Tent City

Last night, the girls wanted to put up a tent so they dragged it to the back yard and had to wait for Dad to get home so we had someone who knew what they were doing to help. While we were waiting for Dave to finish dinner, our neighbors were putting out a tent to giveaway for free. I told the girls to grab it, so now we had two tents!

The neighbor came over to help us put it up. While we were putting up both tents, our friends, the Riekse's came over and we invited them to sleep out in the tents with us(when I say us, I mean the girls--there is no way I'm sleeping in a tent when there is a nice warm bed on the other side of the wall!)

They quickly went home and grabbed sleeping bags and PJ's and got all settled into the tents and slept all night--mostly. It did get cold but they were in there all night!

The blue tent was our neighbors, the purple tent is Jenny's that we put inside the brown tent that is Dave's Aunt's tent. Abbey slept in the blue tent all by herself (Jenna had a sleepover the night before and she was tired), Jenny and Taryn slept in the purple tent in the brown tent and Kelly and Sydney had air mattresses in the brown tent.

Dave's Adventure Part 3

Well, we brought the GINORMOUS tube to Gun Lake on Sunday (after church, of course!). I could not stop laughing while we were bringing it to the lake...I felt like all eyes were on us as we brought this monsterous tube to Gun Lake. We met Dave's brother, Brian and Judy and their family(Zach, 11, Jake 9 and Sara, 3) there and called over to our friends, the Riekse's (Sydney, 12, Jenna, 10 and Taryn, 7) to join us as well. They had fun just playing on the tube in the water! Here they are ready to go. Zach, Jake, Kelly and Sydney were the first riders on the tube...
And this is their first try...

After a few try's, they got it down pat and they were having a blast! The next group that went out included Abbey instead of Sydney and this was their ride:

Abbey wanted to stop but they had a good time. After Abbey got off, Judy got on and they really figured out how to make the tube go in circles by leaning.

Dave tried the wake board and could not get up, so after a quick dinner, they tried to get Kelly and Zach up on ski's--both are almost there. Then, they took the tube out again and they really got it spinning but I did not get video of that ride. Dave said it was cool and Kelly agreed!

Thanks again to Matt--this is really cool! We're going to Gun Lake this weekend to let the neighbors have a turn. We can't wait!

Dave's Adventure Part Two

Well, yesteday the UPS truck showed up in our driveway. It's such a beautiful brown truck that bears lots of gifts! This is what our gifts looked like. We called Dave right away and he was on his way home and told us we could NOT open it...they were HIS packages! We brought them inside...and they were heavy. And we waited...


















So when Dave opened them, this is what he found! The wake board he bought at the silent auction at his high school reunion and another gift...a tube to pull behind the boat! Since Dave thinks he is now an expert water skier, he decided to try wake boarding. We'll report later how that goes! But it looks cool!




















So then, we decided to open the tube. This is a gift from Dave's classmate, Matt Kayser, who works for Kwik Tek which makes lots of fun water toys (http://kwiktek.com/2008/). If anyone needs any water toys, visit their site! Well, this is quite the tube! It is called the UFO and it holds 4 people and when it's pulled behind the boat, it spins!!! We could not wait to see how big it was so we blew it up in our living room. It is taller than Dave!

The girls are excited about taking it out (but not as much as Dave!). We're a little nervous about how we're going to get it to the lake but we'll manage somehow! More pictures to come and maybe video when we take it to the water. It should prove to be an interesting event since it came with some instructions on how to ride it successfully. Can't wait! Thanks Matt for the fun looking toy! We'll keep you posted on how much fun we have!!!

Dave's Adventure Part one

Dave's adventure begins in Denver where he went for his 20th high school reunion. He met up with an old friend who he did not go to school with. They went hiking in Red Rocks and saw some beautiful sights! This is Carl (USA shirt) and Dave (Blue Shirt)

Then next day, he had breakfast with old friends and then went Rock Crawling...I'm a little glad I didn't go with him when he showed me these pictures...Are you car guys crazy?? This looks like you might scratch you paint!



That night met up with his old classmates and the next had night went to a dinner with them all. This is one picture of about 4 that Dave took. How many people did he see and he only took 4 pictures...oh well, at least I have this one. I'm not sure who it all is but Dave knows!


These guys are the ones who took him Rock Crawling...CRAZY!

He had a great time visiting with old friends, re-connecting and getting to know people again. He really liked Denver and wonders why he left!

They had a silent auction at the dinner...see next post to see what he bought!

Visiting Sea to Sea

This is the semi that carries all the belongings for the riders.
This what is looks like inside the semi. Every rider has two baskets that they are allowed for their personal belongings. They also have a duffle bag that when they pack up and stacked in the middle of the semi that has all their tent gear in. The other side has all bike stuff so they can wash their bike or fix it or do minor repairs. They have spare tires and other bike stuff. We walked around the camp ground and saw tons of tents--some little some bigger. We walked over by the kitchen semi that was quite impressive as well but I didn't get a picture. Then we took Dad out for ice cream at the gas station...not a great atmosphere but still good ice cream.

They only have 10 more days to go and then they are done. Dad said he's having a great time and would do it again in a minute. Quite impressive for a 65 year old!!! Good luck on your last ten days, Dad! We're still praying for you!

Dave's Dad was in GR yesterday with his Sea to Sea bike tour. They had a celebration rally at the White Caps stadium and here is the sea of yellow shirted riders. We heard some great music and heard Shane Claiborne speak. They are biking and raising money to create awareness of Global Poverty. This is Dave's Dad-white hair, holidng the paper. He has lost 35 lbs since he's started the tour but tells Dave's Mom that he'll have to watch what he eats when he gets back because if he continues to eat like this when he's not biking 70 miles per day, he'll gain tons of weight!
Here's the coolest tan line...
Here's our family and Dave's brother's family seeing G'pa at the park. He says he's doing great..never felt better in his life.

We'll see him tonight again since he'll be near us in Lansing. We're going to try to see him riding but we have no idea what time it will be. I e-mailed the paper to let them know Sea to Sea was coming into town! I'll post more pics tomorrow!!

Try something Dew

For the past few summers, we have gotten together with the neighbors and we would "Try something new." We have tried everything from Apples to Candy bars.

We have all had a busy summer so far this year and have only done try a new plum...did you know you could get yellow, red, purple and more? They were good!

But far too boring for my maturing girls! When a friend posted on her blog http://scrapsofvanderlaan.blogspot.com/ that she tried "Try something new 'dewsday'" Kelly was excited and said we needed to try that as well.

So we went to the nearest Quality dairy and found 6 different flavors of Mt. Dew...did you know Mt. Dew came in 6 different flavors?? I sure didn't.

Turns out that Mt. Dew is having a contest for a new flavor. We tried the Original--Kelly's Favorite, Supernova--Jenny's favorite, Code Red, Livewire, Revolution and the overall favorite, Voltage.

Try this with your family!! It's super fun! Invite friends, I'll guarentee you'll all have fun. Oh yeah, we also tried new Cheeze-it's...Did you know they came in flavors of Duoz, White Cheddar, Hot and Spicy and Parmesan & Garlic??