Wrapping up the summer!

It's so hard to believe that it is the last day of August! Although I think we are all ready to get back to school.
Here are some highlights from the rest of our summer.

At the end of July we spent a week at Taylorsville Lake in Kentucky. We rented a house there for the week and had a great time! We really enjoyed the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory Tour. We took our bikes and rode along the river in Louisville. We visited Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace and took a train ride. We rented a pontoon boat and toured Taylorsville Lake. It was our first vacation with just the 5 of us and we all had a good time!






We found a very cool extreme park in downtown Louisville. The first day we went the boys tooled around with their rollerblades. The second day we had the bikes with us, so they tried out the bikes as well. Steven didn't quite make it all the way up on the hills and rolled backward. He broke his fall with his wrist and unfortunately we found out the next day (when we got back to Mi) that is was fractured! Here is our trooper Steven - yes - this is his third fractured wrist!




The day after we got back from Kentucky we were able to celebrate Gabriela's first birthday. The three of them were visiting here for a few weeks from Germany.




Grandpa Mike & Grandma Sheila visited in mid-August. We had some fun times in the pool and celebrated Susan's birthday - we also spent a day at the zoo! It was great to have some time with them!

Summer so far!

Summer has been good to us so far! We have already had so much fun! Here are some highlights!


We started the summer cheering on Chris in his first triathlon! It was on Belle Isle! Chris did awesome and even went faster than his goal time!


We picked up some used rollerblades for the boys and they have been rolling ever since! They have improved greatly and enjoy playing with the neighbor boys



We began our Family Day festivities by going to Turtle Cove in the evening!

Then we went our for Mexican! Yummy! After that we took the kids to the Canton fireworks - they were pretty excited they were able to stay up so late!

Our next exciting event was a visit from Pop & Gramma Jane

The Cubs (Pop's favorite team) came to town to play the Tigers - it was a great game and happened to be the same night as the Detroit fireworks - so we enjoyed both!


Later in their visit we had an open house to celebrate Pop's 70th birthday!



Next we celebrated Claire's 2nd Birthday! It was a Winnie-the-Pooh party and included a Heffalump Hunt!





On July 5th we took Steven & Becca to Grammy's house for 3 days of Grammy Camp. Then we dropped David off at Bair Lake Bible Camp for his first time! He attended a 3-night Rookie Camp and really loved it!



Chris and I took a 3-day trip to Saugatuck to celebrate our 12th anniversary. It was our first visit there and we really enjoyed it!

Happy Father's Day

It's a special week around our house! Yesterday was our Family Day - celebrating 3 years ago when we were first together as a family of five. We will do a special family outing this weekend to celebrate! I just learned that June 17th is also the set date for Father's Day in Guatemala - pretty cool!

We will celebrate Father's Day as well this weekend! I have a very special relationship with my dad and I love to see Chris and Becca develop their special daddy/daughter relationship! Chris is just a WONDERFUL father to all 3 of our children! I can't imagine doing this life with anyone else beside me!

I follow Steven Curtis Chapman's manager's blog and he put out a request for father/daughter pictures for making a special Cinderella Father's Day video! Today I found out the video was up on You Tube!
So here it is - make sure to pay close attention at the one minute mark!
SCC Cinderella Father's Day Video

Spring Time!

I am already a few months behind again! I would love to think I keep up with everything in my life - but as you can see that just isn't the case - but I figure better late than never!

Here are some pictures from our trip to the zoo! School was cancelled for 2 days in early May because of Swine Flu - we took the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful spring day!



We opened the pool in mid-May. We had some good swimming weather, but the past week has been cooler so we are excited to get back in!


We've made 2 fun trips to the beach at Kensington with the Bakers!


We hosted the Moreno family for Memorial Day and tried a new take on our traditional watermelon picture!


Just last week I chaperoned Steven's field trip to the farm. It was a beautiful day and the Kindergarteners had a great time!

Pics from Steven's Bday

Thankfully Steven got over his virus in time to enjoy his birthday week!

Here are the Rice Krispy Easter Eggs we brought to school on his birthday!

After school we went to Chuck E. Cheese with his friend Ashley!

Here he is with his Cars cake that Grammy made!

Here he is on his new skateboard! Look out world!

Happy Easter from the Garveys

Happy Birthday Steven!

Having fun!

March always seems to be our slowest time for pictures!
We are all doing well and are all thankful to be seeing some signs of spring!
In fact it was so nice out on St. Patrick's Day that we had our "green" dinner outside!

Here are the 3 kids on a Saturday morning watching TV!

And here are Becca & Steven being silly in the bath!