July 2010

Brianna showing off her new dress up outfit my mom got her for her birthday! Brayden giving a thumbs up at the lake - with a little seaweed hanging off his arm!

A tour of the lake after being fixed up:

Here is the room that Gary and I sleep in:

My parents room:

Brayden and Brianna's room:

A view through the dining room windows - so beautiful!

Family room:

Kitchen:

A view from the dock:

Side view:

New roof - trees down - still needs new siding:

Driveway view:

Looking into the downstairs bathroom from the front door:

New shower - thanks to Gary, his dad, and Jason Hostetler:

Sunset:

Enjoying some food at Captain's Cabin - a cute little restaurant right on the lake (with tasty food):

More summer fun 2010!

During the summer we spent most of our sun-wed at the lake. My mom didn't have to work those days so she was able to spend a lot of time with us! One day we made a visit to Pokagon state park (where I spent a lot of spring breaks as a kid)! Here is Gary posing with the kids inside Potawatami Inn! Grandma and Bri keeping a fire going!

Brayden walking down the dock at the beach at Pokagon.

Chilling on the patio - this day was gorgeous!

The happy couple;)

Brianna sniffing some flowers in the courtyard!

Grandma with the kids (still in the courtyard):

Just an ok family pic;)

Taking a hike past the nature preserve - Gary got a chipmunk to eat right out of his hand!

Another ok family pic next to the tobaggon slide.

Pony rides:

Bri is my animal LOVER!

My brother in law was nice enough to let us borrow his jet ski... As you can see from the picture - this didn't last for long! SINKING!!!

This was the day before the sinking... We won't be borrowing that again - geesh!

Swimming at the Crooked Lake Beach! This is where Brianna learned it was ok to touch the bottom with her barefeet - she needs to teach me!

We celebrated my mom's birthday at the lake! As you can tell from the towel wrapping paper it was a little last minute!

Happy Birthday momma! (Notice Allison - pregnant with baby Alivia!)

Summer fun 2010

I'm way behind on updating this blog so I'm not even sure what order these pictures are in:) Here is a picture of Brayden after he caught a minnow - look closely in the net;) Boston acted like a puppy in the water! He loves to swim! He won't play fetch on land but he will in the water!

Emily and Jason came to the lake a couple times to hang out with us! Here were are making s'mores!

Brayden and Brianna cuddling with Emily!

We celebrated Yia Yia's birthday at the lake! Brianna picked out the cake - it was tasty!

Here is a picture of most of the kids in our VBS group this year - that was wild!

Play date with Grace! I can't believe the summer went by so fast we only so her a few times! Here they are enjoying the slip-n-slide!

I promised Brayden an ice cream date if he had a good attitude for the whole baseball season!

Brianna's 4th Birthday!

This year for Brianna's birthday she wanted a Silvermist theme (from Tinker Bell). We invited several of her friends over for cake and ice cream, games, and a special suprise visit from 2 miniature horses! It went so well (aside from accidentally locking a little girl and her mom down in the basement for a little while - felt so bad about that!!!)
We also suprised Bri with a new (and very fast) Surfer Girl jeep! She's a maniac in that thing! She LOVES anything that goes fast! Not sure where she got that from;) My grandma Rousseau made her a princess outfit that Brianna insisted on wearing for a good portion of the day! I can't believe my baby is 4!

Here is the Silvermist cake!

A view of the girls table (Brianna, Ellie, Erin, Laura, Emma, Sophi - not sure what she's doing, Emma, Chloe, Marissa):

The boys table (Brayden G., Evan, Seth, Brayden P.)

The kids all got to put their painted handprint on the horse! So fun!

A not so great family pic;)

Brayden:

And the Birthday girl!

Father's Day/Brianna's Birthday/Brayden's Baptism

On Father's Day this year we had an extra big celebration! Not only was it Father's Day, we celebrated Bri's 4th birthday, and best of all - Brayden got baptized! Here is a picture of some of the people who came to our party (we had a lot of single pics of people but not a great group pic). We're still missing several people in this pic - but you get the idea! I am so proud and blessed to have a sweet little boy like Brayden! He truly loves God and wants to be obedient to Him! This was an unbelievably special day for us! Gary got to baptize him - Brayden had the best smile on his face the entire time! This memory will forever be engraved in my mind!

Here are a couple of pics of Brianna celebrating her 4th bday:

Boat!!!!

The big event from last weekend - we bought a boat!!! If you're gonna have a lake cottage you just have to have a boat! After several stressful days we found a boat that worked for our price range. Sunday, we drove up to Fishers to get the boat on our way to the lake and of course the ball for the hitch wasn't the right size. Gary was prepared with a smaller ball but the other ball was so tight he couldn't switch it! (Of course there's always a glitch!) So all that to say - it took longer than anticipated! When my dad initially tried out the boat the steering was so tight and they couldn't figure out how to get the motor out of the water... Took about 2 hours to get set up to dock the boat;) By tuesday we'd figured out some of the issues and honestly it seems like a pretty good boat! Here are some pics from the weekend:
Brayden trying out his new raft from grandma! The living room (after being painted and carpet put down - the french doors lead to the sunroom. Currently it's being used as a bedroom while the upstairs waits for the carpet to arrive;)

The kitchen/dining room - also being used as a bedroom! We painted over some beautiful wallpaper (with geese, etc.) and almost finished the laminate floors. Changed out the flickering orange lit chandelier.

Upstairs we completely painted both rooms and closets. Here are Matthew and Bona pretending to paint. Bona actually did help us paint while Matthew helped Gary downstairs with the flooring. (The top part is white and the bottom part is a sage tint.) Just waiting for carpet - then we can move the beds upstairs!

Kids enjoying a boat ride!

Gary - the master driver! Perfectly parked the boat the first try!

Brayden driving the boat - he did great once I told him it was like a video game;) Brianna on the other hand only lasted about 30 seconds before she started pushing buttons and pressing down on the throttle.

Here we are arriving with our new boat at the public beach. About 20 minutes later our car started smoking... We still have to figure out exactly what happened - but the wiring from our new hitch had melted... Despite all the crazy events, God watched over us and we had a great time!