All three kiddos have had a blast going with me to Kid Care 3 days a week during June and half of July! I am working at the program through our church until the middle of July and all three of them get to go with me! How fun is that, that I get to bring all my kiddos with me?! Luke has his best buddy Devin and then Elle has her BFF Lilah (Devin's sister) and the rest of her Kensington Preschool buddies. It has been such a blessing for our entire family to be completely plugged in with the staff and their families at our church. As I finish out my time here on staff, I leave with a grateful heart for the time I had at home, the time I had with my growing babes, the friendships I formed, and the Christ-centered foundation that it's offered our entire family.
Below Luke and Elle are holding hands with Devin and Lilah...
One of the last "rest times' at our program and the three of them ended up together on the same mat by the end of the movie. :)
Drew and his choo-choos. OBSESSED. These two have become real besties and even though they can give each other a run for their money, they are evenly matched and are always playing together.
Drew making us laugh "flying' in the air. This kid keeps us cracking up!
AND off we go...HELLLLOOOOO Summer 2017!!
First off, a trip to Traverse City to see Gpa and Gma Cooley at their summer house! Look at those excited smiles and the sweetest little photobomber. Also, look closely because this is one of the last family trips in our Saturn Vue!
Rockin out in the back seat to me and my girl's favorite riding jam "Happy Girl"!! Drew hears this a lot. He is very patient. :)
Ahhh, and here we are. Old Mission Peninsula, home sweet home, for summer 2017. This pic is taken from the porch of the house. We are surrounded by vineyards, famous wineries, family owned cherry orchards and family. We savored this piece of paradise for almost 3 weeks this summer.
Two lots over is the Old General Store that sold all types of candy out of barrels and hand-dipped ice cream. Yummo!
A little coloring station/Checkers station Gma Cooley had setup in front of the bay window!
Smores and bonfires almost every night!
A trip out to Hazarat Beach to play at their park!
Helping Gpa Cooley lay a cement patio...
AND a fun visit from our favorites the Brangs! These two had a blast!
And these 2 sweeties loved it just as much.
Patrick even got in a workout, rowing everyone for a moonlit cruise.
We had so much fun we met up with them again the following night at their place, The Grand Traverse Resort!
And Moomers to finish off the night! We love watching these sweeties grow up together! Bing and I are the luckiest. We met in 2nd grade and never looked back. Life is filled with so much laughter, fun, and friendship because of her and I am grateful to share this with our kiddos!
Peel me off the floor, we were a wee bit tired on this drive home.
So, the next morning there were cuddles all around and with some of our favorite snugglers!
(All pic commentary is from our very own Lukey Lous)
We headed home for the annual 4th of July fireworks back home in Rochester Hills!
Luke playing ball with some of his buddies from school.
And us being us and loving it.
Almost firework time! We had another great time hanging out with our awesome neighbors and friends. We got home just shy of midnight and the kids were up and ready the next day for one of their last times at Kid Care. They were such troopers!
And two days later we were back up in Traverse for our 2 week stint and we kicked it off with celebrating at the Cherry Festival! The first Festival event was watching the Thunderbirds!
Drew is plugging his ears, it was fun but pretty loud.
Back to the house for more water fun! Pretty great spot to enjoy the summer with family and friends!
Taking baths in the bay is a family favorite!
Ben is the nominated aquatic director of the family. Here he is doing his due diligence.
This man-child will be in 2nd grade this school year! Love him beyond words.
We had lots of extended family over and some that we met for the first time. Chloe and her parents made a visit from Cali!
Haha, Luke was having fun with my editing options. This is Auntie Meg's option. :)
Always swimming in and out all day of the water. I don't think our swimsuits ever dried completely between swims during our trip!
Luke chose to stay back with Papa (by his side ALL of the time) and we took Elle and Drew downtown to walk around and see all of the events for the Cherry Festival. Elle chose to go on a car for her carnival ride. (I am telling you, this girl and her cars! They are her jam.)
She chose the blue car and loved it!
Then a quick stop at the toy shop downtown and what did she choose to play with...The cars.
Ben was also named grillmaster. He's got a lot of jobs around here. :) We are getting ready for the big cookout for all of the Johnson's! This was the night before to kick off a great cherry season before the picking started the next am!
Ben and I were able to celebrate our 11th anni by having ourselves a little, no-child-just adult, staycation! Thanks Mom and Dad! We left all 3 kiddos up in Traverse and Ben and I went back down state! We were able to go out to dinner at our favorite spot, Penny Black, and when we talked about doing anything else we both agreed...STAY HOME! Ben had to work two days this week so I also went in to help out at Kid Care during the day. We squeezed in a marriage mentor session with our awesome engaged couple Jesse and Riley and on our way back up to Traverse on Friday...
We said goodbye to the Vue...
...and hello to our new mini van!!
We surprised everyone by driving it back up to Traverse. Ben would take the kiddos to look at vans at different lots for "fun" (I would stay happily by myself at home :)) and so the kiddos were so looking forward to getting one. I have to say, I LOVE it!
The next morning we were off to the Cherry Festival Parade!
This sweet girl. I can't believe she is going to be in kindergarten next year. She has been my sidekick these past two years and I am going to miss her!
Drew is just pooped.
And when we got back to Traverse, Dad had gotten a motor on the boat!
THIS was very exciting for everyone especially the aquatics director!
On Sunday, we were able to attend the Traverse City Kensington Church! We helped launch this campus last year so it was pretty cool to see it and attend service there. We even ran into some people from the Troy campus there and when we were out to eat afterwards in Glen Arbor at Boone's we ran into a family that volunteered for me at church in my 2's room! Crazy!
So here we are at Boone's after church. It was a beautiful day but man...
these two crazies were off the hook! It was a loud, non-relaxing lunch BUT
then the walk to the beach made it all wonderful again.
This is one of my favorite beaches in the mitten. Beautiful!!
Monday started Vacation Bible School at my Mom's old church that she used to attend on the Peninsula when she a little girl. I was a little skeptical at first. The kids going away everyday from 9-11:30 all week, being on a schedule, hmmmm.... However, Ben asked them at breakfast that morning and Ellie was all into it. So, that was that. Off they went to a week-long VBS on Old Mission Peninsula.
Side Note: At this point Luke was in a life jacket ready to head out on the boat when Ben asked them about VBS. He is more of a homebody than Elle and when he agreed to go with Elle, last minute when he already had his own plan on what his morning was going to look like...We were so proud of him!
After the first day and it was a hit all around!! Everyone was excited to go back the next day!
This VBS was the BEST! The rest of the week the "cool bus" picked the kids up from the end of our driveway and dropped them off at the end of the day! Kudos to Gma Cooley for thinking of this!
LOVING the bus!
This is Luke at his happy place.
And Papa's, with a good book in his hand!
AND the Brang's came back up to spend the day with us!!! LOVE!
This time we had the motor on the boat and it was so funny to have all of us me, ben, bing, and 4 kiddos on an old fishing boat that puttered as fast as she could go. :) We had a great time though and Carson and Luke even figured out how to rig up some "tubing" like adventures to the back of the boat.
I think this is Carson!! All 4 kiddos took their turn and our two brave girls.
After an hour or so on the boat I realized that Drew could be waking up any minute in the house with nobody in it. The thought sent me into a small panic like what if he ventured out to the water by himself. You know, total rationale mommy thoughts. It must have scared Ben though too because right away he dropped off the 2 boys to head straight back to the house to check on Drew. Bing and I were like, " You are just dropping them off so far from the bay?" This made us laugh to see the boys swim from so far back! Drew, of course was completely fine and just waking up but the boys wanted to swim the whole way back. This was them making their way back to shore but the drop off was pretty far back from this point!
Ben stayed with the kiddos while Bing and I had a night out to see some of our high school faves! It was 7/11 so Ben took all of the kids into town for free slurpees!
While the children are away the Mamas will play!!
Alaina and Head!! These two were two of our besties in high school and now they are together living in TC! We were so excited to have the chance to meet up for dinner and back to their place afterwards.
So grateful to have such memorable and loving friendships.
And we finished the week strong at VBS!
So the kids are obsessed, really obsessed with the story of Beauty and the Beast. It started with me and my own love for it, then the trip to Disney, compounded with the DVD we borrowed from April and Margot, to the real show being released, and now that we have DVD players in our van it is the show and book of choice!! Listen to Drew reading Beauty and the Beast that he checked out with Gpa and Gma Cooley at the Traverse library. Sorry it's sideways but you can catch him quoting Belle, " Bonjour, bonjour!"
We were able to spend time with G.G.!! He is doing so well and it is great that he has Mom right down the road to be there with him. He also has lots of loving family and friends who stop by often to visit with him and take him out to eat. He is one cool and kicking 93 year-old!
And a Cherry Festival celebration would not be complete without a trip to pick cherries and lucky us...Mom's family owns their own acres of cherry farm and vineyards!! Growing up, we spent a lot of time picking cherries but I didn't really understand what a cool thing it was that my Mom's family owns a few thousand acres of farm on Old Mission Peninsula!! The Johnson Farms is still the family owned business and they are all hard-working, early-rising, hip farmers! It was great being able to introduce our kiddos to our family tradition and history.
Don't let the white cherries fool you! This sweetie will tell you they are just as delicious as the dark red!
Future cherry farmers!!
And for us, we have all the cherries we could possibly eat and share. They are so yummy and fresh and they hung in giant clusters wherever we looked. Ben called it "life-giving". :)
Afterwards, we stopped at my mom's cousins, Dean and Laura's, farmhouse to see the horses!
Does Drewman look like his Papa or what?! #twinning
I saw their barn and I thought we could totally have a family photo shoot right here and now! Mom took the shots with my phone and we were dressed to pick cherries but what do you think??
My heart loves them.
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