Visit from the Grandparents

Grandma and Grandpa Hall came from Buffalo to visit us! We spent the first night at our house in Fairview, then headed to the new house in Hood River for the next 2 nights. 

We spent most of Friday working - painting, cleaning and doing little things to get the house ready. Then we cleaned up and went out for dinner.

I pulled the "it's my birthday and I want a family photo" stunt. The rest of my family wasn't thrilled.

Saturday we did a little more work, but mostly we made it a day of fun. We went to the farmer's market, walked around downtown Hood River, went to a winery and found some pretty flowers to look at.

Sunday was church in the morning, and then we played at our favorite Hood River winery. Towards the end, quite a few of our friends had arrived and we had pizza and cake to celebrate my birthday. Then everyone stopped by the new house for a tour. 

It was a great balance of productivity and fun! And now it's back to packing and moving. Carpet gets installed this week and Saturday is the big moving day.

Fun in Michigan

After Chicago, Kevin and I headed to western Michigan to meet up with our girls and Grandma and Grandpa Redman. When we got there Sydney was driving around the park in the golf cart so we hopped on.

We did so many things during our four days there....pontoon boat ride, dune buggy ride, walked the dunes, rode kayaks, swam, ate ice cream, 14 mile bike ride, zip line, go carts and more....

On Saturday my good friend from high school came over from the Detroit area and spent the day and evening with us. She has two daughters ages 10 and 7 and our girls had a great time together.

My Grandma, Swimming and a Birthday Party

We took the girls' violins with us so they could play for Grandma. Since we play at a local nursing home every month, it only seemed logical to play for Grandma and the residents at her nursing home. I think they gave 3 different concerts. The first day they wore their Elsa dresses.

Elsa 1 and Elsa 2

On Monday we headed out to a friend's lake for what I thought was going to be an afternoon of swimming, but ended up being a surprise birthday party for me. Friends and cousins came to see me and celebrate with me!

Robin and her kids were there. (Robin was my maid of honor and like my sister growing up. She is mom to Ava and Hayden who are now 10). I challenged Robin to a paddle board race - neither of us had ever done it and it was actually fairly easy.

The girls with Ava...

My cousins from Tiskilwa came down...Beth (the mom is my first cousin) and her girls Amanda (my flower girl and on the left below), Malinda (on the right) and Katelyn (not pictured).

Tuesday ended up being an extra day since Kevin didn't want me to meet him in Chicago until Wednesday. So we headed to a friend's pool. Robin and her kids joined us and the pool was FULL of kids!

Wednesday I headed up to Chicago to meet Kevin and the girls went with Grandma and Grandpa Redman to Michigan. Kevin was attending his annual AACC conference and was staying right on Michigan Avenue. It's been years since I was on Michigan Avenue and it was fun to walk around.

to be continued...