Cheerleading Finals

Shaelyn had her final cheerleading on Thursday night. Friends and family were invited to come and watch. We got to see the things that they learned. Shaelyn was so excited to show off what she could do. We're taking the summer off so we'll see if she decides to join up again next September.


Ready, set......











Doing a cheer with another little girl.











Doing a bridge and into a walkover - her favorite!












Here is Shaelyn and her cheerleading coach - Coach Tamara.
She is holding a ribbon and medal she received. She is so proud of that medal.
We have a few trophy's in a case from softball and Shaelyn has been wanting one
too. That ribbon and medal are now proudly displayed in the case.
As soon as Cheri got here Friday, she came out to show her. It was so cute!

Memorial Weekend

We had a great weekend; even if I got sunburned! We always go camping
with the same family every Memorial Weekend. Here's some pictures of our
weekend. Hope it gives you an idea of our fun.



Enjoying a good book and some sunshine.











Lexi got to come camping with us
this weekend too!













Dave and Henry on the Shuffleboard court.













We did just a "little" of this.














Going for a wagon ride. Dawn is the lady in the picture.
This is who we camp with every year. She was in charge of
the kids during this ride.











The girls at the sunset beach.
















Sunset over Lake Michigan.











We did a lot of this!












Shaelyn and a friend she made. Shaelyn loved this
little dog named Rocky.

Time to Enjoy the Great Outdoors!

We're heading to the campground today. We always camp over Memorial Weekend; even with the gas prices. It is supposed to be a nice weekend too! That doesn't happen to often. Hope you all enjoy the holiday. Don't forget to remember our military and say a word of thanks to them and their families.

Please pray for...

I don't know if you've heard or not but Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter tragically died yesterday. Her brother was driving the SUV and accidentally hit her in their driveway. She was a 5 year old that they adopted from China. This really hit me hard, as Shaelyn is also 5 years old (and from China) I just took her into my bed this morning and hugged her. Please pray for this family and especially the poor brother that was driving.

Here's to You, Andy

Here's some pictures I took of the girls and Andy when he stopped over
to say goodbye. They started off nicely but...

Who's the mature one in this group? (of course, Andy is a year older today!)
Happy Birthday, Andy!

In Memory...

In memory of my mom who passed away 5 years ago today.
I miss you!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Saturday night, we headed to the Whitecaps ball game. The 3 younger girls got tickets by reading through school. So Cheri and I checked our schedules and ordered the tickets so we could go together. We were a bit worried about the weather; they were predicting rain and cooler temps. Well, through the week, the forecast changed and it turned out to be a beautiful night. There was not a drop of rain to be seen and the temperature was perfect. As the sun went down, we put our sweatshirts on and were very comfortable. The sad part of the night is that the Whitecaps lost but there were fireworks to enjoy after the game. It was a great Saturday night together.


Three excited little girls -
probably excited for the food they were getting!

















I sure wish the ball field I played on looked like this!














Chelsea and Nick - blinded by the sunshine!












Some of the WhiteCaps mascots - Frankie and Crash!















Thanks Nick; for sharing your sour patch!














Sitting by Dad


















Shaelyn and one of her favorite aunts!

Spring Pops Concert

Chelsea had her final band concert, Wednesday night. This is the spring pops concert where they play lots of upbeat songs. The first song is "Who is that Masked Man?" It features clips from The Lone Ranger, Spiderman, Phantom of the Opera, Incredibles and Zorro. I didn't get the whole song because my memory stick was full. Shaelyn was very excited to hear The Incredibles! I know these are long but I can't post just a snippett, so just take a short listen. I think they sound good.

The 2nd song is from the movie "Cars" You cannot really see Chelsea. She is the 2nd clarinet on the left hand side. Unfortunately, she has decided to not take band next year because she doesn't have room in her schedule and is taking an AP class and knows she's going to need extra time to do well in it. This was a tough decision. Maybe more so on my part because I love the band but we came to an agreement. She has to play in the church orchestra every month to keep up on her music.

A Beautiful (?) Yellow Yard!

This is sad. Can you tell where the edge of my yard
ends and the neighbors begins....
















Maybe it's because the neighbor is always doing this...

A busy Saturday!

You know that Halle stayed overnight on Friday. Well, they were pretty busy on
Saturday too. First they went to Shaelyn's tee-ball game. We got some lunch and
headed to the fairgrounds for a miniature horse show that was going on. It
wasn't a real big event but there were some miniature horses to look at and pet.
Shaelyn loves horses so I thought she would love this.


Here they are, getting a
ride in a cart.











Petting one of the miniature horses.











After looking at the horses, they got invited to go to Uncle Duane's house. He had picked up Arianna already. She was on the tractor, helping him mow his lawn. There
is a lot to do there. He has two ponds in his front yard. They all love to fish in them. He also has a four wheeler which is fun to ride around his yard and in his woods.


Here is Shaelyn and Halle scoping out the best fishing spot.












It was such a big fish
that Uncle Duane had to help.















Here's one of the
fish that she caught!


These kind of days are
quite tiring, so he had
to take them for ice cream
before going back to Cheri's!

Mother's Day

In spite of the rain and dreary weather, Mother's Day was wonderful. Dave put the cinnamon rolls in the oven. They were a delicious breakfast. After church, we came home and I got to just sit and read the paper, while they got dinner ready. That is one of the best parts of the day. It's so nice to be able to relax after church. We had a delicious dinner of chicken kiev, baked potatoes, carrots and pudding. After they finished the dishes, there were gifts for me. Katelyn got me a variety of cookbooks and some bath soaps. Chelsea gave me a new water bottle. Shaelyn gave me a sunflower that she started growing from seeds at school. We'll see how well they fare!
I had to play flute for church at night and Chelsea had to sing in the praise team, so we headed to church early in the afternoon. Katelyn stayed home with Shaelyn so she had supper ready when we all got home. Then we got to watch the Survivor finale. I was really hoping that Amanda would win. But we were happy that at least they got rid of Natalie next.
Hope you all enjoyed your Mother's Day as well!

What are those cousins up to?

Halle is staying over this afternoon and tonight. I love watching the two of them play. You never know what they are up to.






Looks like they're out exploring the woods.

It's Tulip Time

We went to Holland Saturday night to check out a little bit of Tulip Time. First, Chelsea had to check out the Spanish festival that was going on. She got some bonus points for Spanish class for going. Then we wanted to spend a lot more time at Tulip Festival except it started to rain. We went to Dutch village and walked around there for a while. These were some of the best pictures I could get before it really started to pour.








Here are the girls in front of a bunch of the wooden shoes that they were selling. Did you know that the Dutch made wooden shoes because of the scarcity of leather? I never knew that. I guess I better study up a bit more on my heritage!
Chelsea is marching in the parade today. I'm quite scared that she's going to get wet as they are predicting rain throughout the day. She's got to march again on Saturday in the big parade of bands. Hopefully, the weather will be better then. I'll try to get a picture of her in her uniform if she'll let me!