Together: The Last Day In June.

The Last Day In June.

Well June is behind us and weatherwise it was a strange one for Iowa. Many overcast and cooler days, and lots of rain. However just in the last few days we had sunny skies and temperatures in the 90's. For the 4th of July weekend we have a 4 day weekend off from work, so I took a couple extra days off to make it 6 days, and on the last day of June the kids and I headed to the beach...

Ryan takes aim with a squirt gun.

Jenna and Ryan. Ryan did better today - the last time we came here a week or so ago he hardly wanted to get in the water, but it was a colder day with colder water. Jenna just loves to go to the beach.

The crew with Lake MacBride in the background, with their weapons or floatation devices of choice at that instant.

Surfer Alex.

Leah and Benjamin. It didn't take me long to realize that if I was going to get any decent shots I was going to have to take our camera out into the water with me. It didn't stop some people from shooting me with squirt guns and splashing me (inadvertently or not). Fortunately I forseen this and brought our backup camera along instead. This way if I dropped the camera in the water and it got damaged it wouldn't be a big loss.

Alex and Jenna mix it up.

Benjamin.

Leah surfing the non-existent waves, but it sure was a great day to be in the water.

After 3+ hours of being in the water here's the crew at leaving time. A few of them weren't too happy about it and I understand because I was a kid once too, but we were all turning into wrinkled prunes, plus we had other places to go.

I love the scenery along Springville Road in the summertime. I know just a regular picture cannot do it justice, but this is just to show there wasn't a cloud in the sky - a beautiful day.

So the kids and I went to Menard's so I could pick up a few things, then we went to Culver's to eat supper. During supper Alex asked me (somewhat out-of-the-blue - he's like that sometimes) if we could go see our Uncle Ray's grave sometime. My Uncle Ray (and the children's Great Uncle) passed away earlier this year and the children all attended his funereal with us. I asked him if he wanted to go see it after we finished eating and the kids all said "yes!" I asked the older ones (from South Korea) if they remembered when I told them about how Uncle Ray fought in a war in Korea to help defend their home country from the North Koreans and Chinese around 60 years ago, and they remembered. I said we should take this opportunity to thank him again for his service to our country, and their homeland. I also mentioned that Grandpa Dick's grave was nearby and maybe we could visit it as well.

The kids at Uncle Ray's grave.

Any time they see an old cannon the want to check it out - typical kids. The old cannons are kind of cool.

Ben wanted to look down the barrel of the cannon, so I gave him a lift.

Now it's Ryan's turn to see.

Here's what they saw, but definitely not this bright.

A couple of cool trees that we saw at the cemetery, near the old cannon. I just thought they were cool so I told Leah to take a couple of pictures of them.