Thinking of my dad on my birthday!

From Grandpa videos

One of the amazing things about my dad was that singing was a part of who he was. I remember him singing as he drove and singing as he worked. He loved to sing at church. So I thought I'd share one of his favorite songs with all of you! He's painting the finial of our victorian style house in SF--way up on the scaffolding!

Ready or not....

Here I come! Lilly has learned the fine points of Hide and Seek. She was at our house for dinner this week and discovered the small door to the ironing board closet. She positioned herself behind the door and started counting. Meg and Sheila hid in the living room and after counting to 10 and saying "Ready or not, here I come!" Lilly ran looking for them. It didn't take her long to unearth them. Wow! That's a little girl in action!

October Fun!

Big news! Our household has expanded. Liz has joined Dan, Sheila and I. She is full of energy and life so we are all enjoying her presence.

We got to go apple picking with Lilly and Peter and Meg on Saturday. It was a beautiful fall day! We picked lots of apples. As you can see Lilly was too busy to pose with us!

My cousin, Mary, came down from Dinkytown, Minnesota, for the weekend. She and her friend spent this morning with us. We took them up through the woods on our Holy Cross College walk. It was great to see Mary. We listened to Hawaiian music while having breakfast together and talked about our great 2002 visit to Hawaii.

Household Reunion

We had a very fun weekend with Jenny who came all the way from Portland to visit us! Friday night we had a big party. We spent the weekend in South Haven enjoying the beauty of Lake Michigan. Gretchen and Sean joined us for Lord's Day, and then we ended the evening with a fun trip to Sherman's for ice cream. Monday, Gloria gave Jenny and I a tour of downtown Goshen. The highlight was the chocolate soda at the Soda Shop!

It was very encouraging to hear of all the great things going on in the Portland/Vancouver branch. It was a refreshing weekend for all of us. We missed our dear friend, Madeleine. We enjoyed some goat cheese in her honor. She's at Harvard working hard on her qualifying paper.

Fun with Lilly!

Dan and I had the privilege of watching Lilly this weekend. Peter and Meg went to Chicago for the weekend and the Cubs game Saturday afternoon. Lilly wore her Cubs outfit in their honor. She does a great rendition of take me out to the ball game. She loves!!!! stickers as you can see from her face. We took her to the little park nearby for some recreation. She is a swinger who likes to sing. She sang her A,B,C's and wanted lots of songs sung to her. It was a treat to have her spend the weekend.

Lilly's 2nd birthday

We had fun celebrating Lilly's 2nd birthday. She enjoyed all her friends who came her to her party today. She laughed and squealed for joy!

Lilly and I visited Liz's work place earlier this week. All the residents were delighted with her! She gave them all high 5's. A few of them sat out on the patio with us. Lilly sat in a rocker and rocked and rocked while we sang songs to her. It was so neat to see how much the residents loved having her there.

Pete's 2nd birthday

I thought it would be fun to see how Peter looked when he turned 2. I was delighted to see that Peter got to be with all his grandparents that year, 1979. We think I flew out to SF with Pete and then we flew to Utah. Dan drove out to meet us in Provo so that we could visit with Grandpa George who was suffering from lung cancer. He was blessed to get to meet all his grandparents.

I also wanted to remember my mom and dad. This week would be their 57th anniversary and my mom's birthday. It is so neat that Lilly's birthday is so close to her great-grandma's birth date.

And while I was looking at pictures I came across these pictures of Carolyn. Big similarity to her Jane! Especially with her thumb in her mouth!