Ben went in to work today for the the first time in what...three months?  He's been there a few brief times to pick something up or whatnot, but this was the first time he was gone longer.

The boys and I went on a hike.  We found some painted rocks!

They didn't want me to pass them, so were trying to take up the whole trail.  But instead it just looked really cute.

We were back at Hemlock crossing this time and took the "easy" path.  Most of it was paved.  However, the mosquitos were the worst we've had.  Not terrible, but enough to be a bit annoying.  I had some bug spray and I'm not sure if it helped or not.

Isaac came down tonight rather sad becase he's bored.  Just bored of everything.  Doing the same thing every day.  But...it's true.  I feel the same way almost every afternoon, so I can't blame him for feeling that way.  But I'm also not really sure what to do about it.  We have good times (they ran in the sprinklers this afternoon) but it is a lot of the same.  He suggested finding a bounce house.  I suggested that he keep thinking of more fun or learning options.  A bounce house is a good idea, but I don't know where to get one.  Oh, maybe I should ask Amie!  Stay tuned.

Danger!

Get to the yellow trophy. Push space to start, after clicking the green flag. Use your mouse to control the green dot. Don't touch the red or yellow! You can see how many times you've won in a row. The lost counter is a total number of times lost

Sunday: Nathan!

Nathan and his family were going back home today, so we briefly met up in Hudsonville for another hike.  I do like hiking.  The boys enjoyed playing with their cousins too.

They played in the creek for a bit.

There were a bunch of pretty dragonflies.  They kept landing on JJ.  I love the expression on Joshua's face in this picture.

We made it to the (almost) end.

Saturday: July 4th

We started with a walk at a new trail.  There are no bikes allowed on this one, so it was a bit less stressful.  It's about the same distance as the last one, so we'll probably go again.  We only explored about 1/3 of it.

They wanted to climb a hill.  So I let them.

Our fireworks plan was to sit on the deck and watch all the fireworks that other people bought.  I felt a little bad "stealing" the fireworks, but not bad enough to not watch them!  We all started out on the deck, just a few minutes after sunset.

Two houses down from us had some nice fireworks.  They were loud(ish).

Ben went inside and watched from there.  The boys had sheets to protect them from the bugs.  Joshua didn't last much longer though.  Then about 5-10 minutes Isaac was inside.

I was the last one in; the bugs had no one else to bother so they came to me.  We watched from the comfort of our house.

The fireworks have been pretty constant since then.  (Although as I write this, after midnight, there are a few breaks of a minute or two.)  But it has been continuous noise.  I was a bit surprised that the boys were able to get to sleep, but they didn't have any problems.

Friday: westward ho!

We went to Riley Trails again today.  Isaac wanted to go to the boundaries.  I suggested starting with one side and seeing how we felt.  They decided that just going to the west side was good for today.

They ran into a tree.

We found the edge.

And a screaming tree.

We also played Ingenious today as a family.  It was the first time playing an adult game where everyone played on their own team.  It was fun.

Thursday: lost in the desert

Since it was supposed to be a hot day, I told the boys were were going to do a walk first thing.  I had been expecting a walk around the lake, but Isaac wanted to do a trail and I wasn't about to say no!  The suddenly the boys were on a mission to get lost in the desert.  

We made it to the desert.  We got slightly lost, but not as much as last time...just the right amount, actually.  It helped that I wasn't trying to get to the parking lot quickly.

Isaac used his new piping set for some chocolates.  They didn't turn out fancy, but you can tell there is some texture to them.

Joshua made a desert temple for his Lego challenge.  He put a lot of thought into what should be in the treasure chests and made a scraggly tree with dull green leaves since it's in the desert.

In the afternoon we stopped by church so Joshua could ask, "How was God created?"  The question came up a few days ago and then yesterday Joshua brought it up again.  Since I didn't have a great response to that, we went to see an expert.  (To be fair, half of this learning process is that you can go ask other people your questions.  And some questions don't have good answers.)  Pastor JD did a nice job explaining how it's just a mystery and that lots of people have wondered the same thing.

Wednesday: birthday

We made banana bread.  I was pretty much letting Isaac do his own thing with the dry ingredients, but did manage to catch that he put in a 1/2 tsp brown sugar instead of a 1/2 cup brown sugar.  Phew.

Joshua had his first in-person karate class today.  They did an obstacle course, which he greatly enjoyed.  He wore a mask, but after seeing how everything is set up and being inconsistent, he might not be required (by me) to do so next time.

Isaac had small birthday party #2.