Visitors

This week has been a beautiful hustle and bustle to get ready for visitors.  First, we are playing hotel for my brother's, Adam, girlfriend, Kate.  I'd say bed and breakfast, but we have yet to serve her breakfast so that doesn't really fit the stay.  She's a lovely lady and we all love her to pieces.  She arrived on Wednesday and will be here until Monday.

Then we had nieces Lia, Zoey, and Amy here for 1 1/2 days and overnight.  

Look at all these girls in one bedroom!! 

 They had a great time playing with the Barbies, setting up the dishes, reading books, watching PBS Kids, building with legos and wooden blocks, eating and more eating, and a bunch of other things.  It was a very busy day and a half here!

One thing we did do was color letters for a happy birthday banner for my brother's birthday on Sunday.  The kids had a great time making each letter special for Paul.

Tonight we have a friend of mine and Kate's visiting.  Allison is staying just the night, but we have enjoyed having her here too.  Her family is one of the closet to the ranch out at Milesville.  She's a wonderful friend and the girls just adore her. I hope she will come visit more often now that she knows where we live.

Tomorrow we have a birthday party for two nieces and a nephew.  Then Sunday another birthday party for my brother Paul who flies in from Texas tomorrow.  What a beautiful week for our family!

A Quiet Place to Be

Blase and Darren did a wonderful thing for me.  They built some benches and a table for my friend, Laree.  Well, she's Blase's friend, too.  Blase helps her clean the church in Sturgis.  She has become a valued member of our family.  This was our way of giving back to her the gift of love she's given us.

 The benches are in memory of her dad and her sister that have passed away.

The Mark Park has a new corner to just stop and smell the roses in.  

Or the wildflowers near by...can't promise any roses.

Mary Helen's House

Some of the kids, Bella and Jenna, and I went to visit our friends and neighbors.  Mary Helen is one of Gianna's favorite new friends.  They had a great time decorating the deck with chalk.  I was so proud of Gianna and especially Bella for playing what Mary Helen wanted to play and for being the bestest friends to her.  Makes my heart happy!

ENDOW Family Party at the Mark Park

I hosted a party for my ENDOW friends and their families on June 10th.  It was hot that day, but we had a GREAT time.  The kayaks and turtles won the day!

HELLO FARGO!!!!

We ended our wonderful road trip with a stop in Fargo to see our friends.

The weather was great for October! We had our friends meet us at a park and we played, played, played all afternoon!

 Blase and Isaiah

twincesses?

 Joseph and Stephen

not twincesses! ha

 The real twincesses!

Friends in Wisconsin

Our great hosts in Wisconsin were our friends, the Tiefert family.

Deb and Evelyn took us to the cranberry bog.  Jon and Deb cooked us many wonderful meals.  Evelyn and the younger kids played together every moment they could find.  Gianna even spent the night with Evelyn.  She still talks about that night.  The best part of the trip for Gianna was Evelyn gave her a Green Bay Packers dress.  Gianna's new favorite outfit.

 The younger kids did some fun fall crafts in the camper.

 Blase was a great helper.  When Darren and I stayed in the house to talk to Jon and Deb, Blase laid down with the twins and helped them fall asleep.  That's a great big brother!!

The kids with their friend, Evelyn.

Darren and Jon went fishing and bird hunting.

Deb and I sipped wine and painted.

We had a wonderful, wonderful time.  It will be great to see them again.

Michigan Friends

We were able to see two families of friends while we were in Michigan.

 The Rivard family!

 Gianna's Godparents

She was very excited to see them.  It had been 4-5 years since we had seen them.  She was queen for the days we were visiting them.  They graciously allowed us to park our camper in their yard.  Thanks for letting us be the tacky lawn ornament with gnomes running around!

We stopped for lunch with the Velder family on our way out of Michigan.  It was great to see them too.  We had a wonderful time seeing their new house and hearing the plans for remodeling and updating they have planned.  Thanks for lunch, Velder family!

Some More Great Friends!

Our stop in Green Bay started with an evening at Cormac's Godparents' house.  Jay and Lori were AMAZING hosts.  They fed us well, let us use their washer and dryer, and everyone showered or bathed.  It was a long night.

The next day we said goodbye to them, but not before they shared stuffed animals with the girls.  These girls have not let their new "favorite" stuffed animals out of their sights.

 Even the dog, Louie, had to be in the picture.

Beautiful kids with one of the most beautiful souls we know!  We love you, Lori!!

Great Friends!

This part of our journey we were blessed to be guests of our friends Craig and Lisa.  The kids had a great time meeting new friends.  Our kids are already planning the next time we visit.  I'm not sure when that will be, but the activities are already planned.

A big thank you to Craig and Lisa for feeding us something besides hot dogs and for letting us use your bathrooms, washer and dryer, and electricity.  A big thank you to Craig's parents as well.

Our camper was parked in front of the shed the red car is next to with the back end closest to the shed.  Turning it around was a great accomplishment of Darren's. 

 The view from the van.

Wisconsin trees were just starting to turn colors.

We are on-route to Green Bay, WI.