Kelly's 8th Grade Recognition

Kelly "graduated" from 8th grade last night (they don't call it graduation but recognition). She got her hair done by our favorite hair dresser, Julie! She did a great job and Kelly looked great! A big thanks to Matt's sister who found matching jewelry for Kelly''s dress and we found yellow shoes to match, too! Kelly looked great.

We went to Cancun Grill for dinner. Matt, Gail and Anna joined us.

Here's Anna and Abbey at dinner

Matt and Gail

Dave and Kelly...boy do they look a like in this picture...maybe they always do but I really notice it in this picture!

The program was nice. The kids got awards for things they've done throughout the year. At the very end, they announced 6 Outstanding students...and Kelly was one of those 6!!! We are so proud of our OUTSTANDING STUDENT....KELLY FEENSTRA!!!!

Day at the beach

We made it to the beach with our boat this weekend! We went to Gun Lake with our neighbors, the Porters. Dave was excited to get the boat out! Kelly got to ride on the UFO tube

Abbey just loves being outside and in the sun!!!

Jenny's ready to jump in the deep water and swim!

Kelly and Michael ride the tube back to the beach

All the kids playing of the UFO out in the deep water

We also met with the Riekse's for a few minutes.

We had fun and went home with only a few spots of sunburn...thanks to lots of reapplying! It was a great way to start the summer...can't wait to see what else it brings! Happy Summer!

Catch up on us

O.K. so I've been slacking...here's what is happening...

See the botttom of the page for description of this picture...Jenny turned 9 She had a chef party...they made their own fruit kabobs and veggie kabobs and pizza burgers and decorated their own cupcakes.

They played Pass the dressup bag--opposite of musical chairs...the music plays, they pass the bag and whoever is holding the bag when the music stops has to pick something from the bag and wear it. They loved it!

Opening presents in the morning

Abbey turned 12 in April. She made her own cake...is that wrong?

She baked it and decorated it...isn't it cute? She's such a good baker!!!

Then for her party, she had her friend Heather over and it was spa time...

face mask and foot soak

This is Heather and Abbey...some people say they look like sisters...what do you think?

Today was a busy day...we spent the day at Grand Ledge's Relay for Life-raising money for Cancer research.

Kelly and Abbey belong to a group called S.T.A.N.D. (Students taking a new direction) and they walked and help raise money at Relay.

Jenny's Girl Scout troop was asked to help pass out cake to the survivors at Relay and then to lead the Survivor walk at Relay. It was a cool thing to be part of...quite an honor to lead the group of incredible fighters who survived Cancer.

Chicago

O.K. for those of you who think I'm behind...here's what we just did...take a trip to Chicago... We went to Lincoln Park Zoo--a free zoo in Chicago that had some incredible animals!!!
Giraffes

Bears...this one had surgery on his tongue but we thought he was cute...we named him drooly bear!

A beautiful entry to the free zoo...we give it thumbs up!!

We were tired after the zoo, but not too tired to go have deep dish pizza at Giordano's! YUM!

We were right next to the Sears towe (now the Willis tower) so we walked over there.

A beautiful night time view. Since it was Spring break, they were open later than usual so we took advantage of the late hours and the fact that no one really knew they were open so there were very few people there...we walked right in and were able to spend lots of time on the ledges---a walk out clear floor that looks down to the road. Check out the pictures

The next day we went to the Shedd Aquarium. The line was huge but we signed up for a family membership so we were able to skip a little bit of the line and once we got in, we loved seeing all the beautiful fish. We even got to see the dolphin show! It was quite incredible. We got to see Beluga whales...I've never seen them before-they are huge and amazing!

Here is Abbey taking pictures of her favorite...dolphins

beluga whale

After the aquarium, we went to Millineum Park and took some fun pictures.

It was a fun trip...frustrating when we didn't know where to park but a cool visit.

Beginning and Ending

This is our last full day here in CA...this is how I started my day...watching the sunriseThen we went driving around trying to find a winery...we found it...but it cost too much to try so we took a picture and then went home...And ended our day with this....a wonderful end to a wonderful time with good friends in CA....back to the real world of 12 inches of snow tomorrow...but enjoying CA while it lasts...

Thar' she blows

Today we took the train to San Diego and we went whale watching...here's the boat we went on Here's me on the boat in the Pacific Ocean

Beautiful sunny day

this is what it looked like behind us...we actually saw a twister coming out of the clouds

We first spotted dolphins swimming right in front of the bow

Here's some of the girls...it was cold

we spotted some whales--all grey whales...first we saw a puff from their blow hole

then we'd see their back and sometimes their tails...you can see two whales in this picture, one's tail and one's back. It was truely amazing

Having fun and laughing a lot--so much that we got yelled at on the train! Oh well, it's never fun until somone gets yelled at.

Today

This was the view of my walk this morning on the pier...beautiful palm trees and mountains Here's the girls I am here with, taking pictures of...

a pelican

We sat out by the pool today...here's my view past my feet...love the pink toes! Here's our lunch...so healthy...Dairy Queen! YUM!!

All the ladies

We're having a wonderful time, looking forward to tomorrow...a trip to San Diego...I've never been there before! We're going Whale Watching! Can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!