South Carolina Trip

We got back from our trip to South Carolina last night.  The trip back was almost 16 hours long, travelling through seven states.  Long day.  But Lena did amazingly well in the car.  Both on the way there and on the way home she hardly fussed at all.  Jim and I were both really surprised at how well she did.  

The vacation was nice.  Unfortunately the weather didn't really cooperate with us, so we didn't get to spend as much time outside as we would have liked.  It rained every single day, often quite heavily and a few times as strong thunderstorms.  But it was great to get away for a while and the scenery was beautiful.  

I didn't take as many pics as I thought I would, mostly because no one wants to see pics of us sitting there reading a book while it poured down rain!  But I did get a few.

Lena sleeping in the car on the way there.  I cannot understand how she can sleep like that.  Her head is almost resting on that plastic tub next to her.

The house we stayed at.  It is the vacation home of the brother of the other chaperone on the trip, a fellow teacher at the high school.  Three floors, five bedrooms, four bathrooms, jacuzzi tub, and two decks overlooking the lake.  Jim, Lena, and I had the master suite (including jacuzzi tub) all to ourselves.  Our room even had its own doors out to the deck.

The stairs leading down to the lake.  There were 67 of them.  We definitely got our workouts climbing those stairs several times a day.  At the bottom is a boat dock.

The kids took turns jumping off the rope swing.  Jim did it a couple of times too.  I have a video of that; I'll post it later.

Jim and Lena hanging out on the dock.  This was the closest Lena got to the water.  We were going to take her swimming on Thursday, but it rained all day.  [She never got to wear the adorable bathing suit I got for her :( ]

The kids going tubing.  I was going to do it on Thursday, but again, it rained all day.

There was a little toy car that Lena got to play with in the house.  She's trying to honk the horn.

On Wednesday we drove across the border and visited a national forest in North Carolina that has this beautiful waterfall.  It was really foggy, so my pictures didn't turn out that great.  But it was really neat.

Jim and Lena in front of the waterfall.  It started pouring down rain when we got there.  

More stairs.  There were 154 steps in between the different viewing platforms at the waterfall.  And that was after a half-mile walk straight uphill.  

Lena didn't seem to mind the rain.  It was warm enough there that it wasn't a problem.

Soggy pigtails.

The girls.  Left to right: Serline (pronounced like Celine), Ashley, Sabrina, and Heather.

Lena loved hanging out with the girls.  She was especially fond of Ashley.  I don't think she was bored for a single moment on our trip.  She just loves having so many people around.

A view of the mountains.  The fog really obscures the view, but take my word for it, it was beautiful!

Wednesday evening Jim, Lena, and I went to a nice restaurant in Seneca, SC.  I took this while we were waiting for our table.  Lena had shrimp for the first time there.

Jim with antlers.

Sleeping in the car on the way home.  She liked to cuddle with this blanket or her orange hippo, Barnii.

Although we would have enjoyed at least some sun, we did have fun on our vacation.  Our first vacation of the summer.  I have about a week before I need to start packing for our next vacation, Wisconsin.  We leave in two weeks!

Ascension Day

Today is Ascension Day.  We had a service at church this evening.  I snapped a few pics of Lena before the service (and one after).

Getting into trouble in the church basement.

I decided to take her outside to get some energy out before the service.

I'm not sure if she was yelling or laughing here.  They kind of look the same.

Playing with the tulips that are a little past their prime.  She's looking at Daddy who is probably telling her not to touch the flowers.

This was after the service.  She was really squirmy and whiny during the service.  Afterwards, someone asked, "Is she tired?"  Well, she is laying on the floor crying, what do you think?  Evening services are always a struggle for us since it is close to her bedtime.

I am so glad it is finally skirt weather!

Day Trip to Indiana

Wow, I can't believe I am making my tenth post for May. May has been so busy already and we still have our South Carolina trip and confirmation to go!

Today we went to Indiana for the day. Jim attended the funeral of a friend of the family. We hadn't been back home since Christmas, so we decided to take advantage of our time there and see some family. Lena and I hung out at Grandma Sheryl's house and then picked up Aunt Hilary from work and went to lunch with Grammy Tammy, Aunt Amy, and Daddy.

After lunch we visited Great-Grandma Marian, Grandpa Brian, and Great-Grandma and Grandpa Zink.

Playing with some kittens at Grandma Sheryl's house. It took her a few minutes to warm up to the kittens, which surprised me.

It took her no time to warm up to Martin.

Sitting in a stump.

This is Lena with a family friend, Teresa. She works at the middle school with Hilary.

Part of Lena's lunch. The menu said her chicken fingers came with fries It didn't say they would be so cute! (The bruscetta was mine.)

Loving the chicken fingers and tomatoes at the Italian Grille.

Lena and Aunt Amy.

Sticking her tongue out at Grammy Tammy.

I tried to get a good pic of her and Mom, but this time it was Lena who looked goofy. She was incredibly distracted by the people sitting in the restaurant.

Playing with Grandpa Brian.

Great-Grandma Marian has a fun little doll that laughs uncontrollably. Lena really liked it and learned to push the laugh button on its hand.

Riding on the golf cart with Great-Grandpa Zink.

We tried to get her to pet the horse, but she was having none of it! She gets really scared of dogs and horses.

Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Zink.

It was a whirlwind tour of our family back home, but it was nice. It was such a beautiful day; a good one for being out and about.

Hopefully the rest of our week will be fairly uneventful. We are going to be busy getting ready for our trip to South Carolina. We leave on Monday.

Meijer Gardens

This evening we took advantage of a wonderful opportunity.  I recently enrolled Lena in a playgroup that meets at one of the TK schools.  We went for the first time last week.  She seemed to really like it.  While we were there I found out that they were having an event at the Frederick Meijer Gardens tonight.  It's a botanical garden and sculpture park.  If you remember, we went there last summer with Grandma Sheryl.  All the kids enrolled in that playgroup and the many others who are affliated somehow (throughout Kent County and surrounding counties I think) were invited to enjoy the gardens free of charge.  Our playgroup facilitator estimated that there would be about 1,800 kids there.  There were a lot, that's for sure.  Lena really enjoyed walking around and looking at everything and being around other kids.  

They even had a percussion band playing at the large outdoor amplitheater and gave out snacks for the kids.  It was really nice.

Here are a few of the pics I took:

Lena really loved the drums!  I got a cute video of her dancing to the beat.  The thing she is shaking in her hand is an easter egg filled with something so it makes noise when shaken.

We are so glad we got to take the opportunity to get out and have some fun tonight.  Lena absolutely loved it. 

Tomorrow we are going back home for a very brief visit.  Jim is attending a funeral and we are going to try to see some family briefly before we head back home.

Visitors from Indiana and Playing in the Yard

We had a great day today.  We had visitors from Indiana join us for church this morning.  Grandpa Lee, Grandma Sheryl, and our friends Bobbi and Dennis came up for the day.  Aunt Hil was supposed to come up with them, but she went to the hospital very early this morning with a kidney stone.  :(   

Here are a bunch of pictures I took today (and one someone else took!)

Bobbi with a goofy face at church.  I actually don't even know who took this pic!  This is what happens when you leave your camera unattended!

Bobbi and Dennis with Lena.  We had a lovely lunch at the Walldorff and then came back to our house for dessert and coffee.

 

Lena and Grandpa.

I didn't get a good one of Lena with Grandma.  I got two; in one Mom's eyes were closed and in the other she had this weird look on her face like she was drugged.  I thought she would appreciate me not posting those!  You're welcome, Mom!

After our visitors left to go back home, the three of us spent the afternoon outside.  Even though it was quite chilly this morning (below 40), it turned out to be a beautiful afternoon.  It was really sunny and the winds were calmer than they had been for the past few days.  Lena had fun going up and down the deck steps all by herself.  It was kind of a challenge for her since there wasn't anything to hold on to.  She did a good job though.  She fell a couple of times (no better way to learn!) but she never let it faze her.  She even tumbled down head first once and didn't cry.  (It's only two steps and one is on the ground level.)

She "helped" Daddy fill up the bird feeders. 

 

Can you tell which hosta she fell on when trying to go down the steps?

Our first produce of the season.

This is a weed that was growing up between the boards on the deck.  Lena grabbed it and pulled it out by the root!  She's going to be very handy in the garden this year!

Action shot!

There were lots of interesting things to play with outside.  I was pleasantly surprised that she didn't immediately want to put it all in her mouth.

"Helping" Daddy water some plants.  She got one of her feet all muddy doing so.

Trying out the new swing we got for her.

I think she likes it!  The swing will be changing locations soon as it was placed too close to our new peony bush, which already has a cute little bud on it.

Garage sale find: cute sandals.  

Daddy relaxing after a busy day.

Look how tall these tulips are!  Crazy!

I think this one's taking a nap.

The beautiful lilac bushes across the street.

The cats mesmerized by a leaf caught in a spiderweb outside the window. 

We really enjoyed today.  Thanks so much to Mom, Dad, Bobbi, and Dennis for making the trip to come see us.  We really enjoy having visitors.  And thanks to Dad for a wonderful lunch.  

We are praying for Hilary and hope that she feels better soon!