Sights and Smells

Smell update...no resolve. The AC guy they called out did not have the tools needed to figure out the problem(they need a camera to go through these ducts!). So, we have to deal with it for 3 more days, and then it's not our problem. Very frustrating though. I can tell you we have spent a fair share of our vacation dealing with the smell, maintenance guys, phone calls, and even installing a window AC unit. I hope we see some of our rental money back!! So, onto better stuff. We've enjoyed doing all our usual Grand Haven stuff. We never tire of these sights...

Farmers Market

Toy Store(We've bought everything from frogs to kites here)

Our favorite candy store.

We had a nice little birthday celebration last night also. I'm really bad with birthdays, I cannot remember anyone's! It's a really bad trait I have. This year though, I am enjoying seeing Sofie learn about birthday cakes, candles, and presents. She's totally into it! She tries to sing along with Happy Birthday and it's so cute! It was a good year too, because hubby got me an iPad!! The other day Lexi said, "Your present is something you'll use everyday, you'll take it to Starbucks, and sometimes Adrienne will use it". I honestly though it was going to be a Starbucks gift card! When I saw the box though I thought, "Could it be?". Yup. Good job Mark!

My forever friend Nan who lives two hours away and has a life as busy as mine. So lucky we get this time in Grand Haven with her and her family.

So much more, but too late to get it all in! More Grand Haven to come...

Fun and Frustration

Normally when we come to Grand Haven we all stay in a house that my Grandma rents. With the addition of 2 kids this year, we just plain outgrew the house. So, my Grandma offered to rent a seperate condo for our family to stay in. It's just around the corner from the house, inbetween the beach and the town. Perfect! IF it didn't smell so bad...when we got here we just thought it was musty. Day 4 I can tell you FOR SURE there is something dead and decaying in the furnace/duct work. I am not an expert on that at all, but Mark is smart about this stuff. He called the owner(a well known Christian author and adoptive mom who shall remain nameless in case she fixes the problem and refunds our money to avoid me publicly shaming her) and he told her the next morning that he felt something was in the ducts. Long story short we've been arguing about it since and there has been no resolve. It is bad...very bad! Even if we leave the air off(if you know Mark you can imagine how that's going over), you can still smell it. Last night I lost my cool and after a few rants and a lot of back and forth between us/owner/maintenance guy, they have called a heating/cooling guy to come who agreed immediately that there is probably something dead in there(no kidding). They will be coming out today to clean the duct work, and I'm very confident that will do the trick. The whole situation just has me wanting to use explitives! Besides that we are having a great time. We love going to the beach, bumming around town in the evenings, getting ice cream, and shopping. Sof has been a trooper with all the late nights, skipped naps, and sitting in the stroller. Here's a little preview of what we've been up too!

Too many pictures to add all of them! I'll be back with beach pictures later! off to enjoy some sun:)
By the way, Happy Birthday to me!

Moment of Greatness

The middle girls(Lexi, Livy, and Kaitlyn) went to a birthday party today. We have friends that live near where we're vacationing. They each had a balloon and they were outside playing with them. Lexi's balloon slipped from her hand and flew away. She watched it go with disappointment. Olivia immediately let her's go and Kaitlyn followed suit. Livy looked at Lexi and said, "I made it fair for you". Moments of greatness...love it when I can witness them.

Twin Beachin' It

The school I work at is called Twin Beach Elementary, and this week a few of my teacher friends from there came up to the cottage. We had a great time, I love these gals! I don't do high maintenance company. I will serve you your first drink, have the kitchen stocked, and plan/prepare meals. The rest you're on your own! These are the kind of friends that can totally hang with that. It was insanely hot again this week which was perfect for our water fun. We stuck around our lake the first day and went to Lake Michigan the next. It was perfect. We even ended the trip with a visit to the teacher store! What else would we do?

Top left is Amy. She's my share time partner, we share a class. She's adopting from Korea! You can follow her story at Ty, Ty, Special Guy. Bottom left is Beth, the other kindergarten teacher at our school. Bottom right is Mindy, the special ed. preschool teacher.

These two became fast buddies!

Crazy hair!

Amy and her sweet daughter Libby Lu!

Lexi reading to Libby one night to pass time before dinner.

These two had sooo much fun jumping the waves. The water was perfect!

Sof was determined to carry this pail of water back and forth. This girl has determination and has to do everything HERSELF! For her help is a four letter word!

We got home yesterday, unpacked and repacked for our next adventure. This week we'll be in Grand Haven with my family. How much do you need for a week...

You know it's hot when...

...the kids ask to leave the water park. Seriously, it was so hot today the kids just didn't want to be outside anymore(I was happy to oblige!). We got in a good 2 1/2 hours of fun before that though. I took Sofie, Lexi, and her friend Mila to the water park. It's a small one with just 2 slides and a sprinkler area. Sof was timid at first, but eventually got into it. I think she was more freaked out by the kids running around than the water!

On another note, Adrienne called again tonight. She said the second day was amazing but painful. They were going out to dinner tonight and were all teenage giggles and chatter so the pain was already forgotten. I knew my baby would rise to the occasion...so proud of her! Now if I could just get her to clean her room...