Home!

What a delightful home we have.  It is such a privilege to get to spend our holidays there.  Here are the latest pictures of our delightful abode.

The openness of the dining room,  living room and kitchen make it such great places to hang out!  We are excited about our bit purchase for the summer:  new kitchen chairs.  Our old ones made a trip to Craigslist and were scooped up by several people interested in the oak.  They served us well for many years, but nice to have something a touch higher to the table, especially for the kids.  

The bedrooms are great spaces; we sure are grateful for grandpa's super quilts and how special it makes the bedrooms.  Keeping shoes and clutter out of the entrance is a major challenge for our family!

Maumee Bay

We had a delightful day heading off to Maumee Bay State Park.  The weather was just right, the water was great, the fun was for all.  Rania learned to walk on water (or so it appears), and the kids had a lot of fun in the water; the adults got to do a bit of reading.  Since it was not a weekend, things were not too busy.

Church in the Park

Oak Bend had their annual church in the park, and we were treated to some delicious food, some fun games, and Doug even got to explore the famed frisbee golf course.
 Let's just say he needs some work on his technique if he ever has hopes of competing for more respectable scores!

The cousins sure had fun together!

Slip'N Slide

For the big year-round birthday gathering at the Quockerts, the slip'n slide was brought out.  With all the rain that we've had, it was plenty wet!  Even moving the slide every few minutes still brought about the ground being pretty drenched.  At least it was plenty soft!

Plenty of pictures of all the major players.

Birthdays for the Year

We had our big year full of birthdays as part of a great gathering at the Quockerts.  With our family away for the vast majority of the birthdays (for the kids, anyway), Grandpa and Grandma had the chance to give presents to each of the grandchildren.  Additionally, there was plenty of great food, lots of other gifts, and some spectacular weather for playing in the back yard.

Can we just freeze time so the birthdays don't come so fast?

End of Horse Camp

For the final day of horse camp, the girls had a special ride and some wonderful opportunities to say "goodbye" to a great week.  Rania was able to join for a final day, so it was a big highlight for her to be able to go on the ride.  At the end of the day, she even got the go-ahead that perhaps next year she would be old enough to participate.

What a fun and memorable week for the girls.  They sure enjoyed all of the time riding, learning about horses, caring for horses and being horse girls for a week!

Already, they are planning and asking about next year, but with next year quite a ways away, we'll have to see.

Lucas County Fair

We took advantage of free admission to visit the Lucas County Fair.  It was an absolutely beautiful day with the humidity and rain out of the forecast.  The kids had fun on the rides - and there was A LOT of spinning around! 

We caught a clown show (Buffo, the strongest clown), some horse competition and some deep friend fair food (funnel cakes!). 

Oak Openings Hike

After dropping the girls off at Horse Camp, we took a little hike around Oak Openings.  With the massive amount of rain (from Tuesday afternoon), things were mighty wet.  We also had to fight more mosquitoes than was comfortable, so there was not a lot of stopping for pictures.

A visit to the nature center was a bit more calm.  The squirrels put on quite a nice show with their stealth twitching and quick movements. 

It was great to have Michael join us for the trip! Some some good conversation and delightful time to be outside, even if it was mighty humid and plenty wet!

Sleepover

We had the cousins over for a sleepover, and it was a lot of fun.  We played some baseball in the morning before it was time to get the girls to Horse Camp.  Things went very well (until it was time for a boy to go home in the afternoon). 

And having a nephew with the best shirt in the world sure doesn't hurt!