Cool Cousin Shindig of 2011 Wahoo!

My mom, Aunt Cindy, and my cousin Lindsey came for a visit!! Whenever the four of us get together we have a fabulous time full of laughter, adventures, laughter, games, and great memories. (Did I mention laughter?) And this was no exception.
They arrived on a Wednesday evening. I was waiting on pins and needles and thrilled to finally see the car pull into the driveway. I learned they were quite thrilled to arrive as well since their GPS stopped working because it said it could no longer find a signal. Thankfully, Mom's instincts from a previous visit led her to the right house.
After unloading and catching up a bit, we headed out for dinner together. We enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner at a local restaurant.
Mother daughter...

And another mother daughter shot...

After a good nights rest we woke up and headed to Stratford to see a play and enjoy the sights of the beautiful city. We arrived about thirty minutes before a play began and ended up getting discounted tickets- score! Unfortunately they were nose bleed seats, but hey, we didn't mind. Here we are ready to head to the beautiful theater.

Stratford is known for Shakespeare plays. So we chose to see a Shakespeare play entitled, "The Twelfth Night." I had a very difficult time understanding the old language so Lindsey kept whispering updates in my ear as to what was going on. Here we are in the theater after our cultured afternoon.

We headed outside and had some fun playing and looking at the statues and gardens in front of the theater.


"To be or not to be..."


We went into Stratford and enjoyed a delicious meal together. Then we headed back to the theater for the second play of the day, Camelot! It was fabulous!! I enjoyed it much more than the first since I could understand what the actors were saying. Of course we sang the Camelot songs together the rest of the evening.
The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and embarked upon our next adventure, Niagara Falls! And see Niagara Falls we did! We got a package deal where we got to go on a double decker bus tour of the falls, then go on a Journey Behind the Falls, followed by the famous, Maid of the Mist tour!
Sisters enjoying the sights of the beautiful falls...

Here is a picture from the Double Decker Bus tour.

Next was the Journey Behind the Falls- so cool!

It's impossible to capture how powerful and incredible the falls are. But I took this video to give you a feel of how awesome it is.




The four of us getting misted by the falls.

And finally, the Maid of the Mist tour!


The ghost of the Maid of the Mist actually made an appearance on our boat (AKA Lindsey). :-)


After an exciting and wet day, we headed back to Jarvis and met Zach for dinner and icecream. Then we drove home to play some games.


Oh wow, what a whirlwind of laughter, fun times, and great memories. Thank you so much for coming and spending a few days together. You are welcome back anytime!!

Heat Wave of 2011

Zach and I came to GR to visit friends and family for a weekend. Because I am not working I was able to leave a few days before Zach and stay a few days after he left to get in some extra fun with the fam.
I was so excited to see my friend Heidi. She had a beautiful little boy in January and I was thrilled to finally meet him! It was so neat to see my friend as a mom. She is a wonderful mother (I had no doubts.)

Here we are together.

Later in the evening my friend, Laura, came over with her big boy. It was so fun to play with him in the pool and spend some time with my friend.


Over the next few days I spend a lot of time by the pool. It was so hot, there was no other place to be comfortable! I also got to see my adorable nieces and nephews having fun in the water.
Cutie pie Daniel...

My sister, Jayne, and one of her boys, Blake, had a great time swimming together. He is quite the little swimmer!

Pieter

Sarah

Bryson

Rachel. I didn't get any good shots of Matthew- sorry buddy!

We had a wonderful dinner with Mom and Dad Mallekoote. We had some long overdue Mothers/Fathers day cards and birthday presents to give them.

A perfect gift for my coffee drinking Scrabble champ!




My grandma came over to help babysit on Friday. It was so wonderful to see her and catch up a bit.

Another evening Zach and I got together with our good friends, Steve and Jules. They also had a baby in January so we were thrilled to meet their precious little guy. We had a fun evening at a fair watching a model airplane show.

Micah on a big tractor.

The whole group.

On Saturday we headed to Dad and Tracy's for Aunt Kim's birthday party! It was a laughter filled day- never a dull moment with this group. Here is Zach, Alicia, Ben and I posing for a picture. (I think Zach missed the cue.) :-)

Hannah serenaded us with some songs on the violin.

After everyone left, we headed to Dairy Dip for a cool treat on such a hot evening.

We went out for dinner with the Olsons the next night for Aunt Kim's birthday dinner. Hannah surprised Aunt Kim by playing Happy Birthday while we sang along! Turned out there were two more birthday dinners that evening so Hannah went and played for each table as well!

I got to spend some time at the cottage...so wonderful! Here I am with Pieter and Sarah all sun-screened up and ready for embrace the heat.

Pieter went tubing for the first time!

Grandpa wearing Sarah's sun hat. :-)

I am so thankful I got to tube and ski- it felt so good! Another highlight of the cottage was going for pontoon boat rides. Captain Pieter is ready to take this baby for a spin!

We like to stop in the middle of the lake and go for a swim. Here is my mom, two of her sisters, plus a grand daughter, enjoying a dip.

What a wonderful visit. I wish it could have lasted longer. It was so good to see everyone!

Roo Time!

My dear friend, Carrie, came for a visit- Yeah!! She arrived and was excited to see her welcome sign.

We enjoyed chatting and catching up while cutting up some veggies for dinner.

After dinner she showed me some of her recent pictures.

Some of them were pretty funny!

In the morning we picked up our tradition of working out together...It feels like just yesterday when we were working out in her classroom in GR after a day of teaching. Feel the burn!

We decided to travel to Niagara Falls to visit the Butterfly Conservatory.

Funny Story- We asked if there was a teacher discount for admission to the Butterfly Conservatory. We were pleased to find out that there was one. But the only problem was they needed to see proof that we are teachers. So we started scrounging around our purses to find anything to prove we are teachers. I couldn't find anything official but I did find a little note that one of my students had given to me on the last day of school. So I showed that to the admissions guy; he laughed and gave us the discount!

We watched an educational video about butterflies before entering the conservatory. We learned that there are over 10,000 different species of butterflies! Wow, do we serve a creative God!



I loved this tree- I have no idea what kind it is, but it sure is pretty.

Our goal was to have butterflies land on us. After many attempts I finally got one to join me. Carrie had one on her back at one point but it flew off before I could get a picture.

After a wonderful drive back to Jarvis we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Boston Pizza.

We couldn't head back home without a cool treat from Dairy Queen.

Roo, thank you so much for coming to visit. I enjoyed every minute: the heart talks, gut wrenching laughter, morning devos, and adventures on the road. I cherish the wonderful memories we made and look forward to making more on our next visit!

Independence Celebrations!

On the 4th of July we had some friends over for our monthly get together. We like to get together and have a themed dinner followed by games. So this night, our theme was the 4th of July of course! They even came dressed for the night.

Jeremiah had fun making the pinwheel spin.

Ingrid and I were on the same team for Flimsy; unfortunately the guys creamed us. Here we are before the game enjoying the festivities.

We had a great evening with delicious food, backyard games and even Scattergories! Here is the whole gang.

We had a little fun surprise for dessert. We made two special jello desserts to honor two wonderful countries.