Summer Vacation 2012 - Mackinac Island

Our next stop on our vacation was mackinac island for the day. There are no vehicles on the island (except for a couple of emergency vehicles) Lots of fun!!

Main Street on the Island... horses and bicycles everywhere!!

Ride over on the ferry

The Grand Hotel, view from the Ferry

Mackinac Bridge, view from the ferry

Horse and Carriage Tour.. 1 3/4 hour tour around the island

Arch Rock - one of the stops on the horse and carriage tour

Rented bicycles for an hour... toured along some of the main streets and along the water for a bit... The kids took turns riding with me on the bicycle build for two. Took a few minutes to get the hang of it, but then it was alot of fun!

And of course, we can't forget the ice cream cones on a hot day :)

Summer Vacation 2012 - Iron Bridge

We made a last minute decision to go ahead with our annual summer vacation... up north to see family. Scott drove us up to San Antonio (on our 13th anniversary) and we all stayed in a hotel there to catch an early morning flight 5:45 am!! to Flint. Rented a car and headed up to Iron Bridge for our first stop. We landed in Flint (with 2 layovers) pretty much the same time as Scott arrived back home to Mission!! Here are a few pics from IB... all out of order. Blogger has changed their layout/uploading so I am not sure how to get them in order...

Drinking hot chocolate to warm up after beach time

A team work-out :)

Lots of kitty and puppy time...

And game time...

Fresh veggies right from the garden... yummy!

And with Grandma and Grandpa

Waaaay Behind again here... as usual!

Can't believe how far behind I am.. time seems to be flying and I am not getting this blog updated at all.  Hardly know where to start, but I don't want to skip a 1/2  a year!  Maybe once the kids get back to school I will have more time to update... but for now, will do some more recent posts....

Update on Scott

Just a quick update on Scott... he is doing much better. Still a little sore in the abdomen area, but every day it gets better. The paperwork from the MRI results were "Chest wall contusion and abdominal wall contusion", which basically means bruising in those 2 areas. He is to report to work tomorrow afternoon, but gets Sunday off as they switch to midnights on Sunday, so will go back midnight sun night/mon morning, so another day to rest and heal. We went and picked up his stuff and car at work yesterday, and went and looked at the work vehicle that he was in... pretty messed up! But they just about missed the drunk.. just hit on the passenger corner, right in front of the tire. The drunk was totally in their lane, and they were heading to his lane, just didn't quite make it. Sure messed up that corner and the tire was twisted sidways. If they hit more central, it would have been alot worse. They sure were lucky!

Scotts accident

Good morning everyone, Devon couldn't wait to share the news so without us knowing, he sent an email and I am not sure to who, but I thought I had better follow-up with more details as his email seemed to leave many questions... my phone won't stop ringing :) Scott was in a head-on last night about 1:30 am while in a work vehicle. He was the passenger in his work vehicle, and a drunk hit them head-on on passenger side. Scotts partner tried to miss him, but couldn't. His partner got a gash on his head, but is otherwise fine. Scott is pretty sore, his ribs/chest area must have hit the airbag/dash. They did a MRI and everything inside looks ok except for some swelling and bruising. This morning Scotts jaw hurts pretty bad too. They air-lifted him to the hospital. At the hospital, the kids couldn't come back where we were, but we had a friend with us, so Lori stayed in the waiting room with them while they watched the news footage of the accident scene on the TV there! They thought that was kinda neat. Scott has 4 days off work, then will prob go back doing office work til soreness is gone. We are a lucky family for sure! Scott is fine, but pretty sore, and will be for a while.

My creative Kids

Well this post has been done for a bit, but never got published.. weird!  But here it is now...

We had these bags of pipecleaners for a while. The kids found them in the craft closet the other day and started creating. This is the end results :)

Gluten Free Recipe - Fruit Pizza

This is a regular wheat flour recipe, but I used the same amount (2 cups and 2 Tblsp) of the feather-lite gluten free flour mix, and it worked perfect.

Fruit Pizza

Crust:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup oil
1 egg
2 cups plus 2 Tblsp flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Flatten in a 9X12 pan and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes (until golden brown) Cool before putting the rest of the toppings on.


Filling:
12 oz cream cheese
3/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Cream together. Spread on cooled crust.

Just before you serve, spread a mixture of colorful fruit on top. I have it all sliced and mixed in a bowl ready to add before-hand. I found in the past, if you put the fruit on too soon, it makes the crust a little soggy.

I used green grapes sliced, purple grapes sliced, blueberries, a few blackberries, kiwis, and sliced strawberries

Enjoying the Beach and Sun in November

Here are 2 things you can't do in Michigan in November!

Kids 7 yr and 9 yr pictures

These were taken a little late this year... better late than never though :) Just ordered them today, so hope to get them in the mail by next week.

Devons 9th Birthday

I'm on a roll... we are in the truck travelling home from Harrisville and not much to do, so might as well put some pictures up that I am behind on...
These are from November.


I took cupcakes to his class at lunch-time.




We had invited one family over for his party, but they ended up having to back out at the last minute... so Devon picked Chuck-E-Cheeses as a place for a family b-day party.

Happy to See our Harrisville Friends again!

It was a happy time for all the kids being together again.... well for us all. So glad to see everyone again!


With Austin and Abby Reinhardt




With Carmen and Gavin Dellar




Sheep at Bruce and Amy Buurmas




With Travis, Monica, Nathan and Jenna Buurma

Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren

When we are all together, its a perfect time to get the generation pictures.

Ron and Jayne's Beautiful Wedding

My little brother is happily married now!! It was a beautiful wedding!