Lauren had her 8yr. check-up

We went to see fireworks on the 3rd and the 4th.  On the 4th we watched them from the church lot and it started pouring down rain right in the middle of the show, so we had watch the last 1/2 from the car.

We went to the zoo and took friends to the park another day.

All three kids went to a skating birthday party.  It was only Jared's second time on skates, but he was doing it all by himself and did not want any help from me.  Lindsey has learned to skate faster and Lauren was dancing while she was skating with her friends.

I had VBS meetings, and block party meetings.

Lauren had a friend spend the night. 

We attended the neighborhood block party.  The fire and police departments were here again this year.  We also had a bike parade, face painting, bubbles, games, food....  The kids had a lot of fun, especially spraying the fire hose.

Bible School was also in July.  It was one day from 8-5.  The kids learned their memory verse, new songs, made a craft, had a snack, watched a movie, saw racing dogs, ate lunch, listened to an interactive story, jumped in the bounce house, had another snack, saw an illusionist, listened to the youth band, played games, and had the closing ceremony.  I had as much fun as the kids did.  I had the 3, 4 and 5 yr. olds. 

Dennis left for Tokyo, Japan.  He was suppose to be there for 10 days to do testing on some new equipment for work, but his trip got extended to 14 days.  He got to do a little sightseeing while he was there, but mostly just worked.  We are glad he is back home and the kids loved all the Japanese things he brought back for them.

We left the same time for the Indiana State Pipe Trades Convention that my Dad is the coordinator for.  This year it was in Ft. Wayne.  My sister and her family went also.

	The first day my sister and I helped with registration.  We had dinner that night at the botanical gardens.  The gardens were beautiful and had a lot for the kids to do also.  Jared had a good time, even though he does not look like it in the picture.  After dinner we watched a magician and Lauren even got to be his assistant on one of his tricks.
	The second day was very busy.  It started with breakfast at 6:30. We boarded a bus to go to my favorite chocolate place, DeBrand's.  We went on a tour and they showed us how they make chocolate and different things they do with it.  The best part was when they gave us samples! From there we went to the mall and then back to the hotel to get some lunch. Once we got our food, and put it in a bag, we got back on the bus for lunch on the go.  We were off to the Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo. The kids loved the zoo!  It was a hot day, so they liked to run through the mist sprinklers.  There were a lot of thing that we got to see that they don't have at our zoo.  We also went on the log ride and of course the train.  (The Ft. Wayne and Toledo zoos are both in the top 10 children's zoos in the US.)  We stayed there until the last bus.   Since there were only mom's and kids on the bus, the driver let the kids use her microphone to sing until all the people were there.  They loved that.  Jared liked it that he could go to the bathroom on the bus while it was moving. We got back to the hotel, changed into our suits and went swimming.  Jared finally likes to swim around the pool with his lifejacket on.  Lindsey wants to have me help her practice swimming, and Lauren is starting to be able to swim on her own. Dinner that night was a BBQ away from the hotel with a 50s/60s band.  Lindsey, Jared and I stayed at the hotel and had pizza because Lindsey didn't feel good.  Lauren went to the dinner and from what I heard was out on the dance floor all night, only taking breaks to get a drink.
	The next day we had breakfast and got set up for the ladies' craft.  After helping with the craft, we got our stuff and the convention stuffed packed up and got ready to go.

Before leaving Ft. Wayne, we drove by our old house and some of the places we use to go.  I can't believe how the area has grown.

After the convention, we went to my parents for a couple of days.  We got to visit with my grandma, have a birthday party for Karsen, get Jared fitted for his tux, and watch baby Zach while Jen and Chad went out for Chad's birthday.  Zach is soo cute and so good.  Lindsey helped me to feed him.  She was just like a little mother to him.

On Sunday we went to Cincinnati to see my cousin Lori who was getting ready to have surgery for a tumor in her brain.  My mom rode over with us.  We got to visit with Lori and with a lot of family that I had not seen in a long time (Sharon, Ray, Lori of course, Bear, Austin, Shelby, Joe, Ashley, Alexia, Monica [happy belated b-day], and Mike)  We drove home that night.  It was nice to be back home!

While Dennis was gone we got a lot of cleaning done.  We also went to the Lucas County Fair and to the zoo.