After our visit in Charlevoix, we drove down to Holland to spend some time with Bryan's family. We got to see a lot of family and friends and do some fun things!
Because we drove out to Michigan, we spent A LOT of time in the car. The boys loved watching movies on their DVD players. They also took naps, ate snacks, listened to music, and played with little toys. Silas liked playing his alphabet game. Eli mastered his travel Sudoku.
Here are Silas, Sawyer, Eli, Braden, and Grandpa playing a game together. The boys had so much fun playing with their cousins, and they all laughed hysterically playing this game! It was very cute.
Eli and Silas with Auntie Rachel, all wearing yellow! We didn't get to see much of her because she was working on a movie, but we are so excited to see her in a couple weeks when she comes out to Colorado for a visit!
Mommy reading a bedtime story to her three boys.
Eli, enjoying Holland (actually right after I took this picture he tripped and fell, scraped up his knees and got mud all over him!)
Silas also got a little muddy playing at the park (it had rained a lot earlier and there were big puddles everywhere!)
Grandpa and Grandma with their 4 grandsons...Sawyer, Silas, Braden, and Eli.
Bryan's Grandpa Dik and his lovely wife, Donna, came for a nice visit. It was fun looking at pictures from these world travelers!
We also had a good time visiting with Bryan's other Grandparents, the Longstreets, who in this photo are enjoying the amazing chocolate kitty-cat cake Kerrie made for Sawyer's 2nd birthday.
Family photo of Summer 2008 at Windmill Island in Holland. We spent a fun day there with Grandpa and Grandma and the Vanden Boschs learning about the history of Dutch immigrants to Holland.
Cousin photo!
Silly cousin photo!
Bryan's sister Kerrie, with her husband Eric, and Sawyer and Braden (and also little Vanden Bosch on the way--February '09!!!! Will it be another boy or the first granddaughter??)
This was so cute, they were holding hands of their own accord, and I couldn't resist taking about a bazillion pictures!
Eli and his Daddy
Sweet Silas
At the Windmill they had Dutch clothes (complete with wooden shoes!) for kids to try on. Here is little Dutch boy, Eli Dik.
And another little Dutch boy, Silas Dik.
One day we spent the afternoon at the beach with Grandpa and Grandma. The boys loved the big Lake Michigan waves! And Mom loved cooling off in the water!
Splash! Some of the waves were so big, they would knock Silas over! So we had to always hold onto him.
Silas, all tuckered out from braving the waves...
We had the pleasure of going to a reunion of sorts of Bryan's RA staff ('96-'97) from Calvin. It was so great seeing those who could make it (some we hadn't seen in quite a while!) and their kids. I'll try to tell you the families, from left to right: Jay and Kristin (Stimac) Wise, with their daughter Zoe and baby boy due in August; Kim (Quist) and Dave Gilmore; Jen (Vanden Bosch) and Mike Hoekstra, with their kids, Allison, Caleb, and Benjamin; Tera (Klaasen, my RA freshman year!) and Brad Wiechertjes, with their kids, Noah and Emma; Chris and Cindy (Bryce) Kuipers, with their daughter Claire, and us.
Our last day in Michigan we spent in Grand Rapids visiting with friends and family in the area. Here are my Uncle Steve and Aunt Denise who had us over (in the middle of a terrible thunderstorm!) for supper.
And here are our boys with their kids (my dear cousins), Aaron, Anders, Andrew, Alyssa, and Aidan!
I'm posting this a month late, but I am trying to keep up on my goal to document our summer trip! Here are some photos of the rest of the time we spent with my parents in Charlevoix. We had a great time seeing our family and friends, and the boys loved swimming, playing with Grandpa and Grandma, and going to the beach!
We went to a park near my sister Jessa's house one day, and the boys had fun climbing, swinging, and sliding.
We also had a great time watching and playing with my 6-month old nephew, Jack. He is such a cutie, and is learning to love pureed food...
One afternoon we all went to a local hotel's pool since the weather was a little cool to swim in the lake. The boys loved jumping to Grandpa and Daddy. Mom and Grandma had fun taking photos.
Eli, swimming all by himself (the life jacket helps, of course!), but he sure was proud!
And here is Silas swimming by himself!
Auntie Jessa and cousin Jack
The three cousins, soaking their feet in the hot tub!
Silas really liked Kiki, my parents' cat, and thought Kiki might enjoy reading an animal book. It was quite cute...Silas kept following the cat around and putting the book in front of him and telling him what animals he was looking at. The cat pretended to be interested but got bored after a while.
My parents, down in front of the bridge in Charlevoix.
Silas and Eli at Lake Michigan beach near sunset.
Eli, finding a pebble.
Silas, writing in the sand (with his left hand--we still haven't been able to determine which one is dominant yet).
Enjoying the waves and the lighthouse.
Jack, Silas, and Eli...this was the best "cousin photo" attempt I could get...both Jack and Eli had meltdowns.
Ross and Miriam, my grandparents...married almost 60 years!
Hello again! We've been back from our family vacation for a while now...it's been a little hectic because I got sick upon our return and have been trying to recover from that and unpacking, laundry, cleaning, etc. We drove out to Michigan and spent about 2 weeks there visiting family and friends, and then we drove back to Colorado, making a 2-day stop in the Twin Cities to visit old friends. I have a TON of photos and fun times to document...this first post is the from the first day we were in Michigan. We had a Van Guilder "Cousin Clan" reunion up in Charlevoix that Saturday and had so much fun! My brother, Ben, was baptized at the church he and Laura are getting married in. Then all the guys went golfing while the ladies had a bridal shower for Laura. Then we ended the day with a grill-out and bonfire, complete with banjo and guitar music from my uncle Barry, or the "banjo picker." We even had two cakes to celebrate my uncle Danny's (my dad's twin brother) retirement and my uncle Barry's 60th birthday! Enjoy this slideshow of photos from that day!
Because we drove out to Michigan, we spent A LOT of time in the car. The boys loved watching movies on their DVD players. They also took naps, ate snacks, listened to music, and played with little toys. Silas liked playing his alphabet game. Eli mastered his travel Sudoku.
Here are Silas, Sawyer, Eli, Braden, and Grandpa playing a game together. The boys had so much fun playing with their cousins, and they all laughed hysterically playing this game! It was very cute.
Eli and Silas with Auntie Rachel, all wearing yellow! We didn't get to see much of her because she was working on a movie, but we are so excited to see her in a couple weeks when she comes out to Colorado for a visit!
Mommy reading a bedtime story to her three boys.
Eli, enjoying Holland (actually right after I took this picture he tripped and fell, scraped up his knees and got mud all over him!)
Silas also got a little muddy playing at the park (it had rained a lot earlier and there were big puddles everywhere!)
Grandpa and Grandma with their 4 grandsons...Sawyer, Silas, Braden, and Eli.
Bryan's Grandpa Dik and his lovely wife, Donna, came for a nice visit. It was fun looking at pictures from these world travelers!
We also had a good time visiting with Bryan's other Grandparents, the Longstreets, who in this photo are enjoying the amazing chocolate kitty-cat cake Kerrie made for Sawyer's 2nd birthday.
Family photo of Summer 2008 at Windmill Island in Holland. We spent a fun day there with Grandpa and Grandma and the Vanden Boschs learning about the history of Dutch immigrants to Holland.
Cousin photo!
Silly cousin photo!
Bryan's sister Kerrie, with her husband Eric, and Sawyer and Braden (and also little Vanden Bosch on the way--February '09!!!! Will it be another boy or the first granddaughter??)
This was so cute, they were holding hands of their own accord, and I couldn't resist taking about a bazillion pictures!
Eli and his Daddy
Sweet Silas
At the Windmill they had Dutch clothes (complete with wooden shoes!) for kids to try on. Here is little Dutch boy, Eli Dik.
And another little Dutch boy, Silas Dik.
One day we spent the afternoon at the beach with Grandpa and Grandma. The boys loved the big Lake Michigan waves! And Mom loved cooling off in the water!
Splash! Some of the waves were so big, they would knock Silas over! So we had to always hold onto him.
Silas, all tuckered out from braving the waves...
We had the pleasure of going to a reunion of sorts of Bryan's RA staff ('96-'97) from Calvin. It was so great seeing those who could make it (some we hadn't seen in quite a while!) and their kids. I'll try to tell you the families, from left to right: Jay and Kristin (Stimac) Wise, with their daughter Zoe and baby boy due in August; Kim (Quist) and Dave Gilmore; Jen (Vanden Bosch) and Mike Hoekstra, with their kids, Allison, Caleb, and Benjamin; Tera (Klaasen, my RA freshman year!) and Brad Wiechertjes, with their kids, Noah and Emma; Chris and Cindy (Bryce) Kuipers, with their daughter Claire, and us.
Our last day in Michigan we spent in Grand Rapids visiting with friends and family in the area. Here are my Uncle Steve and Aunt Denise who had us over (in the middle of a terrible thunderstorm!) for supper.
And here are our boys with their kids (my dear cousins), Aaron, Anders, Andrew, Alyssa, and Aidan!
