House Sitting and poison ivy

We have been house sitting for some friends of ours for the past week. Abigail and I have loved the backyard and animals. Benjamin has suffered because of the backyard and animals. Confused? Let me explain...

Two weeks ago Benjamin camped on the property of the house that we are staying at. He somehow got into some poison ivy and has been miserable ever since. I guess once you've had poison ivy you are super sensitive around it. So when he plays with Abigail outside on their awesome swings, he gets itchy and uncomfortable, poor guy. He is also allergic to their cats and dog, so he hasn't been breathing very well.

As much as it has been hard to be here for Benjamin, Abigail has loved it! Abigail loves animals and our friends have a dog, two cats and a parrot. She has had fun feeding them, walking the dog and playing with them. The dog has become my new alarm clock. At an early hour everyday he comes in and licks my face until I wake up. Abigail and I take him out with us on our daily stroller ride. His name is Caleb, and he is a really sweet dog. Abigail is always giving him hugs, chasing him, trying to feed him carrots and graham crackers, and chasing him around. He puts up with her.

We have spent a lot of time outside enjoying their big back yard and long driveway. There has been a lot of wildlife. They have pond with lots of frogs that Abbie likes to through grass in. We have seen lots of deer and rabbits.

We got to go to Grand Rapids for a Danish Festival with some friends. We had a really fun time. They had some children's activities that Abbie enjoyed. She made a crown and has been wearing it a lot the past 2 days. It is really cute. Her favorite part was an inflatable slide they had there.

Benjamin had his birthday last week and we had fun celebrating. Abigail was really excited to tell her daddy what his gifts were, the day before his birthday :), and to hide his gifts.

We have watched some of the Olympics and that has been fun. Abbie went bowling for the first time and had fun. Benjamin starts up the semester soon, so we will get back into the swing of things. We have had a wonderful summer.

Enjoying Summer

These are some pictures of us camping in New York with my brother and his cute family. Abbie had her birthday that week, thus the hat.

We've had a lot of fun things the last few weeks. Benjamin hiked at Pictured Rock National Park in the upper penisula of Michigan for a week with the young men he used to work with. They hiked like 25 miles in some really beautiful areas. They had some mean racoons, but Benjamin was able to protect the group with his sling shot skills which he learned under the tutelage of his brother-in-law David. His camera was out of batteries by two hours into the hike so there are no pictures besides the one we copied off of the Pictured Rocks website. He has been writing a proposal for a conference and his comps. So that has kept him busy.

Abigail and I have done lots of fun things together. We have been swimming a lot and been to a lot of fun activities. These include a dairy expo, county fair, story time at the library, tricycle rides, parks and a water games activity. Last week I helped with the youth games for a Pioneer Celebration. It turned out well. We spray painted rocks and did panning for gold. That was a favorite. We have really enjoyed summer.

Abigail really enjoys playing with her dollies, toys and blocks. She had so much fun at the petting zoo that was at the county fair.

Grandma Grow sent a tea cup set and Abigail has really enjoyed it.

Abigail had a little birthday singing session with her new toys.

Benjamin's girls in red.

One thing Abigail loves to do is dance on our bed while her Daddy plays music for her. I think all would agree that we need a trampoline for this girl!