Relaxing @ the Lake

Ahhhh....

Sitting at my dad's with the windows open, kids are sleeping, listening to the waves and the Tribe (winning BTW). Good times. We got to have dinner with Dad, Uncle Joshua and Aunt Shannon. We had awesome Lake Erie Perch... too much! :) Dad and I thought we'd take the kids for a walk on the beach (his apartment is on the lake), by the time we came back both the kids had stripped down and were soaked completely and covered in sand. Baths, Ice Cream and Blues Clues later- sleep! Tomorrow we'll be here for the whole day and the kids are very excited. Grace didn't even put a toe in the water at the Ocean this year, but she's dying to get "all the way" into the lake. It should be a very fun, and exhausting day.

Sunday Esther will be dedicated to the Lord at church. I"m excited but it's not lost on me the seriousness of this. I know it's a formality, it's making public something we feel and commit to every day... it's just hard. You KNOW they belong in God's hands but in our humanness we just want to hang on and hold them close...keep them as our own. They aren't our own so there is really no "keeping"... I don't know how to put it, but it's emotional.

Speaking of emotion, geez this Lebron Circus has been a disaster. "It's not what you say, it's how you say it." You want to go, bye- you'd probably even have our blessing for the most part, but to make a spectacle of yourself and our city? No thanks. Then, bless his heart, Mr Gilbert tries to rally the troops not to leave with Bron by bashing him.... eh... not so classy either... pointed, and mostly true, but not so classy. That's my take. Everyone feels entitled to do what "makes them happy", fine. Try that. True happiness will not come with a ring- THAT I can guarantee. I tell Tyler all the time- Life is not about you, and it's not about what you want. I'm sad for Lebron- the guy needed a strong man in his life, or more strong men maybe, to tell him he's just a person. Yes he's talented, but he's a person. He's not a king, he's not a savior. Only ONE gets those titles.

On to better things. :) Last weekend, our family weekend was FABULOUS!!! We left Friday morning pretty early and headed to the Pittsburgh Zoo! It was amazing- they had all the animals the kids wanted to see this year that neither Akron, nor Cleveland, had. We took our time, saw the whole thing and skipped naps. I predicted we'd end up at the Aquarium at the hottest part of the day, and everyone else in the world would be there too b/c of the air. I was not wrong! It also happened to be nap time, and a holiday weekend where there were (I assume) more people than usual. It was still fun and we had a great time. We left and checked into our hotel. Yup! We got a hotel room! Thanks to Grandma Sandra's Christmas present of a zoo membership, what would have been a $50 admission was FREE!!! So we figured we'd check it out, and there are cheap rooms out there! It had a pool so after McDonalds in the room (We're so cool) we went swimming. Our little Grace girl who's afraid of water has now become a mermaid. She LOVED it and they both had to practically be dragged back to the room. Grace just sat contentedly in her seat and watched laughing and clapping. We had baths, watched a show and then put the kids to bed. Gary tried watching a little TV but the overtired little guys were very distracted, and he was exhausted, so he went to bed. I read for about a half hour, and then went to sleep too- the last time I looked at the clock it was 9:40. Ahhh... (The Tribe Wins!) Saturday we had breakfast at the hotel and checked out. Then we headed to Target to wander around a bit. We forgot the overtired kids would only want to look at toys, toys we were certainly not buying, so that was a bust. The Zoo had effectively advertised Eat N Park's 99cent kids meals so we headed there for lunch. It took just the right amount of time to get us to 1:00 so we could head to the Kelloggs. Faith's birthday party was a blast! Jackie always makes a big deal out of it and it's so fun. All of Faith's cousins were there (two were celebrating their birthdays as well) so the kids had a blast running around with other kids. They also loved the games and food and cake of course. We stayed and visited all the way till 10 for fireworks. The kids loved that too. Then we headed for home. The kids talked about the trip the ENTIRE way home which meant it was well past midnight before they went to bed/sleep. Sunday we had church. I was in nursery with the girls, and Gary volunteered in Tyler's class (they had 22 that week!) and then we headed to the Bush's for a 4th of July cookout with them and Pap. The kids enjoyed another full day outside, this time with squirt guns! We also had lot of Pap's onion bread. YUM-O! My favorite! The kids napped, for a very long time, so we decided to stay for fireworks in Alliance too. We found a spot in a parking lot on State Street and watched from there, getting home very late again. It was worth it!

We're very blessed to have so many wonderful opportunities to spend time as a family, with extended family and friends. We're enjoying our summer and pray you are too!