They Say It Happens

I never thought that I would be one of those dads. You know, the one with 10,000 pictures of the first born, 5000 of the second born, and less than 10 of the third. Well... guess what? Want to see some pictures of Anna and Owen?

Here is the play-thing that Auntie Linda donated. She bought it for George . I told her that she can have it back when George and Olivia (the name I am giving the next Baby P until (s)he is born) move back to Grand Rapids. Of course, they can pick it up here as well in their James. Here is Anna with a big stick. She thinks that it is cute.
Okay, I guess there were a few of Owen's new toy on the camera after all. Watson is shown here being pushed in the baby stroller.
Anna stopped for a pose.
They wanted to try to push him together as well.
Here is my mother with Watson and the blanket that she made for him. She stayed for a week and was a huge help. All that hard work resulted in needing back surgery again and a torn rotor thingy. Don't sue me!
Here is Owen and a computer enhanced image of what he will look like at 57....oh wait, that is my dad.
This is one of Anna's crazy shots. I always love these random pictures.
And one after the house slid into the cliff...
And ending with Owen with a soap beard. Too bad we cannot take pictures of our own soapy beards in the shower. They are so much fun!

The Kids and their Cousins

I have been meaning to post these pictures for some time now. These were taken the week that we went to Pennsylvania to see my family and attend the Synod of the RPCNA. My mother likes to get pictures of all of her grandkids in matching clothes. We traditionally do it in front of her Clematis. It is a nice spot for pictures.
This is Owen with his cousin Wyatt. The 23rd is Wyatt's 3rd birthday. Happy birthday Wyatt.
Here is another one of the boys. I am sure that if these two lived in the same town.. or state, that they would be quite naughty together. The Lord is gracious.
Here is Anna and Hannah. When you look at the boys, you see Eshelman for sure. The girls look more like their mothers than the boys do.
Naughties again.
Here is all four of them. Next month there will be five of them- we will be home at Thanksgiving time so I am sure that there will be another picture then.
And... one for fun!

Klompen Dancing through Tulip Time

The Eshelman's proper, came up from Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. One of the things that they wanted to do was to go to Holland and visit Tulip Time. They had never done this, and frankly, Pella Iowa's Tulip Time is much more ethnocentric. Holland had NO Dutch food that we could try and most of the stores displayed racist signs on the doors that read, "NO WOODEN SHOES". When will the racism end against the humble Dutch?
Here Anna was helping to weed their gardens. I informed her that they wanted those tulips there. She was wanting to replace them with edelweiss, but I reminded her that our Reformed heritage honors the TULIP and we should be nice to the Dutch for their silly ways of remembering the doctrines of Grace. Owen was showing me all of the various parts of the tulip. "Papa, that is the stamen", "that is the ovary", "that is the anther and filament", "that is the receptacle and pedicel"!

Ummm... okay Owen... whatever.

And here we have the famous Holland Klompen Dancers. 1400 women dressed as men and women on Saturday and on the Sabbath day dressed as the gender that God intended them to be.

We had a great time!

The Big Sleep Over At Opa and Oma's House

Anna and Owen's cousin, Hannah, wanted to have a sleep-over with her cousins while they were visiting. We thought that this would be fine as long as they actually slept. The last thing on earth anyone needs is to spend time with a pre-schooler who has not had enough sleep (ask anyone who has spent time with a sleep deprived child)!
The greatest part is that this sleep-over was following an entire day of play (Barbies, Little People, McDonald's junk toys, dolls, blocks, and so much more). They got into bed and wanted to watch the Disney classic Bambi (yeah, where the mama deer gets murdered by the barbarous humans). About 3 minutes into asking to watch it, all three were fast asleep.

That is my type of sleep-over. Parents are heroes for letting it happen; children get a full night's sleep. I bet it will never happen that way again.

This is How Much My Daddy Loves Me

Man, it is SO obvious that he loves me!

Da Bears and Western Pennsylvania

Congratulation to my father-in-law on his team going to that Super thing.

We are back now from our trip to western Pennsylvania and we enjoyed ourselves very much. The people at Rose Point are a great community of believers and whomever the Lord sends them as a minister will be blessed to work with such a great congregation. (I hope that they would like to have me back!)

We also got to spend time in Corry with my family. The highlight was making dinner with my father and my brother. I do believe that event would make a great reality TV show! Pictures are sure to follow.

New Years With the Grand Parents

The Eshelman's from the glorious state of Pennsylvania came to spend the new year celebration with their favorite grandchildren (that is what they say, I do not make this stuff up, mind you). Owen was really happy to see them and was a great boy all weekend, despite him getting croup again and spending Sunday morning in the med-center with his mother.

We went to Meijer Gardens to see the train that they have for winter. They have the indoor gardens set up like old Grand Rapids and the train moves in and out of various historic buildings made from nuts and twigs and other organic material. It is very nice to watch and I would suggest that you go to see it if you like trains or Grand Rapids history (or both).
Here is the train on the tall bridge. That Asian guy's head is not part of the display, he just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

We spent most of the afternoon running around the Gardens. It must have been close to 50 degrees that day. There were so many people there.
We had breakfast at the Cherrie Inn in the East Hills district of Grand Rapids. Lydia said that Brandywine in Eastown was bigger...but I was right...huh, Lyd?

We had a very nice time despite my beard being ridiculed by my mother. (I think that she is just jealous because her husband cannot grow one!)

Lydia is really cute too.

Wendler Paint-A-Thon

We have many people to thank for coming out for the beginning of the Wendler restoration. We are hoping to have new tenants by the beginning of November. Brian did such a great job getting the living room cleaned out that Maggie and Anna celebrated with a few naps and some dance moves on the floor.
Brian was quite overwhelmed. According to legend he stayed awake for two days in preparation for the event. Notice that he has gone a little crazy. (I cannot tell you more due to health-care privacy acts- I could get sued.)
Here Maggie and Lydia work on the hallway. We repainted, patched some holes and tore out the carpet. Fun, fun.
Oma had one of the most important jobs of the day- keeping the monster that we love and know as Owen out of the way of the painters. She loved it!
Anna tackled covering Paige's stage of life called Army Green. Picasso had a Blue Period and Paige had an Army Green Period...Wendler is the result of this creative time in the life of Paige Jaquith.
Here is The Director and Nathan's HelpMeet working on the living room. Notice the color- Army Green. We have replaced it with a nice cadmium Leather. Very Nice!
Here are the two from the design team going over all of the swatches and choices to make this place look great. Marion is chief of Design and Lydia is chief of Financing.
Here my dad patched a ceiling that was the tragic result of an unclosed shower curtain. My dad wears these stilt things to plaster- he has done so for over 25 years. He actually fell to the ground for the first time. Anna said "opa fell down?" Yep! This is the reason that we tore out the carpet- too muddy after the fall. (I know you can only see his hands and his head- that is because he is wearing camo.)
Janna had the best jobs of all. She cleaned a bathroom that changed from gray to white. She also taped away. She could not stay as late as the rest of us, and she missed out on some greasy-licious Sluggo's Pizza because of it.
Here is the result of the living room. I think that it is 100% improvement. I am hoping to finish the rest soon. Anyone up for another party?

This place is off da hook!

Another great thing that we did while in Pennsylvania was go fishing (or fishin'). Owen was not sure what to do other than use the rod as a weapon of mass destruction (I hope GW does not read this...he would bomb Grand Rapids).
Anna caught about 5 fish with the help of her loving father. She was terrified when we reeled them in. She would go hide by the park bench that her grandmother was sitting on. Owen was always ready for the action.
Here she is waiting for a bite. Notice that the tree in the right-background has a duck nesting under it. How scenic.
Here we are showing off the catch of the day. Click on the picture to see what a look of excitement she had!

Great fun. Now whenever we go by a pond or a lake...like the one next to Rivertown Mall- Anna is ready to 'go fissin'.

Erie Zoo and Breakfast with Unka Shawn

Despite the resemblance, this is not Unka Shawn. This is a huge monster of a gorilla. Some 'scientists' claim that we descended from these creatures. I believe that man was created in the image of God and that neither me nor my children are related to this beast. If I were related to it- it would be unjust to keep it in a cage so that hundreds of people could stare at it and take pictures. *disclaimer* Some people choose to act as this creature, but it does not make them a monkey's uncle.*
So we went to the Erie Zoo to visit all of the creatures. It was about 300 degrees, but fun nonetheless.
Here we were watching the polar bears. They were swimming in the cool waters kindly provided to the arctic creatures who are stuck in the hot sun. Notice the monkey- Anna did not kidnap that- we brought it with.
Lydia was proud of this picture. She thought that this lion was very handsome. We laughed about that movie called Second Hand Lion where a couple of old men purchase an old lion so that they could shoot it. We chose to let this one live.
Lydia inquired about this 1960s Land Rover. She was quite sure that this was what she wanted to tool around town in. Classy!
Here is a shot at the entrance of the zoo. The picture to our left (your right) is actually a mosaic. I would comment on the ascetics of it, but deacon Jeff would say that it was impractical to waste all of that time on a picture.
I am not sure if Owen was trying to show off his Calvins or what. But he sure looks posh in this pose.
Here Anna shows off her George the monkey (No relation to the Wendler Cottage George).
Only in Erie County PA! We were pulling out with our delicious Starbucks Iced Mochas and noticed this ACTUAL hearse. Another one...pure class!
Shawn, Tammy, Lydia, and I discussed church polity and other theological items of interest over yummy-buttery-Little Black Sambo-style pancakes. We had a really great time. It is always very nice to see them and to be able to talk about things that interest both of us. Shawn always has a challenge that is worth discussing.
Owen was less than thrilled with the conversation!