The Grand Finale at John and Carrie's tonight!

Our marathon week ended at Carrie and John's tonight with yet another great meal. The master chef, John, cooked hamburgers on the grill and Carrie had an exotic salad which was great! I can't remember what she called it but you can see it on facebook. It consisted of tomatoes, peppers, onions and this rice type protein ingredient. It was really good.

Jay is really into cars! He loves lining them up on the couch and then sending them off down the steep embankment or carry them across the room to Grandma or Grandpa or Gigi to see. We are truly blessed and Great Grandma really enjoyed seeing all her great grandkids. I hope we didn't wear her out too much.

We get to sleep in a little tomorrow before we make our trip to the airport so they can catch their 3:20 PM plane to Rapid City and then on to Pierre.

Visit to Jenny and Dan's with Gigi and Sylvan!

Our non stop week of visiting led us to Jenny and Dan's home in Lake Villa. More great cooking. Jenny fixed yummy cranberry chicken and berry dessert which I think Isaac and Levi? helped her make. The boys entertained us on the swing set. Levi has no fear, as he walks up and down the slide and climbs the steps beside it. To top it off he climbed up into his high chair. Levi also showed us his new big boy bed; he and Isaac get to sleep in the same room.
Isaac said the blue and red swings were for the new baby sister, and he and Levi got the other two. But for now they're swinging in the "baby girl" swings.
Isaac loves to put puzzles together so he and Sylvan and Gigi had a marathon puzzle putting together session.
Jenny had her weekly doctor's appointment and is already dilated to 1-2 centimeters. So we're praying for God's protection and safety and His perfect timing in the delivery of this baby for Jenny and Dan.

Paul, Amy and family visit Great Grandma and Sylvan

Paul, Amy and family came for dinner Wednesday night. Seth made zucchini cake and Caleb made the frosting, Amy made homemade bread, Les cooked hamburgers and we had delicious sweet corn for dinner. We are blessed to have so many good cooks in the family. Caleb and Seth provided dinner and after dinner music on the piano, and Nathan entertained us by playing catch with Grandma Marian. Sylvan and Connie did the picture taking and capturing all the memories on film.

Megan and boys visit to see Great Grandma Marian

Megan and boys drove from Byron, IL to visit Great Grandma Marian and Sylvan on Wednesday. Braydon has grown alot since Grandma saw him as a new baby. Thanks, Megan, for making the trip to visit. We enjoyed seeing you and all the boys.

Indiana Trip with Mom and Sylvan, July 27th, 2010

We drove to Indiana Tuesday to visit Mom's cousin, Bob Thomas, who is celebrating his 90th birthday this year. Bob and Dorothy live with their daughter in Danville, IN. They have a beautiful home with 45 acres and three horses, bees, a dog and multiple cats. They also have a little pond with a pontoon boat. The basement of their house was built as a stand alone apartment with kitchen, bedroom and full bath.
We enjoyed our trip and visit with Bob, Dorothy, Pat and Terry. They fixed us a big meal with corn on the cob from their garden and barbequed ribs.

Les, Pat (Bob and Dorothy's daughter) and Terry in their barn. They gave us the tour of their house and acreage. Pat and Terry are both retired and love to ride horses.

Mom and Sylvan - July 26-27,2010

Mom and Sylvan flew into O'Hare from Rapid City, SD, on Monday. We had a nice relaxing evening as we were going to Indiana Tuesday to viist Mom's cousin. Mom's looking at our Family Reunion storybook.

Mom and Sylvan - July 26-27,2010

Sylvan's learning to do sudoku on the computer.

OVERNIGHT WITH JAY! - JULY 23, 2010

We spent the night with Jay while Carrie and John took a trip to Chicago. Jay had so much fun with Thomas the train. He's got the sounds down real well and found all the on/off switches on the trains.

Jay knows how to fold his hands to pray at meals and wants to feed himself. He has a real unique way of putting food on the spoon and turning it over to put in his mouth as you can see in the pictures.

We had quite a thunderstorm last night but was nice enough today to go outside and play on the slide, riding horse and playhouse.

Jay had his first experience with Grandma baking banana muffins, and playing with Grandpa and the train set with all its switches and tracks.

Doug and Linda at the Lake-2010

Doug and Linda came to visit us at the lake over the weekend. Doug's a big Blackhawks fan so he's showing off his new hat. Although it was hot we enjoyed a couple of boat rides on the lake with a beautiful sunset. We ate at The Trail House and played a couple card games of golf. Doug and Linda left this morning for Joliet and we will be leaving tomorrow to go home.

Tree Clean Up!

Les has been working all week to clean up our tree that was brought down Sunday in the rain and wind storm. Our good friends, The Dockerys, have been very helpful and supportive; and Chuck giving Les a hand with cutting up the tree and today helping Les put up the beam which is supporting our upper deck. The finished product looks even better than the original, except for the absence of the tree. If anyone has ideas on a quick fix for shade, we're all ears.

Our next project is to put up blinds on the french doors to keep the sun out in the late afternoon.

I'm looking forward to the Hawkinsons coming tomorrow, so Les can take a break!

Tree Loss

We just experienced a fast moving storm come through the Lake of the Ozarks, but not without doing some damage, taking our lone shade tree to the west of the house. We had come to the basement in anticipation of the storm, but were shocked when we saw the tree come tumbling down on top of the cat walk. We are thankful it didn't land on the house and do more damage.

This will give Les something to do for the next few days. I'm sure it will make good firewood. Les finished running an electrical line to the shed yesterday, so was glad he had finished that.

Time to Leave!

Paul, Amy and family-We got a family picture before they left. We had a great time. Have a safe trip home.

Family Picture with Grandma and Grandpa!. From left: Caleb, Grandma, Noah, Grace, Ellie, Paul, Grandpa, Seth, Amy and Nathan! Nathan's happy. He has his cheerios! He's repeating all the words that everyone says! Amy says he reminds her of Caleb at that age. He says more words, but Seth and Noah were both doing more sentences.

Paula and Chuck Dockery stopped by to get a ladder. They timed that well; just in time to see Paul and Amy before they left and take the photo for us. We took a boat ride up the Gravois Arm of the lake to Bumps Restuarant for lunch. The lake was a little choppy but Les was able to manuever us through the waves.

4th of July at the lake!

What a great day for the 4th of July. After our morning devotions with the kids for our Sunday service, we took an early morning boat ride to beat the 4th of July Water Traffic on the lake. Caleb and Seth had a great time riding the tube behind the tritoon boat (as Caleb says). Noah, Ellie and Grace were content just to sit on it as Amy held it by the dock.

Paul climbed up on the back of the boat to spot for Seth and Caleb; and as we drove back into our cove I waved at the nice water patrol man as he pulled out of our cove. Next thing I know he has his red and blue lights on and is pulling up to our boat. We received a warning for Paul sitting up on top of the back bench. He also told us we didn't need to have our red flag displayed unless someone was actually in the water and not if before 11 AM. We did receive credit for having our registration papers in the boat and for having life jackets for all of us in the boat. So if any of you aren't aware of these rules, here's a little thumbs up for you.

Amy got some good shots of the whole incident, even Paul sitting up on the back of the boat.

We went to our neighbors lawn to view the fireworks and got some great shots of them. We are so thankful for the freedoms we enjoy!

Paul and Amy and kids for 4th of July Weekend!

Paul and Amy and family arrived here at the lake about 4PM today and were here in time to enjoy some fun in the lake swimming and riding the wave runners. We had a cook out with hamburgers and yummy sweet corn, then for a special surprise we had a campfire with s'mores. It reminded me of our campouts when our kids were little and also church camp where we sang Kum By Ya, My Lord. Paul and Amy brought some fireworks, so Grandpa helped light those and each of the kids got a few sparklers, except for Nathan. So we're enjoying our time with great weather, too.