Waterpark Fun

Our neighbor Nancy works at Keylime Cove, an indoor waterpark. We went to visit her last week. The kids had a lot of fun going on all the waterslides. The boys were a lot more brave this year and went on all of the slides except for the big one (since they aren't quite tall enough yet). Elise had a lot more fun this year since she could walk around and splash in the water. She enjoyed the slides too and even went down the big purple one by herself!
Afterwards, we stayed for dinner. Nancy surprised Levi for his birthday that's coming up and got him a mini kitchen sink! Levi was so excited and we all enjoyed the yummy treat!

While I was in South Dakota, Dan's parents came to help out with the kids. Isaac, Levi, and Elise enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa! They went to the Great Lakes Naval Base one day, as Dan's dad was there when he was in the navy. We are so thankful for wonderful family.



One day when the weather wasn't the greatest, they took the kids to the mall to see Bass Pro Shop and all the fish, Rainforest Cafe and all the animals. They also were treated to a carousel ride!

Playing the pian with Grandma.

Elise praying!

Road trip with my brothers

My grandma was really sick a few weeks ago. We were very thankful when she was able to return to her apartment with just oxygen. My brothers and I (along with Grace, my niece) decided to go out and see her in Pierre, SD! It was a long drive but we had a lot of fun catching up with each other. Poor Paul had a bad back which gradually worsened as the trip went on (I guess 14 hours in the car will do that to you!). He would stretch at every stop, and I would take a picture of him at every stop! We had a very quick trip...we left on Fri morning and came back Sun night...but we were so thankful for the time we were able to spend with Grandma. She was even up for playing cards. We praise God for the life that she has lived and are thankful that when her time comes, she loves Jesus and will spend eternity with him.
I am also grateful for Dan's parents coming to help out with the kids while I was gone!!

Air Show

On Saturday, we went to the Waukegan Air Show. It was a gorgeous day to be outside, although it ended up being warmer than we thought! The boys had fun watching the airplanes and Elise had fun people watching. We met up with some friends and neighbors there so it was a great day.

Staycation

The end of August, my parents took the kids for a couple days and let Dan and I have a "staycation". Dan had some things going on at work that he couldn't get away so instead of having my parents come here and us going away, we stayed home. It worked out well because I got some house projects done during the day and then we had 2 evenings to ourselves. A friend of ours (Kalinda) from Rochester, MN was in Chicago that week so we decided to go see her and her husband/new baby. We went early and walked around Navy Pier, then we met up with them for dinner at Harry Carays. It was a beautiful night although it started raining just before we got to our car. Good timing!
The second night, we decided to stay in and have Chinese food and watch a movie. With the kids staying up later, it's hard for us to just be at home and watch a movie so we thought we would take advantage of the quiet house.
We so appreciated my parents giving us a break but of course we were thankful to have our family all back together again!