Yellow Tubes

John & Brielle love to float around in these yellow tubes that we tie together. We drift around and use our arms to paddle us wherever we decide to go. John usually wants to go in one by himself. Brielle then picks one of our laps to sit on.

On this day, we were floating around when John was suddenly surprised by someone who snuck up behind him. You can see John laughing :).

The kids think it's soo funny when Grandpa Ted squirts water at them.

Then John & Brielle had fun giving Grandpa Ted handfuls of sand... over and over and over :).

Paddle Surfing

The water was like glass this day... so Alexia & Tim both took advantage of that and went paddle surfing.

Summer Girl

Here are a few recent pics of Brielle at Frentress Lake.

The River was pretty high-- in these 1st couple pics you'd usually see some beach in the background. The photos are from last weekend. Fortunately, the sandy beach is back now :).

Tie Dye Project

While we were at Timber Lake on vacation, we did a tie dye project with the kids. A shirt or tank top was made for all 17 grandkids. We also made headbands for the girls. Here's a look at our final product:

They are all going to wear them at the Family Softball Tournament in a few weeks :)!

Preview of Our Camping Trip

Just a couple of my faves... before I sort through the 500+ I took in the last 3 days:)

Brielle walks a pony on her own

Her enthusiam for the animals continues... :)

After I heard Brielle talk about a "John-cat", I learned from Ellen that Brielle had recently learned about how the boy cats are called "Tomcats". Brielle has named her own version :).

2 year old phone chatter

Tim & Jolene let John & Karley talk to each other on the phone recently.... funny.

Look what they found!

Last night, I was in the garage when I heard Tim say from outside, "Go show your mom what you found." Somehow I had a feeling it would be something like this...

By the way, when Brielle says she found it "downstairs", she means "in the backyard." :)

And she has learned from her Belken cousins that the proper environment for a toad includes water, rocks, & bugs!

Taking turns

We planted a locust tree on John's birthday.

Brielle watered it first.

John watched & waited patiently :)

He got a little closer to the water action.

And he finally got his turn!

"I did it, Mommy!"

June Birthdays... 7 of them!

Back in mid June, we celebrated all of these June Birthdays!

Pierce, Matt, Josie, Emma, John, Ellen & Tina

They each had their own colored cupcakes.

The ages for the birthday kids were: John-2, Pierce-4, Josie-5, Emma-7.

The girls always enjoy playing dress-up at Ted & Carol's house.

It was a great day to play in the River... although we were interrupted twice by thunderstorms.

John went on his first tube ride.

Willa & Grandma B

Alexia & Brielle:

The adults found time for some fun kayak & canoe rides also.

Here are Matt & Natalie:

Air Johnny

Enjoying Nature

One day this summer Brielle and John used scissors to cut flowers for Grandma Carol. These flowers came from the seeds we planted earlier this spring. John is becoming very handy with a pair of scissors.



While walking through Swiss Valley Park, Brielle noticed a worm in mud puddle. To save it, she decided to hide the worm by covering it with a leaf --- so a bird does see it and eat it.