Vacation

John took off the whole week to go to Cranberry Lake in Indiana for vacation with us.  My parents joined us for the week which was an awesome bonus.  We rented a beautiful house which had TV'S!!!  (This was a big bonus for our kids!)  The more memorable highlights for John and I included canoeing with the kids, swimming to a giant trampoline off shore, hiking, fishing, and spotting all kinds of animals on the property.  The kids found a mother cat and her litter of three kittens which they spent the week chasing and caring for.  Luckily we didn't see them on our last day or we would have four more cats (which we DON'T need!!)  Some of the animals we saw on a regular basis were deer, beavers, cranes, herons, and even an eagle.  Sam really perfected her fishing skills this week and caught an impressive amount of sunfish, bluegill, bass, and a ten inch bass that she landed on her own.  She is able to bait and release her fish without gloves which now moves her into the "real fisherman" category in everyone's eyes.  Ben is learning to fish without gloves as well and spent a huge amount of his time hiking in the woods.  Maisie has perfected her tracking skills and is now able to identify and figure out what way the deer are headed.  Who knows.... maybe someday we'll have a hunter among us.  Here are the pics in no special order....

More vacation pictures at the lake

 Here is the Mom Cat who the kids decided to name "Shadow" her babies were named "Mirda", Mustache, and Lewis.  The mom cat wasn't much more than six months old herself.  Definitely a lesson in difference in cultures for our kids who couldn't understand why the cats weren't all in the house in a little box being loved.  As the week wore on the kids' attachments to the cats grew which made John and I nervous.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending upon how you look at it) Mother Nature intervened the night before we left sending a terrible rain and windstorm which sent mom and her babies off packing.   We didn't see them the morning we left.

A week long vacation at the lake

 Ben and I took the canoe to the beach from the house.  We beat the car!

 Clams lined up for the clam races.... over 40 participants, you'd be surprised how quickly clams move to get back in the water....

 Someone special "diving" for clams....

Butterfly Tent at the Fair

Sammy spent an hour in the butterfly tent at the fair - here is what she got...

Schuster Visit

What a great way to kick off John's week long vacation!!

Keith, Shima, and Ryan came to town for a visit on their US tour from Korea.  We were lucky enough to get a few days and nights in with them and Mrs Schuster - Keith's mom.  Ryan was able to meet all of the big kids - it's hard for us to think about how the next time we see him not only will he be walking and talking but he probably won't remember us.  Too bad, we were finally starting to make some good with him :-)

Dupage County Fair

Sammy was the white egg Grand Champion Winner at the Dupage County Fair this year.  Here she is when she participated in the Grand Champion Auction and a bidder paid $150 for her dozen eggs!!  She is so excited and we are so proud of her.  Great job Sammy!!!