REALLY???

This year is a HUGE adjustment for us.  Our Madeline started High School.  And yes, I am one of those moms you hate.  I really struggle with my children growing up...I am whine about it all the time.  I LOVE having a house full of children and chaos.  I don't want those days to come to a close any time soon.  When I think of Maddy this is what I think of...

Little and having so much fun with her siblings...she still does this but she is all grown up now.  Now she has more fun with her friends.  THIS is what I am not prepared for...

Yep...she is touching a BOY!  Luckily for me this is a camp counselor she had EFY camp (Especially for youth).  She is enjoying growing up and I am loving being a part of this great young woman that she has become.  She is such a tender spirit.  She is like most teenagers and gets a little sassy now and then, I know right!!!  But the great thing for me is by the end of the day if she has been sassy she will usually come to me and say something like " Hey mom...I am sorry I was rude".  She will never know how much that touches my heart.  I know she is being a teenager and I let it slide...but is such a great kid that SHE doesn't let it slide.  LOVE her!

YOU ARE HERE!!!

Every year we enter the summer reading program at our local library.  If the children do a designated amount of reading they get to enter their names in a drawing for a prize.  A few years ago Madeline won this awesome bag with a lot of fun goodies when her name was picked.  Knowing this you can imagine Savannah's complete excitement when we received a call this summer that she won a prize.  She was so eager to run to the library and see what she won.  When we got there and they handed Savannah her prize I almost died laughing.  This is what she won.

You can tell by the look on her face that her excitement was ALL gone!  This is a reusable bag...and nothing was in it!  Just the bag is what she won.  I barely made it out of the library I was laughing so hard.  Savannah was quoted as saying "I've never won anything in my whole life...and THIS is what I win".  Good stuff!

We had a lot of family fun with this event.  My aunt suggested that wherever Savannah goes this summer she should take her bag so she knows were she is.  We LOVED that idea...so we did it!

Here she is up in Lewiston camping with some friends!

And here she is at Michigan's Adventure!

Camping in Pentwater with some friends!!! And somewhere we have a picture of her at the Detroit zoo and Girl's camp...they have seemed to disappeared.  All  in all we have had GREAT fun with this bag!  Thanks library for helping us to appreciate always knowing where we are!

Rain Rain-Thanks for the Day!

We wait all year for our Michigan's Adventure weekend.  This year we were SO worried that the 90 degree weather we have been having, we were worried that it would KILL us.  We made sure we dressed super light and thought about everything we needed to do to stay Cool.  What we didn't prepare for was the rain.  We were actually cold for a bit because it rained so much.  We pressed on though...we rode until they shut down the rides for a brief period of time.  You can see the kids playing in the rain waiting for the rides to start up again.  I was so bummed because I seemed to be the unlucky one.  I was all buckled in to do the bumper cars and they shut it down due to lighting.  Then later I wanted to do the Beebop cars and got to the front of the line only for them to inform me that they were temporarily shut down...Seriously???

All that seems not good but it worked to our advantage.  The rain kept everyone else away.  Once it cleared up everything was up and running, and so were we!  There were very few lines.  The kids would get on the ride-back off-and right back on again.  It was AWESOME.  It even warmed up enough to enjoy the water park fully.  It was a BLAST!  I love this weekend.  I love hanging with our friends and talking by the campfire all night.  Good times for sure!

Many Recent Happenings.

Abigail's artwork was displayed in the local library....

LeeAnne ran a marathon, more details read my running blog.

Savannah won a Community Youth Award, one of 20 Huron Valley students to win.  Very cool!

Savannah and I went to Temple Square in Salt Lake

It was super rainy...but still amazing!

Everyone LOVES and Easter Picutre

Here is what most people look like when they pose for thier Easter pictures...very calm, very sweet looking!

But the Walker6 family-well....we are a little odd. If you notice Madeline is walking away, she really HATES it when we are odd. Hee Hee

 This is the REAL us...

GREAT JOB GIRLS!

Maddy, Savannah and their friend Danielle collected "meal kits" for families in need this past month.  They did two separate meal types; 1.  Spaghetti and green beans  2.  Tuna Casserole Dish.  Overall they collected 58 meal kits.  We are so proud of their service to the community.  They handed these "meal kits" to families in need from the local Light House Center, this is a local assistance establishment for the community neighbors in need.  It was a great experience for the girls in serving their neighbors.  They collected, sorted and organized the entire event.  It wasn't easy for them to actually "hand" them out.  Maddy made Savannah do most of the talking, shocker I know, but it was great for them.

Are we there yet?

We had the opportunity to go visit the Kirtland Temple in Ohio recently.  This was SO cool.  To be able to visit the first LDS temple that has been in existence since 1838 (?).  It was a great spiritual experience to KNOW that the Savior visited this temple and what was restored there.  The weather was not the best but with approximately 50 friends and family with us it was amazing.