Brown County 2011 - Part 5

I love to have crafts for the kids to fill time with when we are together.  Grace came to expect one every down minute, though!  We made wands (planes for the boys) and bracelets I found on sale at JoAnn.  Good times!!

Brown County 2011 - Part 4

The water park is now a favorite for our two fish!  Grace was a MANIAC on the water slide!  She had to have gone down it like 100 times!  Cooper loved it too, but was not ready to go alone.  Look out next year, though!  Nick is a water bug and Cooper does NOT like to take time out to warm up!  Poor guy has 0% body fat!

Brown County 2011 - Part 3

A beautiful hike with family around the lake.  :)

.... and thank goodness Aunt Monica was there this year to keep us hydrated, play games with us, and read us bedtime stories!  Love her!!

Brown County 2011 - Part 2

Pony riding!  It took Grace a good 1/2 lap to be certain of this, but she pulled it together perfectly for the camera!  We spent a lot of time with Owen this year - he is ALL THAT around the Drake household!  He was so cute reading to Grace and Cooper.   (These are three of the Cooper boy cousins - this picture of Cooper makes me see what he will be like as a teenager!)  Also, a highlight of Brown County is EATING!  The kids took the adult table for one of the meals - they thought they were so funny!!



Brown County 2011 Part 1

Grace's favorite place on Earth:  Brown County.  Makes me happy.  *sigh, smile

Within the first 30 minutes of our time there, all the kids who had arrived ended up in our cabin where they played with Anna's dinosaur robot, played twister, and tossed some dough with Monica!  I was worried we wouldn't be able to entertain them the rest of the weekend with all they had done so quickly!  But, they showed us they could play just fine!  At every cabin they ended up upstairs playing who-knows-what and getting along so well.  It was so fun watching them get along, and was fun to be able to visit with family without kids demanding all our attention!

 On Saturday we went out to lunch together.  Yummy!!  Here is the kids table all working diligently on their coloring pages.  (Minus Cooper.  He took about 5 minutes for it to be his idea to sit there, color, and eat.  OY - the three year old.)  And a little photo op afterwards.  Cooper LOVES to pose these days, and I love the one that caught someone else's flash!

 Nap time: tricky in Brown County.  Tim, Grace, Ben, Nick, and I all napped while Cooper watched Cars... until Tim "held" him down for just a minute, then he was out!

Chicago 2011

We headed to Chicago again this summer with the Curless' after the 4th of July.  Chicago style pizza, U2 - 360 concert, and Michigan City outlet shopping- Good times!  Also, no one in this group is afraid to say, "I need a nap!".  Thank you Curli!  We love our summer adventures, and are already looking forward to next year!

The 360 degree screen stretched down to the stage at one point in the concert!  Awesome!

Party Time!

We hosted the Pilgrims for a 4th of July pool party this year.  Lot's of fun in the pool and PLENTY of good eats!  I had a bit too much fun decorating with the kids, too!

Nick loves a good Peek-a-Boo game with Grace.

Pop-its are always a hit!

Casey and Colleen drove their Gator over and shared it with us!

We had sparklers to do, but waited until after the town fire works.... but they didn't work!  Note to self:  Don't buy sparklers from the dollar store!!!

Good times!!