Turkeypalooza!

WARNING! A gazillion photos to follow! 

Mostly of cute kids though, so pick your poison I suppose :)

Both of my brothers and their families were in town for Thanksgiving. Currently that comes to 16.5 people! We packed the days and had fun! fun! fun!

Wednesday we all started our day in a delicious way - breakfast at grandma's!

 Followed by some target practice and coloring

 And a good amount of vegging

Later in the afternoon Ellen came to visit her cousin cat. She was feeding her from her hand! Too cute!

Then it was a trip to the Gardens. That place is just amazing, so much to see and do time and time again.

The evening brought more coloring and shenanigans...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cousin time and then football and coloring with Uncle Peter. She drew a 'Prce Trcey' (Perky Turkey)

 This year's spread! Yum! Another fine display of mom's beautiful pie making too.

 Photobombed!

A few evening snuggles with Grammy and Granpy before bed :)

Friday we kept the party rolling starting with breakfast at the Grand Coney, also yum!

 Thumbs up!

The whole gang! Soon to be outdated. That's been happening a lot in the last decade :)

Speaking of rolling, next it was off to bowling! SO fun! We got to bowl on the second floor!

 Everyone got in on the action!

 Grandpa, NOW what's my score?! (every time)

 Just when you thought we were done, you were wrong! Next stop was the museum!

Including the planetarium for a holiday musical show!

Ellen was using a 'Magnum-Flying-Glass' to look at coins :)

 Horse rides!

 Grace biked the streets of old Grand Rapids and Sam had a possum crawl up his arm!

 Uncle Peter got booked!

For our last dinner together we had a pizza birthday party!

Four birthdays in less than a month calls for cake! or two!

Only girls get presents though, unless you count a text, then I nailed it for my brothers too :)

Marta kinda decided walking was for her, especially if she could check out Virginia in doing so

And to wrap things up, Mos and Clara were caught sharing, even with Uncle Peter :)

And then we all took a huge nap and another week off just to recover ;)

O Kittybaum

It is ridiculous how much our little kitten loves a Christmas tree. Major high energy spaz on and in it and then a total crash under it. Saturday was her day and she loved it.

Helping the Cat Dad

 Calm and bright :)

Season's greetings!

From our house and menagerie to yours!

Wooden Shoes...

Wooden head...Wooden listen.

Sound like anyone you might know?

We were recently privileged to hear Army General David Petraeus speak at the Dutch American Heritage Day dinner. Who knew he's Dutch?!  He was a wonderful speaker; insightful and very genuine, laughing (kinda losing it even) at himself/his own Dutch jokes!

It was an honor for both Peter and me to meet him.

Thank you Kari and Jason for another great year!

Good Gatherings

Any time a giant trash bag of popcorn is brought to Youth Group you can almost guarantee it's going to be a good night, couple that with three boxes of Sandy's doughnuts and you can just get right out!

Friday night we bid a fond farewell to Peter's grandma for the winter. Her request for Christmas was only for pictures to be text throughout the winter. Anyone else willing to get on that gift train, please let me know!

Saturday brought a most lovely bridal shower for a truly wonderful friend. I still look back and marvel that God had good plans for the time we each spent with Cedarville Tennis...I know I had my doubts at times, I'm sure she did too :)

We rounded out Saturday with a 40th Super Hero birthday party for our friend Dan. His wife Tonya really went all out. You can see why they typically win trunk or treat :)

Gather 'round the good stuff, people.

It's the Keys!

If there's one thing I've learned since marrying Senor Pedro it's that I shall not offer unsolicited fashion advice. In this department he knows his mind and will not be swayed, not without a ridiculous argument anyway. So Peter packed nothing, assuring me that the 10 year old t-shirts he keeps squirreled away in his parent's condo would be just fine for all his needs. After all, 'It's the Keys!'

ok. Sounds good. whatever. Please pull my carry-on. :)

We got to FL on Thursday and met his cousin Julie and her husband Tommy at the Avis counter. Peter's parents were already there and we arrived just in time for a late afternoon walk on the beach and dinner.

Friday morning it was shopping for the girls and fishing off the dock for the boys. That was actually all day for the boys.

A little pool time too.

In the evening Peter fried the fruits of their labor. Yum! When's Lent?! I love fried fish!

We drove down to Deer Key to look for the tiny deer that live there. They're regular whitetails but because of the climate and terrain they dont get much bigger than a big dog and are very used to people. Turns out this little guy likes peppermints :)

Saturday we decided to visit Key West. That's an interesting place. :)

I felt like I was in good company though! 

Our first stop after lunch was Hemingway's house. There are 54 kitties on the grounds! Joy!

This one cracks me up, the first kitty Peter saw he petted and then tried to pick up, this is his face when the guide told him no picking up the cats! ha!

After visiting Hemingway we walked to the Southernmost Point in the US. I think it got hotter with every step we took!

We did a few more touristy things while we were there, including drinking from a coconut and taking our photo at Mile 0 on Hwy 1.

 Sunday morning brought more fishing off the dock, lunch at the Key's Fisheries where they have a Lobster Reuban! and a trip to Islamorada and the huge fishing store there.

Everyone gets a turn in the face board! Peter the Mermaid! hehehe

We bought these for our nursery, shopping with Peter is good training ground for shopping with kids, 'please can we get the duck too! Please!'

The last few hours of daylight we enjoyed the pool, it was a lovely way to round out the day. 

Until we meet again Florida Keys!