Fruit Picking

Every year we look forward to picking fruit and going to farmer's market. We picked 15 pounds of strawberries one beautiful, cool morning last week and made 16 containers of jam. Today we picked cherries. The trees were damaged by a late frost so Robyn had to climb higher in the trees but were they ever sweet and yummy! Next will come blueberry picking but that's probably 4 weeks away.

Fishing at the Beach

The other day mom and Lily and I (Angela) went to Lake Michigan together. We went so that we could help out with the fishing outing that the nursing home was doing. It turned out that we got to fish to. It was really fun. Neither Lily or I had ever fished before, but by the end Lily was putting her own worms on the end of her hook and casting her line out. (I did not put any worms on my hook though.) Lily caught 4 different fish and yours truly did not catch even one!
Lily's first two fish were called something that started with a 'g' and her third was a sunfish and her fourth was a rock bass.

Here is Lily with her first fish.
















Here she is with her second fish













Here she is with her third fish






















Here she is with her fourth fish.

Grandma VanderMeiden

One of the important motivations for returning north every year is to be with Grandma (Mommy's mom). She lives in a nursing center because of failing health since her stroke several years ago. We are thankful that Grandma's relatives visit her, do her laundry, take her out, bring her treats while we are gone and we are glad we can give them a break in the summer. Pictured below are Mommy and her sister Rachel with Grandma and Daddy with Grandma. She seems pretty happy to see Daddy.

Lily's 10th Birthday

Thursday was Lily's birthday and we had a lot of fun. On Wednesday Mom, Dad, Robyn and I stayed up till 11:20 decorating the apartment with streamers and balloons and wrapping her presents. Then on Lily's birthday morning she went out with Dad for breakfast at 7:00. They had a french toast, sausage, bacon and eggs at Perkins. My friend Jenna and I (Angela) were in charge of games and activities for Lily's party and Mom was in charge of the food. So we worked hard to prepare for Lily's party during the morning. At eleven Lily's guests began arriving. Lily had wanted a Redwall themed birthday party so all of the activities corresponded with her theme. First she and her friends had an archery match. After that they went on the quest. The 'quest' was the activity which had taken the most time to put together. I had to write riddles and hide them across the campus and Jenna and I picked out little toys and candies to put in the treasure chest which she provided. Jenna also provided the costumes and toy swords which we carried with us. Lily and her friends loved the treasure and split up the prizes between them. Afterwards they sat down outside for the feast. Lily had asked for potato casserole, rolls, and corn on the cob. It was delicious thanks to mommy. After the feast we played games like Redwall bingo and Redwall crosswords before going back outside. Then came to carrot cake and cookie dough ice cream. It tasted really good...
After her party Lily spent about an hour filling up water balloons for a fight with dad when he got home from his meeting. There was quite a fight when Daddy finally arrived. Then Lily came inside to open her presents. She was happy to receive the new Redwall book 'Eulalia' on Audio CD. She also received several sets of the 'Christian Heroes Then and Now' books, and a ton of hair accessories and books. She did a lovely hair style in Robyn's hair with her new supplies.
Here is Lily with her presents:




















Here is the hair style which Lily did on Robyn:


Here is Lily with her water balloon supply ready to fight:



















Here are a couple of pictures from her party:

Dumpster Diving, Garage Sale Treasures and Generous Friends

We always travel north with van only. We love to yard sale and clean out the dumpsters after the college students move out. Our friends loan us everything else we need. So far this year our most noteable treasure is the FREE porch swing we found at a yard sale. It fits just outside our back patio and we love it....

Sunday Summer Fun

Here are a few pictures of our appartment here. It is really nice. The four of us girls share a room and mom and dad have the other room. I have the top bunk pictured below. We have a nice back porch from which we feed two adorable chipmunks out of our hands.

Lily has been learning how to french braid and here is a picture of Starla's hair after she french braided it:

Today we went to our home church here in Michigan. After church we went to our friend Abby's open house for lunch. It is so fun to see all of our old friends and greet everyone we know.

Here is me (Angela) with my friend Evanne on the left and my friend Anaiah on the right. We made a movie together at their house. I was the irresponsible teenage babysitter and Robyn was the child I was supposed to be watching. Lily was a crook. Evanne was the mother and Anaiah was the filmer. Thier little brother Hazen was the police. It was really fun.

Because we didn't post much about our travels we decided to add a couple of things about it.

First we stopped at our friends' house and had TONS of fun there. I really admire thier two daughters, Megan and Sarah. We got to go to the movie Prince Caspian with them.

Then we visited our friends the Harts in Tennessee. Their yard is so huge, they use a golf cart to get around. Angela had her first opportunity to drive there.

While we were at my grandparents house we saw deer in thier back yard. I video taped one of the deer for you to see, its not a very clear picture though. I love being able to see wild life again.

I painted a mural for my cousins Julia and Kitty in thier bedroom while we were at my grandparents house . Here are some pictures of it:

Yesterday we visited Grandma at the nursing home and we were glad to find that she is doing better than we had expected. After dinner we went to our Aunt's house and had dinner there. Aunty gave us lots of pop cans which we are collecting to raise money for orphans. In Michigan to help prevent litter, when you buy a pop you have to pay an extra ten cents. But if you bring it back and recycle it at the store then you get your ten cents back. So for every ten empty pop bottles we collect, we have raised a dollar.

A Trip to the Gardens

Yesterday we arrived in Michigan and everyone is excited to be here. This morning our friend Christine took us to Fredrick Meijer Gardens. Our favorite thing at the gardens is Leonardo DaVinci's Horse sculpture. It is the color of dark chocolate, which is why we call it the Chocolate Horse. Here is some information about it.

The Story Behind DaVinci's Horse

In 1979 Charles Dent read about DaVinci's plans to build a colossal horse and decided to take on the project. He studied Leonardo's drawings and plans and began to create the giant sculpture, however Dent died in 1994 and the sculpture was left unfinished. When Dent's sculpture was enlarged in 1996 people realized that it was proportionally unstable and Nina Akamu was hired to make corrections. Fred Meijer read about Akamu's work and began to support the project. As work progressed it became apparent that the changes which needed to be made to the sculpture were to costly and so the statue was destroyed. Akamu then began a second sculpture of the DaVinci's horse which took almost 3 years to create. In 1999 one of the finished sculptures was placed in Milan Italy. A month later the other 24 ft "American Horse" was placed in Fredrick Meijer Gardens where it stands today.

(This information was gathered from Nina Akamu's website.)

Here are Lily and Robyn sitting on the Horse's hooves.

Posted By Angela

Our first stop in this year's journey north was in the hills of Tennessee where we spent 3 days with Hope's college friend and "kindred spirit" Liz and her wonderful family of 10 (soon to be 11). Liz's daughter have been friends and role models to our girls and her boys are a match for Lily's love for energetic games.