Move to Maple, Summer winding down

A lot has happened since July.

First things first, a very belated announcement that I am indeed expecting baby #3. Due in February. We are all excited.  

My mom came out to visit and help us prep for our move.  We took the kids to the splash park one day. 

They love just wandering up and down the "waterfall"

Pool time back home

The kids love going to the barn on campus. 

We went back on duty for the last time at Pine. Though, it won't really be our last time, since we will be filling in here and there while we are waiting to open Maple. 

The kids of course got in to trouble

I took the girl residents to the pool again on afternoon. The kiddos were happy to play in the pool again. 

And then moving began.  We took load after load of stuff to Maple house.  Moving only a mile away is definitely easier than a 5 hour move.  However, we were not as organized packing, so that made it a way more messy and drawn out ordeal. 

first picnic, on a box, at Maple 

he loves climbing trees

empty closets make for perfect hiding spaces

silly girl... pjs, socks, and flip flops

And, our furniture was officially moved.

The only mishap was our box spring flew off during the drive.  It was salvageable, just a bit dirty. 

These kids. They love peeing outside. 

Which is so fun now that we are on campus.

And then, Nathan and I celebrated 7 years!  We left the kids with my parents at Rita and Loren's and went out to eat. We had a gift card to Baker Street. It was fantastic. Maybe a little more fancy than we normally go, but boy was it good. 

Crab dip appetizer... 

fillet medallions... so stinkin' good.

:) look at us. We haven't changed a bit in 7 years...ha. 

One evening we went to an escape room with Pine House. It was a lot of fun. We raced the guys. They won. But we escaped too, so it was all good. 

the nice things about masks is I don't have to edit the pictures to share them

Once I finally got our apartment put together and cleaned I took pictures:

Nathan's family came out to visit for a long weekend. Since we don't have residents, we were able to keep them all at Maple house.

a walking tour of campus

trip to the local "dead zoo" 

coffee

games

We went swimming while the guys went kayaking

a hike at Metea Park

reading books with Grandpa and Grandma

Our main duties since our move have been extra grocery shopping, helping out the houses, cooking meals for the houses, and keeping up with other maintenance tasks. 

Gideon and Aurelia helped me bake cookies one night. They had so much fun. I tried very hard to not be stressed. 

:)

Bodi ...

who knows what these two are up to

more swimming :)

We took a day trip to the Indiana Dunes for a getaway. It was a beautiful day at the beach. 

They kids loved swimming even though the waves made them a little nervous. 

They wanted to climb a dune so we had to go with them...

cheese balls :)

It was such a great day. 

finally got sand for our sandbox! 

 a very friendly local kitty likes to stop by

The kids love him

any time I get coffee...

We've gotten to swim at the Klop's pool a few more times.  It's so perfect with the shallow end. 

These kids like to pretend they are exercising... I should probably actually exercise more.

playing in the play house:)

The kids are living it up this summer. They play non stop all day. They have some pretty rough moments but boy do they have fun. Nathan and I are trying to keep up with all of our new responsibilities. Hopefully things will calm down a bit after we catch up. 

I love summer and I'm sad we are reaching the end of it. I'm hoping for a crisp, mild fall with plenty of time to play outside.

In Christ

~Michelle

...Two months later...

Well... nearly two months later, here I am, still alive. 

So where have we been? What have we been doing? We've been really busy. We were on duty more in June and July than usual. Plus throw in a vacation and a trip to Illinois. 

So a quick picture recap of June:

we went kayaking with Pine house

House Parent kids really know how to live the good life

boys in a hay field

Pine house cookout

the barn with residents

We only had a few days off duty before we went to Wyss Vacation. The nice thing was, it was at Rita and Loren's so we didn't have to go far. 

swimming :)

cousins!

One evening Rita's Amish friend let us all take buggy rides. 

a tiny buggy :)

Evening kayaking on the St. Joe

a tour of a chocolate factory

Nathan's Father's Day gift

:)

  

One of our resident's had a birthday. He requested a chocolate mocha cake. I had fun. 

I mean....

swimming at Pine House

 June went so fast.  We tried to enjoy as much of it as we could. 

A quick July recap:

 We took our first post-quarantine trip out to Illinois. 

We were able to hit up Faire coffee!!!

swimming at the farm :)

Cousins = fun and chaos :)

 We visited Grandpa and Grandma and Pearline too. 

Waiting for a combine ride...

this picture looks cute but the real story:

They had lined up to ride the combine and these two kept inching forward to be first...

:)

harvesting the wheat

:)

all the Wyss cousins

racing

on your marks, get set...

Go!

Church in Washington in the tent

And then we went out to the Braker's

feeding the goats

milking the goats

visiting the gardens Emily works at 

feeding the goats, day 2

And then we drove back to Indiana and went on duty that night. 

light saber fight with a resident. :)

they have no idea what they are doing

painting during the residents' quiet time

back home for a few days...

a visit to the splash park

 After a short 3 days off, we went on double duty at Oak house for 5 days.  It was a new experience to be on at Oak. It's a teen mom house so it came with some interesting challenges. 

Campus has been very tense/crazy lately. A house parent couple has COVID and are in quarantine, making staffing very slim. We've gotten a lot of new residents who are causing issues, and that plus the usual craziness that comes with the job, things have been harder than usual. 

My mom came out our last day on at Oak and took the kids to Rita's. We've had two days off and she's been helping us start the packing and moving process. Because, in 10 days we are moving to Maple house to hopefully open it again and be leads there. 

That's been our lives for the past two months. Full. Busy. Fun. Stressful. All of the above. 

In Christ
~Michelle