Last of Summer Moments and Memories

Caleb arrived safely in Seville, Spain yesterday for his semester in Spain, Nicolas began his sophomore year at Dordt on Tuesday (although he has been there since Aug 10 for football), Anna and Lydia already have two weeks of high school under their belt (11th and 9th), and I began homeschooling Seth this morning.  Summer is officially over.  Here are the last of summer moments and memories that haven't been posted about previously:

Russ attended the URC Synod meeting in Chicago in June.  While there he was able to meet up with his sister Renee and her family in some of his free time.  His brother Philip was also in the Chicago area with his daughter Abigail, registering for the fall semester at Judson University, so he was able to spend time with them as well.

Anna, Lydia, and Seth spent lots of hours this summer working on their quilting project (more about that in another blog post). After getting some quilting done, Seth was always eager to ride horse.  Not sure if he was eager to go to their home to finish his quilting project or to ride...

We celebrated the Fourth with some families from church.  Our hostess had lots of fun patriotic activities planned: we all brought three important dates in U.S. history and placed them on the timeline they had drawn on their super long driveway, the kids played Capture the Flag, the adults enjoyed horseshoes, we participated in a reading of the Declaration of Independence, the kids let off small fireworks, and we ate lots of good food.  They also had two sweet kittens that the kids loved to cuddle.

We were able to fit in two visits to the Roaring Springs Waterpark.  Anna, Lydia, and Seth went on the first visit, and Seth, Caleb, and I joined some church friends the second time.

Last weekend Russ attended the CURC men's retreat near Idaho City.  He left late Thursday afternoon and returned Saturday at noon.  

Just a couple hours after Russ returned we all joined a church family and rafted the Indian Creek river.  We all agreed that we want to do this again.  Maybe we'll be better navigators the second time.

Caleb navigated this raft

Our raft had a hole so Anna and Seth spent a large amount of time bailing.