Family Vacation 2013----Part 3

Our family wasn't the only group gathering in Michigan that week---the Diekemas also had most of their kids with them that week. So on Tuesday,  they hosted a gathering of as many Waanders family members as they could---and I think the total attendance was nearly 75!! It was a wonderful evening---some of us hadn't seen each other for about 10 years!

It was definitely a houseful!!  People were spread out throughout the house, on the various decks, UNDER the house, and on the patio and deck of the Diekemas' "old" cottage next door.  That brought back lots of memories!

These second cousins live on opposite coasts---Bethany in Maine, and Evan in California. Bethany just LOVES little kids, and they seem to love her as well. This is the 3rd summer that our grandkids have been able to spend time playing with her.

On Wednesday we had reservations for another train ride---this time on the Coopersville-Marne Railroad. (thanks to a groupon that Cheryl found!) 

Jeremiah was VERY excited about this train ride, even though this picture doesn't show that.

Before getting on the train, Abby and Neil found a store across the street that sold all kinds of old-fashioned candy--like slo-poke suckers (my favorite!) and candy cigarettes, which she generously shared with all of us. :)

The conductor came around and talked with everyone, and here he is answering Jeremaih's questions. 

When we got off the train, Ben was there to meet us.  We had hoped that he would make it in time to go on the train ride with us, but he ran into traffic and got delayed. And the train doesn't wait!! 

Some of us had a coupon for a free donut on the back of the train ticket, so we all made a stop at the donut place for a snack.  We also hit the candy store again before heading back to the cottage.

From my blog posts so far, you really can't tell that we actually spent any time  AT the cottage.  Those pictures will be coming in the next post....hopefully soon!

Family Vacation---Part 2

 Sunday started out kind of rainy and dreary. so we just had a relaxing morning around the cottage.  In the afternoon the weather cleared up and we took a ride to check out some dams on the Muskegon River.  We stopped for ice cream at a nice little place in Newaygo.  Great ice cream---both Hudsonville Ice Cream and ice cream from the Country Dairy, the place we toured last year.

 Monday of our cottage week did not look to be a great day for playing in the water or on the beach.  And Matt had to meet with someone at Calvin that afternoon, so we all decided to head to Grand Rapids for the day.  We spent most of the day at Frederik Meijer Gardens, which is a wonderful place! 

After a short guided tour through some of  the indoor exhibits, we spent some time in the indoor play area.

The kids had lots of fun pushing the vehicles around on the roads and re-arranging all the sculptures and trees.

Then we headed outside and made our way to the fantastic children's play area.

 But on our way we stopped for a "Mad Mom" pose in front of the sculpture by that name.

A cute little girl in front of a cute little sculpture.

I think Jeremiah would have happily spent the whole day in the children's area playing in the sand. 

We took a tram ride around the whole park and learned a lot about all the different sculptures. 

After a lunch break at Panera (where we met Paul and Melissa) we took a nice walk along a pond and saw lots of frogs and turtles.  Our last stop was at the farm.

Abby gave Josie and Jeremiah a little lesson on the workings of an old-fashioned water pump.

Calvin College was our next stop, where we browsed in the Campus Store for a while.  We also relaxed on the Commons lawn and the kids played with frisbees and balls.  Just getting ready for college life----15 years down the road, or so.

On our way back to the cottage we stopped in Grant, and had dinner at the Grant Depot, a very cute little railroad-themed restaurant.

They have a box full of toy trains for the kids to play with while they wait for their food.

And there is a real train car out in front of the restaurant!

Notice he has one foot off the train, just like a real "train guy."

I couldn't get Jeremiah to just pose---he had to man the controls. :)

Stay tuned for the next installment!

Family Vacation 2013---part 1

For us, our family vacation started with a brief "teaser" visit with Matt and Cheryl's family when they flew in to Midway in Chicago.  We met them at the airport on the evening of July 18 and then spent the night at a hotel with them before they headed off to Michigan in our Honda the next morning. Best moment of the evening: when Josie caught sight of us, hopped out of the stroller and came running into my arms.  Priceless! After a 4 hour plane trip, the kids had plenty of energy, and of course they were still on CA time.  So it got to be kind of a late bedtime for them. There was much giggling, squealing and jumping on beds before they were ready to settle down.

This was probably the only time they were both sitting still enough for a picture.

Since it had been a late bedtime, no one was up real early the next morning. I think Evan was the first to wake up, so Matt brought him over to our room for a visit so that Cheryl and Josie could sleep a little longer. 

The breakfast at the hotel ended before we were ready to eat, but we found a great breakfast place not too far from the hotel. 

Evan did some texting while waiting for his food.

Josie was pretty excited about her Mickey Mouse pancake!

After breakfast Matt, Cheryl and the kids got in the Honda and headed to Michigan for their week with the Vanderkamp family. And Dad and I headed back to Brookfield in the (brand new!) Ford Escape. We were so happy that we got to spend that time with them!

The REAL family vacation started on July 26, with our drive to Michigan. We made a stop at Diekemas on our way to Fremont, and Adam, Rachel and Jeremiah were already there. Jeremiah had already found their cool toys and was having lots of fun.  We had coffee and cookies and a little time to visit, and then we drove on up to Fremont.  We stopped at Spanky's for pizza and delicious breadsticks on our way through Fremont.  Then we picked up some groceries and made our way to the cottage.

Saturday morning we drove down to Grand Rapids and went to the Sinkes, where we met up with Matt, Cheryl and the kids. The main item on the agenda:  Train rides!!  Our kids have such fond memories of riding Uncle Carl's train every time we came to Michigan when they were growing up, so it was really fun for Matt and Rachel to see their kids enjoying the same thing. Chuck was on hand to run the train and he was very generous with his time---he said that they could have as many rides as they wanted. Well, I guess if we had really taken him up on that we would have been there all day---we did have several rides, and then a delicious picnic lunch that Cora Mae had made for us, and then a few more rides.

The boys walking down to the train.

It's always fun to sit in the caboose--if you're small enough!

Yes, even Grandma got a ride. Evan actually fell asleep on this ride. 

In addition to the train itself, we also got to see the water tower that Carl and Chuck have built, as well as other projects in their workshop. And we also got to see their beautifully restored Model T. 

  And he even let the kids sit in it!

Well, I think that's it for the first installment. More to come!

July.....so far, part 2

Good-bye, Windstar....Hello, Escape!

 This mini-van has served us very well for several years.  It's a 2002 and has about 155,000 miles on it, and it's been getting some rust.  We decided that we really don't need to have such a large vehicle anymore. I think this means that we're out of the moving business--at least as far as hauling mattresses and couches is concerned. We had bought it from Marilyn after Herk passed away, so I do feel a bit sentimental about it and I kinda hated to see it go.

So we have down-sized to a 2014 Ford Escape!

 

We really went into this intending to buy one of the last 2013's, but after going through all the paper work, etc. and assurance from the salesman that there were several of them available in the area, we got the word that there were no longer any 2013's to be had in this area.  So then we went back to thinking about a used one, but after we thought about it for a while we decided to go with the 2014. We got it yesterday and took it right on the road to bring Abby back to Chicago and to visit Roger and Sheryl.  We're liking it a lot so far. It's pretty much the basic model, but it has more features on it than I know how to use.  I think I may need to take a class.  One nice feature that the 2014 has is the rear camera, which is now standard, I guess.  We also are learning how to use the blue tooth feature, and Dad plugged in his i-pod today and was telling it what to do. :)

I really like the way you sit up a little higher than you do in the Honda.  Maybe it's because we drove vans for so many years, but I like that better for driving and also for ease in getting in and out. (This is important for old people.)

Here are a couple more views...

So....that's what's new and exciting on Evergreen Court!!

July......so far, part 1

July has been a nice month so far, and we have hopes of it getting even better as we have our week at Crystal Lake to look forward to.  After a rather slow start, summer has come to Wisconsin and we've had some rather warm, humid weather. It hasn't been too unbearable, though---today is the first day that we have had the AC on, and that is more for the humidity than the heat.

We had a rather uneventful 4th of July holiday.  It's become our tradition to go downtown for the fireworks on July 3, and the display has always been awesome!  When we got down there, Lew and JoAnne and Sue, Daniel and Steven had already staked out a good spot for viewing the fireworks. Sue and the boys had come over on the Lake Express that afternoon, so they came right downtown after getting off the boat.  We had a nice time sitting around visiting while we waited for it to get dark enough for the fireworks.  I think they started at about 9:30 and for about the first 5 or 10 minutes we could enjoy the fireworks, but they did not seem to be as bright or as loud as they usually are.  As time went on, fog came rolling in off the lake and pretty much hid the fireworks from view.  For a few more minutes we could see the ones that went really high in the air, but then it was like a curtain came down and we could not see any of them.  We could hear lots of booms and could see flashes of light through the fog, but that was it.  About 20 minutes into the hour-long show, there was pretty much a mass exodus from the lake front.  We hung around for almost the whole hour, and gave the crowds a chance to thin out a bit. It was disappointing, because we always enjoy the fireworks so much.  And really a shame to think of all the money that was spent on fireworks that could not be seen. :( 

On the 4th we went to the Brookfield parade in the morning, and then to Panera for an iced coffee drink while we waited for the traffic to clear.  Then it was a quiet day at home, until evening when we went to see the Elm Grove fireworks.  We watched them from a school playground and had a great view.  The Brassers and Sue and the boys joined us there too, after being in Sheboygan for the day.

Saturday, July 6, marked 39 years of marriage for us.  I got a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, and we enjoyed dinner at Outback Steakhouse with Lew and JoAnne.

This past week-end we went to NW Iowa for my 50th high school reunion.  We drove over on Thursday, got checked in to the EconoLodge in Sioux Center, and then had dinner with the Heynen cousins. We met at the restaurant that originally was the Holland House, then Family Table, and now it's the Sioux County Livestock Company. After dinner we went across the street to Culvers for dessert. We had a really nice visit, and I was so glad that they were all able to make it.

Friday was the reunion day, and it started with coffee and a social time on Dordt's Campus.  They had arranged for several different tours/activities that you could take advantage of.  We went to see a beautiful flower garden and then went to Le Mars to Wells Blue Bunny for some ice cream. This Heath sundae was my lunch for the day. :)

We went back to Dordt after "lunch" and there was more socializing there. We headed to Hull at about 3:00 and made a stop at the Foreign Candy Company, at their brand new location.  And then it was on to Western for a tour of the school, a choir rehearsal with a group that sang at our dinner, and then we had our dinner. It was really a fun time (for me, anyway!)  I saw classmates that I hadn't seen for so many years.  We all had picture name tags with our senior picture on them---and the spouses also had the same picture on theirs so that people would know who they were with.  That was very helpful for identifying people that you didn't recognize, but many people commented that they should have been a bit bigger.  You had to get in pretty close to see the picture and read the names.  :)  We had a very good turn-out---there were just over 100 in my graduating class, 10 have passed away, and of the remaining 90 or so, there were 60 or 61 attending, along with spouses. 

Of course, when I get back to Hull it's always fun to look at the two houses that I lived in.  I thought it was kind of ironic that the "old" house looks absolutely beautiful, while the "new" house looks like it needs a make-over.  It made me kind of sad to see it.  But the "old" house has certainly been well cared for. It's probably one of the prettiest homes in Hull. From what I hear, there is a state senator living there now, Randy Feenstra.

The "old" house, which looks much nicer than I remember it. 

 

The "new" house, which definitely looked much better when we lived there.

We had one other major event, but I have to take one more picture before I can post about that.  So that will come soon.