Our week with the Van Guilders

The whole Van Guilder family, together! (and proof that--contrary to popular opinion--Grandma Ruthie CAN take a photo without cutting anyone's head off!)

The three cousins - Silas, Jack, and Eli

Mother and daughter

The boys with Great-Grandma Ruthie




Eli's depiction of a view from the planet Venus.





Silas liked Grandma's Mr. Sketch scented markers...a little too much!




Making blueberry muffins with Grandma

Getting some much-needed rest

Let's go sledding!

Silas wanted Grandpa to take him into the woods behind my parents' house. He really loved being back there, and every time my dad turned around to head toward the house, Silas would yell and point the other way, "No, woods!" Guess we named him accurately, since the name Silas means, "man of the forest."

Saying goodbye...we love you, Grandpa and Grandma!

Christmas Ping-Pong Tournament!

Jessa and Nate have a ping-pong table in their garage, so on Christmas night, the whole family (except the Great-Grandmas, Jessa, Jack, & Silas) participated in a ping-pong tournament! Nate drew up brackets, and the fun began!

Bryan showed off some pretty sweet moves.

Eli had a blast and did a great job (with a bit of help from Daddy, of course!)

Grandpa Ross was quite the threat--at almost 83!!

Ben playing Uncle Steve--pretty intense!

Sibling rivalry -- Denise vs. Dianne...I think Denise won.

My claim to fame of the evening...beating my cousin Alyssa in the toilet-bowl championship (the winner of the loser's bracket). She put up a good fight!

Dennis beat out Steve in the championship game...of course he didn't really need this win to boost his ego. Whether it's golf, hunting, or ping pong, my dad likes to win!

Ross took seriously his job as line judge and score-keeper. It was a fun evening full of a lot of laughs!

Christmas morning in Charlevoix

On Christmas morning, we opened presents at my sister's house. Their tree was 17-feet tall! In the afternoon, we had a tasty meal of prime rib.

Hello there, Jack!

Nate, Jack, and Jessa



Attempts at a Christmas photo of the boys...

Eli got a solar system video!

Grandma Ruthie liked playing with the boys' presents, too.


While Aunt Jessa was on bed rest, she made a solar system game for Eli called, "The Rocket Race to Saturn!" It is a really fun game to play! Thanks for all your hard work, Jessa!


Grandma Dianne and Grandpa Dennis are admiring their new 2008 photo calendar of Eli and Silas.

Precious sleeping baby...

Waking up!

Christmas Eve in Charlevoix

On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed my Grandma Miriam and Grandpa Ross's annual Swedish Christmas dinner. We also attended a candlelight service at the church I grew up in. It was a wonderful evening--a big group of the family was there.

Meeting my new nephew, Jack!


The boys got a pack of percussion instruments from my Aunt Denise and her family that they had fun banging away on.

In Charlevoix, there's an older couple who always put up hundreds of Christmas decorations and allow the public to tour their yard and meet "Santa and Mrs. Claus." Eli was excited to meet Santa!
Silas wanted to get as far away from the scary man in the white beard as he could!

Our road trip to Michigan

The weekend before Christmas we packed up our Subaru Forrester and headed to Michigan for a 3-week visit! We were pretty loaded down, but we had new tires and a dual-screen DVD player for the boys (thanks, Gpa & Gma VG!). The boys did great and enjoyed watching their videos, listening to their Veggie Tales Christmas music, and eating lots of snacks.

In the front seat, Bryan and I took turns driving, and while in the passenger seat, I worked on knitting a scarf for Laura (Ben's fiancee) and tried to refrain from giving out driving tips.
It took us two-and-a-half days to get there due to the bad weather and icy road conditions. We traveled with friends, the Terpstras (who also have 2 young boys), who were also on their way to Michigan from Colorado. Both of our families stayed the night in a hotel in Des Moines, Iowa, and the boys had so much fun eating pizza and swimming in the pool. And we were so glad we did! Before we stopped we counted 15 cars in the ditch through Des Moines (while I drove, white-knuckled). I have driven through some pretty bad weather, and this was right up there with the worst. The next morning the storm had passed, and we counted 112 more cars in the ditch from Des Moines to the Illinois border! It was crazy! We just took it slow and steady until we hit another storm in Michigan. We ended up staying the night with Bryan's parents (who were of course thrilled to see us a week early) in Holland before driving the rest of the trip up to Charlevoix the next day. We were sure glad to get there--just in time for Christmas Eve!
The boys, sleeping in the hotel room. It's tiring sitting in a car all day!

Christmas in Colorado

The night before we celebrated Christmas, Eli and Silas pretended they were superheroes in their Christmas jammies.In the morning, Eli was so excited to see the presents and couldn't wait to open them. Silas, on the other hand, was scared of them for some reason and wouldn't go near the tree for a picture. (Once he realized that toys were inside the presents, he got over his fear!)

Silas loves his moose!

The boys' big present was a new drum set. And of course they love it!

Bryan made whole wheat blueberry-banana pancakes for breakfast--yummy!