Driesenga Visit -- Long Over Due!

If this post were a library book, I'd be paying a big, fat fine right now! To be honest, I honestly was POSITIVE that I had posted this fun day on here but my mom recently pointed out that if I really had, it had disappeared!
The last week of June Dad, Me (Abby), Josiah, Brady, and Kayla, all rolled that 11hr drive up to MI. Dad the first night we arrived, we met up with our Driesenga cousins and Aunt Sandi at a local skate park and caught up on the last several years. It was lots fun..(of course)!!!!
After eating out with the Dryer cousins and Gramps and Gram Y., and stopping in to see Grandpa D.at his house, we spent the night at the nearby Best Western Hotel with a heated pool where the kids burnt off the rest of their energy. If that wasn't good enough, Aunt Sandi kindly offered to have us kids all over the next day while Daddy was in his meetings. We spent the day getting to know each other, hiking the nearby horse park and dog walking (which was maybe my favorite part!). It was such a wonderful day and it deserved to be posted promptly. Next time I'll do better! :)

Brady and Luke! Brave Boys...

Caleb being awesome...

*Brittany*

You should have seen this girl go on the rip-stick once she got started!

Zachery...on the right... :)

All of us...<*together*>

It was FUN!

Frog & Toad

Well, there is a first time for everything and it is my first time posting! This is Colleen and I wanted to share some of Abby's work that she just finished. These cute little guys....Frog and Toad, to be specific, are Abby's creation from the books Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel. I thought she did such a good job and wanted to share them. She's also in the middle of making an outdoor house for them for the girls to play with. I happen to think that she is very creative and pretty too.


The above picture is from a Frog and Toad video by John Clark Matthews; Abby's main inspiration.



This is a picture of the house in progress. It sits in the crotch of a tree in our backyard. She's using plaster of Paris and then plans on painting it and sealing it.

Summer Fun

Those crazy Dryer Girls came down for another crazily short visit (Fri 12am - Sun 11pm :P ) but of course it was still tons of fun. This time Aunt Kim and Maggie came too to add to the fun!
I didn't have time to load up all kinds of pics but JUST for record, Aunt Kim is awesome at skiing!

Amie learning to ski... We should have gotten pictures of her up on the wakeboard!

Annie.... I'm jealous.

Maggie Liz...

Katie learned to ski and wakeboard within two days! Yahoo! :D

Katie.. lol..not shown are the pics I took soon afterword of her faallllinggg.... down into thhhee water.... :)

We had tons of fun on the waverunners. Above was the "sedate" group while Annie, Amie and I (Abby) took the other one out. I flipped it once and Amie twice (I think) sending all three girls into the water. Man! I don't think I've laughed so hard out there in a long time!

There Was A Turtle...

This certain friendly fellow was just asking to have his picture taken...

Birthdays!

In reverse order are the birthdays that have taken place in the past *month since I've posted!
(*So much for my "at least once a week" idea during the summer...)

Derek got to celebrate his 20th birthday with his grandparents!

Brady's 11th!

Brady was hilarious (as usual) when it came time to open his presents...which Mom creatively wrapped with her decorative boxes!
His favorite gift though was 6mo (of the "paid version") of Roblox on the computer. :)

And last but really first... my own birthday... :) It was a good day!

Pond Sailing Without A Sail

This is what the kids do when they're not at the lake...

From the NOT MUDDY Rock that I was able to stand on by the pond to take pictures, the light was terrible... Libby was funny about it though!

Three best friends in a tub...

The muscle dude who does the hard work...

Kelly doesn't like the fact that she is the only one who has to stay on the shore!

Sweet Sailing! (Without a sail...)

What A Fun Day!!!

What a fun day! To make a long story short, there was a homeschool rally at our capital (Jefferson City) today to oppose a bill that was to be passed that would have a big negative effect
on homeschoolers... sort of a long story. Anyway Mom and another homeschool mom who's family we are friends with went together to this rally sadly neglecting their 12 poor orphans (in all) left at home. That story probably could have ended disastrously but those 12 poor orphans happened to be very intelligent as well as poor. Together they quickly came up with the plan of making the most of this bad situation of neglect and decided to band together and survive the day together. So the Ymker kids jumped in the back of the old red farm truck and headed over to the Martin's.... And what a good idea it all turned out to be!!!

One of reasons it was such a great idea was Belle.... the new bunny.

There is nothing sweeter than a little baby bunny with floppy ears than.... well maybe a certain baby puppy with floppy ears....

Belle was just TOO adorable. My camera and photography skills did simply not do her justice!

Those big back feet were SO sweet and fuzzy!!

These pics. need a faster shutter speed I think... oops...

The girls got to feed Belle carrots, cabbage, and apples.... It was a GREAT idea....

And THEN.... ha ha....MORE FUN......

Emma saddled up her Morgan Tempest...

And walked in circles many times giving three little girls rides... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... .... ... ..... .......... ... .. . .. .. .. .... .. .. . . . .

Kayla loved it!!!

Kelly waited.... ... ... ....

Libby-Lou was a bit apprehensive but she insisted that she wanted to AT LEAST make it back to the gate where she started. She did!!

And then it was Kelly's turn! The helmet was a little big.. :) It kept falling over her eyes!

Kelly had lots of fun! And Emma was so nice!

My turn!!!!
Our plan was such a G R E A T idea!!!! We had so much fun....


Poor, Neglected Orphans.......