We've had a busy summer!  I guess that's my excuse for going nearly 2 months between posts.  We've completed baseball seasons and swimming lessons, we've vacationed with the Baker side and the kids had VBS.  My parents came home after year 4 in Hungary, and we spent a long weekend with them, including a camping trip to Clifty Falls State Park.  We're in a major drought, so while we were camping the state implemented a burn ban.  Let me tell you, burn bans really put a damper on camping.  We weren't even allowed to use a propane stove.  Fortunately, my parents had an electric frying pan, so we were able to prepare our food on that.  After camping, Mom and Dad took Ethan with them to Michigan to spend a few days up there before I joined them.

Last week Saturday, Jonathan left with a group of high school students and leaders to go to Challenge, the Evangelical Free student conference, held every two years.  This year it was held in New Orleans.  Since he was going to be gone for a week, I had decided to head up to Michigan to spend some more time with family.  I'm really glad I went.  I arrived by lunch time on Saturday.  My nephew Isaac had his 7th birthday party that afternoon, and Ethan and Caleb both enjoyed being able to go to that.  On Sunday we spent time with Jonathan's extended family after church, and spent time with Jon and Joy and family Sunday evening.  On Monday, we picked blueberries (I brought 8 lbs. home!) in the morning and spent time with more extended family (my Mom's brother's family) in the evening.  On Tuesday afternoon we went to The Land, to spend time with MORE extended family (Dad's cousins).  On Wednesday morning we went to the annual extended Baker brunch, and had a cookout for dinner with the quintessential 4th of July food: hamburgers, potato salad, and watermelon.  We went to fireworks in a small community south of Zeeland, and saw what may have been the longest and most impressive display I've ever seen!  On Thursday, we packed up, said our goodbyes, and drove to Kalamazoo, where we spent several hours reconnecting with my life-long friend, Katie.  It was so fun to finally meet her kids and introduce her to mine.  We were back on the road by 3 and home by 6:45.

I can't wait for Jonathan to be home this afternoon.  We have a couple weeks of just "normal" summer stuff, pretty low key.  It will be nice to be in that routine again before our next vacation!