Cousins Camp 2008

June 26th, 2008
It has been a few years since we have been able to have Cousins Camp. Charleen, Saeja and Austin were planning a visit from Washington. Jacqueline, Rupert and Izon were visiting from Jamaica. Michelle came in town from Kentucky before moving out to Idaho. We didn't have everyone here, but we still thought this was a perfect opportunity to have a family reunion at Olander Park hosted by Chris and Diane.

I was asked to head up games and activities for the children once again. This always presents an interesting challenge because we have such a wide age range of children who would be participating. We played relays, got messy with whip cream bubbles and whip cream tag, played water balloon baseball and water balloon volleyball, did face painting, swam, ate lots of good food and enjoyed each others company throughout the day. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.

Cody and Dylan ready for relays

Jonathan swings at water balloon baseball

Luke dips his face into whip cream bubbles

Luke pitches water balloons in water balloon baseball

Messy Cousins

Nicholas doing whip cream bubbles

Simons-Hess Family

Jonathan's brother and wife...Kenny & Sarah with their little girl

Water Balloon Volleyball

It was a very fun day!

Movin'

June 16th, 2008

Sylvania OH

Our move turned into a bigger endeavor than we had anticipated. We moved from a two story home with a finished basement into a Ranch single story. We had a lot of organizing and prioritizing that needed to be done. We had many friends and family come to our rescue and help us with our move. Whether by providing meals, watching our children, or helping us move from one place to another. We were truly blessed with lots of help. Lisa and Brian Kijowski volunteered to take our kids for a couple of days and took them to Wildwood, the Art Museum, and the YMCA. The kids had a great time and we were able to get more things accomplished.

Luke climbing the rock wall at the YMCA

Family Pictures at Toledo Botanical Gardens

May 31st, 2008 It has been several years since our last frameable family photo. It was a beautiful day. We ventured to the Toledo Botanical Gardens with my mom as photographer with hopes of obtaining the perfect family photo. Contrary to popular belief...our children are less than cooperative when obtaining family pictures. Often times cojoling, bargaining, begging and even threatening is involved in the process. As always the kids were less than cooperative. We were able to obtain some keepers before our venture was cut short.

We were moving along getting pics of the family and the kids individually. When suddenly we hear something falling. Next thing we know a rock has fallen through some branches of a tree and bonked my mom on her head...causing a gash on her head. Head wounds really bleed! Our next adventure was getting mom in one piece to the car and getting her medical attention. Wow! All we wanted was to take some family pictures.

We were grateful that the injury to mom's head was minor. A little pressure and a couple of staples did the trick. This adventure certainly gave us plenty to talk about :)))