Batavia's Windmill City Summer Festival

The Summer festivals are a big deal round here and every suburb seems to have one. It was our town's turn today and with the help of some dear friends, me and the kiddos had a great time. Andy was at work!

Good food, entertainment, freebies and scary rides made for lots of fun.

Beautiful Michigan!

The weekend after July 4th, we took a mini road trip to see our dear friends, The Schnells in North East Michigan. They have a 2 cabins on a lake in a beautiful tranquil setting. This is the 3rd time we have been here, as the Schnells are our good friends from when we were in Seminary near Boston. The drive was significantly shorter and since we are now ' veteran' roadtrippers, we left at 4.30am and made it in 8 hours.

Soon after arriving you feel like you have slowed down a gear and start to thouroughly enjoy the restful pace.

We had such a fun time, seeking out the Amish, going to a new kind of church- Cafe Style, boating on and swimming in the lake and riding on a mini steam train. Our friends family has grown from 3 to 5 and we just loved meeting CJ their 17th month old, who is catching up with Jamie already! We can be ourselves with these friends, they have seen us in the good and the bad times and have loved us just the same.

Fairview, Michigan.

A station on the Au Sable & Northwestern Railroad. Fairview was founded by W. L. Bond.  Fairview is Michigan’s “Wild Turkey Capital.” Fairview is an unincorporated community governed by Comins Township in Oscoda County. Township Population: 1,785

Phillips Park Zoo, Aurora.

There are a surprising amount of free zoos round here. They don't have the more exotic animals, but are great for the kids anyhow. Phillips Park Zoo in Aurora, is one of these. It also had an enormous play area and a splash pad to cool off in. We visited with our friends, The Jewell Family, who also live in Batavia.

4th of JULY!

We had a fun packed day, despite what we were celebrating! Mary and Zion Willitts spent the day with us and we were joined by Karla their mom, later in the day. Many of you will know how much this family mean to us, since we met Joel and Karla 9 years ago. Joel was in Europe, so could not be with us.
After playing Scavenger Hunt at home and baking American Flag cookies, we headed over to a friends' house for 'pool time' and a cookout. The lovely Suttons also joined us, with their 6 children.