family vacation

My family was able to spend a week together at a resort in Illinois about two weeks ago. We all got together because my parents had celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary in June. It was an incredible vacation with no set schedule and just doing whatever we wanted. We swam every day, played a little mini golf, there was a free 5 hole golf course that some people played, movies to watch, coloring, games and just hanging out with family (which was the best part).

My dad was having some health issues and ended up having to go back to WI for a dr. appointment and had to leave one night early for another one...he had surgery on his spinal cord this past Wednesday and is now at home recovering. We are praising God that his surgery was successful and that he can once again feel his hands and feet...the numbness and tingling was moving all the way up his legs and into his tummy. Scary. They said if he didn't have the surgery soon he could have been paralyzed. Again, we are thankful that God in His infinite wisdom has blessed my dad with good doctors and a successful surgery. He'll be in a neck brace for the next six weeks and then will probably have to do physical therapy. But he should make a full recovery.

We knew that while we were on vacation and had the whole family together (some from WI, some from CO, some from TN) we wanted to get a family photo. I had made these dresses for my girls a long time ago, in fact you can see how long ago because Hannah's used to be a dress but is now a shirt :). And I made the skirt and shirt for Lily for her third birthday. So, my sister-in-law suggested that I make another skirt for Ella to match and that we could use those outfits for our family photo! I love how we all coordinated and didn't really know what we were going to look like until the last minute. I am also totally impressed (if I may say so myself) that this photo was taken using a timer with the camera on the tripod. 

My kiddos with their cousins!! Poor Micah will be the only boy on this side of the family!

Here is my family...Hannah was over having her photo taken at this point...but I still love this photo!
                          

Micah LOVES to take pictures with my camera and he's pretty good if you ask me. He took this shot of me at 29 weeks and 3 days prego!
                            

We also had a big surprise steak dinner to celebrate my parents 40th Anniversary and since Ruby is the 40th Anniversary color we all dressed in red and I made these little outfits for the kids to wear. These photos were taken the same day as the other ones so the kids were not totally thrilled about having to do it all again, but it's a great way for us to remember the Anniversary!
                              

My crazy family! LOVE them!!

Now it's time to get into school mode. Naomi will be starting kindergarten on the 16th and Micah will start pre-school on the 20th with an intro day on the 14th. We are so excited about the school they are going to and all they are going to learn this year. I'm also excited to have a little more "time" to go through some things and get some projects done before this baby girl comes. I hope Hannah is ready to help me :) Have your kids started school yet? Blessings on your last (maybe) free weekends before school starts!