On the way to Arizona

We left these three wonderful young people yesterday (Sunday) morning.  I miss them already - if Chase had been there, it would have been absolutely perfect!!!  How I love these kids.

 

 

There was fog on the hillside as we left Washington.  I ended up falling asleep as we were leaving Bellingham which is only 20 minutes from DeAnn's.  I had a headcold and just felt a bit lousey.  Stayed in Sutherlin, Oregon last night after a very good day of traveling.  There is always a concern about the Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia traffic but we sailed right through.

 

 

 On to Oregon wtih the clouds just sitting on the mountains.  Beautiful - a little sun off and on and temps in the 40's.

 Today we went from Oregon to California.  About noon we ran into temps in the 60's - no coat, no heater on.  (Sorry for those of you in the Midwest.  I'm not gloating, just stating a fact?!) 

These pictures are for Jan.  We went through Ripon, CA which is where her uncle has a very large almond farm.

 This is the Ripon Christian School,

 and a grove of pecan trees.  Wish you were with us today, Jan.  We would have dropped you off at the farm for the evening.

Tonight we are in Modesto, CA.  We stopped early because we decided that we will not make it all the way to Tucson tomorrow night.  Had a nice dinner at a Mexican restaurant and are now watching "The Lone Ranger" - isn't that exciting?

Goodnight to all
Gramma and MOM

Christmas Day

We went to church Christmas morning - a wonderful way to start a very special day!!!

We spent the day with John's parents, aunt and cousins and his brothers plus Becky, the neighbor lady.  These people know how to party!!!!  We had a huge meal for dinner, then snacked our way through the afternoon until supper which included ham and turkey sandwiches plus leftover fixins from dinner.  I "rolled" home afterwards.

DeAnn did several fun games which I participated in but dad just sat on the couch and watched.  I did not get any pictures of the games so you'll have to wait to see DeAnn's blog for them.  Here are the Christmas families:

Neighbor Becky with the kids

John's Aunt Grace with two of her children:
Edie - Cassie, Auntie Grace, Amy and her husband, Rick
Rick and Edie are John's cousins.  Cassie is Rick & Amy's daughter (they have two sons who had already left)  Edie's husband Mark had to work.

 John's oldest brother, Gary and his wife, Sally.  They have two married sons who were spending the day with their spouse's families.  They also have a new grandson, Bradley who is about five months.

 John's parents:  Pete and Elizabeth Hiemstra

 Our wonderful Christmas host and hostess - they are the utmost greatest at their job

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!!!

Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

Christmas Eve 2013

Christmas Eve was a very special time - first time we've been with our Washington grandkids in eight years.  Here's Holly with her jewelry holder - it was fun to see her excited about something she already knew she was getting.  Grampa is downstairs right now hanging it for her.

 

 Princess Dee.  Katie received this darling little headband from Auntie Denise - a most special lady here in Lynden.  I've never seen anything like this - it was sooooooooooooooo cute!!!

 Katie is helping Grandpa Hiemstra put his little singing parrot together.  It sings when you walk past it.  It actually took DeAnn, Katie, Grandpa and a few others to get him put together.  I think he's going to be sitting in the plants at Grandpa and Grandma's Wisconsin home.

 Katie got a new "cover" for her pillow and a notebook from Great-Grandma Kramer.  Great-Grandma wrote her a note in the front of the notebook and she wanted to make sure I got the words on the picture.

 One of Grampa Haan's favorite candies and a gift certificate to Edallen's ice cream shop.  Think he'll take us with him??????

 Katie sitting in a box playing with her Christmas toys.

Katie received a dream light unicorn from Sam.  It's a little stuffed animal that when you squeeze it's sides, it lights up and displays a pattern of lights on the ceiling.  Katie gave it a very special name until she found that people were snickering when she said it.  It's new name is now Unicorn Snuffy.

 

It was a wonderful evening.  We had pulled pork, cheesey potatoes, grape jello and other yummy things for dinner.  It was great fun - if only Kurt, Amy and Chase could have been with us too.

 

Tomorrow is Christmas Day.

Love to all,

Gramma and MOM

Violin Recital and Bowling

Saturday was another exciting day here in Lynden.  Holly had her violin recital in the afternoon and as usual, she did an outstanding job.  The video of her playing is a whole minute long so be prepared to listen to a beautiful song by a beautiful young lady.

Saturday evening we went bowling to help John's sister-in-law, Sally, celebrate her birthday.  I bowled with DeAnn, Katie, and Sam and YES, we had the bumpers up!!!!

 Katie would fit her fingers into the holes and carry it to the front of the lane.  From there, she would set it on the ground and push it down the lane.

 I'm not sure if she needed to then rest because of the energy required to push the ball or because of the length of time it took for the ball to get to the pins.

 Our Sam is a pretty good little bowler.

Please note:  Gramma broke a hundred and even won the one game she bowled.  Yeah!!!! for me!!!!

Here's our Sam in action.

 

 

 

 

I'm responsible for dinner tonight and my carrots need attention.  Have a super night and talk to you all soon.

\

Love,  Gramma and MOM

 

SNOW

 

Can you believe it!!!??? Snow in Washington!!  They talked about 3-5 inches last night and when we woke up this morning, there was just a very light covering.  DeAnn called to say - NO School and NO program this morning.  We couldn't believe it.  It has been snowing most of the morning - huge flakes - hate to say it but it's quite beautiful.

 

 

Dad wasn't real excited though!

 

 Even John went out to play with the kids - they had a HUGE snowball fight and they made a snowman but I didn't get a picture of it.

 Here's a picture of DeAnn's umbrella tree in her backyard.

That's it for today.  Have a wonderful Friday!!!

Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

Scenes from Montana and Washington

These are some scenes from our trip and they are randomly inserted:

 

This is SNOW - the only snow we really had was when we went through Snoqualmie Pass; however the temperature was high enough that it did not freeze.  We had awesome roads the entire trip.  It seemed like the trip went quicker than it ever has - there were people praying for us - what a difference it made.  THANK YOU  to my wonderful husband who did almost all of the driving.  

 This was the sunset on Tuesday night in Washington - the sky was ablaze with oranges and yellows.  What an awesome, mighty God to give us such a beautiful display at the end of our driving day.

 A view of the mountains of Washington from the car.  They were so beautiful but then I enjoy most of the scenery from my car window!!

 Windshield time:

 Look at these clouds coming from the top of the mountain - looked like a volcano erupting.

 When driving through the pass and higher elevations, we saw these "frozen waterfalls" along the rock mountain sides.  Some of them were much more elaborate than others.  It was difficult to get a really good picture since we were zooming on by.  I had never seen these before.

Holly's  choir class does something special at Christmas time called "Carol Grams".  People in the school or community pay the choir $30 to go to a business place or someone's home and sing about five carols for them.  Last night the choir went to Auntie Grace's and sang for her and this morning they went to John's clinic.  We were there last evening but I forgot my camera so when we went to the clinic this morning, I made sure to bring my camera along.  Here's a video of Holly with her fellow choir members.  It was beautiful!!!!

Time to play a game with Sam and Katie.  Have a wonderful evening.

Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

On Our Way (12-16-13)

We left Brandon at 7:30AM this morning, had a quick breakfast at Burger King in Sioux Falls and were on our way west.  We drove about 620 miles today - very good roads and nice scenery, for the most part.  We arrived in Hardin, MT about 4:30, had a nice dinner at the local Chinese Restaurant and are now just sitting around, watching a little tv and Dad is playing my Kindle (what's new, right?)

This is a picture of South Dakota plains country - the fields were just covered with snow and it looked so pristine and white - it was very pretty.

 On into Montana and the countryside - little more mountainous - actually hills, but they like to call them mountains around here.

 This is Custer National Forest in Montana.  It's difficult to tell but the trees all look black against the landscape much like the Black Hills of South Dakota.

That's it from Hardin, Montana.  Goodnight, sleep well and I hope you're feeling much better by tomorrow, Amy Jo.

Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

Getting Ready

The tree is up and decorated and presents are wrapped and mostly under the tree.  Amy, your's is the pretty one on the right side of the tree.

 

 The rest are along the wall waiting to be packed into the van for the trip to Washington.  DeAnn, guess which one is yours?

 Boxes and bags and tubs are slowing piling up in the hallway waiting for Dad to start loading the van.  I'm trying to take a lot less this year.  All of the white bags will be staying in Washington.  Still have to pack my clothes but want to clean the closet at the same time - it's earmarked for next week one day.

 Dad and I went out for breakfast this morning to get the juices running; then went to Grandma's to bring her some stuff.  Bought her a snowman wall hanging - he throws snowballs from one hand to the other.  Forgot to take my camera along to take a picture.  "I think" she liked it.  Aunt Jen and Aunt Jan were there too; we all had a nice visit before Grandma had to go to lunch.

When we got home, this is what the thermometer read at 12:30 with the sun shining brightly.

 This is how dad occupies his time when it's so cold.  Can't be outside very long and Judge Judy and People's Court aren't showing on Saturdays.

I'm going to a concert tonight with Aunt Sue and Aunt Jan - I'm not sure who it is but Aunt Jan says she heard the guy is really good.  First, we're going to Panera's for soup and bread.  Wanna join us?  We'd love to have you.

That's it for now.  One project to finish and one gift to buy yet.  Project will be finished today and gift purchased on Monday - then I am ready for the holidays.

Christmas cards are starting to come and I LOVE them.  I don't have any pictures this year so will wait and send mine out in either January (New Year's) or February (Valentine's).  That way we can get some pictures with our favorite little people over the holidays.

Happy Weekend - stay warm!!!

love to all
Gramma and MOM

One more project finished

Just finished almost the last of my projects before we head to Washington  I'm sure that Sam does not look at my blog so it's relatively safe to post this.  This is a super hero cape for one of my favorite guys.  The " S S" stands for Super Sam!!!

 

 Here's the view out our living room window today.  If it weren't for the street sign, it would be a really nice picture.  The snow is very pretty because it's still nice and clean.  Haven't had our driveway blown out yet so we're "holed up" at home.  Ryan is supposed to come today, just in time for me to go for bagels in the morning.  Can't believe it but Aunt Sue worked every day this week - cuts into my breakfast time out.

Haven't much news to pass on to you this week.  Have a lot to do - lots of little things that seem to take twice as long as they should.

 

Have a good weekend ahead - STAY WARM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

Love to all,

Gramma and MOM



Birthdays

My lovely daughter and I were able to celebrate our birthdays together the evening of my birthday.  It was a perfect way to end a great day.  My husband took me out for breakfast to Denny's (birthday person gets a free breakfast) along with my brother and his wife and son and my two sisters, Jen and Jan.  Then we went to an antique mall in Sioux Falls that I've been wanting to visit and another craft/antique mall here in Brandon.  Back home for a quick rest and then out to eat with Kurt, Amy and Chase and Peter's niece, Lavonne and her husband, Doug.  We laughed, had good food and just enjoyed one another.

Amy turned 40 this year and decided she would have a "week long" birthday celebration.  The night of my birthday, we gave her the Birthday Memory Book that included wishes from many of her friends and family.  On her birthday, the 26th, Aunt Jan, Aunt Sue, Mary (her mother-in-law) and I all traveled to Pipestone to have lunch with her.  There she received her Memory Book of all pictures and memories of her from the time she was born until high school graduation.  What a lot of memories it brought back to Peter and I as we worked on it.

 

This shirt she got from her aunts.

 

 When Amy was a little girl, her Uncle Rich came to the cities for a seminar and bought her a little Holly Hobbie doll by the name of Amy.  He remembered and bought her another one for her birthday this year.  Amy Jo remembered having one as a child but didn't remember the story behind it.

 Amy and her Memory Book.  Notice she has a red scarf on in this picture and not the one above - that was a birthday gift from her Aunt Sue.

A Birthday Luncheon



I'll share my birthday any time with this young lady who has become such a beautiful woman - inside and out.  Loads and loads of love to you, my dear daughter.

Love to all,
MOM and Gramma