Whew!

The last week has been a whirlwind, as will be the next week, and the week after.  I had an idea that the end of May and beginning of June would be a bit tricky, but there wasn't much we could do about the timing of life.  It just hasn't helped that all of the gardening tasks were pushed back due to our cold April, and now have sped up due to the record heat.

After Kate's birthday celebrations, we headed down to Illinois last Sunday for our nephew's confirmation.  Congratulations Mark!

Since we can do this trip as a day trip, we opted for not staying overnight anywhere.  Unfortunately, though, we had terrible thunderstorms/rainstorms on our drive down.  Thankfully, we made it to church in time and were able to enjoy one of Chris' last Sundays as pastor of this congregation.  He recently accepted a call to a congregation in eastern South Dakota, close to where Matt's parents are moving after Grandpa Mischnick's retirement!

The service on Sunday was wonderful and we were glad to be able to worship with many family members, as well as to enjoy time with everyone after the service.

Not only did we get to spend time with the Navurskis family and Grandpa and Grandma Mischnick, but we were pleasantly surprised to see Matt's Aunt Kathy and Uncle Martin for the second time in just a few months.

It's always a riot when these two sisters get together :)  Matt, especially, enjoys their bantering and reminiscing.

It's still hard for us all to believe that Mark, the oldest of the Mischnick grandchildren, will be in HIGH SCHOOL next year. 

Back at home, the girls had a short week due to staff development on Thursday and Friday, and Ethan was home with me all week since his preschool is over for the school year.  In between various outdoor and indoor tasks, Ethan and I managed a few different bike rides during the week.  During one of those rides we had to stop to let a turtle cross the trail :)

During another, we had to spend some extra time in the tunnel so we could play with our echoing voices :)

Thursday was a somewhat busy day, with friends coming over in the morning, and then Anna's therapy appointments in the afternoon.  There wasn't nearly as much driving around town as there typically has been on a Thursday, but there also wasn't a lot of time at home to tackle various projects.

Matt took Friday off of work to deal with some of those things and by Friday night, the kids were showing us with their actions, and telling us with their words, that they wanted a Friday family night activity.  We ended up riding our bikes down to the lake and spending time down there together.

The mile or so ride home is mostly uphill, but Kate made it the whole way without stopping and Ethan only had to stop to walk his bike up the steepest part.  Anna needed more of a boost from Matt than anyone, but she completed the whole ride.  Way to go, Anna!

Since Friday, the weather has been HOT.  Not only did that mean the air conditioning was turned on, but it also meant that our pool warmed up enough to play in!  The pool has gotten use each day of the weekend thus far; pictures of that will come soon :)

The girls only have a couple of more weeks of school before summer break officially begins, but this extended weekend has given us all a taste of how the routines and expectations will change once that time comes.