Summer Fun

Another great summer weekend is behind us and it is amazing how fast the summer days are flying by. This past weekend Jen Emma and I went up north to spend the weekend with my family. It was a great trip, we had everyone up at the lake house accept Kathleen who had to stay home to work. Kathleen was good enough to watch the dogs for us, and that really made traveling a lot easier.

The weather was a little windy so we did not get out on the lake that much but we certainly enjoyed every one's company. We were especially excited to spend time with Liz and Martha who are now expecting Emma's cousins in December and January. Pretty soon Emma is going to have some competition for attention, but we think she can handle it pretty well.

We took Emma to the beach at Uncle Chuck & Aunt Cathy's place and as you can see in the picture to the right she had a blast. She took particular pleasure in feeding Jen the sand she was playing with, that explains Jen's very happy face in this picture. Then Saturday night we had a campfire with roasted marshmallows and the works. Check out the July Photo Album for more pictures. Also we have been trying to add more captions to our photos. So take a look around and see the little notes we are leaving out there. Feel free to leave comments as well.

But there is bigger news that comes from this weekend. News that was almost thirty years in the making. Many people who know us probably do not know that I had never met my biological father. That is until this past Sunday. To explain this more clearly I will go back a few months.

After we were married Jen started asking Mom about my biological father, who he was, how things had worked out the way they did, and whatever history that Mom could tell us. Over time, and especially after Emma was born we got to talking about my father more and more. Finally a few months ago Jen wrote him a letter.

Since then we have been emailing him back and forth and getting to know each other little by little. Then Sunday we had the opportunity to meet in his home near Big Rapids, MI. It was great to meet face-to-face and see each other after all these years. The similarities between myself and my Dad are all over the place. We spent most of Sunday afternoon really just getting to know each other better in a very nice low key manner. We are looking forward to spending more time with Doc Dad (Bill) and his wife Cathy in the months and years to come.

Now for those of you that are counting that makes a grand total of seven grandparents for Emma. Some may say that that is too many. We say that's just enough and we love them all. We especially appreciate all the love that all of them give to our family. We put a few pictures from our reunion with Doc Dad in the July Photo Album take a look and enjoy.

Next weekend we will be saying at our cousins Andrea & Toms' home while we attend the Detroit Temple for our first endowment and then our family will be sealed together for eternity on Saturday afternoon. Afterwords we are going to try and squeeze a trip to Detroit Zoo so stand by for more pictures from that trip.

In the mean time we are just trying to catchup on chores. I started mowing the lawn tonight and Will finish tomorrow. Kathleen spent her nervous energy doing our laundry and cooking for us while we were gone, so she gave us a head start on the week and that was very helpful. She even made us a giant cookie that said "Welcome Home." Unfortunately I ate most of it before we got a picture... Opps...

Oh, also stand by for some Emma video. I have been working on it but I am having trouble with the uploads. So stay tuned there will be soe good stuff when I get it figured out. And we'll spare you the four hours of the bottom of the diaper bag that we accidently shot this weekend :-0.

We love you all, and we hope you enjoy your week.

JWR