Cub Scout Camp

Eric and Nick set out for Cub Scout camp at Camp K, the first overnight camp for us.  The camp was for 3 nights.  Nick loved it despite the first night's excitement of severe thunderstorms in the area.  The camp had to take cover and were up for the majority of the night waiting out the storm in the mess hall.  Things got much better after that first night and Nick went on to enjoy all kinds of scouting adventures including swimming, archery, air rifles, hiking, boating, water fights and lots more.

While Nick and Eric were away at camp, Sam learned to ride his bike!  We seem to be late bloomers here for riding bikes, but you wouldn't know it by the way Sam speeds around the neighborhood on 2 wheels!

Ben attended Cub Scout day camp at Camp Belzer all week as well.  He loved every minute of the fun!  The last night Sam and I joined Ben for the family camp out.  The boys helped me pitch the tent!  

The evening activities included activities like archery, swimming, a camp fire and smores'!

Ben and his scouting buddy Zach. 

Ben had a great time at camp.  He made a neat bird house, practiced archery, bb guns, ran on an obstacle course in the forest, hiked, rafted, swam, zip lined and much more!  

Golf Camp at the Golf Club of Indiana

Next up, golf camp. 

The boys spent the mornings at golf camp, perfecting their swings!

VBS and good bye to our sweet Annie

The next week of the summer we spent at Vacation Bible School.  The boys and I all really enjoy attending VBS together.  It's a long, exhausting week and energizing, all at the same time!

Sadly we had to say goodbye to our sweet cat, Annie.  Annie liked to explore outdoors around our home and unfortunately met her fate with a car.  We are all very sad and miss her terribly.  She was such a sweet thing, always very curious and a super good hunter.  

A visit from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Jill

Grandpa Dan and Grandma Jill came to visit in early June  We had hoped to watch Nick play in his baseball game, but the weather didn't cooperate.  We did however get to enjoy a night out on our patio around the fire roasting marshmallows and catching up!

The boys were busy constructing their own baseball diamond in our backyard.  

Since we will soon be under construction in our backyard, we let the kids haul in some dirt and sand for their pitcher's mound.  Eric even spray painted a diamond for them!

Ben as umpire/catcher!  Alina shared her catchers gear from her days playing ball.  The boys have had more fun with this!

Fishing at West Park

The first week of summer.

We didn't catch anything (thank goodness, I don't know how to get a fish off the hook, I only know how to bait it, which this particular day the bait was tortilla!  Although, Nick assures me that he knows how to take a fish off the hook!)

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Illinois.  We celebrated our cousins Anna and Alina on their recent graduations, Anna from high school and Alina from nursing school!  Aunt Lisa and Uncle Bill had a big party at their house on Saturday.  There was a lot of food, fun playing washers, and cows in the country!

 On Sunday we traveled to Chicago to watch the Cubs play.  We were treated to a picture perfect kind of Chicago day and a Cubs WIN! 

We rounded out the weekend in Springfield visiting Grandma Bonnie and stopping by Eric's childhood home.  Bonnie recently moved to a new home, we wanted to stop by one last time!  Eric's parents built the house when Eric was 5 and he lived here until he left for college!

The first official day of summer vacation!

It's summer time!  We began our summer vacation by having our long time friends over to tie dye, our summer time tradition, and for playtime in our backyard.  

Our backyard is going to be going through some changes this summer as we begin a major project.  The first change will be saying goodbye to our little playhouse.  At this point the boys enjoy being on top of the house more than they like playing inside it!

A true sign that we had girls playing and creating with sidewalk chalk on our drive!

 I didn't get many pictures of the kids tie-dying for obvious reasons, my hands were a little dyed too!  But here is Sam doing making his creation.  We dyed t-shirts, napkins and an apron for me.

Ruby and Louise spent the day at the groomers, getting gussied up!

Ben, at Petco swimming in the fish department!

We got a few new fish friends while we picked up the pups!

It was an action packed kind of first day of summer!