Mountain Retreat

Freshman got to go on a retreat to the mountains. I cannot believe how fast we grew closer together! We did a talent show, went hiking, boating, window shopping, out to pizza and slid down the apline slide! Busy, adventurous and fun!

Pictures Week one Providence

this week has gone better than I could possibly have expected. Thank you all for your prayers! I have met great people and seen a lot of things (mountain retreat pictures to follow). these include ice cream socials, scavenger hunts and countless orentation meetings as well as fun mixer games in Hessed and the Chapel. The five standing outside the building are my roomates and I.

Cran Hill

More high quality pics! Our family camping trip to Cran Hill, the last of the summer.

Fun and relaxing and gave me time to finish my college summer reading. We had some crazy rain and wind so it was good reading weather.

New Camera

Say hello to my new camera, Nik, a Nikon D40 who brings a whole new quality to my photos. :) This camera focuses like you wouldn't believe and is so detailed it shows pollen I didn't see with my naked eye! Anyway, I love it.

Summer Collage

Since I am so behind, I thought I could sum up the summer in a nice list of pictures collected during these months.

The rainbow is from the barbeque we had at work. The rain did not bother us under the pavilion and made the most beautiful whole rainbow I have ever seen. I couldn't get the whole thing in one camera shot...

Andrew and Janelle are on the beach at Sleeper state park where we vacationed a weekend.

TEA party number two for me! Handing out pamphlets and ice cream afterward.

July 4 we did our own fireworks at home then went to the city ones. Andrew has the line since he of course wants to link them all together to go off in a continual line.

FEE seminar. One of the many perks to working where I do. :) I learned so much about economics and government this summer and met so many amazing people, some of whom are pictured in the photo.

Star Wars marathon, I watched all six with two friends in about fourteen hours, quite a day!

Cousins from the huge family reunion we hosted.

Andrew made a hovercraft, and even Grandpa tried it out!! :)

Fathers Day Feast

Fathers day afternoon started out with a bang and a lot of people! We hosted a lunch for one of our Church's missionary families and several others. After a long nap following this activity present time finally rolled around. He was happy with his manly gifts, I was not happy that on the second flash he put a gift box in front of his face to ruin the picture so I wanted to make sure you all saw it, not that it would guilt him into changing, quite honestly if he ever sees this he will laugh.... dads! All in all, it was a good day of enjoying Dad and all the things he's done for us all year round.

Ludington

On the road again! One of the favorite annual camping trips for the family is Ludington State Park.

The first night's sunset looked like it was going to be lame, but at the last minute there was a beautiful explosion of color!

We always enjoy the lake walk, this year we saw more wildlife than ever! A swan had made her next right by the bridge, there was a crane calling for his mate, and there were chipmunks everywhere too!

It is always nice to sit around the fire and enjoy catching up on each other's company. Biking up to swim at the beach and the dam was nice too. The ducks were very bold in the swimming area looking for food. We also walked to the dunes. One night we had ice cream on Oma - that was really a treat!

And yet, the best laid plans of mice and men so often go awry! As you can see in the last picture - we are waiting along the side of the road for AAA to bring our smoking trailer bearing to somewhere it could be fixed - now that messed up or afternoon nicely! But as you can see, we really know how to wait out a problem. :)