A Colorful Saturday

A couple months ago Allison asked Sarah to join her in a 5k color run. The run was September 13th.   Sarah had just ran with the Girls on the Run program back in May so she knew she could do it and said yes.  It was a color run, for the United Way, a fun run.  No times, no medals!  Just a whole lot of color thrown on you in various stations throughout the race.  It was in Midland so we headed out fairly early on Saturday.  Josh and I dropped them off at the start line.  We then went to the finish line and found a coffee shop to wait for them.  We had the opportunity to sit and talk for awhile just the two of us.  I loved it.

Somehow we had perfect timing and the first runners were crossing the finish line as we headed over.  We bought some extra color to toss on our runners and waited. 

Acting goofy before the run even starts.

Cousins, hopefully life long friends

These two stuck together and finished strong, running around the corner and past us to the finish line.

Sarahs favorite part might've been the snacks at the end of the race. 

And they did it, all 4 finished the race with smiles on their faces. 

I couldn't love these two any more.

And these two, my support system right now.  Keeping me going, keeping me positive, keeping me smiling, there whenever I need them. 

Such a blessing to have the relationship that I do with my brother and the friendship with Allison is more than I could've asked for when I thought about the woman that Josh would marry. 

I'm so proud of them both and what they have achieved this year, looking good!!

I LOVE this picture. 

Making memories to last forever.

Summer Fun

The month of August flew by.

It seems like we were constantly on the go.

Sarah's girl scout troop went to MI Adventure.  I was able to go with her and we had a great day.  The weather was beautiful the girls got along perfect and who doesn't love Charlie Brown.  Some time when we go there I would like to do two days and spend one day riding rides and one day at the water park.  There is just too much to do in a day. 



Sarah went camping with Mackenzie to Yogi Bear Park.  I think she had a fun time.  That's another place I would like to go to.  Hopefully next summer we can go.  Sarah likes sleeping in a tent, that's something I'll have to get reacquainted with. 

Mom and Terry had another bbq out at the cabin.  This time it was just us "step kids". 

haha Terry would say all these kids and none of them are mine. 

 One great thing that came out of this summer was meeting Misty and Josh for the first time.  I honestly can't recall why we had not met before.  They are both super nice and I'm happy to call them family. 

We waited forever for the kids clothing cards to come from the LRBOI for school clothes.  When we get them we like to go to the outlets and get the kids most of their school clothes.  Sarah was much easier to shop for this year.  I think she may have grown out of Justice, that I am not sad about.  We spent a lot of time in Old Navy and she made some friends.

Then there's this little pumpkin.

  She's so fun. 

 Her outfit was from us and we got it at the Vera Bradley outlet

  It's so cute!! 

It is CRAZY to me that she is already 6 months old, she'll be 1 before we know it.

Time to start party planning.



White's Beach Part 2

I can't remember the last time I saw my cousin Tony.

  I'm sure its been around 20 years. 

 He's the guy on the far right. 

This is the cousins picture. 

Me, Josh, Amber, Michelle, and Tony 

This was the best party ever. 

All of the family together, celebrating Mom and Josh's birthdays. 

Terry's brother Tim hired a great band that played fun music for a couple hours.

Several people brought campers and motorhomes to spend the night.  The kids and I stayed in Josh and Allison's camper. 

We started the morning getting ready.  Getting the tents up and food ready.  Most everyone brought a dish to pass so there was tons of food.  Mom made alligator stew and it was SO good.  I'd say the party went off without a hitch. 

Great timing for me, surrounded by family, a whole lot of fun!

Mom and I got photobombed by two weirdos! 

And then there's the sisters.  When I see the three of them together I sincerely wish I would've had a sister.  It makes me so happy to know that my mom has so much support and love during this time.

There were so many people there telling her that they would be there for her.  Telling her that if she needed anything that they would help out.  She's got a long road ahead of her but after this weekend I feel confident she's going to be ok. 

This was the band that played.  Tim thought he was being funny and told everyone he hired this old polka band to play.  Not so much!

These guys were great.  They played a lot of rock and roll, the good stuff.

It was awesome to see Terry sitting out in the yard in a lawn chair talking to everyone.  Once in awhile I would glance at him and see him just looking around.  He's such a hard ass but I know he had to have felt great to have everyone there.  In the long run we said we were celebrating the birthdays but I know that most everyone was there to see Terry.  How many people can say that they were able to have a send off like this. 

Terry's doing ok now, they are on the way back to Fl and hopefully he'll get into the dr and we'll get an update on how he truly is. 

Summer at White's Beach, Part 1

We spend a lot of time at White's Beach in August.  Mom and Terry didn't get here until then and we knew they would only be here a short time so I wanted to spend as much time with them as I could. 

The first time we went it was just a quick overnight since they got in late on a Sunday.  But the next weekend we went for the whole weekend.  There was a lot to do around the cabin and Terry put Jacob to work.  The shutters were a pain to paint but they looked fantastic once they were up.

Even though he couldn't do much he still had his hand in all the projects

Sarah spent the majority of the weekend catching frogs and bonding with them.  At one time she had a bucket with grass and water and about 10 frogs.

This was right before it peed on her

Hippie found a Harley golf cart for Terry and it was the new toy for everyone.

Jacob liked driving it.

Unfortunately it ended up breaking down and didn't get fixed before they left. 

Jacob showing Terry how to work the radio

There was a whole lot of campfires and a whole lot of laughs.  We went up quite a few times and it seems like there were new people there visiting everytime.  I don't think that there was many days when they didn't have 2-3 visitors. 



Jamie and Michelle, stories around the fire

The weather was perfect for campfires and sweatshirts.  Being right on Lake Huron it was always a little chillier at White's Beach than being at home.

Den, Kathy, and Rita

I loved all of the family time.  I needed some distractions and these two crazy aunts were perfect for that.  We had so much fun, serious talks or funny talks, I think these two ladies are amazing.

The brothers, Terry and Tim

I have many more pictures I'm going to try to post.  Pictures of the fabulous party that we had, and a whole lot of family photos. 

These Two

We've got a lot going on right now. 

Most of it I'm not ready to blog about, I don't know if I ever will be.

But these two right here are what get me through the day.

They both know most of everything going on right now.

Perhaps that is why they have been the two best kids ever.

I didn't have a lot to complain about before but now I couldn't ask for better kids.

Jacobs really growing into an amazing young man.  He's so smart and funny.

And Sarah is a beautiful caring young lady.

It feels like they were both just born yesterday.  I'm afraid to blink my eyes and find them graduating high school. 

I'm thankful for them everyday.



Charlee

Really? Could this child be any happier?

Or any cuter?

 

 

A whole lot of school photos.  Sometimes I'm going through my phone and I have 15 pics of her with almost the same face.  

Catching Up

Some of these pics are from months ago but since I took a break from blogging I missed out on posting some of them.  

This little guy is my most favorite thing in the world right now.  He's so sweet to me.  He gets so excited when I get home, he waits for me at the door, and he loves to just sit with me wherever I am.  I can't believe it took me so long to get a Yorkie but I think he was meant to be mine. 

Then I guess if Tucker is my most favorite thing in the world this little lady would be my most favorite baby girl.  We finally got to babysit her for the day in June and the whole family was pretty excited about it.

Sarah had her birthday sleep over on Friday and she still just kept asking what time Charlee was coming over.  The girls took her for a walk up and down the street taking turns pushing the stroller.  She enjoyed being their real live doll for the morning. 

My proudest moment last spring was my daughter running her first 5k.  She participated in Girls on the Run and had a great time.  I'm so thankful to her coaches especially Mrs. Katie for believing in her and encouraging her to do her best.  It was tough some days but she always knew she could do it.  

Memorial Day camping with Allison and family, Ashley and family, and their parents.  We went to Holly Recreation Area.  It was nice, would've been nicer if the bathrooms weren't getting remodeled. 

I found several pictures like this of Sarah and Sophia on my phone. 

Camping buddies for sure.

The whole group enjoying the gorgeous weather.  

Fun with selfies.  Geesh

Tucker got a new home, he likes it kinda....jurys still out on that. 

I'd like to keep up with blogging more but life just gets in the way sometimes.  It's currently August 1st and we are planning on spending a lot of the month up in Standish with Grandma Turkey and Terry.  Terry's not well and we'd like to spend as much time with him as we can.  So cross your fingers for some Whites Beach pictures and blogging.  :)

A Very Memorable 4th of July

I really do think that we had the best 4th of July ever.  The only thing that would've made it better would've been if my family could've been there too.  Jeremy's whole family was able to come together to spend the 4th in Manistee.

 

This is Sarah and I on the ride to Manistee.  The only bummer part of the trip is the long distance. 

Skipping ahead to Saturday, this is part of the family at the powwow.  The best weather we have ever had at the powwow.  Warm with a cool breeze.  We stayed the whole day this year, which we've never done before.

The kids taking pictures at the hotel on the day we left. 

Jacob and Sarah at the powwow enjoying a snow cone.  They both have on their new Jingtamok powwow tshirts.  I'm assuming in honor of Lakeview they both picked purple shirts.

Jolie and Uncle Marty in full regalia.  Uncle Marty used to be the head dancer but physically he just doesn't feel like hes up to that anymore.  He's still out there dancing and inspiring other dancers.  Jolie proudly displayed her outfit that was mostly made by Nana. 

On the actual 4th, Joel had this brillant idea that we would go to this beach on Lake Michigan and have a picnic and bonfire.  I was skeptical because I've never been anywhere on Lake Michigan where you can have bonfires on the beach.  I'd only ever seen that in movies.  You know the ones, usually they break out in song and dance and theres usually surfing and romance lol. 

But we all packed up and followed Joel's van.  We passed through this little town that had a resort that looked JUST LIKE the resort in Dirty Dancing.  I swear that they could've filmed it there.  We came upon a parking lot and walked through some tall beach grass and sand dunes and ta dah!!!!  There was the lake...and on that lake they had fire pits!!

There were other groups of people out there too.  They all seemed to belong out there.  Lets just say there were men in white jeans sporting jean jackets and wearing pastel-y shirts with boat shoes on just waiting to break out in song. 

We claimed a fire pit, put down blankets and made ourselves at home.  That evening at about 9 the fireworks started.  Back and forth people were setting off amazing fireworks.  A free show!  haha

It was so chilly, probably the coldest 4th of July that I remember.

My nephew Nathan and I enjoying some holiday cookies.  We were sneaking them and Nathan thought that was pretty funny.  He's not very good at keeping a secret though.  He kept telling his mom "Aunt Nicole and I are sneaking cookies"

Just enjoy Nana in the background.......hmmmm

The Buschlen 5.

Just the 3 rotten kids.

My sisters and I. 

Love them both!

We just had a great weekend.  I'm so thankful that we were all together and everyone was healthy and the kids got along so well. 

I couldn't have asked for a better 4th of July.