Summer Vacation!

This is what summer is all about...!

All 15.5 (Jennie & Joe are expecting #4 in October) of us together for the first time since Henry was born.

We enjoyed a nice family vacation at the Hested cabin in Bellevue, IA. Both of Jalene's sisters who now live in CA and MO drove into town for this vacation. Julie's total mileage for their cross-country trip was 5,000 miles, yikes! Thankfully, they had a safe trip both ways. We were so happy we got to spend lots of quality time with them.

With the 200+ pictures I had on my camera, it's taken awhile for me to load, label and organize my photos for all to enjoy. As the avid organizer, I had to organize our pics into categories for ease of use, etc.

1. BOATING
We have all been telling my Dad he needs to get a bigger boat since he now has 7 grandkids and one more on the way. Well, my Mom finally suggested he get a pontoon boat and he didn't waste anytime. He found a  really nice used one within 2 weeks which we ALL really enjoyed on this vacation. Way to go M&D! The kids really enjoy it since they can move around on it and take turns driving it too.

Boating...mostly pontoon boat riding!


2. EATING
Like most vacations, we all ate and ate and ate and then ate some more! Henry enjoyed his first watermelon slice (he's never had his own slice). He literally ate it down to the rind. Henry also enjoyed his first bomb pop popsicle. We all enjoyed s'mores by the campfire, many grilled goods, wieners roasted over the campfire, ice cream (some got to ride in the "ice cream boat" to enjoy that) and many other tasty treats.


3. TRACTOR RIDES
Papaw was quite busy taking grandsons for wagon rides behind his fancy new lawn mower. A couple grandsons even got to ride on the tractor with Papaw. What a treat!

Papaw would do a few circles before they would ride off so we could all snap some beloved pictures.

4. RELAXING/NAPPING/STORY TIME

Two favorite spots to relax at the cabin are the sky chair and the hammock. Both were well used for resting or even napping.

Getting ready for bed was not complete without stories. A couple nights, the gear heads (Papaw, Andy (3) and Henry) enjoyed looking through Classic Truck magazines. Henry would say "uh-ohhh" when he saw a car taken apart. Other nights the "Jump" book was quite a hit especially when it was acted out. Henry took that book around to both Papaw and Grandma to read one night. Then he tried to have Uncle Sean read it too, little stinker.

5. FUN, FUN, FUN / MISC.

Non-stop action included: Sidewalk chalk, bubbles, BIG bubbles, swinging, bag swinging, pool fun, plain ol' running (mostly Henry or whoever would chase Henry), water skiing, tubing, kneeboarding, bean bags, ladder ball, Scattergories, cribbage, scrabble, train watching, going to a car show and being in a parade.

Hard to believe, I was bummed that we didn't have time for finger painting.


6. 4th of JULY PARADE
Papaw was excited to be in the Bellevue 4th of July parade with his classic truck this year. He was probably even more excited to share the experience with some special passengers such as grandsons and one son-in-law. The rest of us went and watched the parade.


GOOD TIMES!
We had an awesome vacation at the cabin. Thanks for having all of us M&D. Henry definitely enjoyed all the action and entertainment since he averaged 3 and 4 hour naps. He did get less sleep at night but his naps definitely made up for it. We think he grew more hair on the top of his head during those naps since you can't see through to his scalp as much now.

Thanks to cousin Emma (10) for helping out with Henry too. She even changed her first diaper and it was a stinky one too. She definitely got some good practice in for her future babysitting jobs. Emma taught Henry a few new words too. He says, pool, gnome, "memma" for Emma; "nennie" for Jennie; "nana" for Grandma; and best of all "tank you" for thank you. We're still working on please.

Thanks to Joe S. and Dad for our own personal fireworks show on the actual 4th of July.

Until next time...