A very fun Sunday....

Today we decided to have some fun. After church we packed up the kids and headed to Michigan's Adventure. We hadn't been there since Claire was 1 and at that time, we had to worry about her nap etc. so things were much more enjoyable this time around. The kids were so excited to go and we had a blast. Here are a few pictures from our day.....

This is the brave dad on the Sea Dragon w/Ethan and Anna. Anna felt that the bar was not going to hold her so she only partially liked the ride.
Here is a mom who is very scared of heights trying to be brave on the huge ferris wheel. No one could notice that my eyes were closed behind my sunglasses. :)

E. and A. on the Frog Hopper. This thing goes up and just randomly bounces the kids down. They all giggled throughout the whole ride...it was super cute.

Anna on the Airplanes....

A fun boat ride....this is about the only really good picture I got of Claire although she had a great time. She was able to ride all the little kid rides. Her favorite was the motorcycles that did "wheelies" and the 50's cars that you drive around on a track. She loved that she would stop steering and the car would hit that track that runs down the middle. I was riding with her so that was great fun for me. :)

Sadly, I could not get any pictures of the most fun part of the day. Ethan is now a total roller coaster lover just like his mom. He was a little apprehensive on the first small wooden one but had SO much fun. Awhile later we went on a regular sized (big and fast) wooden one that was AWESOME! I could tell he was hooked. By the end of our time there I got the kid on the Corkscrew (the one that goes upside down) in exchange for a ride on the Nascar Go Karts. He was loving life and was very brave to do that crazy roller coaster w/his mom. He wants to go again tomorrow.....

Catch up....

I've been having some annoying troubles uploading pictures to the blog this summer. I've finally been able to get some on so you can see what we have been up to this summer.

First of all, we had some trouble with our trampoline, as you can see. This happened at the end of June during an awful windstorm. I was not here but this is what Joel saw when he drove into our driveway from work. The wind had picked up the tramp and literally wrapped it around this telephone pole which was about 10 ft away from it. Needless to say, we no longer have a trampoline.
Another view, you can also see our dog cousins Rio and Kingsley at the bottom of the picture. Rio belongs to my step-sister, Sarah and Kingsley belongs to Brett.

At the end of June, we went back up north with lots of family and spent a few days at the cottage. Here is Claire with her great-grandma Gigi.

Claire, Violet and Ethan snuggling in a very old chair that we all sat in when we were kids.

Anna and her favorite Uncle Brett at the sunset (that you can't really get the full effects of).

Fast forward a few weeks....these pictures were taken in late July. We had the opportunity to buy a few large maple trees for our backyard. Joel and his dad are trying to get them to our backyard. :)

Joel and Ethan standing in the tree hole they had just dug. We're hoping our new trees will give us some much needed shade on our deck.

Our first fair visit of the year was to the Barry County Fair. Here is Claire getting to know a cute little goat.

Ethan bonded with this little guy....

And here are all three enjoying a little bit of a horse show that was going on....Aunt Jesi, we wish you were still showing so we could watch someone we knew. :)

More to come, now that I think I have this picture problem fixed. :)

Happy 6th Birthday, sweet Miss Anna!

Well, it has been quite a long time since you have seen any updates here. This is due to lots of summer fun, a tired mom at the end of the day and an uncooperative computer. Thankfully, things are looking up and I was actually able to get some pictures to appear here. We have lots of catching up to do so stay tuned over the next day or two and we'll get up to date.

We'll start not in chronological order but instead in order of importance....Miss Anna's 6th Birthday. Our sweet little girl turned 6 July 19 and this is a picture of her with her cake. We had a fun day that day celebrating as a family. I took her out for the afternoon to paint pottery and one of those pottery painting stores and then to Krispy Kremes and also a stop at a bookstore. :) we had alot of fun. She wanted pizza for her birthday dinner so we did that and watched a movie. She had a great day.

A few days later, she had her birthday party with some special guests from Colorado. Grandpa Pete and Grandma Donna were here and we got to celebrate Anna's 6th and Grandma's 60th. It was a special celebration w/lots of gifts, cake, food, family and of course, in true VE style, beers. :)
Anna was SO sweet opening her gifts. She sat and took her time carefully opening each one and her expressions were priceless.

Ethan ran inside during the gift opening and grabbed a gift bag and filled it with items from his room that apparently he didn't mind giving away. Here is his sister's crazy expression while examining this scissors she has seen a million times.

The birthday bunch....Nelson turned 60 the day before Anna turned 6 and Grandma turned 60 a few days after Anna's birthday. In case you are wondering, the cake says "60 & 6!" but it is incredibly hard to make an "&" sign with frosting.

Of course, Ethan needs to help blow out the candles.