Grand Haven, Michigan

We had a great summer vacation to Grand Haven, Michigan!  It was a perfect place for a vacation with 4 young kids! I have a feeling that more Lake Michigan trips are in our future. It really was like the ocean without the drive! We stayed at a really nice house, right by the lake. We spent a couple of days at our little beach by the house, and we spent a couple of days at the big beach in Grand Haven. We went without much of an agenda aside from the beach, but we found so much else to do and had so much fun that we stayed an extra night! Aside from going to the beach every day, we saw a minor league baseball game, rode the trolley, picked blueberries, went to the musical fountain show, went to SkyZone, shopped downtown (the kids loved the toy store!), visited a couple of local ice cream shops, found a neat playground, ate at Fricano's (local pizza) and a Japanese steakhouse, played lots of boardgames, grilled out / cooked a lot at home, and went to the Grand Haven kids' parade! I even found time to read an entire book.  Oh, and we stopped at the Albanese Candy Factory, Portillo's, and Fair Oaks Farm (just the gift shop) on the way home just to stretch out the trip! No one wanted our trip to be over!

The light show.  They do a different one every single night:

The little beach by our house which we had to ourselves sometimes, or shared with a few others a few times:

Grand Haven is famous for "Pronto Pups."  They are basically like a fried hotdog.  One local told us that they open for one day in January and the line is hours long.  I can't imagine how bitterly cold that line is!

We took a trolley tour of the city:

The kids LOVED the toy store, of course, and they each picked out a toy with their birthday money.

We found a really neat playground!

We picked blueberries, a first for our family!  We brought home a bunch to make pie!

Life does not get any better than this:

We brought games to play at our house:

Josh came SO CLOSE to catching a fly ball.  It literally bounced out of his hand.  Poor guy, he claims he was trying to protect Lucas ;)  

Lucas thought Aleah's glasses were hysterical!

Lucas was VERY PROTECTIVE of his drink!!!!

A great thing about Aleah is that if she is tired, she will find a way to go to sleep.  She didn't even ask; she just stopped playing, crawled under the blanket, and went to sleep.  She's a girl who knows what she wants!

We happened upon a parade just as it was beginning!  I joked that we were probably the only people at the parade who didn't know it was happening 5 minutes before it started!

We stopped at Albanese on the way home:

We were sad to leave our "cation" house, as Aleah called it.

Such a great trip!  So many memories!  Love our family!

Iron Birds Softball

Hannah had another great softball season!  It was her last year in Rookie League.  Josh was an assistant coach for her team.  The girls finished 3rd for the season in the league (and had the toughest schedule!).  They finished 2nd in the end of the year tournament to another one of the Catlin teams (there were 3 Catlin teams this year). 

Papa Steve came to almost every game and helped me.  Thank goodness!  With 25 games between the 2 kids, we were at the ball diamonds a lot, and that is only slightly exhausting with a 1 and 3 year old, especially considering a few games went until almost 10:30!  

The pack 'n play helped a FEW times:

Aleah told Papa she wanted chips in a box... she meant Nachos!

Hannah played 3rd base this year and did alright.  She did a GREAT job hitting again this year.  She got a little stronger than last year and hit several to the outfield.  She even managed to get a few in-the-park homeruns.  This girl is FAST!  Track may actually be her sport someday!

Aunt Sherry came to games whenever she could!

Oh, you know, just a one year old stealing his Papa's pop!

Coach Russell giving Hannah a high five!

Hannah was VERY disappointed in the championship game.  We played our absolute worst game of the season and got totally blown out in record time.  Hannah personally did well though.  She hit the ball every time; I was proud of her.  It was a lot of pressure for the girls!

With the other Catlin team after the championship game:

Lots of Sudlows came to watch:

Another fun season in the books.  Already looking forward to next year and hoping that Lucas is just a little bit easier on me.... and that Papa Steve will come help me again!

VBS

VBS is always a great and crazy week!  I will say, I love being Sandy's assistant, rather than being totally in charge with Josh.  VBS is a HUGE project, and Sandy does it so well!!!

Aleah with her buddy Max Shepherd:

Hannah with her friends on Snow Cone Day:

Aleah, Piper, Max:

Group picture!  We had nearly 300 people, all kids and volunteers included:

Sports Team Day:

Dress like a stoplight day:

I set up the bounce house for the 2 and 3 year olds:

I taught missions again this year, and we got to send our support to the Humiston family just as they were relocating to Dallas.  The kids loved to learn about them and chant "Help the Humistons!"  Jeremy even got to come spend the night with us and help at VBS one day!  Love that I have found my niche at VBS and love that we got to help them with their moving expenses!

It is always a great week!

4th of July

My sister Betsy had a party for the 4th of July.  We had fun the whole day.  Josh took the 3 younger kids to the movies, while Hannah and I went to get a pedicure!  Then we went to the Aldermans and to fireworks!

My Grandpa and Grandma Reeves were in town from Florida.  It's always fun to have them here!

Fireworks!