Usually we head north to Michigan at the end of June and spend most of the month of July there. This year, my sister's family had plans to camp out of town for the week of July 4th, so we decided to wait to go up until they would be home (Kendra would explode if she didn't get to see her cousins upon arrival!). So we didn't leave town until July 5th---which gave us the opportunity to do a few things with friends and spend July 4th on the lake with our Ballards.
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| We learned that Kendra had severely outgrown her bike---so she bought a new one from one of my teacher friends. The new one is a woman's size, so she should be good for a while! |
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| On the boat before fireworks on the lake with Sherry on July 4th! |
We packed up the car and hit the road. This was our first long trip with our new puppy, Lucy. We were unsure how she would do on the trip, but she pretty much sat on Kendra's lap the whole time and did great at our hotel stop, too.
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| A tiny bit jealous of the nap opportunity in the car? Yep! |
The next bit is the Michigan trip photo purge....
We enjoyed much cooler weather most of the time! There are always a few food must-dos, and getting Ray's cinnamon ice cream is one of them. (Others are eating at the Mexican restaurant near my sister's house, enjoying Ziggy's ice cream, and nachos at Toby Keith's...mmmmmmm!)
We watched LOTS of baseball and softball...
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| L-R: Me, my dad, my sister Erin and her husband Jack. Assuming the position for baseball! |
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| My nephew Luke, who is one amazing baseball dude. He's got true instinct for the game! Doesn't he just LOOK like a ball player???? |
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| My niece Gracie |
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| My niece Tessa |
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| My nephew Jack, who is looking WAAAAAY too old for this aunt's taste! Jeez! |
We visited my dad and step-mom's house and they got a pool! The kids had a BLAST.
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| My niece got a case for her iPhone that lets it go underwater. Cool! |
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| The five monkeys underwater |
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| Luke |
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| Tessa |
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| Gracie |
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| Nice air, Kendra! |
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| Jack |
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| Ohmmmmmmm.... |
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| Lunch at Papa and Grandma Janice's house! |
My sister and I always have a project of some sort when I go up to Michigan and this year we decided we wanted to make the Ultimate Teacher Binders, which we dubbed our Binders of Awesomeness. Since Erin teaches 1st grade and I teach 4th, AND we teach in different states, we some sections that were different but both of us are super excited to have a central location for stuff that we both previously had in multiple locations. We both shopped for our actual binders separately, but funny enough, chose the same one! :-)
We had many sleepovers...
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| We call these the sleepover party ball hairdos. :-) |
We played a few fun summer games...
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| Glow stick bowling. Guess who thought there were 9 pins, not 10? Major brain lapse... |
And we celebrated Troy's 50th birthday with a party (my mom's hubs)...
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| Think he's having a good time???? |
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| A little blurry, but a kid took the pic. My sis, me, and my cousin Heather. Side note: we all three decided to do a sunglasses shot because we wanted to hide our eye wrinkles! Ha! |
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| Troy with all the kids at the party |
We also got to see some friends, but I was lame and didn't take any pics. We decided to stay 2 1/2 weeks and it was the perfect amount of time!!! Kendra would love to stay longer, but I loved the shorter trip! We also celebrated Kendra's birthday while there, but I'm going to make that it's own post.
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