Zach's music lesson

We had a discussion with Zach about the importance of practice. Even on things he already knows, like minus problems. Zach seemed to be having a tough time grasping the idea that practice is a good thing and is helpful. So Matt, takes him over to the keyboard and shows him how to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" while Sam and I watch. Matt shows Zach several times how to play the beginning of the song. Then Zach gives it a try. Once he got the beginning, Matt proceeds to show Zach more of the chords. Which Zach finds difficult to put together with the first part of the song. Thus illustrating Matt's point that in order to get the song done right he would have to practice a lot. Sam looks at me and whispers "he's not getting it." Meaning the song, because Zach was still not able to do the song right. But we didn't care because that was not the point of the exercise. So Zach leaves the keyboard and Sam rushes in and starts to play the song perfectly after only watching Matt and Zach play it over and over again. I look and Matt and we both start laughing. Matt was better able to compose himself, but I had to excuse myself into the living room because I was busting a gut laughing. Of course she would get it right the first time without even practicing! I'm just glad she didn't turn around and say "see Zach I don't need to practice."

Sam and Lily

This past summer has bared witness to the development of a wonderful friendship between Sam and the neighbor girl, Lily. We've live here for 3 years and occasionally saw this little blond girl across the street by Jeanne's house. Jeanne is an older woman that doesn't have any young children at home anymore and her grandchildren live farther away. One day I was visiting Jeanne and this little girl came over and ask if she could use the swing set. I didn't know Jeanne had a swing set so Jeanne invited the kids to join lily on the swing set and that was it; Sam and Lily instantly bonded! Lily is a year younger than Sam and a sweet polite child. We like to say that Lily is Sam's blond twin! They are like sisters. They can have a fight, then forgive and forget so quickly. I sometimes watch the two of them playing and know that one day they will look back on these warm summer days with fondness. Jeanne says she just knows they will be live long friends. I hope she is right.
It's great to watch them say good bye. They are a reminder of how we should cherish one another. They always hug and say they love one another. If you were to witness this for the first time, you would think they weren't going to see each other for months or years. And then the next day, there Lily would be again at our front door.

Labor Day weekend camping trip at Lake Emily

So here is the camp site for Lake Emily. It was beautiful and couldn't ask for better weather! This site is clean the bathrooms are actually decent! the rent-a-site that we were in was really large and we had 3 families on it with room to spare. the kids had this one area that they mainly used for playing light saber fights. The camp grounds have these great big shower rooms that you can sit in. There was also a bird of prey presentation that was super cool! They guy had a live hawk, owl and a turkey vulture with him. All of them were at one time hit by cars, but where rescued and now used for this educational program. I wasn't able to see the presentation because I was dealing with buying firewood and reorganizing our tent. So, all the above info I received from my kids.
Pictured below is our tent and it's kinda hard to tell, but the lake is behind us just beyond the trees. We woke up every morning to this magnificent view.

We had a great time at the lake. Of course getting to and from the lake meant trekking up and down some major stairs. Quite the work out, but totally worth it!

We rented a boat and John took the boys fishing. Zach is laying down against Caleb in his blue hat. He looks totally relaxed. He later told me he got a nibble but didn't catch anything.
To my surprise the kids were not freaked out by minnows in the lake. They actually chased them!
And then to top off the vacation we celebrated Nathan's 2nd birthday with cupcakes! Doesn't get any better than this.I don't know if we will return next year but, at least we can catalog this vacation for the most part a positive. We did have one hiccup on our last night of camping. I won't got in to details of exactly what happened. But, basically we had 2 sleeping bags that we were not able to use. So the kids had to sleep in the back of Jenny's van with a thermal blanket and some other blankets were were able to scrounge up. It all worked out in the end.