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And the family keeps growing and growing and growing...

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Soccer & Summer Fun

Last weekend, Phil and I ventured to the beautiful town of Holland for a soccer tournament that his u14 girls team was playing in. We stayed in a hotel in Holland with the rest of the team and their family along with about 6 other soccer teams that were there for the tournament as well. Friday night Phil took on a few of the girls in a pickup game of bball at the hotel (demonstrating why some of them are only soccer players).

Saturday they had games throughout the day, intermixed with swimming, eating, sleeping and of course just being their general rowdy selves. Saturday night the girls played at a school with a pretty awesome playground. Of course they wore themselves out on the playground before the game started and Phil was not happy. After the game, the girls played a rousing game of hide & seek throughout the hotel while Phil and I played euchre with a few of the parents.

Sunday was another game in the morning and then off to my favorite cousin Greg’s house for a spectacular Memorial Day bbq. It was a beautiful day filled with delicious food and great company. I spent most of the time hanging out with my favorite “second” cousins and hearing all about the last 6 months of their lives!! It was a lot of fun. After the bbq, we drove back to Kalamazoo to pick Tula up from “Grandma” Amsterburg’s house. We had lunch & more important ICE CREAM with Phil’s mom and then finally made it home to crash.

Phil playing basketball with the girls at our hotel.
Some of the girls on the playground before their game.
More playground fun.
Part of the team relaxing before their game.
BBQ fun at the Beviers.

My favorite second cousins!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Construction Update: New Garage

Here are some recent pictures of the construction progress. They've pretty much finished with the basics for the bedroom/bathroom, now they've moved on to the new garage construction.

Here they've dug the trenchs so they can pour the footings (or at least that's what the construction guy said).


They put the windows in for the new bedroom.

The footings are poured and the framing is up now too!


Side view where the service door will be.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Happy Birthday Aunt Mariell

Saturday we attended Aunt Mariell’s (Phil’s great aunt) 80th birthday party. It was a big shin-dig with a punch fountain and everything. She was very surprised and had a wonderful time visiting with all of her old friends and family.

After the party, Phil’s soccer team had a game, we won’t talk about how they did. Then we went to dinner in Richland with Grandma, Uncle Jan, Rob & Jon. Grandma and I kept the boys pretty well inline and we were able to have a very nice dinner.

Sunday morning we had breakfast with the Amsterburg family and then lunch with the Maltby family and then drove to Sturgis for another soccer game, again we won’t talk about how they did. By the time we got home on Sunday night, we were whooped! It was a really fun weekend filled with lots of family.

Phil & Grandma Amsterburg at the party.


Little Robbie showing off his drum sticks.


Aunt Mariell then...


Aunt Mariell now... (I love the purple tiara she's rockin too!)


The boys at dinner (Jon, Rob & Uncle Jan)

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

crazy brawl in the Calhoun County courts

This crazy guy in Battle Creek shot his wife & son. Yesterday the judge delivered a guilty verdict to him which then caused him to go crazy and attack a nearby police officer to grab his gun. The police officers eventually get control, but it's pretty scary... espceially since this is all taking place in the same building where Phil works!

Watch the video:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1111405973/bclid1137706675/bctid1551055723

Monday, May 12, 2008

the beard will protect us

This past weekend we took a road trip to North Carolina. Thursday night after I got out of class (yeah that’s right at about 9pm), Phil and I packed up our things, picked up Jon & Erin in Indiana and headed south to North Carolina for Phil’s friend Pete’s wedding. The total driving time was somewhere between 11 and 12 hours…which means we made it there about 11:30am on Friday. There was a small delay at about 6:30am in West Virginia when a semi-truck jack knifed across the highway and spilled diesel fuel all over the place… meaning we were completely stopped in traffic for about an hour (at this point we had all been up for over 24 hrs).


We finally made it to the hotel, which was shadier than we thought. Apparently someone set the Wal-Mart on fire right by the hotel and the national disaster team flew into to help and was staying at our hotel. I could go on and on about how “great” our hotel was, but let me just sum it up by saying, Jon & Erin’s toilet seat was not attached to the actual seat, their “non-smoking” room could have given anyone with asthma a serious attack and our toilet took 2 or 3 tries to flush each time…in short, it was the type of place that you wore shoes in the shower. The pool had no water although we were assured that it would be open by the end of the week… not sure how they measure weeks in North Carolina, but apparently not the same as we do in the North.

Friday afternoon, Erin & I went to a “winery” for some taste testing & wine purchasing. I use “winery” in the loosest sense of the word, as it was a store in a strip mall. Friday night we attended the rehearsal dinner at Pete & Crystal’s house (that was 1.5 hrs away from where we were staying and where the hotel was… but that is another story). Saturday morning, we took a trip to a cool little park that was nearby that had tons of things to do like a petting zoo, mini-golf, gem finding, paddle boats and train rides. On our way, we stopped at a “yard sale” where Erin bought an antique coffee maker. At the park, we played mini-golf and went paddle boating. It was a very fun day.


We made it back in time for a few drinks before we went to the “dry” wedding… which is a whole different post. Saturday night was the (what we will now call infamous) wedding. Sunday morning the boys woke us up at 5am to get started on our drive home. The drive home was relatively uneventful aside from Jon’s muffin/granola bar stick challenge.


Here are some pictures from our trip: (there are lots more pictures on my snapfish link http://www2.snapfish.com/photolibrary/owned_view=owned_2007/t_=74959280)

Jon & Erin on the way down.


Here we are completely stopped in traffic at 6:30am.


Erin & I at the "winery."


Erin, Jon & I on our way to the rehearsal dinner.


Erin & I at the yard sale.


Playing mini golf. By the way, all of us got hole in ones... except Jon that is.


Phil after


Erin & Jon on the paddle boats... we really wanted to rent the swans... but we were denied!


Pete & I dancing at the wedding.


Phil, Mike & Jon doing... boy things at the wedding.


Phil and I at the wedding.


Jon & his muffin with granola bar stick, it's better not to ask.

Monday, May 5, 2008

We have power... Almost!

This weekend, Jon & Erin came up to stay with us for the weekend so that the boys could work on the electrical in our new bedroom and bathroom. While the boys were hard at work, Erin & I took the doggies (350 pounds of them) to the annual Dog Walk-a-thon at Prairie View Park. It was interesting to say the least, they were all very excited to see the other dogs. I think Erin & I are both sore from "walking" the dogs. It was very cool to see so many different dogs all in one place. We also got to see my friend Kelly & her Mom, which was really fun too.

After the dog walking, Jon & I went to watch Phil's team play soccer...only in Michigan can I be sweating in the morning and getting rained on and freezing by 4pm. Aside from the weather, the game was good. The girls won 1-0 and the fans almost got taken out by hurricane force winds (or at least it felt that way).

Saturday night was some more electrical work and of course a nice big home made pizza!

Sunday, I worked in the yard most of the day digging up plants and moving them to a "safer" place. Next Monday, the new garage construction is going to start & they will be digging up the existing sidewalk... so all the surrounding plants must go!

After my yard work, I met my friend Amy and her daughter Juliana for lunch. I think the waiter got annoyed with us when we still hadn't ordered any food after about an hour... oh well. We got to catch up and I got to spend time with my friend and my niece. It was awesome!!

Here is a picture of Jon working hard...no Jon, I'm not going to point out what you are using...
Jon & Phil
Here is Erin & Lola at the dog walk.
Juliana eating her cookie.


I kept trying to get a picture of Juliana giving Amy a kiss, but she was too fast & my camera was too slow. So this is as close as I got!... It's still cute :)

Here is Juliana giving me a kiss goodbye.