Bowers Family Get Together

On Sunday July 18th we had a family get together at Aunt Debbie and Uncle Carl's house. This was the second of three get together's that are planned for this summer. It's always fun to go there and hang out with the extended family. Aunt Meme & Hayden hanging out on the boat.
This is probably my most favorite picture of John and Shenira that I've ever taken.

Classic picture of Aunt Debbie. Be careful what you let me take a picture of because you never know where it will end up!

I had to get some pictures of Shenira in front of Aunt Debbie's Hydrangea's they were so pretty.

Casey & KatiBeth

Swimming Fun

We are enjoying our pool this year. It's still only 72 degrees so it make it VERY refreshing! Here are a few shot from a couple of weeks ago. This is a graduation bulletin picture that will be used for Dustin someday! I love it when I get shots like these!
Tony "Superman" Fuller

Dustin still has the dilution that he can throw his dad into the pool. He is getting close but I don't think it's going to happen this year!

Jordon "Mr. King of the raft" & Dustin horsing around.

John Ball Zoo Trip

On Saturday July 17th John and I took four of the kids to John Ball Zoo. We had lots of fun and were able to see lots of cool animals and even touch a few!Shortly after getting into the gates Gabe saw this Bunny and had to get his picture taken with it. John and the kids enjoying the coolness of the aquarium.

They had this HUGE bird cage that you could go into and feed the birds. I let Daddy do that with them. I knew that if I went in I would for sure get pooped on. That's just my luck. I love this picture of Shenira feeding the birds.

Gabe & Mommy taking a little time out for a photo shoot. I can't believe how big he is getting.

For $1.00 you could go in and pet the sing rays this was really cool. Gabe wanted to do it so bad but was a little afraid after standing there for a pretty long time he finally did get to touch one. His sister on the other hand had no fear what so ever and loved every minute of it.

After the zoo we stopped for a Mexican lunch in Grand Rapids. It was so nice to have so much time to spend with the kids. Even the older kids were good about going to a trip to the zoo as some of them are a little past the "I want to go to the zoo" age.

Dustin, Shenira and Jordon chillin' at the restaurant.
Me with my wonderful husband that takes me to all the zoo's I can get my hands on. Gabe loves to go but I'm pretty sure I still love it more. I don't know what it is about zoo's but I LOVE THEM!

Saying Goodbye for Now

On Saturday July 10th we had the privilege of watching an amazing icon in our life pass from this life and move onto a life with Jesus where all of her pain is now gone and where she has now been reunited with many loved ones that have gone before her especially her twin sister. Even though saying goodbye to her was one of the hardest things we have ever had to do, there was great comfort in knowing that she is in a much better place and that we too will see her again in that place...Heaven. John's grandmother was a person who touched every one's life that she came in contact with. We all understood how wonderful she was but it was even more evident just how great she was after watching and talking with so many of her friends & family during the visitation and after the funeral. There is no doubt that she is going to be missed more than ever but we know that missing her will only be for a short time and not forever.As a special request from Grandma before she passed away she asked that all of he Grandson & Great Grandson be her pallbearers. Which is exactly what happened as an added tribute to her her Great Granddaughter followed behind with boys and helped as well. This was such a moving sight and even if they all don't know what this meant someday they will understand just how much it meant to GG.Here service was wonderful just like her. So many stories and memories that we can't wait to continue to share with those still to come.

After her service we all went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house to swim as her pool full of grand kids was one of her favorite things. There were lots of memories that came with swimming in this pool and lots of kids that learned how to swim thanks to her in this very pool. Once we were done swimming we went back to the cemetery to plant flowers around her stone as she loved to garden and loved flowers. It looked so nice when they were all done and it as a great way to end the day.


Cynthia Lenore Fuller

AKA: Mom, Grandma, Grandma GG, Lenore, Aunt Lenore & many more!!!

November 11, 1928

July 10, 2010

Happy 4th of July

How many things can one family do in Holiday weekend. Hang on your about to find out!!!

July 2nd started off our weekend. After taking our camper out to the camp ground and getting it set up we headed to Battle Creek to see our friends The Moody's. Kristi made a wonderful meal for us and then we were off to see the Hot Air Balloon launch. After watching them launch the boys asked if we could "chase" them. John being the good daddy that he is was totally up for the challenge.The boys lucked out and we were actually able to see one land and watch them pack it up. The pilot of the balloon was so nice. The boys had books with all of the balloons in them and he signed each one of their books and also gave them a card with all of the balloons information. The Balloon landed in a yard that also had horses which I think Gabe was even more excited about. He loves horses and couldn't get enough of petting them. After dropping Kristi & the boys off John, Gabe & I headed across the street from the airport so that we could watch the pilots light their balloons up at night. We weren't able to stay as long as we would have likes as we ended up having a little 5 year old that had to go potty!

On July 3rd Nana, Hayden & Harrison joined Gabe & I at the campground (John had to work all weekend) to spend the rest of the weekend with us. This day was jammed pack with tons of fun stuff to do.1st we went to the Craft barn and picked out little ceramic items to paint. I got a turtle, Gabe got Bert & Ernie for himself & a little turtle that he painted to take to Grandma GG in the hospital, Hayden & Harrison both got Dragons & Nana got a bird. We all had a great time painting our items. The above picture is Nana with the kids and our finished product. 2nd We took the kids to play in the bounce house & a Robo Surfer while we were waiting for our appointment time for them to do the zip line. Poor Harrison fell off the robo surfer and ended up cutting his head open but that didn't slow him down one bit. 3rd It was finally there turn to get all geared up so they could go on the Zip Line. Gabe LOVES this thing and so did the other boys. 4th after the zip line they each wanted to try there hand at the climbing wall. All of the boys did very well at this. 5th it was off to ride the ponies. There were no kids in line so they just got to keep on riding as all of these events and activities were free. I think they must have rose the ponies at least 20 times. At 4pm our 6th event of the day was Gabe getting to enter our dog Butch into a dog show contest. They got 1st place and Gabe was very excited about that. After the dog show we headed back to the camper for some dinner & waited for Papa to come up so we could go get some Ice Cream. 7th it was finally time for Ice Cream we love going to the Snack Bar for Ice Cream it's the cheapest place around Vicksburg to get Ice Cream. Nana wanted a nice picture with Gabe but as you can see he had the silly faces in him and asking him to smile nice was just not in the cards for that night! Our 8th thing of the day was to sit back and enjoy an outdoor movie. The camp does this every year and it's always one of my favorite parts of the weekend. Hayden was scared of the "bats" and didn't like it so Nana took both Hayden and Harrison back to the camper while John, Gabe & I tried to finish out the movies. Gabe fell a sleep in my arms with just a few minutes left to go but we decided that we should get him back and into bed. Thankfully one of our friends saw me trying to carry him back to our camper and stopped and gave us a ride on their golf cart.

July 4th This was a little more laid back but we still had a lot of fun things to do. We started our day off with an amazing Church service that Gabe played the bells to God Bless America too and Hayden marched with the other kids waving their American Flags through the crowd. I am always so overwhelmed during this Church service every year. I'm so grateful for the Freedom that we have and for the people that serve to give us that freedom.
After Church we had some lunch and then headed to the lake. It's not often that I get to be on this side of the camera and it was nice to have my mom with us so that I was able to be in more of the pictures this time. After swimming for a little while we brought the boys back to the camper so that we could run into town to meet Uncle John and go to my Mother & Father - In - Laws house. They also live on a lake and we thought that the boys would enjoy riding the Jet Ski & watching the fireworks that night out on the lake. We brought Butch with us and he had a blast cooling off in the lake. He was so funny and we ended up with a ton of good pictures of him. This is Harrison, Uncle John and Aunt Meme taking Harrison out for his first and only ride. He didn't care for the Jet Ski. His brother on the other hand would have stayed out there all day!We had been telling the boys that we would do S'mores while they were with us but with all of the activities we hadn't been able to get it in. John's dad was so nice and built us a fire in their back yard so that we could do S'mores after we ate dinner. Once the S'mores were done we headed down to the lake to do Sparklers. I tried to light them with a lighter but that was NOT working at all. So Daddy to the rescue went up to the house and got the hot coals and burning wood from the fire pit in the back yard and brought them down to the lake to use as a Sparkler lighter! It was quite the picture!
Finally it was dark and almost time for the fireworks. We all climbed into the boat and headed out to the middle of the lake. We were able to watch an amazing display of fireworks. Watching Fireworks over a lake is the best way ever to see them. Our little Gabriel however didn't make it past the first 15 minutes and he had made himself up a little bed and was out for the night!

July 5th Papa joined us again and we started our day off watching a 4th of July parade. After the parade Aunt Jen, Uncle Mike, Haley & Mike's brother Buddy joined us so that we could take the kids and a few of us adults on an Elephant Ride.This is a picture that I NEVER thought I'd have. This is my Mom & Dad riding Laura the Elephant with Harrison and Haley. This is the 2nd year that the Elephant has been to this event and it's the only thing that you have to pay for almost the entire weekend but $20.00 for 4 people to ride was well worth the money. Laura decided while it was our turn to ride her (Our being Gabe, Myself, Hayden & Buddy) that she was hot and thirsty. She SOAKED us. It was so fun and funny all at the same time. I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time.This is Laura posing for a picture with us on her still. When we were done with our ride they had a little water slide set up for the kids to play on so we stopped there for a little bit and then went to the Snack bar for lunch. After lunch the kids wanted to play some more on the slide so we went back for them to play and then it was time to head back to the camper to start loading up to go home.

This is the crew that camped the whole weekend. It was so nice to have my mom with us for the entire weekend and even though by the time Monday came around we were all tired and a little cranky we sure did have fun and did more things in one weekend then some people probably do in a life time!