The Accidental Boilermaker

 First day of school was Thursday. Evelyn is out the door so early compared to Jameson.  We had time to play a game before he and I needed to leave the house. But starting tomorrow, the difference won’t be so big since Jameson’s bus pick up time was moved forward 15 minutes. Evelyn rode her bike to school both days. She gets home so much earlier too but cross country starts tomorrow so that will also change. Evelyn knows at least one person in all her classes and seems to like her teachers. Jameson has the same 4th grade teacher that Evelyn had but was disappointed none of his friends from his third grade class are in his class this year. He knows lots of the girls, but that doesn’t count. Today I got to use two different birthday gifts. Nate and the kids gave me an inflatable SUP. In the morning we went to Leo, rented two kayaks from the FW Outfitters and paddled around the Cedarville reservoir and the st Joseph river. Nate rested in the shade for the first hour while me and ...

 School starts tomorrow! We squeezed in some fun things these last few days. Tuesday we swam at a friend’s house. Friday we went rock climbing. We practically had the place to ourselves. We all climbed and had a fun time. Today we went to a park just to spend some time outside. We decided on Lakeside because they have a fishing pond. Jameson of course caught a fish. 

 Happy birthday to me! The kids had piano and then we ran a few errands. Evelyn also had back to school night. Nate got me a cookie cake (I did request this). A former co worker opened a sweet treat shop and apparently the cookie cake was her first. It was so pretty and tasted great! I hope people take notice and order more. 

 Last weekend we were up in Holland for a fishing trip. We spent Saturday with the Hilldores. The cousins got to swim and mess around out in the lake. Aunt Amanda rescued them when she realized without a paddle, they had little chance our maneuvering the paddle board back to the house.   Sunday morning we were up early to go fishing on Lake Michigan. This was a combined happy 40th birthday present to Nate and a happy 70th birthday present to Grandpa Paul. We had a little bit of a late start since the original captain was a no show but the owner/captain came and off we went. Once we were out on the lake it didn’t take long before we started catching fish. The adults all caught fish first. It was very difficult. I struggled and honestly wasn’t sure I could do it.  Once the sun was up, it was hot too.  But overall lots of fun. Evelyn and Jameson needed help reeling in their fish. Nate and I traded off helping Evelyn. Her fish wasn’t huge, but it must have pulled the lin...