JOY!

check out this video!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

summer days

It seems like this summer is just slipping away from me, way too quickly. I am now realizing that all of the things that I thought I would Would accomplish this summer must be done in the near future, or I will soon be embarking on another school year with no time for all of these chores. However, our Michigan summer weather has been perfect this year, the sun is out, the water is warm, the waves are big, and the friends are close by. We are reminded that this is why we call West Michigan home!


We stayed at a cottage for a week with my family and found a cherry orchard nearby that was bursting with wonderful, juicy cherries that were crying out to be picked.

Sleeping Bear dunes must be one of the most beautiful places in the world, or at least in Michigan. We spent about 10 minutes to get to the bottom of the dune where this photo was taken. It took us about 45 minutes to get back up. Summer just doesn't get much better than this. If you haven't enjoyed the Lake Michigan lakeshore, come and stay with us in the summer, we would love to show you the sights.

Our adventure continues!

The kids and I are still enjoying ourselves in sunny Florida. We are schooling in the morning, and playing in the afternoon. Last week we were able to spend a lot of time in the pools and lazy rivers here at the resort. This week we are putting in time at the Disney parks. Despite a nasty virus that all of the kids have now had, we have been having a lot of fun. We are all looking forward to Chad joining us in next week.

Lily is quite pleased with her new pink scuba set. She has been working hard on some new water tricks with them.

Max and Lily were pleased to have a Mickey and Minnie made out of balloons. Oh, to be a kid again!

The rain did not keep us out of Hollywood Studios on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it didn't keep anybody else away either. Seriously, what does it take to slow down Disney???? If a bad economy combined with a lousy day in an off month will not do it, I don't know what will!!

Today it was sunny at Magic Kingdom. We were able to ride a bunch of great rides. Grandpa even talked Max into riding the Pirates of the Carribean ride with us. All it took was a promise to buy him a new pin for the lanyard that he his sporting in the picture. When Grandpa made the offer, I'm not sure that he realized that those pins cost a pretty penny!

Fun in Florida

I finally found my camera, so I thought I would post some pictures of the fun that the kids and I have been having in Florida. We are spending the month of February in sunny Orlando, staying with Chad's parents in a wonderful condo on Disney grounds. Chad will fly down in a few weeks to join us for some fun in the sun. After being away from him for a week already, we can hardly wait to see him.
There is more fun and entertainment around here than we can possibly take in on any day. Actually, we could probably fit it all in if we were on vacation, however, we are still schooling despite daily protests from the kids!

Here, Gabbie, Lily and Max had their faces painted. This was no ordinary face painting! The lady that did this works at Universal Studios painting faces on the characters there. She was amazing (and very fast.)
This seems to be the highlight of the day for Max and Lily. Unlocking the door with the key...the only thing that is as much fun is pushing the buttons on the elevator.

Here, Max and Lily were helping the magician do some magic. They were both so very excited!
Mini golf is right outside the door, so we have been playing a lot of it!
Now that I have my camera, I will keep you updated on our adventures!

Gabbie's Oil Painting

A few weeks ago, Gabbie brought this beautiful oil painting home from her art class. She had been working on it for weeks and it is now on display in our living room.

Nice work, Gabbie.

Thanksgiving Preparation

As you can see in the photos, we have been getting ready for Thanksgiving and Gabbie, Lily, and our neighbor, Claudia helped by decorating some special cookies.




Will and Jake "helped" with the cookies also.?!

It's always sunny in Michigan?

This weekend, our friends shared their kiddos with us while they were out of town. We decided to take them on a wild adventure to my parent's playland in their backyard. The kids had a blast and we felt like the day was a success because we all played hard and nobody got hurt! (Well, there we no serious injuries, anyway).

Gabbie and Sophie tear up the pavement on the go-cart.

Sophie takes a wild ride on the zip line.

Contrary to what you may think, your seat cushion will NOT serve as a life preserver on John Deere tractors.

Sara quickly got the hang of the dirt bike.

For more pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/ctiesma/20091110?authkey=Gv1sRgCLb4nOjC5KfSYA&feat=directlink

Trick or Treat

We had a ton of fun celebrating Halloween. My wonderful wife made a great meal and planned a whole day of fun with her parents and brother's family joining us.

This year, Lily was particularly excited about halloween. She has been asking for about three weeks "Is it Halloween today?" And finally, we could answer in the affirmative. When we went out to Trick or Treat, she would run between houses and yell "TRICK OR TREAT!!!!" Then, of course, all of our neighbors gave her candy.

Could life get any better?? I submit that it cannot!

Gabbie as Lucy Pevensie, Lily as a "Buzz Buzz", Max as Mr. Incredible, Will as Jedi Luke Skywalker. My neice, Sarah, dressed as an adorable HSM Cheerleader and Matthew dressed as Harley, the biker.

Twitter will kill you, DCB rocks!!!

Will's 10th!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Things have been going very well here. School has started. Summer seems to have finally arrived (I know it's September). And we celebrated Will's 10th Birthday!!!!
Will is such a great guy. He is fun to be with, confident and talented in many ways. We spent a lot of time this week remembering great stories from Will's first 10 years. What excites me more than looking back, is the thought of looking forward. I am confident that the next ten years will be full of even more wonderful stories.

More Wedding Pictures

Gabbie asked me to put some more pictures from Scott and Kim's wedding on the blog....

So here they are.

A weekend of celebration!!!

It seems as though summer is rushing by and I am just barely keeping up. This summer has been filled with a lot of traveling, a lot of family time, and many wonderful memories. There are so many things that I have wanted to blog about and haven't. However, I really want to make sure that I post these pictures and take a minute to write a few "mushy" sentiments about this amazing wedding weekend where we celebrated my wonderful bother-in-law marrying an amazing, sweet, fun, and beautiful (inside and out) woman. We are so happy for the two of them!
The wedding was very much a "storybook" event. They were married on top of a mountain overlooking Lake Superior. After the ceremony, a beatiful rainbow appeared in the sky. It was truly a lovely day. God has been very good in bringing these two people together.
It was a very long way for our family to travel, but it was worth every minute of time in order to be there and share in their joy.

Here is Scott with his beautiful bride, Kim.

Max and Lily had a great time celebrating!!

Gabbie (12) and Will (almost 10) are seeming so grown up now days. They had so much fun seeing their uncle get married. Also, they are pretty excited about their new "Ahnt" (in Minnesota, they don't say "aunt", they say "ahnt"....yes, a bit confusing, but we are working on it!)

On Fire!

Max can Dig It!

Will gets Board

Adorable!!!

Olympic Training

Watch for Lily in the 2020 Olympics!!

For this next video, you should know that Gabbie and Will were practicing how to dive. After much encouragement and assistance they were both successful, so Lily decided to give it a shot. Here is her first try, completely self motivated and unassisted.

Sprink Smidge for LUNATICS like US!

We are on another family adventure this weekend to visit my brother in MN. On the way, we discovered the the fabled partially sprinkled doughnut is actually available at Dunkin Donuts in Illinois.


Here's a little secret about our family.... Everyday, something happens that reminds us of a Brian Regan bit. Here's a link to the Donut Lady bit that we have relived each time we enter, pass or even think about a bakery.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Yzb3WhnQo




Here's a picture of Will's Sprink Smidge. It was delectible!

A Video Update

Oh my what an incredible adventure this has been. The past few days have been full of so many stories and great experiences for our entire family. We left Antigua on Wednesday afternoon to go to Santiago Atitlan. We drove (well Venicio did the driving) through many small villages, a busy town (Chimaltenango) and up into the mountains. We traveled on the main highway but still, the road was incredibly narrow. The entire trip was on a paved road but there were about 10-12 bridges and turns that only one car could pass at a time. Venecio drove us to Panajechel where we boarded a boat to ride across Lake Atitlan to Santiago - a 25 minute ride.

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Here, I had to leave a few bags behind to help Lily and Max negotiate the sand covered rocks.

It was a rough ride with 2-3 foot waves.

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I LOVE being married to this woman!!

I find myself staring at her many times on this vacation and wondering things like -

"She is so good to me."

" She is gorgeous."

"What a great Mom."

"Why do these crazy vacations make us so happy?"

We arrived at La Posada de Santiago and with much help, lugged all of our bags from the dock up to La Hacienda - about 100 feet up the mountain. We only had enough time to swim in the pool for a few minutes when it started to rain. Rain like it does not rain back home.

Then the power went out. But they were still able to serve dinner. In fact, everything on the menu was available, except drinks that required the blender. If you listen closely to the audio, you can hear our dinner entertainment. Gabbie and Will treating us and the few other guests to a pop bottle version of "Hot Cross Buns".

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The next morning was a cool and misty, but we could see the volcano across the bay very well. It rained again that afternoon, although not as heavy. Then we left on Friday morning to visit with Dora and Ruben in the city. After another 3 hour drive we arrived and they were very gracious hosts. Teh served a great meal and even tought Carrie how to make Tamales. They were delicious.