Sunday Afternoon

Last weekend we headed up north to celebrate my brother Arend"s 40th birthday.  Hip hip hoorah!  And because (as I stated  last post)  I'm not so quick with the camera, I didn't get his photo :(  So here's a not so recent one... he hasn't changed too much!  

And I had to share our snapshots from Sunday afternoon:

A Summer in Rewind

  So I can't believe the summer is past and September is nearly halfway gone.  If time keeps flying like it is, I'll be an old lady before I know it!!  But now, here I am, trying to recall some of the highlights to share with all of you.  Please do enjoy :)  And to so many of you with whom we spent time, I'm sorry I don't have a photo.  I do wish I was a bit more of a shutterbug... but we all have our talents, oui?

So, to start off, we had our good friends, Chad and Janine, come to visit along with their son Cole.  Janine and I went to school and church together when I lived in Ontario, and have continued to keep in touch.  It was great to have them out!!  We enjoyed great food and interesting estate sales :)

Then my brother and his family came to visit for a week of fun in the sun and in the stores :)  Jerry and John took the boys and Janelle to best buy and they were great; they just watched TV! (picture left)

The boys were silly.

 Then my parents came to visit.

My gourds grew.  They actually grew from the old gourds I had thrown out last year.  Unfortunately, they kinda took over so I had to rip them out.  But now I've got a tonne of decorative gourds!

         

 Then we received news that Jerry's Grandmother had passed on into glory.  So we packed up our bags and headed for California.  It was wonderful to see all the family again, even amid the circumstances.  Praise the Lord that our hope is in Him, or the visit could have been far different.  On the last day before we were to leave, we took a trip up with Oma to Mills Creek, up in the mountains.  Jerry used to camp here with his family when he was young, so it brought back many good memories.  It was beautiful!!  Perhaps we ought to camp there ourselves someday ;) 

 Peter stood!

We tried to go to tractor pulls at the Will County Fair, but  the noise
was too much for Peter, and the boys were a bit of a handful for Jerry.
So, we only got to see a few, but we will make better plans for next year;
babysitter!!

Oh, and Jerry got a hat :)  He took a trip, compliments of ComEd, to help put the power back on in Baltimore, Maryland after Hurricane Irene moved through.