CAMPING - The Channel

Who would of thought....SURELY not anyone who knows our family well....We are trying out camping this summer...FOUR times, YES JR is going camping with us...FOUR times!! Here are some pics of the first adventure, I think its obvious we had a WONDERFUL time, the whole family including our cousin Brandon and Maximus. We met up with three other families, the Whitakers, Smiths and Plumers all of who also have small children, they all played and had hours of good fun which included lots of the dreaded....DIRTY FEET!!! Thanks to our VanHees cousins we were able to stay in a camper, we are grateful for their generosity. This is what summers are made for, looking forward to Benzie Michigan camping this weekendwith our small group from church, yet again borrowing a camper. Then a traverse city trip in a "rustic cabin" and a fall adventure to Pioneer Park with 15 other families...what great friends we have, perhaps someday we will purchase our own camper, that is if I can ever convince JR:-)

Swimming Lessons

Brady and Colton did swimming lessons for the first time this year. They were the youngest in the class, but they did a nice job for three years old! They blew bubbles in the water, practiced back float and front float flutter kick. We swam in a friends pool last weekend and they were jumping in the deep end without us, with back pack float on of course, but they were little fish it was great to see.

Seaway RUN 5K

Seaway Run 2009
Added by Ken Stevens on June 27, 2009 at 1:17 PM
Vickie Swanson, 31, of Muskegon, rests in the shade and talks to sons Brady Swanson, 3, left, Colton Swanson, 3, and husband James Swanson, right, after completing the the 5K run during the 28th Annual Chronicle Seaway Run on Saturday morning

About 5 weeks ago I decided to train for a 5 K (3.1 mile) race. When I first started Leah and I went for a "run" (well if you want to call it that) .... jog .5 mile, walk .5 mile, try to jog another! It was awful and I realized what a heart attack waiting to happen I was!!! Thank you Leah for showing me this:-) I needed some real motivation other than my cardiac health, so I roped Jarred in, I know I did not want to let him down, once he was committed I was in 100%. My friend Danielle Bennett was also tossing around the idea of running the seaway so together we called, or facebooked each other at least 3-4 times a week to encourage each other to keep going, so thanks Danielle for more motivation! I am so proud of her for pushing her self to her physical limit as well. For some a 5k might not seem like a big deal, but this was for sure the biggest physical challenge I have ever pushed myself to do especially with what was to come....tendonitis...yuck! The 3rd week I was up to 4 miles, too many miles plus not enough rest plus extremely loose tendons EQUALS tendinitis...very bad tendinitis. After a trip to the Urgent Care I took three days off 7 days before the race, took way too many mortin, bought a brace, a shoe insert and RAN THE RACE! Along with Jarred and Danielle we all crossed the finish line. JR told Jarred numerous times how tough it would be to get an award (in the top ten)...well Jarred loves to prove him wrong and HE DID. Jarred placed 7th in his age group over 900 runners ran in the Seaway. Jarred came in just over 23 minutes, I was just over 28 minutes and 28th out of 60 in my group, my initial goal was under 30 minutes and then when the tendinitis hit I was really worried but in the end it worked out. Now from here if I can get my ankle fixed I am looking forward to more races especially with my awesome running friends, Jenni, Danielle, Leah, Shannan, Kristia and Jarred. I dont know if the future races will live up to the Seaway, its such a big race and an AWESOME experience!!

Following in his footsteps....

Brady, Brayton, and Colton in the locker room!!! 3 years old and in the big boy locker rooms!!!

Colton talking to Brayton. Colton in number 42

Jarred giving Colton instructions...

Brady is 43 - skating around doing his own thing, he is fast and crazy out there!!

Like brother like brother, I guess! Following along in Jarred's footsteps Colton and Brady have been learning to hockey skate (as they call it!) We haven't decided yet if the fall season will bring more skating lessons or real hockey, Brady is ready for hockey but Colton is not so fast just yet! But they have also been taking swimming lessons and Colton is the faster fish, its so fun to see each of them find their own little nitch!

The joys of Summer

Getting back on the boat has been WONDERFUL!!!

The little guys enjoy it more than ever this year.

Two buddies - they are ALWAYS hanging out together no matter where they are or what they do, its so darn cute

T-ball!!! Colton is not sure what the heck to do...obviously

Celebrate!

Grandpa and his buddies

Grandma and her men

When your in your 80's the 3 year old lung capacity can be helpful!!!

How many kids are lucky enough to wrestle around with their GREAT Grandpa???

BonVoyage Dance

The Family before the dance

Jarred and Mal at Chili's

Jarred and his friends at Mallory's house

Jarred and Mallory before the dance...too cute!!

Yesterday was the 8th grade BonVoyage Dance. I just CANNOT believe Jarred is done with middle school. I keep saying it over and over again thinking it might get easier...it doesnt! His date was Mallory Schouten, a real nice girl. They had such a nice time Jarred has mentioned a couple times it was better than he expected. After the dance we went to an "after party" at the Boyds, which I, of course, accompanied him too! The parents and kids all had a real nice time.

Memorial Weekend

Cookout at the Conrads....the boys love to swing

Lakeside Memorial Day Parade....the boys partied until they fell asleep!!

Memorial Day

Picnic at the Anderson's

Two of a kind (Brayton and Brady)..this was right before the punching match!

Connor is adorable.

The boys love Cullen....they follow him everywhere.

What a week!

This week we have been at the Doctors or hospital just about everyday! Colton is recovering from his surgery, then Jarred had an issue which is an on going process trying to get that figured out and then to top it off Colton's eye swelled shut from his allergies, it has been three days now...this morning it is still very swollen, red and itchy....I guess its Brady's turn any day now:-)

Prom

Kristia and I went to the prom last night and left the boys at home with the Dad's! This picture of Brady and Jaxson was taken around 9:30 when we got home....I think they had a good time...maybe too much of a good time:-) Jaxson and Brady have so much fun together, they can get into a lot of trouble in about 2 minutes, Colton is behind the scenes quietly creeping around!! At one point Jaxson and Brady were two houses down running around in someone else's yard, we did not even know they left the yard, Colton's little jeep ran out of power so he persuaded Jaxson to make a "trade" for the one that worked! Poor Jaxson got in Colton's jeep and it was completely dead, Oh boy what are we in for??