The Baxa’s

Last Sunday, we had an impromtu beach day with the Nelson’s. We piled in the car and headed out to the Warren Dunes. I love doing outings with my sister. Not only do the kids have the best time ever with their cousins, but it reminds me to slow down, and relax. April is really good at going with the flow. Relaxing. Sitting back and watching the kids have a good time. Me? Not so much. I am a very scheduled person. I like a routine. So, when we do outings with the Nelson’s, I try to be more like my sister, and just enjoy the day. It is always a ton of fun, and relaxing. We spent the day at the beach, the boys and the kids hiked up the huge sand dune, we enjoyed the sun and the water. We packed up around 6 or 7. We stopped for dinner in a cute harbor town, New Buffalo. And we even got ice cream afterwards. We didn’t get home until after 10:30. It was a great day!

Our "camp"

Digging and building

Hauling supplies

Excavating

Serious discussions

Sisters!

With the big wedding behind us, we’ve just been up to some regular old summer fun.

We went blueberry picking. 26 pounds of blueberries to be exact. So far we’ve had blueberry pancakes, and April baked fresh blueberry pie. It was hot out the day we picked.

We also spent an afternoon at the local carnival. It was darn hot out that day too. But, the kids had a blast.

Quinn has learned to ride a two wheeler!

We did a little bit of school shopping. These are two of the things that Josh picked. I think he was meant to be growing up in the 1980′s. Jeff asked me if we were shopping at a resale shop, because he thinks he once owned this shirt:

And this is just a random picture of Ella and Madeleine. They were trying to trick the boys into thinking they were someone else. It didn’t really work.

So, that’s what has been going on around here.

The kids are ready for school to start. Especially Quinn. He asked me today if school starts tomorrow or 2 days? I said 18 days. He told me he hates 18 days!

*all the above pictures were taken with our phones (except the last one), please forgive the lack of quality

A day to sit back, relax, and soak it all in. Although, I do feel like April and I have to move heaven and earth to make it happen. Especially when April is working the day before, and I am watching her kids. Jeff has a beer club meeting and Ella has dance the night before and Jeff has a haircut that morning. Boating is always a last minute thing, but it is always well worth the hectic stress that it takes to make it happen. The experience never lets us down.

When Quinn tells me “I love this water”, “I love this lake”, “I want to come back here” – it is all worth it. It’s always nice when we can do something that everybody enjoys. And I’m really happy that Jeff drives home, because by the end of the day, when we are doing the two hour drive at nine o’clock, I am done.

This year Josh got up on skis. Finally. Thank you April for having patience with him. You are great.

Thank you April and Greg for inviting us. It is always truly a pleasure.

We saw a couple of bands perform last weekend. That is April and I and our six kids did. Yep, the boys were off at a bachelor party for Mark. So, we were on our own. I would say it went well. The kids all got along, and behaved fairly well. If it weren’t for April having to chase Eli around constantly, she could have actually sat down and relaxed! But, I think everyone had a good time.

We saw The Smithereens and Soul Asylum (which Josh kept pronouncing ass-lum, cracking us up). The Smithereens were signing autographs after they played, so we bought a t-shirt and Josh got it signed by all the band members. It made his night. He wore it for three days straight.

Our two little girls sat most of the night with their heads together, talking quietly, like they were teenagers. They were all buddy-buddy and it was nice. A glimpse of what’s to come for those girls when they get older.

There were two older couples sitting next to us, and the guy was on his way to feeling no pain. But, he was nice, and funny. He kept talking to Josh. Asking him for a glow stick necklace, trying to get the kids to dance with him. When we left, we had two sleeping kids, and one of the women said “Looks like you have your hands full” – and I looked at who I assume is her husband and say “Looks like YOU have  your hands full!”. We laughed.

So, a good time was had by all. April, hope you enjoyed your night, thank you for coming with us.

Seems like when the Nelson kids get together with my kids – things get a little crazy. Myles came over for the evening on Saturday to play with Quinn and strange things began to happen. The is not the first time “it” happened. A few months ago when Madeleine and Ella got together, a similar thing occured. I don’t know  -  you tell me….