Monday, September 29, 2008

Dearest friends and family, This past summer was simply a whirlwind ending before any of us truly had a chance to absorb all of things we participated in. We took a two week family trip down to Texas to see all of our family followed by week long camps for Noah, Izzy and Olivia. Noah is continuing his work toward Eagle Scout and received the Honor of being choosen for "Order of the Arrow" at camp this year. Izzy attended two week long church camps where she had a blast sailing, swimming, rock climbing, zip line, etc. Olivia had her first week long camp experience in which she too learned to sail and swim. She found out all about the Ghost of Lake Barlow and couldn't wait to tell her little sister all about it. Carol and Howard rented property on Crystal Lake for 6 weeks so much of our summer was spent there fishing, hunting frogs & snakes and boating. I think Izzy ate her weight in ice cream at the local dinner, "House of Flavors". We can't prove it but we think Olivia caught the same fish over and over again. It was either really stupid or really hungry. Every time her hook went in she reeled in a fish. Tom was very proud because she learned to take her own fish off the hook and rebait it. Amelia enjoyed swinging in the hammock and playing hide-n-seek. We ended our summer with a 5 day camping trip in our pop-up at Ludington State Park. We all enjoy the hiking trails, swimming in Lake Michigan, tubing down the river, fires around our campsite and hunting for monarch catapillars. Before we knew it we were shopping for back to school supplies and clothes. Attending school orientation and meet the teacher nights and setting up bedtime and wake up schedules. No more lazy sleeping in days for the family. Enjoy our Summer Slide Show ~ Jenny