This week's post is as scant on photos as last week's was short on words. All the same, we packed a lot in.
Tuesday , July 30 – Hallie worked her last Tuesday morning
for the month of July. Even just one more day a week starting work at 4:45 AM is
too much! Landon had his friend Owen over for a few hours while Dorene took
Eliza to the pool. It was a pretty good exchange, and Hallie even got a nap out
of it. Owen had a make-up class at gymnastics, and so Hallie took him when she
took Landon to his gymnastics lesson. The boys had a blast that whole day!
After gymnastics, Hallie and the boys headed to American Gymnastics to meet
Coach Joey who is the coach of the boys pre-team. The facility is amazingly
clean and professional, and it made an overall good impression on Hallie.
Landon spent about 15 minutes with Coach Joey. The coach wanted to see his
strength and coordination, and Landon showed him just that. Anytime Landon can
show you a round-off he will. What a great experience it was to watch Landon show
the coach his amazing skills!
Wednesday, July 31 – Today was an adventure! Or at least
Hallie was thinking it was going to be. Work started early, and Hallie was
giddy the whole time for their upcoming outings. Mike dropped the kids off at
Hallie’s work when she got off, and Hallie and the kids headed off to complete
two errands. After errands they picked up a new friend, Vanessa, who had
recently moved into the branch and her 10 month old Layla, and off they went to
speech for Eliza. Everyone ate out at Olga’s, and that was exciting with 3 kids
who know how to make a mess. After lunch the gang was off to find Sister
Marshall. Sister Marshall was a sister missionary who served in our area while
waiting for her visa to head down to Brazil. Sister Marshall was not supposed
to be transferred this last transfer, but one hour before the sisters were
supposed to leave the house the mission president called and said Sister
Marshall was to be transferred. We did
not get to say good bye and were pretty bummed, so we went to her new area in Ann
Arbor to find her. After telling a small fib to the Sister in the office we got
her phone number. We gave Sister Marshall a ring, but no one answered. Well,
there is plenty of fun in Ann Arbor so we kept on driving. We eventually got a
phone call, and off we went to meet up with the missionaries. While talking
with the missionaries, our car battery died. Thank heavens for a nice man who
came and helped us jump start the car. We all felt a need for ice cream after
that, so we found Zingerman’s Creamery for some yummy gelato to cool our heels
while the car idled for a while to charge its battery. After a bit, the crazy
crew headed home, and all were very tired. Even after all of this Vanessa and baby Layla
have agreed to go on another adventure this coming Tuesday to Eastern Market.
The day was ended with helping a young lady in our branch apply for BYU.
Thursday, August 1 – Mike was kind enough to take Landon and
Eliza to their gymnastics class so Hallie could get some things cleaned out and
straightened around the house. Eliza is so funny with what she wants to do and
lets you know what she doesn’t want to do. In class, this meant that no she
would not stretch but yes she would play on the bars and trampoline. Her
teacher calls Eliza her little monkey. Landon was invited to practice with the
boys pre-team at American Gymnastics. We left with 45 minutes to get there and
hit construction and traffic all the way. Landon did not understand why we were
late to his first class, but thank goodness we were only 15 minutes late. Coach
Joey had good things to say about Landon and that if we are interested and are
willing to commit then they would like to see Landon on the boys pre-team. How
exciting to see Landon doing so well and thriving in something he enjoys.
Landon has expressed that he wants to keep doing this and how much fun he had,
so we think we will make it a go for a while.
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| More exciting footage to come in the next several weeks |
Friday, August 2 – The morning started off normal and ended
up like most Fridays do. Hallie went to work early as usual and then headed
home after running an errand or two after work. Mike took the kids for a walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the fresh air and whatever new wonders arise from the kids' imagination.
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| "Dad! Stop! Look at the flowers!" |
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| Mysterious workings are afoot in the back alleys of the Park's rental district. Apple Computer started out of a garage, so who knows what world-wide mayhem may arise from this humble workshop? |
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| "Dad! Dinosaur tracks! Take a picture!" |
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| Stopping to smell the flowers |
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| Every summer, our neighbor blesses the neighborhood with this amazing flower garden. |
Later, he went to see Lloyd like he
does most Fridays. He took one of our new missionaries with him, and they had a
nice experience. The evening ended with Hallie going to get our pizza at a
place we have never tried, taking the kids along. Within no time Eliza (who
decided not to take a nap earlier in the day) had fallen asleep. She slept
until 9:00 PM and then decided to wake up and keep Mike and Hallie up until
nearly midnight. Of course, Landon had to join in too, despite pleading and
threats to the contrary.
Saturday, August 3 – Saturday started off with the kids’
swimming lessons. This week it was Hallie’s turn to take them and to give Mike
a much needed hour-long break. Once we got back home, the kids changed their
clothes and we headed off to Eastern Market. It was another amazing weather day,
and that meant lots of people at the Market, but we had fun anyway. We received
our weekly share of produce from Jentzen Farms and then we shopped for a few
more things for our neighbors and ourselves.
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| Another beautiful day in Detroit, USA! |
No trip is complete without a run
into Whole Foods for a few odds and ends. On our way home we stopped by the
farmers market at the end of our street and picked up some fun bread from Great
Harvest which was to be enjoyed with our Sunday dinner. After dumping everyone
out of the car, Hallie turned around and went to deliver the other two CSA’s.
At 3:00 PM, Hallie remembered she was to make a meal for a family who had just
had their 3rd baby. A phone call was made to see when to bring it by and no one
answered. At this point Hallie was trying to figure out what to make quickly.
Not too long later we received the call that no dinner was needed. The mom had meant
to call Hallie earlier to say they were baptizing their new baby. Hallie was
elated by the news! Landon was able to spend a great amount of time at the next
door neighbors’, and he loved every minute playing with his best friend. The
evening was rounded out with Landon and Hallie heading to Super WalMart to get
supplies for her calling at church.
Sunday, August 4 – At church this morning, we had a member of the Area
Seventy, Elder Dunnigan, visit so then the stake president visited as well. As
we were walking into church Hallie met Sister Gerber, the wife of our new
mission president. We had a great Priesthood/Relief Society meeting today. It
was all about missionary work and how to make sharing the gospel a part of our
lives. We are grateful we do a lot of the things already, but we are also
grateful to know that we have things to work on.
After church our new member Brittany came over to work on
her application for BYU-Idaho. The sister
missionaries stopped by to talk with us about some things and to give us some copies
of the Book of Mormon that we asked for. We love our missionaries! Landon and
Eliza spent some time outside in the backyard enjoying the most amazing weather
today followed by a trip to Miles and Gabby’s house to see the many cats and
dogs they live with. Brittany joined us for a yummy Pesto Pasta Salad to break
our fast by Hallie’s new favorite chef, the Pioneer Woman. We topped the
evening off with a bowl of Hudsonville ice cream and a visit from our awesome
next door neighbor Dawn who came bearing gifts for the kids. Landon is in
heaven with his first-ever Batman toy.
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