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Summer is screaming by, but it doesn’t mean we haven’t been able to soak it up for all it’s worth! I’ve lacked on sharing what we’ve been up to, but sometimes when you’re in the moment, well, you just want to stay in the moment. Here’s a little glimpse of what we’ve been up to!

The warm (then not-so-warm) weather in May allowed us to open our pool earlier than we expected:

That also meant time for a garden! Though unfortunately, after a few inches of rain, it washed away most of our seeds and we had to replant all of the seed plants about 3 weeks later. This is an older picture, but now our garden is flourishing and we couldn’t be happier! My parents were so generous in allowing to plant on their property, since we don’t have much room on our property!

I mean, isn’t this just the picture of summer?

In early June, we went camping at the Christian Reformed Conference Grounds – it’s one of my “happy places”. We just LOVE it there and even though it was quite cold (hence the clothing), we still made the most of it!

Mazy’s favorite, the Craft Cove.

We didn’t swim in Lake Michigan often, but it sure was beautiful to watch the sunsets at night:

Camping gives us that quality family time we ALL need:

We visited our friends in St. Joseph and their new flower garden called Trailside Blooms! What a fun day and one we won’t soon forget! Until next time…

We watched some local fireworks from the bed of Dan’s truck until a storm came rolling through:

Going to Michigan’s Adventure with the youth group is always a highlight! Because of my heart failure and I suppose the numerous warnings you see on ride signs about people with heart conditions, Mazy and I stuck to the kiddie rides:

This past week, we had the opportunity to go see Dude Perfect at the Van Andel Arena! It has been something we’ve been looking forward to for a LONG time. Dude Perfect is a show that Mazy literally watches on the daily. Not too often you can find wholesome and entertaining shows like this! We are still talking about it! What we enjoyed the most was watching Mazy soak it all in and to hear their message at the end about their love for God. In the arena they had cardboard cutouts of the guys and we definitely had to get our picture taken with each one! They look pretty real, eh?

What a fantastic show!

That smile didn’t come off her face the entire night!

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind in life as of late, but God’s faithfulness is woven through it all. We found out a former youth group kiddos of ours in Minnesota unexpectedly passed away last weekend and their parents, being dear friends of ours as well. Dan immediately jumped online to book a plane ticket and flew out to Minnesota early Tuesday morning and came back late Wednesday night. It was a hard 2 days, mixing both tears of laughter and sorrow as they walked through the memories. A death we will always grieve this side of heaven. Dan also left for our youth group’s mission trip a few days later, so it’s been a bit crazy, but again, God’s faithfulness even more evident through it all. There were definitely feelings of being overwhelmed and stressed, but God knew, God sustained, and God upheld.

We look forward to a few more fun activities before summer ends and we head back to school! Lord-willing I will be working at Mazy’s school as a parapro, as long as the good ole ticker hangs on for me until my ablation in mid-September. Feeling great and so thankful for the amazing summer we’ve been able to have! A shock to us all, considering how sick I felt just months earlier. All grace; ALL GRACE.