The Hartland: Our July

Summer is flying by for us, as it usually does, and as a result I haven't posted for almost a month! We've been busy, here's what has been going on!

Emily has been busy getting up early several days each week for soccer conditioning. She is not thrilled with this fact but is putting in her time is hoping to make a high school soccer team in early August. I saw this comic and think it accurately describes the morning battle in our household.

In the last frame the mother is asking "Scrambled or fried?" Jeremy (the teenager) responds "I'm willing to bet it's against the Geneva Conventions to wake someone up before ten during summer vacation."

We went to "the land" for the July 4th weekend and had a very rainy time. Despite this fact we were able to relax and go "hunting' for crayfish and salamanders.

We have been frequenting the library and participating in their reading program this summer. Ella has become quite the avid reader and she has taken to reading to both herself and to David so that they both earn "points" toward the prizes offered. Ella got so many that she was given the following sign to put in our yard!

Nearby we have friend/neighbors/fellow church members who are also adopting from Ethiopia. They are a lot further along in their journey and will be hopefully going to Ethiopia very soon to pick up their new 11 year old daughter, Hannah. They had a fundraiser during two weekends in July offering pony rides, a car wash and a bake sale to help cover the enormous cost of their adoption. We were happy to participate and lend our support to them by stopping over and joining in the fun!

Last but not least was our vacation this summer. We headed to Kelley's Island in Lake Erie with my best friend Jennie and her family. We spent six days and five nights camping and had a wonderful time together! Except for the thunderstorm and a few showers the first night and morning that we were there, the weather couldn't have been more ideal. Highs were in the upper 60's or lower 70's and the lows were in the upper 50's or lower 60's. It is such a blessing that our families get along so well. Our time together was just long enough that we felt like we could relax and short enough that I only had to miss one day of work!

I have a slide show running at the top of the page with the photos from our trip (there are 326 of them, so it's a long slide show)!

Some of the activities we enjoyed while on Kelley's Island included....

*Hikes in the woods

*Swimming in the lake

*Fishing on the dock

*Looking for LEWS (Lake Erie Water Snakes), that are ONLY on Kelley's island

*Cooking over the campfire

*Playing games

*Exploring the small town

*Visiting Inscription Rock (has engravings from Native Americans from long ago)

*Visiting the Glacial Grooves (places where you can see how the glaciers of the ice age left huge track marks in the rocks)

*Just enjoying one another's company!