Birthday Boy Pre-Haircut

Avritt's Baptism

Pictures from the Weekend of Avritt's Baptism

Mike was the captain of the pontoon boat (and speed boat) for the weekend that we stayed at a house on a lake where Avritt was baptized. My parents and sisters came to stay with us at the house, which is owned by our good friend, Jason's, parents.

Emily enjoying the ride.

My dad and younger sister.

House Details

For the few who are interested, these are samples of:
(Top picture) the porcelein tile in the kids' bathroom
(Middle picture) the porcelein tile and slate accent in the upstairs bathroom shower
(Bottom picture) the wood floor in the kitchen, hallway, and office upstairs

Update

Lots has happened since the camping posts. Emily started band camp, Avritt started football, Isaac signed up for soccer and is waiting for the first practice, the drywall was finished in the basement, the finish carpenter started working in the basement (the doors are hung, the window casing is almost done, and the baseboard is half done), I started teaching again, I accidentally ran into Isaac's eyelid with a hot cookie sheet and burned him (he turned around and I turned around with the cookie sheet and we collided), a skunk was hit in the road right in front of our house, sprayed the stinky stuff, and crawled under our pine tree and died, I had to move the said skunk back beside the road (so that the local road commission would pick it up) after it was dragged behind our shed by a neighborhood dog, Avritt was baptized, and Isaac had a birthday.

The kids finally start back next Tuesday. All of us would have loved another month off, but since I'm back to teaching, it will be good for the kids to be in school. I don't want to repeat this last week again for awhile (I guess a year, actually). My classes did go well this week despite everything. I have two sections (25 students each) of the core math class, and one section of remedial algebra with 6 students.

The house has kept me busy all summer. I have been making decisions about paint colors, how the trim will look, the design of the bathroom upstairs (we're gutting it and redoing everything in there), the design of the kids' windowseats, the tile designs in the both bathrooms, the new front door, the design of the french doors upstairs, and the cabinet and door hardware, among other things. I have discovered that I really enjoy all the work that goes into a major remodel. The design work and coordination of all the details is interesting and challenging. I like the intricacy of how everything fits together. It has been rewarding. We are finishing the basement (except the Master Bedroom area) and then we will move in down there while the upstairs is being finished. We have a lot of work to do, and many times over the last few weeks I have been frustrated to my limits with the dust, mess, and chaos of it all, but progress is exciting and enough to overcome the struggles.

Isaac Skimboarding

Avritt Skimboarding

Summer

Beach Fun

Camping Pics taken by Emily

Goofy Kids

The Kids at the Campground

Yearly Camping Trip

We enjoyed camping last week. It was the first year that it didn't rain the whole time we were there. Packing up is much easier if things are dry! We bought a hammock this year, which turned out to be the most fought after seat in our campsite. After spending three perfect, sunny days at the beach, on the last day we hung around the site and spent a lot of time crowding in the hammock together. I read for an hour to the boys that afternoon. Emily found some new recipes, and our favorite was Cinnamon Pies. We put two pieces of store-bought crescent rolls together in a pie iron, spread butter and cinnamon sugar over it, and then another layer of crescent rolls. They tasted like cinnamon rolls, and were gooey in the middle. Yum!

Lego Creativity

Avritt decided that he wanted to build WALL-E out of Legos. His model is really cool, complete with cockroach. Isaac made the block of trash that gets squeezed inside WALL-E's stomach. They are going to send it in to Lego Magazine.

At the Beach with Friends

We spent Friday with Jason and Shelly up in Pentwater. Their daughter, Myla, is beautiful! She was seven months old that day. Jason took the kids on the dune rides, and then we went to the beach for the afternoon. We had fresh salmon for dinner - the best I've ever eaten. At the fish place, I bought some fried smelt, which I had at my grandparent's as a child. Great food and friends is all a summer day needs.

Bambi Lives!

Mike took these shots early one morning when he glanced out the window and saw these deer along the edge of the pond across the street. The kids weren't awake yet (we had to remind Emily about the concept of "morning" :) They saw these pictures and said, "Bambi!"

Swimming

Avritt is on the summer swim team at school. He's got a good friend, Max, who is on the team, and they enjoy hanging out. The bottom picture shows what we see from the stands. Avritt is conferring with one of his coaches about a race.

Video of A Relay Race

Avritt was asked to be a part of a 200 meter freestyle relay with the high school swimmers because one of their teammates was not at the meet. Each swimmer did 50 meters. He did a great job swimming with the "big boys" and kept his cool. It was fun to see them encouraging him, and although they didn't come in first, they beat a women's team will all high schoolers!

The Trebuchet Lives Again

We cleaned out the garage over the weekend, which involved emptying its contents onto the driveway in sorted piles, rebuilding the loft that was in the old garage, loading things in the loft that we won't need anytime soon, and putting the rest of the stuff in aisles so Mike can access his tools. In the midst of all the work, the boys reclaimed the trebuchet that Mike built for something at work several years ago. They played with it all weekend when they weren't helping. Here is a link about trebuchets: http://www.trebuchet.com/ if you are interested in their history or how they work.

This video is sideways, because I took it with the camera held sideways to get the best angle, but I didn't know that you can't rotate videos sideways after taking them.

Happy Fourth of July!

Even though it was 11:00 p.m. when we got home from the fireworks, we let the kids light some sparklers. To get these images, you have to turn off your flash, which makes the person blurry, but the light from the sparklers is cool.

Avritt, Isaac, and Eliot

The boys have donned their cool shades at the air show.

Air Show Video

Mike took the boys to the airshow today. They enjoyed seeing the Thunderbirds in action.

Emily is Now On the Road

It's official. Emily passed driver's ed and got her permit today. The Secretary of State office near our house was closed because the power went out around there from a storm yesterday. So we had to drive down to 28th street to get it. After waiting a really long time, Emily and Mike emerged triumphantly from the overcrowded, stinky waiting area (I had taken the boys to a toy store in the mall). Emily drove us to a restaurant near the mall, and then all the way home. She navigated well, and even had to deal with two major intersections where the power was out. She has a tendency to drift to the right side of the road, but she did really well overall. We now have to log at least 30 hours before she takes Step 2 of the drivers ed program, and then another 20 hours before she gets her license when she turns 16.

Cat Lounging