Independance Day Holiday

We spent 5 days up in Bay City at the state park this year over the 4th of July.  It was so hot!

Thank God we had air in our camper.

Our little Tucker is getting to be a pretty good camper. 

It was so nice having so many family members out there camping also.

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Den, Amber and Chad, Josh and Allison and even mom and Terry were there in their new 5th wheel.  A lot of sitting around complaining about the heat.

On Saturday we went downtown to watch the 50th anniversary of the Bay City fireworks.  They were shooting off 50,000 fireworks in 50 minutes. 

Jacob and Chase hanging out before the fireworks started.

Sarah, a little nervous about the fireworks.  She's not a huge fan of the noise so she wasn't too sure she wanted to be there.

My cousin Ambers daughter Hailie, cutie.

Sarah was responsible for keeping her in the circle of chairs that we made so she wouldn't escape. 

I've never seen fireworks as amazing as these.  I have no idea how they are going to top that next year.  I'm happy to say we were there for the 50th anniversary.  I told my kids that maybe they'll bring their children and grandchildren to the 100th anniversary in another 50 years.

As nervous as she was she was able to take photos on her new ipod touch.  She has like a hundred photos on her ipod.  When it was all done, she said "that wasn't so bad"  So maybe we've overcome the fear of fireworks.  Maybe we can actually stay and watch the fireworks at Disney now.

My handsome son, with his crazy face and sparklers.

hanging out in the camper, out of the heat!  It was so unbearable!

We were able to sneak in a trip to the Turkey Roost with the Buschlen side of the family. 

mmmmm we love it there.

Joel and Sherry

After three days in the heat we finally went in search of a beach.  Terry suggested this little lake in Alger.  It was so nice.  We put our chairs right in the water and hung out for a couple hours.  It was so nice to cool off.

Lots of amazing memories were made over this holiday.  Being with family makes me so happy.  I wish that we all lived close.  Although if we did maybe I wouldn't appreciate being with them all the time. 

Happy 4th of July

Love

These two kids amaze me.  Honestly as much as they can drive me nuts, they are the best kids.

Sometimes I sit back and remember when they were babies and thinking that having a 12 year old and a 9 year old seemed like so far down the road. 

I find myself sad that they're growing up but really enjoying them at this age.  I love going places with them and discovering new things.  I love to listen to Jacobs voice as it is changing into a deep young mans voice.  I love to listen to Sarah in the back seat sing every other word to a song because she doesn't know the whole song. 

What I love most is that even though they fight like cats and dogs sometimes I do see them watch out for each other and care about what is happening to the other. 

I pray that they'll always be friends and take care of each other.

My Favorite Michigan Town

South Haven with mom, Jacob, and Sarah

Mom was in town from Fl and we spent the day in South Haven.  I absolutely love this place.  The stores, the lake, the smell, the lighthouse, and especially the onion rings at Clementines.

Sarah wouldn't stop making cross eyes at the camera, brat!

The bookstore with the fun hats and sunglasses. 

Stopping traffic in South Haven.  I could live here!

So many photo opportunities.

The kids were sick of the posing.

Apparently the water was pretty chilly.  I didn't even go down there and put my feet in.  I told them to pretend it was refreshing but Sarah was freaking out cause her feet were numb. 

Rachael & Collin

 Rachael and Collin got married at St Joes church here in Battle Creek.

Her reception was our near Marshall at a beautiful bed and breakfast.  It was an outdoor reception under a white tent that was next to a cool looking barn.  I went with Mesha and we met Kelli and a couple other CDC girls there. 

The token Kesha picture.  It's been awhile since I've taken one of these. 

Kristina and her girls with Rebecca looking pretty. 

Rachael was a beautiful bride.  She is so pretty naturally and such a sweet girl.  I don't know Collin very well but I do know that he is a lucky guy. 

All of us girls. 

Kristina, Heather, Rebecca, Rachael, Me, and Mesha

Nascar June 2012

We weren't sure if we would see a race on Sunday this year.  It was a wonderful weather weekend for us up until Sunday.  The sky opened up and it rained cats and dogs.  The race started a couple hours late but it started, thank goodness.

The track, and this year the blimp finally made an appearance.

Rain, so we found a bar.  Honestly I didn't think there was a chance that the race would go on.  It rained so hard so much so fast.  The poncho crew!

Ah, the lovely Josh and Allison

Allison, Kayla, Jeana, and myself.

I love hanging around these ladies.  We have so much fun at the race. 

Josh and Jeremy lighting up one of our lanterns.  No security guys to steal it from us this year.  We were able to let off quite a few. There were tons of them in the sky this year. 

All in all it was fun weekend.  I'm sad that Jimmie didn't win again, and even more sad that JR did.  I can't stand it.  One of these years he'll win. 

Sarah's 9th Birthday

Sarah had big plans for her birthday this year.  She had a guest list a mile long.  The girls pictured below are the ones that made the cut.  It's so hard deciding who to invite.  I didn't want to leave anyone out but sometimes having a daughter who is friendly to everyone is a problem.  So she picked her favorite 8 people and lucky for her they were all able to come. 

We went to Howard's ceramic's first.  The girls were able to pick a dog, cat, or bunny to paint.  Sarah made a beautiful golden pup.

After painting we went over to Pizza Sam's for pizza dinner.  This is our favorite pizza place and since its usually pretty empty when we go inside I figured 9 girls running around wouldn't be much of a problem. 

Once we got home we opened presents and had cake and ice cream.  She was blessed with wonderful presents.  She received lots of makeup and crafy projects to do, also a slip and slide that she has been begging for.

Mad libs, YEAH!

I asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she said "just one in the cake pan with pink frosting"

That I can do!! 

9 birthday candles, I can't believe it.

These are the troopers.  The ones that made it through the night.  3 of the girls went home the night before due to prior commitments.  It was a late night of movies, Just Dance, and fireflies.  I hope that Sarah had a wonderful day.  She's a lucky girl to have so many wonderful friends.  But most of all we are very lucky to have this girl in our lives.

Thanks to Grandma Turkey, Aunt Emily, and Mama Mesha for helping me with the party. (keeping me sane!)