I were out on the pier watching the sunset, when we saw a guy catch this sting ray.  It actually broke his rod.  He did let it go and it swam away. 

 Sunset on the last night.

 We saw some rays swimming and jumping out of the water.  I caught a glimpse of a dolphin one day.  The boys saw someone catch a shark.  Lots of wildlife experiences on this trip.

 Final campfire.  Each night we had a fire and had smore's most nights as well.  For Thanksgiving dinner, we had tinfoil dinners.  It was all a Thanksgiving that will be remembered.