Fun Summer Pics!!

Last week Thursday morning - July 21st - SUNRISE - It was gorgeous!!

One benefit of getting up at 5:30am in the morning !!!!!!!!!!!!

Then Sunday evening Marcus got a call from Patrick Kooima(his friend since birth)-he passed all his tests a few weeks ago and is now a pilot - asked Marcus if he wanted to go for a plane ride - as Marcus was heading for the door - I threw him the camera

Ready to go!!

This is a picture of the back of our house

Here is the front - if you look really close Mike is standing in front of the open garage door and I am on the front lawn and yes we are waving!!!

Main street Rock Valley is running from left to right on this picture between the elevators

Del and Joy Faber's home

My brother Brad and Kerri's farm - very neat pictures and Marcus had a blast!!

After they landed they came back to our place and more guys showed up - they had their weekly Pizza Dip on Sunday nights and then they all loaded up on the bikes and went to one of their classmates(Tyler Van Kley) to wish him well - he left on Monday morning for Basic Training in the Army and won't be back around until Christmas!! Fun Summer Times - the guys did ask where Jamie was - even though they sometimes kick her out of the basement - she got back from Church Convention at 3am Monday morning - she had a great time as well and was extremely tired when she got home!

Garden is in full bloom!!!

Mike has been taking awesome care of his gardens - thought I'd just share how they were looking - Zinnias are blooming, then there is lettuce which we are enjoying lots this year, carrots, beans( we are picking tonight when garden gets in the shade) onions, peppers and then......

Mike's tomatoes this year - WOW - they are as tall as the sweet corn and ......

taller then me ( I'm not too good at taking pictures of myself-concentrating so hard didn't even smile-sorry)

Sweet corn and then the potatoes - I am so anxious for the potatoes and to make potatoe salad too - but I will be patient!!

And here is the other garden - the cucumbers, squash, zucchini and popcorn......

Zucchini that I just picked - we are eating lots of vegetables and enjoying them too - He had Kohlrabi in lower garden too but they are finished and were amazing as well!!! Soon we will be busy canning and freezing :)

Away they go again!!

I think I posted when Marcus and Patrick took their bikes to school one morning when it was not even 30 degrees outside - this is a picture from that morning - well today there is a heat index here and these two plus two others are taking their bikes to Lake Cochran for the weekend(Kooima's have a home on the lake there) They aren't leaving till 7 tonight and it's a two hour ride - they won't need jackets tonight :) It's suppose to be very hot and there is a heat advisory out till next Wednesday here - Summer is in full swing!! This is the first weekend Jamie has no plans - she leaves for church convention in Indiana next Tues till Sunday so we need to pack her and get her ready for that!!! Enjoy your weekend and stay cool!

Picures from our wet cameras!!!!!!

These first 6 pictures are from Discovery Cove - this one is of a huge sting ray there were many inside the Coral Reef where we were snorkeling - Marcus would dive down and rub their backs - some swam right under us - it took a bit for me to get use to this - yikes!! But Mike and Marcus kept telling my that their stingers were gone but just the thought was enough.

Our kids trying to stay under water for me to get a good picture - it took a couple times!!!

These next few are on the lazy river

Jamie loved to climb on this rock everytime we floated by it

Inside the cave on the lazy river!!

Jamie being Jamie - too funny!!

This picture is from Google.com - this is what a Manatee looks like and these are what was swimming up to us on our Kayaking tour at the Merritt Wildlife Refuge State Park

These were the Manatees at Sea World - they had an exhibit there too.

Here come the pictures from our kayaking trip.......

Jamie and her guide Mike

Me and my guide Marcus

on our way to where the Manatees feed - we saw this jellyfish and

this horseshoe crab

and here they came - this is one of their noses - they loved to be rubbed on their backs and bellies!

Mike is scratching ones back and his tail is out of the water my Marcus

Here Jamie had his nose against their kayak and his tail is right behind Marcus' paddle - some of them were huge!!

This ones tail we got a good look at :)

For some reason they loved the blue kayaks and we were both in the only two blue ones - we had the most interaction with the manatees and there were 9 kayaks on this tour - we were extremely pleased about this and loved every minute of it!

This one wanted us to shake his fin so we did - these were out in the wild but were extremely friendly - just like a puppy they just kept coming back for more scratches!! - This was an awesome experience and if we ever get there again I'm sure one that we would do again!! Awesome find Mike!!!!!