Sunday, May 27

We celebrated Lynn's 36th birthday today - a week early because Bill will be golfing at Boyne next weekend. As always, we missed our Seattlite kids and today Anna, who was home not feeling well and Ty who is up north with a friend. Lynn - you are our beloved 'daughter' and we cherish you!

Gift from Tom & Anna

Big buddies - Noah and Deven

Racing up the hill

Noah looks pretty sophisticated in Grandpa's glasses :)

On the sidebar you can read about the accident
Zac was in last Tuesday. It will take a lot of time
and money to salvage his truck,
but if anyone can do it, he can.

Not quite ready for the road.....

Steve and Lynn's house
now has a new roof - the weather
was perfect all week during the work.

It's 7 1/2 weeks since the fire and there is still much to be done.....

And just a few miscellaneous pictures
from the last week.....
Laura and Ben's 8th anniversary - May 21


I had a wonderful lunch with my friend Em Riemersma.
This is one of those hold-your-arm-out-as-far-as-you-can-and-snap pictures.


Fun at the beach Thursday night.


Tom spent the weekend setting up the new play equipment for the kids - a Christmas gift from Grandpa and Grandma Mosher. They love having a playground in their own backyard!

Who Do You Love? A short - but cute - video clip. You'll notice that once Noah gets started, the girls have a hard time getting a word in :)

Weekend Pictures

Just posting some pictures from this weekend. Tom spent a wonderful weekend golfing with his high school buddies up north; there are no pictures of him, but you will see that the Bonnema family was involved in lots of fun activities.

Laura and Ben celebrated their 8th anniversary with a weekend of backpacking and visiting Portland, one of their favorite cities.

Leaving the trail head up Zigzag Mt. across from Mt. Hood in Oregon

Sometimes hard to find the trail...

Laura has a great place to rest after a 17-mile hike


Ben enjoys the view of Mt. Hood


A night alone on the mountain

Laura in Portland

Noah, Abby, and Sophie made Mr. Potato Heads
with items from the Farmers' Market in Holland
(click on the picture for a close-up of their creations - cute!)

They also went to a farm with Mom
and Grandpa and Grandma Mosher....

Sophie brushes the horse


Abby feeds a sheep

That's Abby on a horse

Noah rides a really BIG horse!

Sophie and Anna


Sophie loves her brother!


Ty scores an easy run

Deven during a rain delay at Ty's game

Zac and Steve enjoy the campfire in their backyard

Lynn wishes her mother-in-law would put away the camera!

Zac is raising chickens :)

The temporary home of Steve and Lynn and family - 4 1/2 weeks
and many more to go.....

Reconstruction - deconstruction as Lynn calls it - began on Monday
to repair the fire damage - finally!
It's been 6 1/2 weeks since the fire.

Fire damage

The roof of their house comes off.
We're thankful the weather predictions are for clear skies
these next few days until the roof is rebuilt.


And one more....watching the ducks on Mothers' Day. What a wonderful day it was with our 'Michigan' family together and calls, messages, and gifts from Laura and Ben. The guys shopped, prepared, and served dinner - chicken cordon bleu, baked potatoes, peas, asparagus, corn, grape salad, Steve's special biscuits, and strawberry shortcake - delicious!!! The guys cleaned up while Lynn, Anna, and I enjoyed coffee. It's an annual tradition and a real treat!

Denise Has Tagged Me!

Guess I'm 'it' and have to tell you six things you may not know about me. It's hard because anyone who knows me at all could tell you that I'm so claustrophobic that I cry thinking about it, I laugh hardest at my own jokes, and I have some unusual quirks involving eyebrows, metal dinner plates, etc. But here's an attempt to let you in on some lesser known facts....

• I used to have HUGE fights with my sister Marva. People told me that some day I would love her to pieces. They were right. She's one of my favorite people. (Marva - I DID NOT claw at your arms and leave scratch marks! You know what I'm talking about....)
• I am at my worst when driving. Sometimes I can't believe the nasty words that come out of my mouth.
• I am incredibly clumsy. In Junior High, I fouled out of a basketball game in less than 60 seconds. My nieces like to use my name when they do something embarrassing, i.e. "I pulled a 'Joan' today".
• In restaurants, I can hear all the conversations at the tables around me.
• I drank my first beer when I was fourteen. Didn't have another one until several years ago - about 35 years later.
• The most horrifying and embarrassing thing I ever did involves a tent, a song director, and invitations to a golf outing. Enough said.

Beckie - You're 'it'

Relaxing Evening

Sunday, May 6
We had a nice, quiet evening with Steve and Lynn, Ty (after youth group), Deven and Tori. We enjoyed a campfire, which reminded Bill and me of camping. For Steve and Lynn, however, the camping is getting old. It's been 4 1/2 weeks since their house fire..... They don't complain, but it will be wonderful when they can settle in to their house once again.

Steve warming donuts

Deven whittled a stick for us :)

Steve enjoying the fire

Rome has the Trevi Fountain,
London has Big Ben,
Paris has the Eiffel Tower,
and Byron Center has......

....a chicken

....a big rock

....and a cow!

It was a wonderful day with Tori, Abby, Sophie, and Noah! Tom and Anna brought the kids over about 9:30 and we played for a couple of hours before stopping to see Great-grandma Bonnema and picking up Tori from kindergarten. We made a stop at the Dollar Store (a Friday 'ritual' for Tori and me) where the Tori chose candy, the little girls chose books, and Noah chose a huge 'walking' spider that he takes great delight in using to scare us.

After lunch Tori and I showed the trips all the infamous landmarks of our great town and then we enjoyed ice cream at Houseman's.

We saw horses and cows, birds and flowers.
Tori taught the kids how to blow 'dandelion wishes'.

Then it was back home for 'quiet time.....

Noah 'took a rest' :)

They all thought it was great fun to use their sleeping bags and the girls were perfectly quiet. After about a half hour, during which Noah was quietly whispering to Grandpa, I told him he could get up and sit by Grandpa and have a popsicle.

The girls fell asleep and took nice naps.

(that's Abby under her 'b')

What a little fresh air and lots of activity will do!

Then it was off to cousin Deven's baseball game.

Tori took this picture of Deven playing catcher.

We had hot dogs - what else do you eat at a ball park?

That's Abby enjoying her delicacy.

And Uncle Steve invited us into the dugout.

The kids enjoyed some time on the swings

(that's Sophie)

and climbing on the jungle gym.

Noah told me he HAD to climb because he is a monkey :)

It was a wonderful day with lots of giggles, great adventure, and fun things to see and do. Tori was a huge help and the little kids just love playing with her.

We brought them home in time for a few minutes with Dad and Mom before bedtime. Tom was feeling pretty good considering he had surgery at noon. He received lots of care and attention from Anna throughout the afternoon and should be back to work early next week. We are thankful everything went so well and that the surgery is behind him!