South Haven Michigan Trip

We took a trip to Southaven Michigan. We found a last minute Airbnb house that would allow pets. We took Bam with us as well as Kaylee‘s friend Layla.  The house we rented was in a wooded area on a cliff above the beach.  There were 88 stairs going down to the beach.  (The kids counted).  We spent every evening watching the sunset from the cliff.  We spent a day in the South Haven town seeing the lighthouse, shopping, and eating at historic Clementines.  Another day we headed to the South Haven river and took kayaks down it.  We spent another day at the dunes beach where waves were large and sand dunes were fun. We made yummy breakfasts each morning and had movie nights.  Axel did great the whole trip.  It was a nice getaway before the craziness of school and work begin!

Power Up Conference

Nate and I went to the alarm.com power at the conference in Washington DC. We got to see the alarm.com headquarters and the events and classes were inspiring and educational. We took our management team including Greg, Tiffany, Melissa, and Jana. It was a great teambuilding experience for our management team and a nice getaway. We did spend one evening exploring the monuments of Washington DC. We took a evening tour bus. It was a really exciting event.

Pride Fest

Our family went down to Fort Wayne‘s pride fest this summer. It was our first ever time attending and the first ever time bringing our kids! They had all kinds of kids activities and booths to check out. There were drag queens and all sorts of interesting costumes and interesting folks there. It felt really good to show our support and to be proud to be there with the whole family. We saw several different friends there while we were at the event. It was a pretty cool experience.

Cooper’s swim buddies

Cooper was part of the older group of swimmers this year. There were four swimmers in his age group and they bonded quite a bit over the summer. Carter, well, read, and Cooper. I think they challenged each other and I had a lot of fun. 

Owen’s Buddies

Owen and his buddies went to Solomon Farms to meet up for a picnic lunch and to play! Ted, Ira, Ezra, and Owen were there with her families. These buddies are excited to see each other at school every day soon. I am grateful they have each other!

Cooper’s Buddies

Cooper has a great bunch of friends from eighth grade. Some of them are splitting up and going to other schools for ninth grade. They celebrated Austin’s birthday downtown Fort Wayne and got to spend time together. He will miss Austin but  he’s excited for this coming school year.

Owen’s Prep Meet

Owen’s coaches wanted him to participate in the city prep meet. This is a meet that requires a swimmer to swim all by themselves the length of the pool with no coaches in the water. They felt that he could do it! I was not so sure! So they practiced a few days ahead and sure enough, he could doggy paddle all the way down the length of the pool, i.e. freestyle. When he remembered to put his face in the water he would go significantly faster than the doggy paddle. But he could do it! So we signed him up! He was super excited on the day of the meet and they all dressed up as superheroes! I reminded him that he could use the lane line to hold onto if he felt he needed it. I did not want him to forget what he was doing with all the excitement of the meet and the crowds. And there would be no help in the water. So I reminded him of this a few times. When it was his turn he jumped off the block and doggy paddled his way down the lane. But remembering my reminder about the lane line, he held the lane line about every two seconds. I think his nerves and his excitement got the better of him and he held the lane line the entire way down the pool! He was a cute little guy but it was a little bit comical. I’m glad he had a great experience and Was able to participate in this event!

Blackberry Farms

Since we missed strawberry season this year, Emily‘s family and our family went blackberry picking. I love to do this every year, I think I kids are getting slightly bored with it :-) but they still entertain my excitement. We did come home with almost 3 buckets full of blackberries. Now that I have big kids to help me Pick it goes a lot faster! We did come home and make blackberry jam and Dawson was a great help with that. We even did a water bath to can them and put them all in the pantry.   We have been enjoying blackberry jam on our toast and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!