Is This Heaven, No It's Iowa

I apologize in advance about the amount of photos, please just skim over. This is mostly so I don't forget what we did this summer. LOL!

Summer is flying by like usual! We've had a rainy start, cool temps, but finally starting to warm up.

Piper, Kathryn and Stella came downstairs with "makeovers."

Mike and P went to the Ozarks for a boys weekend with some friends, Stella and I had a pedi before picking up her friends to come over and play.

P and Leo boating in the Ozarks.

They found a little turtle and put it on a remote controlled boat. Hahaha. Luckily the turtle escaped before the boat returned to the dock.

Stella spent 5 days/nights in Lake Panora for CYC. The big excitement was the tornado warnings going off one night. 2 funnel clouds were spotted right near the camp. ALL the camp kids and counselors had to spend the night in one large room (the only building with a basement in case they had to go down sometime during the night). Pretty sure no one slept that night! They did get a chance to take a nap the next day.

There were 6 SFA girls from Stella's class that were there that week. They weren't all in the same cabin, but it was. Ice for them to see familiar faces around camp.

Abby I., Stella, Berlin, Abby P., Ally, and Megan. Stella was in the same cabin as last hear, St. Ann.

On her bunk.

The CYC website updated their password protected photo page daily. It was always fun to check at night and see if I could spot Stella or any of her friends in the pics. You could just copy them to your iPad. Sweet! Here's a few of my favorites.

Ally, Abby P, Stella

A blurry Ally, Stella, Berlin and their counselor

Ally and Stella: BFF's!

First thing she did after getting home (after showering) was hanging with her baby dolls and watch a show.

P had his last baseball game. He really enjoyed it and had a great group of kids from his class on his team. Still hoping for a win......next season! Haha!

Summer reading is going better than last summer!

We dyed Stella's hair with Kool-Aid. She was so excited! (still waiting for it all to wash out.....it's getting lighter!).

Stella's little friend Averie came over to hangout while Porter went to her brothers house to play.

4th of July at the lake! Linda working way to hard in the kitchen!

P loves to fish.

I think Stella and Grace are on the tube. Loved that Grandpa came out with us a few times!

Stella, P, Grant and Guy love to "surf" on the tube. They are so funny, the also love to hang their bodies off as the tube, switch spots as the tube. Pretty comical.

Headed to the annual 4th of July foot parade on Sunset beach. Steve likes to drive the golf cart over.

Scott, Linda and Mike before the parade.

The boys, Jack, Grant Porter, Guy. Yes, Porter needed a larger shirt. Ha!

The girls, Kelsie, Karlie, Stella, Grace. Nora's sister Lynn and her family were driving back to STL from Yellowstone and going right by Okoboji so they stayed a couple nights. We had a great time with them and their 3 kids got along great with ours and Grace, Grant and Guy loved having 2 sets of cousins around!

The parade. Always so cute and fun. View to my front.

View to my back.

At the end Lynne, the lady that organizes this and one of Linda's dearest friends always has treats to hand out to the kiddos.

Later that day we met up with the Rickfles crew to play on the lake. P and Owen on the Maui Mat.

Stopped by Barefoot Bar on our way home. Nora, me and Nora's sister Lynn.

Loaded the kids up to watch the fireworks on the lake.

Kids watching the fireworks.

Cuddling with grandma when we got home.

Lake girl! She went straight from the lake to the car....riding home in her swimsuit. LOL!

Headed to MA to see Anna and the girls. Extra bonus was seeing Brittany and her boys. This showed up in my photo stream from P's iPad. A selfish of Filson, Porter and Ian. Crack me up!

Showing Papa all their loot from their $5 they got from him to spend at the Dollar Store.

The 6 grand kids stayed all night in a hotel with Nana and Papa.

Sara, Anna, Mom and I went out for dinner, leaving Papa in charge of 6 kids!

At the zoo the next day.

Porter "tanning" as he calls it at the pool. Ha!

This weekend we made a last minute trip back to Boji!

Stella kneeboarding.

Sugar Shack is a fav!

We had friends renting a place up there and invited them over to boat/tube/play on Sat afternoon. You can't see them all but Stella, Abby I, Porter and Gabe on the water mat.

Cute pic of Porter watching Stella kneeboarding.

Porters turn on the kneeboard. He loves it, too!

Hanging with Grandma before heading home.

Start of summer break 2015 has been good! The weather could be warmer, but we will take what we get. :-) Here's a little update from us.

Rex is still confined inside our house due to his cat fight he was involved in last month. The kids brought in some frogs they found in the yard and Rex was obsessed.

These cute girls spent the night with us (P spent the night with the boys) and we. Went downtown to cheer on Mike, Aimee, Jeff and Lucy for the Dam to Dam Half Marathon. It was chilly!

Stella, Averie, EJ, Berlin

Mike was the irst person we saw!

Then Aimee (purple shorts) and Lucy (pink shorts), we missed Jeff!

After the Dam to Dam I had all the kids at our house for the day. We headed over to Lucy's for dinner that night and we had 2 more kids than our van would hold, so I told them 2 kids would have to sit on the floor. Which resulted in ALL the kids sitting on the floor! LOL. Luckily we live less than 5 minutes fom Lucy and its all neighborhood streets. They were loving this and I was too, TOTALLY something that would happen in Ringgold!