Fall Fun!

Fall is my favorite time of year! Zach and I were in GR and got to enjoy a beautiful, fall Sunday with the family. We ate a delicious dinner (Thanks Marm!) and then spent the afternoon outside making the biggest pile of leaves ever (according to Pieter).

Jayne is a fabulous photographer and she caught some fantastic shots of the little kids playing with the big kids.

Blake having a ball.

Sandbox fun!



Zach and me with Bryson, our newest nephew.

Lookout Auntie Mari...Pieter's after you!!



Where's Daniel?!

Pieter got Auntie Kasey!

After the leaves excitement faded, we "painted" on the driveway.
By the way, this is a great idea for those who have young kids. A brush + a driveway + water = hours of painting entertainment!


After an afternoon of playing, Sarah was pretty tuckered out...as were the rest of us.

Broccoli anyone...?!

The other night while I was preparing dinner Zach came into the house wearing a proud smile and carrying a big head of broccoli. After months of waiting, our broccoli had ripened and was finally ready to be eaten!
So we excitedly steamed the broccoli in a strainer above some boiling water. We were both super excited to eat our first home grown bite. After the broccoli was ready, Zach scooped up some pieces to put on our plates and there underneath our beautiful broccoli pieces were a bunch of nasty maggot-like worms!! Apparently these little guys wanted to try our broccoli too! We both busted out laughing, completely grossed out. I think our appetite for broccoli won't be the same for a while.

Yuck!

KC to KC

I had the opportunity to visit my long time friend who lives near Kansas City, Missouri. So KC headed to KC! I arrived and was warmly greeted by Adri and her beautiful little girl, Siena.

It was great having some time to get to know Siena- what a fun, sweet personality she has.
I spent two days in Adri's classroom helping out which was so much fun! I just love being in a classroom with the kiddos.
On Friday night we went to the biggest football game of the season. Two rival schools battled it out on the field and the team we were rooting for won in double overtime- talk about exciting- Go Wildcats!


Thanks for a fun visit Aud!

Cook Kids and Chicks...

Some friends of ours went out of town so their three youngest kids, Aaron, David, and Valerie Cook moved in with us for the week. We had fun playing many games, going to Mc Donalds play worlds, exploring and walking around the pond near our home, weeding, playing Lego Star Wars, and much more. I quickly became familiar with all the parks in the area and spent many hours watching the kids play. One day it was raining so we took a field trip to some friends of ours who are chicken farmers. They had just gotten in a new batch of 8,000 chicks so we spent some time in the 90 degree barn marveling at the baby chicks. It was awesome! Here's Aaron with a chick on his head.

Look at them all!


Here they are getting a drink.


Here are a couple videos of the chicks.


Val was very proud to pick green peppers from our garden for omelettes. Whenever I would make a meal they all wanted to be in the kitchen where the action was so we made the joke that there were too many "Cooks" in the kitchen.

Here is Zach taking out Val's hair bands after church. He ended up just cutting them out with a scissors. :-)

Goodnight kiddos!

Short and Sweet

Sondra, Zach's cousin, got married so we were able to travel to G.R. and attend the wedding. Friday we enjoyed the day by bringing Cal and Hannah lunch at school, celebrating Dad Olson's birthday, and just hanging out. In the evening we enjoyed a Mallekoote family dinner at the fabulous Kobe Grill folllowed by dessert at Cold Stone- what a treat! On Saturday we got to celebrate Mom and Dad M's anniversary, and then we headed to the wedding and reception. We drove back home to Jarvis after dinner. We didn't make it back until about 2:00 a.m. We hit the pillows and were out! Even though it was super quick, it was a fun visit with family and friends- short and sweet.
Below is Zach at Cal and Hannah's school, reading the Star Wars information on the Happy Meal.

Sisters...I love my Sheesh

Grandpa M and Bryce at the wedding

Me, Mom and Zach at the wedding reception.

Under Construction

There is a three-phase plan to remodel our church. The first phase passed so we are currently under construction. A new wing is being built that will provide an office for Zach and our co-pastor (who recently accepted the call- Yeah!), a larger nursery, more classrooms, and craft rooms. It is really exciting to see the progress, and we are looking forward to Zach having an office at church. The construction should be done sometime in November.

Wrapping up the Summer

It's hard to believe that summer is on its way out for the year. This past week Zach and his team wrapped up their summer softball league by playing, and winning, an all day tournament. While we were watching a game I heard some kids playing Jackpot (that game where you toss a football and yell out an amount of money and a group of kids fight to catch the ball). I sat there reminiscing about my childhood days playing games like that, smiling as I listened to sweet, young voices. My sentimental moment was interrupted when I heard a familiar voice that was about an octave lower than all the others hooting and hollering. I turned to see Zach joining in the fun. I have to say he had quite the height advantage, but the kids had a ball with him. (Get it...a "ball!")

Zach and I both continue to golf in our leagues which will both wrap up in the end of September. With the way I've been shooting this year, I don't expect any prizes at the banquet... unless there's some kind of enthusiasm trophy. I had a hard time following the golf etiquette of containing my shouts and screams of joy when one of my teammates had a great shot. Or maybe there's a prize for getting hit by a golf ball...we'll see.
We visited our good friends Jerry and Frieda. Jerry is a volunteer grill master at the retirement home in the area so we came to show our support. Jerry and Frieda "adopted" us as their grand children when we moved to Jarvis. Their hospitality and hugs have been such a comfort. They are a wonderful, wise couple we have come to love. Here is a picture of Jerry and me.

So long old friend

I felt I needed to have some closure after the loss of a long time companion. I got my first Nalgene from Dordt College my sophmore year. That Nalgene has been my faithful companion every day since. Some of our more memorable adventures involved traveling to Nicaragua, China, St. Martin, Jamaica, Cancun and Canada. But after a melting accident in the dishwasher, and the fact that it recently developed a funny odor that I just couldn't get rid of, it was time to say goodbye. (Some family members will be very happy to know that my nasty Nalgene is no more.) :-)

It's time to let go.

Now I have a new Nalgene to enjoy. (Thanks Mom!)

Wet Wild and Crazy Kids

This has been our Wednesday theme the last few weeks. (We stole it from that Nickelodeon show from back in the day.) Zach and I have had a blast hosting the middle-schoolers from church for some fun in the sun. It's been a great way to get to know these kids and have fun at the same time. Throughout the month we've played soccer, baseball and Capture the Flag. We've also had relay races, water balloon tosses and several water fights. Throw in about 35 teenagers, some popsicles, and a guessing game where the prize is a container of candy and you've got some good times.
While we were waiting for the final kids to show up Zach and I decided to have a little fun of our own. We had the kids pose for a group picture. While I was arranging the kids, Zach snuck up to the roof with a bucket of water. (Notice the feet on the roof.) Well....you can guess what happened...

Say Cheese!

There is a park about a five-minute walk from our home so we played our games there. Here is some footage from one of the the water fights.

We ended with a big water fest at our house. Everyone got absolutely soaked...willingly (except for me- I was bamboozled).

Mainstage

It's the long awaited Cornfest weekend here in Jarvis! This is a huge summer event where the community pulls together to put on a big fair full of carnival rides, fried food, vendor booths, games, concerts, crafts, fireworks and tractor pulls (yup, we live in a small town). Our church had a booth set up to invite people to worship with us. Zach and I manned the booth for a two-hour shift and had a great time people watching. We spotted some pretty impressive mullets and got to chat with some fun folks.
On Sunday our church hosted the service. All the local churches and community members were invited. It was a great turn out and Zach got to experience leading worship and preaching on a mainstage. It was fun to see him up there.

It was quite funny to see an enormous blow up beer can right next to the stage. Zach made a joke that if anyone gets lost during the church service all they have to do is look for the enormous beer can and listen for his voice.

Buffalo or Bust

We celebrated our first anniversary by heading to Buffalo for a night away. While we were checking in at the hotel, we told the clerk that we were celebrating our first anniversary and asked, with a smile, if there were any anniversary specials. We were thrilled to get upgraded to a nicer room and receive a $25 voucher to use at the hotel restaurant! Below is a picture of me with our voucher.

Our room opened up right in front of the pool. We went for a swim before dinner. The hotel was next to the airport so we had fun watching planes (one of Zach's favorite things to do) while we swam.


We planned to go out to Olive Garden for our anniversary dinner, but found out there was a Famous Daves right down the road. Since we went to Famous Daves for the majority of our dates, we thought it fitting to go there (plus we were both craving some good meat). As Zach would say, "Oh Ye-yah!"

We played the anniversary card, along with the Olson charm, at the restaurant and our waitress was kind enough to bring us a free dessert to celebrate!


We spent the evening reflecting on the past year of marriage: what we've learned, the surprises, our favorite things about marriage, areas of growth, goals for the future... It was a great getaway and a habit we hope to continue in the coming years. We praise God for the gift of marriage every day, and had a wonderful time celebrating.

Hannah's Here!

After the reunion we brought Hannah home with us for a few days (Wahoo!). It was a lot of fun to have her stay with us. We had a movie night, a pedicure night, a beach day, a date night (Hannah and Zach).... but my favorite memory was dancing in the kitchen with Hannah to Kung Fu Fighting...Hoo...Hah!
For dinner the first night we made breakfast for dinner- AKA: Brinner! Hannah is a pro pancake flipper.

Hannah and I took a long stroll around Simcoe one afternoon. There is an on-going joke in the family over the fact that I put too much salt on my food. We noticed a sign for the movie "Salt." I asked if she knew what that one was about and she cracked me up by responding, "No, but I know you would love it!" So we took a picture to remember the funny moment.

It was the sweetest thing. Every morning while I was getting breakfast ready, Zach and Hannah would go out to the garden to check on the growth of our vegetables.

Hannah and I had a girls day out at the beach with some friends. It was the perfect beach day weather. We spent the afternoon playing in the sand, giving each other mud baths (much cheaper than the spa), and ended with slushies.



Burying each other in the sand.

Zach and Hannah had their daily tickle fights...

By the end of the visit we were pooped.

Nyp Reunion...eh!

We got together for a family reunion in Sarnia, Ontario. A grand time was had by all. It was great to get to know my new family and spend some time together. Along with great conversation and delicious food, the fun included games of Flimsy, Baggo, Washers, water fights, a water balloon toss, and a softball game. I feel so thankful to be part of such a fun-loving, warm family. These folks know how to have a good time.

Cal brought along his magnetic fake earring, which led to a few shrieks. Dad Olson and Zach gave it a whirl to see if it added to their coolness. Like Father...

Like son... The wife verdict is in...Nope!

Zach and Devon playing Washers.

There was even a fishing game for the kids where they tossed a fishing line over a tarp and got a prize. Cal got a yo-yo which he was excited to try out.