New Beginnings: Baptism

 

Elaine, Alida, and Benjamin

Baptised, Sunday, August 23, 2015

 

Summer Rituals: Cleaning this place out

 

Find the beach towels on the last day of summer...

 

Throw all of this crap out of the cupboard and figure out what it is.

 

Have a clean cupboard for two hours.

Summer Rituals: Flinging the Children off the back of a Boat

Summer Rituals: Mississippi Headwaters

 

Summer Ritual: Riding

 

Airplanes

 

Bumper Boats

 

 

Jeeps

 

 

I thought these had been outlawed.

 

 

Rafts

 

 

and more rafts.

Summer Rituals: Birthday Celebrations (number 3)

 

And when we returned home, we had birthday celebration number three.

 

 

All matchy-matchy with American Girls Dolls.

 

 

...and accessories.

 

Pretending to be the doll.

Summer's End: Meandering Home

 

And then you start traveling home, and it takes a few days, so you find a good spot to stop and spend the night.  I may have put away the camera after this and spent the rest of the day going down the four story waterslide with them.

 

 

We ran from this guy.

 

 

We found another slide.

 

We took the climbing challenge.

 

 

We drove on and found Superman.

 

 

We just drove on, and I was pretty excited to finally leave Illinois. 

What a long state.

 

 

And we drove on, and eventually entered Tennessee. 

And then it got dark and we stopped, making our way home the next day.

 

Summer's End: Birthday Celebration 2

 

Birthday celebration Number 2.

 

 

The birthday that keeps on giving.

 

 

And Lego sets ruled the evening.

 

Summer's End: Minnesota

 

Where we found our favorite homemade bread and homemade jam waiting.

 

And Experienced the popcorn machine for the first time.

 

 

Found our favorite swing.

 

 

And watched sunsets at the lake for a few days.

 

 

 

Bonus: we found cousins with very long hair and very long patience for braiding and re-braiding and twisting and styling.

Summer's End: Happy Birthday Girls!

 

And following Worlds of Fun, we headed to grandma and grandpa airplane's for a birthday celebration--8-years-old!

 

Expressive..

 

And happy.

 

With new scates to learn.

 

That you had become masterful at by the end of the day.

 

 

And so the sun set in Kansas on a beautiful birthday and time well spent with family.