Summertime Fun

My first post! Bear with me as I had a little trouble getting these in the chronological order. My favorite part of summer is the time we get to spend with family & friends -- if only time would move a little more slowly so we could get around to everyone! :-/

Here are a few photos of our summer gatherings this year. From sparklers in the back yard with our grandsons to travels south and/or west we're so blessed with opportunities to catch up with family, renew old friendships and travel to new places.

Dad & Mom, and our new great-nephew Drew

Great Plains Experience II: Dennis & I on the Fort Falls Trail
on the Niobrara River in Nebraska -- early June

Mid June trip from Washington to Iowa--the girls & I
enjoying our obligatory visit to the Big Dipper in Missoula
(gotta love that huckleberry ice cream!).

Dillan & Landon get into sparklers shortly before the 4th.

Andrea & Philip check out G'ma's photo album

Wes & Arlys host a July 4th family gathering -- thanks!

On Saturday, Marlys, John, Julie & Emma joined us...
Happy Birthday, Tami!
At her request we celebrated at Chucky-Cheese's
--a great time for everyone!

More to come after our final trip of the summer to Montana

to celebrate our 30th anniversary with our children & grandchildren.

Reunion of DCHS Class of 1963

Saturday night (July 26), Mom and I went to my high school class reunion (45 years!!??); This is one picture of those in attendance. We both had a good time, it was fun visiting with high school classmates, sharing memories, and finding out what we are up to these days. Of the 14 of us there, 7 live in the general area (I include Sioux Center, Sioux Falls, and Sioux City as the general area) and the others live in places such as Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas, and Michigan. Terry Pheifer (standing on my right) is an obstetrician in the Seattle area and Pearl Zerger (front, right) runs an organic farm with her husband in Kansas. We all had a fun and blessed time sharing together.

Hello from California!

Hi, family,
Philip and I are having a great time in CA. We're a tad sunburned from boogie-boarding the other day. And the waves got fairly cruel, so my foot is all scratched up from being thrown around by the vicious waves running into the rocks. But it was fun. We even saw seals in the water not too far from us!
Today we are going to Pinecrest Lake with Rod and Vonnie and Mark...we rented a pontoon boat and will float around lazily on the lake. Hooray!
We are still trying to figure out our timing/route/visiting schedule for driving up the west coast. We have stops to make in Salem and Portland before hitting Lynden...we're visiting Phil's sister and brother-in-law and also Nick and Larissa Draayer.
Anyway...I hope you guys are all doing well and I'll see you in about a week!
Love,
Andrea~ (and Philip, too)

grandma and grandpa's

my grandpa and grandma are great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THEM both!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dillan "de jong"

Happyville (Dillan's town)

Ready to leave for Washington

Grandparenting

So, Grandpa and Grandma are taking care of Dillan this afternoon (Wednesday), or Dillan is entertaining Grandpa and Grandma by having them "help" him with Duplos. We thought we might take a bike ride on the new Sioux Center bike path, but it is raining right now, so we will have to wait.

Ah, the novelty of a new blog! I (Al) thought I'd put a few more pics up here for posterity:


Trying to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time has never been easy . . .



The siblings, May 2002, at Al's graduation



Dad & Mom in Missoula, on the M trail: they made it! July 2006.



Andrea, Al and Mom in Missoula at the Big Dipper, June 2008.

Thanks!

Thanks very much to Andrea for getting our blog started.

Celebrating 30 years of marriage!

Well, I'm going to start off this lovely family blog, created by me (Andrea). We are celebrating Dad and Mom's 30th anniversary this year, so there will be a great shin-dig in Montana in August. We look forward to our first family vacation in several years!

For the first blog...a few pictures.
1) Dad and Mom 2 summers ago
2) "The kids" 2 summers ago
3) The boys last summer (goofy and wonderful!)
4) Andrea and Al in Vancouver this past May

More to come after our family vacation!