Gardens with Grandma

We have continued our tradition of spending Wednesdays with Grama during the summer. Although we haven't been able to do it for a couple of weeks b/c of Grama's vacation and then ours, two weeks ago we went to the Meijer Gardens. Grama is generous enough to renew our membership to the gardens each year as a stocking stuffer, so we wanted to take her there to show her why we love it so much.

Perry enjoying the water fountains. He ended up soaking wet!

My little posers

Emmy asked me to take a picture of her pretending to be scared of the dinosaur. She is also showing off the latest skirt that I made her.

Family Vacation @ Lake Okoboji

So I really can't believe that my last post was on July 9th. I have lots of pictures on my camera from all of the fun things that we have been doing but lately they haven't been making it off of my camera. Today we returned from Lake Okoboji in Iowa. It was a REALLY long drive (mainly for Perry, the other 2 kiddos did awesome) but well worth it for a fun week of vacation. On the way there and back we stayed in Madison, WI to break up the trip. It is the kids favorite part of any vacation, staying at a hotel. To us, the parents, it is the worst part of the vacation. There is just no good way to stay in a hotel room with 3 little ones. We have tried all different ways of doing it and all of them just lead to frustration for us and not enough sleep for the kids. If anyone has any tips on this, please send them my way b/c we really need them. After 2 days of driving and LOTS and LOTS of yelling from Perry, we made it!! We roasted marshmallows, went fishing, went boating, ate nutty bars, and most importantly caught up with family.

Emmy showing off her first perch!

Kaden and Emmy doing "cheers" with their drinks on the boat.

The whole Douma family

The Douma grandkids

Our family

Isabelle and Emmy enjoying their ice cream at Arnolds Park

5 cute little lobsters (thanks to Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Charles for the hats from Boston)

Enjoying smores (almost every night)

The girls ready to roast some marshmallows

We had a great time on vacation but it is good to be home. Perry decided that he only wanted to be with me (and Chris a little too) while on vacation, so it was very exhausting for me. I feel like I carried him around for 4 days straight. I love the cute little guy but it was not really a vacation for me. I am very thankful that Grandma and Grandpap are going to give us a break from the kiddos next weekend and I can enjoy an actual vacation!

Muskegon Summer Celebration & A Mini Vacation

We had a great time the last couple of weeks going to the Muskegon Summer Celebration. We saw the Counting Crows, Bare Naked Ladies, and many others at the concerts. The kids had a great time dancing and being spoiled by Grandma and Grandpap with way too many snacks. Last Wednesday thru Sunday we just stayed in Spring Lake and made a mini-vacation out of it. The kids enjoyed the fishing and I got to take advantage of the awesome running trail that goes right by my dads. While we were out there Perry official started walking. He is now all over the place, which makes me a lot busier.

Summer Fun!

We have been so busy having fun this summer that I haven't really posted any pictures. Here are a few from a trip to Millenium park and from Father's day.

Emmy loved tubing with Isabelle! Grandpap was driving the boat pretty fast and she was smiling and laughing the whole time.

Kaden and Isabelle tubing

Perry loving the pool at Granny's

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July out in Spring Lake, although it would have been nice to have more sun. We went to a parade, went fishing, went to Grand Haven, and went to the Third Eye Blind and Matt Nathanson concert at night.

Kaden and Emmy showing off one of their many catches.

Waiting for the parade to start and to fill up those candy buckets!

Enjoying the fireworks after the concert

Perry and Grandpap ready for the fireworks