Catching up

Wow, vacation makes for a busy day of re-entry, but made easier because of the memories of 5 wonderful days with family. Grandchildren make you smile, and Emma did a good job of keeping us happy with all her activity, and happy demeanor. She woke up with a bounce in her step and new words to entertain us.
Memorial Day was rather differant from the work day that we usually have. I arrived home after 9AM from traveling all night, and just hauled everything into the house, but did not feel like dealing with it all, so took a nap until I heard voices outside. Brett, Aidan, Regan and Olivia came over, and since Everett had the boat all ready for the river, we boarded and took a bumpy ride through Dave's pasture, with Brett opening the gates. Getting into the river was a little scary, but it went well. Brett took off to go bike riding for 2 hours while Everett and I and the kids had a great ride up the river and stopped at the power lines, so the kids could do some fishing. They were a bit impatient that the fish were not biting, but handled their rods like pros. Oliva's first cast was a problem when the insides of the reel went in the water. Thanks to Grandpa's quick thinking he rescued it and put it back together for her. I on the other hand, had not planned on getting so close to the worms, but when 3 kids need their hooks baited, I dug in and baited the hooks with the squiggly worms. After some fishing and other boats coming and going we headed down the river to try a new spot. We went to the spot where the Thornapple River meets with the Grand and tried our hand at fishing there with the same results. We then headed back up the river and then the challenge of getting the boat on the trailer again. I was quite happy that with all of us working together we got it on the trailer just as Brett was walking to meet us.
Today was a more productive day of laundry and other chores, and I am looking forward to going out tomorrow to run errands!!
We thought that Elton might want to celebrate his 40th birthday this Sat. but after talking with his brother, he nixed any plans for that, so guess we will have to wait! It is hard to believe that we could have a child that old.
We are glad that Alex' leg is healing and Lauri is feeling better too, so now that school is out, maybe they can enjoy some summer relaxing time.

New To Me

Brenda continues to try and bring her Mom into the 21st century, so here it goes! Stay tuned for more notes "from the garden".

The beginning

This is the first post of notes from the garden. I think the title is sort of catchy and not because my mom is a gardener. The title is catchy due to the fact that my last name Vander Tuin (maiden) is Dutch for: FROM THE GARDEN.

I'm going to try and school my mom on this blog-thing so that she can relay and document things that are important to her and my father(a.k.a. PAPA!). They live a full, fun life so sit back, relax and enjoy! This is how being a grandma and grandpa is done! :)