Coast Guard '11

Coast Guard weekend has become an annual tradition for us. Our friends Derk and Bethany graciously (crazily?) invite a bunch of families up to her parents' house in Spring Lake for the weekend.

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We usually enjoy a fire on Friday night and then wake up for a big breakfast before we head to Grand Haven for the famous Coast Guard Grand Parade. After the parade, we head back for an afternoon of pool fun.

This year it was raining Saturday morning but we still went ahead with our parade plans. There were many moments along the way when we thought we were a little bit crazy but we did have a giant tent for the 22 of us to stand under and it did end up clearing up during the parade.

After two hours of parade-ing we had damp kids, soggy candy and some priceless memories.

The sun was peaking out by the time we got back to the house and there was plenty of time for some diving board antics (by the kids and the adults).

Our pack of kids keeps growing each year - this year there were 12 little ones ages 6 weeks to 6 years (and two more on the way!)

Thanks, D & B, for hosting another fabulous weekend!

Coast Guard '09

Last weekend we did our part and helped celebrate the Coast Guard Festival. Our friends Derk and Bethany have a tradition of opening up Bethany's parents' beautiful (and huge) home to friends that weekend every summer. We stayed Friday night along with D&B and two other families (8 kids between us all + Chad and K3...ha ha) and enjoyed a campfire that evening. Saturday morning we woke up to the smell of Derk flipping pancakes and then we went into Grand Haven to watch the Coast Guard parade - all fun until the rain started...and then it got really fun. Afterwards we took the kids back and the kiddos and the daddies swam in the downpour (no lightning...we checked) and we enjoyed dinner together before heading home. Thanks again D&B!

Our Weekend

We are finishing up one of the most relaxing long weekends I can remember in a long time. We kept things pretty simple and stayed close to home which was nice. It's fun to travel around too but not always very relaxing with two little ones.

Friday we worked in the yard and Matt spread the six yards of bark we had piled in our driveway. That evening we had our friends Katie and Ernie and Derk and Bethany (+ kids) for a grill out and a camp fire.

Saturday we took it easy again, and in the evening Matt and I had a date night to celebrate our anniversary - dinner at Rose's in East Grand Rapids.

Sunday we took the kids to John Ball Zoo, and the kids got a kick out seeing the animals, especially the tiger, monkeys, and the goats. In the evening, we took a bike ride to the new ice cream place in town, Scoop's, and we're happy to say it's a very nice 2 1/2 mile bike ride from our house. Ella enjoyed her first entire ice cream cone.


Today, we woke up early to watch Matt run in the Jenison Ambucs 5K (Chad, Yesenia, and Dad T. also ran). It was quite the feat to get the kids up and out of the house by 7:45 but we did it and the kids were excited to watch Daddy start and finish. He beat his previous time and made it in just under 22 minutes. We went straight to the Jenison parade after that and the kids caught and ate tons of candy. This was Ella's first parade and she was happy to figure out that people were throwing her candy. She quickly learned to open it and get it in her mouth really fast before Mom and Dad noticed. We went to Grandpa and Grandma A.'s for brunch and then came home and we ALL took three hours naps (heaven!). Our last activity of the weekend was Aunt Cara's 15th birthday party - more eating and playing outside for the kids.



Hope you all had wonderful holiday weekends too!