The Remnant

So, those of us that didn't get to go to Cousin's Camp with Grammy (I'm still fuming) decided to have some of our own fun. We couldn't go too far during the week because we had swimming lessons in Williamsport and VBS at church, but it was all good. :)

I made some of Jenna's and Claire's food requests, and they took turns sleeping in Katie's room, and we had one of Jenna's friends over, and we met one of Claire's friends at a restaurant. Plus, Grandma was here Mon pm thru Tues pm. She took us all to breakfast at Waffle House (crammed in one booth, but it was fun :), took Claire to swimming lessons, took Jenna and Claire to a movie, and then took them to the pool in Williamsport.

On Sat, we went to Little Buffalo State Park in PA-- great way to spend a very hot day. HUGE pool, but it also got quite full with TONS of people. Sure wish I had a way of counting how many. Jenna and Claire's main entertainment was jumping into the pool from the side, and after a while the pool was almost too full to do that.

Swimming lessons-- Claire's really enjoying them! We actually have one more tomorrow, and she will be disappointed that they are over. I think we will probably have to make sure she gets lessons again next year, but she sure has progressed a lot! She was nervous the first day, but has very much enjoyed being with other kids and swimming, etc. Weather has been great for swimming. Not so great for the people who have to watch her, but at least they have let us sit in the shade of the building this year.

cousins week at grammys

hi this is kt speaking :x
while the rest of the family went on home after camping at Hartwick pines on saturday, i went with papa and grammy to their house (about 5 hrs away). next morning i went to uncle mike and auntie liz's church with them, stayed all day there, and went to p.m. church with them. papa and grammy picked me up after dinner.
next morning on monday aunt emily brought natalie to the house. soon after we went to mocha and music and discussed the plans for the week. went shopping for groceries (terribly exciting) :) then went to Boden's 5th bday party. we helped set up. there was a tarp-waterslide thing its was pretty fun.
tuesday we went with auntie liz and the twins to the mall. we walked around a little and went on the carousel. caleb pretty much clung to mommy the whole time :) we bought new tops for this evening. after that we drove to the rainbow grill and ate lunch. we went home for a little bit and then went to a pedicure at the Hair Extraordinaire at 2. then we went to have a photo shoot done by auntie liz in zeeland beside a bunch of old buildings. cool setting :)
wednesday we started driving in the morning, went to the farm show thing with a bunch of displays of dirt and stuff (which was so exciting i could cry) :) and then drove around Michigan state university, then to great-grandma T's. she decided we should eat at the Eaton Place. after dinner we went to the Jungel's cottage. we went swimming right away. so HOT. :P the water was warm too... we took a boat ride, i drove for a few mins, uncle terry pushed us off the side of the boat into 60 ft water. we watched narnia in our room in the basement.
thursday we swam a little while in the morning and fed the fish and turtles. we drove home and hung out at the house a long time. we were scrapbooking for much of the time. auntie liz, uncle mike, caleb, logan, aunt leaanne, boden, and heidi came over to the house for supper. afterwards we went to the village dipper for ice cream. heidi got a napkin stuck up her nose.
friday natalie and i rolled coins for a loooong time, ate lunch, went to Hope theatre for a play, I Remember Mama. really good- it went along with the one book grammy gave us on monday called Mama's Bank Account.
saturday uncle mike s. picked us up while papa and grammy were at a wedding reception. he drove us to natalies house, stayed till about 7 or so. i was picked up and left their house then, started the drive to PA. we slept in a service plaza overnight, breakfast at Panera.
soooo fun to get away for a week. thanks again, grammy!!!!
ktdid

MI-- Saturday

This past weekend was Woodshaving Days at Hartwick Pines SP (where we were camped), so we checked out the exhibit area before we headed home. Really fantastic learning experience for all of us!

Here they had an old sawmill working so we could watch them cut a log into boards.









Maybe this was Micah's favorite part of the day-- watching the little conveyor thing remove sawdust from under the large circular blade.










There were many different people showcasing their crafts (mostly wood-related). Many were fascinating and we asked lots of questions. Here we watched a woman spin wool (from her own sheep) into yarn. The wool was pink, so Dad asked if she had pink sheep. She very quickly answered, "Yes, we feed them Kool-aid." : )








Here was a man making duck decoys. I've never known much (anything?) about duck hunting. He said when he goes duck hunting, he takes 75-100 of those decoys to set out. Yikes! That would be a truckful.

We also saw a woman woodburning, we saw blacksmiths, and talked to a woman who carves ostrich eggs!







This woman tats-- I was right away interested because I knew Gma Book used to tat. She only did edges around hankies and towels, but this woman made all sorts of different things.












Micah made a friend












Claire's favorite part of the day-- actually DOING something instead of just watching. She got to carve a design on a yoyo they let her keep.

Katie and Jenna both enjoyed decorating small wooden tops on a woodturner. When we got home, we tried out those tops, and they REALLY work well!

Here are Chad and Jenna working on a yoyo.

Micah found a train to play with in the logging museum.

Claire took this pic. :)


After this, we headed home, without Katie. She and Natalie are with Grammy for a week, doing Grammy Camp, I guess they called it. I really don't know what all they are going to do this week, but when I called a little bit ago, they were getting pedicures. Without Katie in the car, it sure was a quiet ride home. Not that Katie is very noisy! Jenna moved up to a middle seat by Micah, and Claire was extremely quiet enjoying her aloneness in the backseat.

MI-- Friday

Ferry ride over to Mackinac Island (see the Bridge in the background?). I think Katie and Jenna were excited about this, but Claire was quite nervous. That morning, she told me she didn't want to go on the boat ride because it might sink. I said, "Oh, honey, they've been doing this for many years and no one has ever sunk." So she said, "Well, then, maybe they've been doing it so many years that now it's old and it will sink." :) However, once we got started, she loved the ferry ride and would have gladly done it more than the two times we did.



The Star Line boats we were on were hydro-jets. Claire esp liked the "rooster tail" that shot up out of the back.













Chad and I were here on our honeymoon- it was fun to take our kids to see it now.















We rented 2 single bikes and a tandem so Dad, Chad, Katie, and Jenna could take a ride. They did around 7-8 miles. Mom and I did a little walking around and exploring with the little kids. Someday we'll return and rent bikes for the whole family!


























They saw lots of inukshuks (did I spell it correctly, mom?)












Katie and Jenna











Return trip on ferry. Now Claire was brave enough to sit on the edge.

Small lighthouse near ferry landing. The water was such a pretty blue.

Oh! That reminds me-- Dad told the kids when we were crossing the bridge that Lake Huron was on one side and Lake Michigan was on the other; and that there was a white line separating the two. Of course, when we crossed the bridge, the line was underneath, so we couldn't actually see it. :)

Back at our campsite. Chad and Katie, Jenna, Micah slept in the tent. Claire and I slept in Papa and Grammy's camper with them. Because of my back, I can't sleep on the ground, and Claire has yet to make it thru a night sleeping in a tent. We figured it would go better this way, and it did-- Kids all slept great! Thank you, Papa and Grammy.

Chipmunk at our campsite



We were right next to the playground, and that worked out great also.

My brother Mike and his family, and Emily's sister's family, were camping there also. We had a big campfire together on Friday evening. Chad had brought along a matchbox car to add to the fire. :) Not sure if you can see it here-- it's looking pretty black.

We also made smores and mom helped us make broomstick biscuits, I think they were called. Crescent rolls (from tube) on a broomstick, cook over fire, and shake in cinnamon sugar. Mmmm!

MI-- Thursday

On Thursday morning, we left to head up north, caravanning with my parents. We started up along Lake Michigan, this is a lookout near Arcadia.













Sleeping Bear Dunes-- this our BEFORE pic in front of the face of the Dune Climb.












Micah climbed just as far as the rest of us! He kept plugging away. It took probably 3-4 min to climb the first part, but then we went a little ways beyond that-- far enough to see just a glimpse of Lake Michigan.
























That's Katie and Jenna, way up there.


























I think that's Glen Lake behind Chad.















Heading down!

Our AFTER pic

We set up our camp in Hartwick Pines State Park and then went to tour Grayling. If you've never been up there, you probably won't want to tour Grayling. :) However, it's where I was born! So mom and dad took us around to show us all the old haunts. This is now a retirement home of some sort, but it was the church we went to when I was a baby. You can still see where the cross was in the bricks.

This is where we lived, except now it's a newer mobile home. The concrete pads Dad poured are still there, and also the garage he built (behind the trailer).

My parents moved there when mom was pregnant with me, and we moved to the farm when I was 17 months old.

They tell me it was a pretty nice place to live back then, but now it's pretty run down. Nice sign, huh?

The hospital where I was born

MI-- Wednesday

In the morning, we took Micah to my sister's house to get his picture taken. While he was hamming it up for the photographer, the girls played with Caleb and Logan in the house. They are adorable and so much fun.


Logan











Caleb












Then we went to visit my Grandpa Steenwyk. His body and his mind seem so slow (he got lost looking for his sister's room down the next hallway) but he still plays mouth organ so well! Fun to hear him play with ease, and still so much pep.







We stopped in to see where Mike Krol works at a celery farm. It was really neat to see the new packing shed he manages-- fun to see how efficiently it's all laid out. Micah's favorite part was watching this gutter cleaner on the left-- it was loading the celery trash (what was that Dutch word they used, pritz?) into wagons. Micah just was fascinated with watching that thing run.

And Mike sent back some celery for Grammy, which she was pleased about. Really, on the whole, it would be a lot better for me to work here with Mike than it would be to work for Aunt Kathy in her bakery, but I sure would enjoy the bakery more. :) I'm just not a big celery fan.

Katie with Caleb

MI-- Tuesday

Natalie, with a great look on her face. :)

Heidi

Tuesday Chad borrowed a bike and went for a 60-mile bike ride. Thus, we have very few pics from that day. I just always forget to use a camera. Mom and I took the kids to the park. We met Liz and her kids, Lea Anne and her kids there. Meant to play a while, but it was very hot; so we didn't last very long. So we went to McD's for lunch, and Emily and her kids met us there. In the afternoon, I took our 4 over to Emily's for the afternoon. Micah took a nap in Nathan's bed, and was VERY excited to sleep in a bed with cars/trucks/machinery on the covers. The girls swam and jumped on the tramp with their kids all afternoon.

Tuesday evening, all the adults went out to a restaurant in Holland-- had lots of fun. And, thanks, Dad, for sacrificing to pay for our meals! He thinks we all think we snookered him into paying for us, but we know he wanted to do it. We've got him all figured out. He's just glad this only happens once or twice a year.