May

May has flown by.  With yard work and the end of the school year, our pace seems to be gearing up for summer!  Here's a few pictures of our happenings.

Apple tree blossoms

Erin and Kayleigh

 Adam graduated from preschool!  He is so excited for kindergarten next year. :)

Mrs Keiser and Adam

Jaden and Adam --- buddies!

 

On Memorial Day we headed to the Dunes with some friends from church.  It was suppose to rain, but we went anyway.   The kids had lots of fun with friends and playing in the sand.  But it did rain on us while we ate lunch.  And the wind was something fierce!  It certainly wasn't a perfect beach day, however I was thankful it wasnt a sweltering hot day either. 

Big boys playing football

Dan let the kids bury him.

CAT day

The first weekend in May we took another road trip - but this one wasn't so long!  The kids were very excited to see their cousins in Peoria and to go to the family day at the CAT proving grounds.  Erin was mostly excited to see Case, and he was looking forward to other kids to play with.  :)  They all played so nicely together. Visiting Pete and Kelli is always such a pleasure.  Guess we need to do it more often! :)

Pete and the kids

watching the demo

Pete showing us his scraper

Cousins!

Cole and Mimi

Long Trip - Gulf Shores, AL

In preparation for our trip to Alabama, we kept telling the kids they'd have to be in the van for a very long time on our trip (14hr).  So to the kids, our vacation became known as "The Long Trip."  We rented a condo on the beach at Gulf Shores.  I was thankful for the closeness to the beach because we ran into some not-so-perfect weather while we were there. I think it rain/stormed every day but one.  And they received 5-8 inches of rain while we were there.  However, in between rains or storms we could run out and spend some time on the beach.  The weather was still warm (but very muggy) and the water was mid- to low 70s.  In fact, the day the sun came out Alex complained how hot he was and he wanted the clouds to come back!   Even with the poor weather, we really did enjoy this beach (and cant wait to go again).  It had good waves to play/ride in and the sand was great to play in.  Adam keeps asking when we are going back to the Long Trip Beach.  :) 

To the beach! --as long as the thunder doesn't get too close...

the condo we stayed in.

the waves made a little ledge in the sand that was fun to play on.

Our view from one of the bedrooms in the condo.

Looking west

Our sand castles that got rained on overnight.

Looking east.