Visit with Friends

Well, I've been slacking on this again but I figured I better get this post out there because Thursday we leave for Disney (yeah!!!!) and I'm gonna have that post hanging over my head when I get back.

We have some friends who are very dear to us that live out in Colorado. We don't get to see them very often so we were SOOO excited when they came to visit us! They flew into O'Hare on the 9th and the kids and I went to pick them up at the airport. They have a new baby girl, Erin Angie :), who I had only seen once which was right after she was born. She's going through a bit of stranger anxiety and I was wondering if she would remember me or let me hold her. Well..... she did!! She is the cutest little red headed girl you'll ever see! My dad said it best when he said "God spent a little extra time on this one."

See, she likes me!

She even let me take a few pictures of her before the mosquitos attacked

They were only able to stay with us one night at the beginning of their trip because they had to get up to Michigan to visit family but on Wednesday they came back to us for a few nights and we got to have lots of fun play wii, friends trivia and eating carmel bugles and other various junk food. We had originally talked about doing a few other fun activities but we decided that just relaxing and enjoying each other's company was the best.

Emma had fun playing games with Erin

and getting to help feed her

"wow, something I'm actually supposed to pound on and make noise?!?!"She thought maybe she'd sneak in Emma's new suitcase and go to Disney with usJackson is hilarious to watch play soccer on the wii. He moves his head like the balls are actually hitting him.Erin tried her hand at the ski jump. I think she helped her daddy get one of his best scores!Just hanging out on PJ dayJenni and my friend Dawn both have little ones around the same age. They met each other through my facebook and became friends. We had she and Alex over so they could actually meet in person. It was neat!
Dave is in ministry so it is hard for him to get away especially right now because their senior minister is gone and they are in the process of finding a new one but since they already had this trip planned it was fine. We've all been friends for about seven years and a lot of that we have lived apart which has been hard but ok because we love our cell phones :) Jenni and I used to have lunch together and have prayer time on Tuesdays when we both lived in Michigan and that time was so special to us and helped us grow so we decided since both of us had a pretty eventful and trying year we should take some time again. It was so great!

Uncle Dave helped with bed time bible stories

Aunt Jenni helped Emma read her own!

I'm so grateful to them for coming out here and am very much looking forward to getting back out to those beautiful mountains again next summer!

My baby is SIX!!!

Well, I made the post below real quick because I was just too excited and had to get it out as soon as possible. Now that I have a few minutes free I thought I would tell you about the rest of her birthday.

She woke up first thing and was soo excited! I decided to give her one gift in the morning and that was a new Sleeping Beauty t-shirt to wear to school (and too Disney!!). This was my first time ever not getting to spend most of her birthday with her because she had school. It was really sad to think about. Her teacher spent more time with her on her birthday than me :( I'll cry that one out later........ anyway.... She got a fun idea from her Grandma Mary about a snack to bring to school so Daddy and I were up late putting together airplanes made out of tootsie rolls, air heads, and life savers. They were a big hit with the kids in her class. I'm sure the teacher apprecitated me getting the kids all "sugared" up!!
When she got home from school we read some birthday books and I put the finishing touches on her cake. It was quite a feat but I think it turned out pretty good!. When Jack got home he got changed then we picked up Great Grandma Hamstra from the nursing home and then Emma's friend Karissa and we met Grandma Mary, Papa Tom, Grandma Kathy, Papa Roger, Grandma Bierma and Grandma GG at Wheatfield lanes for bowling and pizza. Emma was so excited to get to bring a friend and they seemed to have a great time together. They even tied scores!! I LOVE it that Emma is getting to share these special birthdays with her grandparents and great-grandparents. They all seemed to have a lot of fun watching the kids try to bowl.
We got back to our house and Emma opened her presents. I have been waiting for six months to be able to share the excitement of this trip with her. You'll have to check out the videos to catch all that action! Our trip is planned for Oct 30-Nov 3 and we are going to do so many fun things! Can't wait to blog about it :)

Time for cake!! Emma got a Belle costume and accessories from her Grandmas Mary & Kathy so she matched her cake!!
Emma has been such a blessing to me. God uses her in such neat ways to teach me. I was going to try to explain that but I just don't think it is possible. I'm so blessed.

Emma's New Born Picture

Emma's Kindergarten Picture

How time flies!! Cherish it!

Emma's Birthday surprise

This is the video we showed her.

This was her watching it. I thought I would include the video so you could see it better.

We're going to Disney World!!!!!

The Last Camping Hoorah for 2008

We took our pop-up up to the Dunes State Park in Chesterton for one last camping trip for this year. We had a lot of fun!

One of the things I was excited about was cooking. I hadn't made any new camping recipes for a few years and I figured since we'll probably be camping a lot more now I should try to mix it up and not only make our favorite pizza pudgie pies. My friend Dawn gave me this recipe for a great breakfast and it really turned out good! You take a sausage patty and put it on tin foil. You make a nest of hash browns on top of it then crack an egg in the middle of the nest. You top it with some salt and pepper and then fold it up into a pouch and heat it on the fire for about 30 minutes. I was a little scared of the eggs not being done enough for me but they were really good!!! Check it out!

Before

After

The park there was all redone last year so it is really nice. They also had a lot of organized activities at the nature center. We took the kids on a "swamp adventure" and they got to use nets to find different living things in the marshy area. One fun fact we learned was that the Dunes is the #3 park for having the most number of different plants and animals in the US. The other two are the Grand Canyon and the Smokey Mountain National parks. Hard to believe that's right by our house!! Anyway, check out some of the pictures from the swamp adventure below.

Ready to go!

Hiking the trail

Let's see what we can find!

We only found snails but they were still neat because they would start coming out of their shells!

Emma even touched a snake!!

Sunday morning we decided to try a long hike with the kids just to see how they would do. We were amazed at how well they did. Jackson of course got a bit tired during the second leg of the hike where it was all sand but we expected that. I was tired and he's only three! One of the things that we enjoyed the most was the beautiful views. At one point Jack said he thought if someone blind folded him and dropped in in that spot he would've sworn he was in Tennessee. It really was beautiful.

Scenery

Checking out where to go next

That's a long way down!!!

Yay!! We made it to the beach! (some of these we from driving over to the beach the day before. Notice the wardrobe change)

Going up the dunes wasn't so much fun but coming down was!!

Jack left Emma in the dust :(

Jackson's body went a little faster than his feet!

The parking lot had a huge restricted area where it caved in from the lake rising from all the rain. It was unbelieveable!

We are definitely glad that we bought the pop-up. It was such a fun cheap way to get away for the weekend. We're already trying to check out places to go next summer!

One more week!

One more week until I will be heading up to O'Hare to pick up three of my best friends, Dave, Jenni & Erin!!!! Last time I saw them was a little over seven months ago and this is what they looked like.
I can't wait to see that baby girl in person to see how much she's grown and hug my Dave & Jenni!