It has been a busy few weeks for the Meeuwsens. We had a great week at the Blue Beaver Lodge relaxing and getting caught up on a few projects. The water level was really low but we still had a good time boating in other nearby lakes, eventful campfires, walking in the mornings, dancing to our favorite country songs, and just having fun. We had some visitors for the week too! The Bosch family came for our annual summer trip and Brian and Carter came for a night too!

Karinda thinks it wouldn't be summer without some sparklers!

Sparklers make me a little nervous but the kids are getting older and better with them every year. Lizzie is looking older too.

This is Maddie, it was a little rainy on vacation so we did need to wear our pants for a little bit.

Carter had fun, he was not quite himself, very quiet and reserved. I think it had a little to do with more kids being there.

Ben, not so quiet, but we had a lot of fun with him!

Kylie had a great week!

Eric had a big sparkler of his own. We had some expired flares from the boat so we decided to see what they would do.

Such a big week and skipping a few to many naps Ben fell asleep on the floor in the middle of the action!

The last day the loons spent the day on the lake. They are fun to watch, they dive under the water and look for food. Karinda did a little research and they can dive over 200 feet deep and stay under for about a minute. At night another loon came for a visit. There was a little disagreeing going on, we were pretty sure there was two males and a female. They would chase eachother down, fight, dive down, and make crazy noises, it really was fun to watch.

Boys will be boys! With the lake level low this year Terry brought his new quad up for something else to do. All week long he took the kids for rides on the trails, just before dinner on Thursday night Brian encouraged Terry to try it out on the "former lake bottom". Some of it was really hard but Terry went a little to close to the water and got REALLY stuck. There was a little tension for awhile but after a few tries, and a trip to Gaylord for tow straps they got it out!

After our second afternoon of rain we played some spoons with the girls while all the boys slept. This year the girls thought it would be fun to be brave and sleep in the bunk house. The bunk house is a seperate room left from the original cabin that was on the property not attached to the cabin. It has electricity but no water. The first night before they even got tucked in Kylie was in tears that she didn't want to do it so Maddie slept in the cabin with her and after about an hour Lizzie and Karinda ended up inside too. The second night they were bound and determined they were going to do it, and they did! So, the bunk house has now been overtaken by the girls!

Our first day the girls headed over to Big Blue for a little swim, and to clean off after playing in the muck of our lake.

The girls also took golf lessons during the month of July. The day we left for vacation they had a Junior Golf Fun Day. The girls got to go out on the course and play a few holes. They had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I learned a little bit too. When we got there they needed an adult to go with the kids so he told me to grab a cart and head to hole 10. I was quite nervous because I had never driven a golf cart before but I got it figured out and we had a lot of fun.

Kylie, Gaby, and Karinda all ready to go!

The week before we left for vacation we also had VBS. We did it with the Congregational Church and the Methodist Church and we did "Shake it up Cafe." It was a great VBS for boys because there was different "science" experiments everyday. It really was a great week! The last night we had a little program for the parents and Karinda read a little during the program.

Kylie in her stylin chef hat! It was really fun getting to know some of the kids a little better.