With the Fourth of July weekend behind us, we’re left wondering where the month of June went. It was like I blinked then opened my eyes to July and the only proof that I have it happened are the photos in this post. June was the most action packed yet with plenty of celebrations (my own birthday included), golf and time on the water.
In June we celebrated both Father’s Day and my 34th birthday. Jeff was treated to breakfast before golfing 18 holes with his Dad followed by dinner and drinks at the lake with family. My birthday party this year was one for the memory books… we hired a personal chef who prepared a four coursed meal for us and a few friends at our home - we felt fancy! Dinner included paired wine from Leon and Son and conversation cards which lead to hilarity at times and at others, some tears. We ended the evening on our front patio around the fire pit. It was exactly as I hoped it would be. Happy birthday to me.
Earlier in the month the kids and I were invited to our friends cottage for some time in the sun on their beach. The kids had a blast paddle boarding, kayaking, fishing and swimming in the lake while us Moms supervised from the shore. We made meals out of charcuterie boards and the ladies surprised me with birthday bundt cakes for the group. It had all the best parts of summer combined!
Summer sports are in full swing (literally) as Natalie and Thomas work their way through their camps and clinics. Natalie completed her first golf clinic with Patti Butcher at Scott Lake a few weeks ago. To our delight, she returned home each day raving about her experience. The clinic took place the same week as the LPGA Meijer Classic and coach Patti arranged for one of the professional golfers to visit and sign balls for all the girls. Natalie’s signed golf ball has been sitting on her night stand for the last three weeks. And then, just last weekend we took the kids mini golfing and Jeff and I were both tickled watching Natalie line up to her putt the exact same way every time. It won’t be long before she’s better than the both of us and fingers crossed her interest in gold stays sticky!
Both kids recently joined a week of GRCS tennis camp. It was fun to watch them swing their rackets and work on figuring out what it’s like to make contact with the ball. Jeff played tennis in high school while I know nothing about the sport - I’d like to learn myself at some point. As long as they are interested, tennis will continue to be a sport we make available to them and in the future we’ll seek out more organized opportunities for them to keep playing.
Golf for the whole family continues at Watermark as Natalie continues lessons this weekend, I wrap up week six of partner league and Jeff plays in the annual Member-Member Tournament in two weeks. We’re also hoping to squeak in a few family tee times over the next few weeks.
We joined friends back at Silver Lake again this year for a few nights of tent camping - we tented and then leveraged our friend’s campers for their pottys and grills. The weather forecast was close to scaring us off but we stayed strong and were rewarded for it! We spent two nights at Harbor Dunes Family Campground cooking s’mores, swimming in the pool, grilling brats, climbing sand dunes and fishing in the river. We ended the weekend at Craigs Cruisers where Natalie showed off her new putting skills and ate fried chicken at the locally famous Chicken Shack - so tasty!
The Fourth of July weekend was spent with the Kladder Family at the lake. We had lots of joiners this year (the more the merrier!) which resulted in air mattresses and tents for sleeping, grilling burgers in waves for dinner and the boats packed to the gills for the annual fireworks on the lake. It was a riot. But no one got burned by sparklers this year, we had plenty of potato salad and we never ran out of canned beverages. Other things worth reporting include: birdie ball taking over the usual bags tournament, the ‘big float’ seems to have another hole and might finally need to be retired and the kids are getting hooked on tubing which means more gas for the speed boat.
We also joined the 87th Annual Hollyhock Parade which was moved from the 4th to the 3rd this year allowing us to attend for the first time ever. The parade started at 8:30am and lasted only 20 minutes. It was short, sweet and very quaint - we thought it was great. The highlight for the kids was gathering up the candy the participants in the parade tossed out and the highlight for me was watching our neighborhood come alive in such a fun way. It was the perfect way to kick off the weekend of celebrations.
We’ve got nothing but fun planned the rest of this month. We’re looking forward to our annual Smith Family U.P. trip, a weekend at Mackinac Island and a family wedding. Wishing you nothing but sunshine and rainbows in your coming weeks.
