Colorado Vacation - August 2010

In August, we traveled out to beautiful Colorado...

...to be with Grandma Gerst
(above pushing Ben in the wheelchair brought for her)
and the rest of the uncles, aunts and cousins.

All 28 of us stayed in the Summit Peaks Lodge.
There were plenty of rooms to spread out,
and then come back together for meals and family time.



David and I spent the first day in and around Breckenridge.
David is stretching before our 5-6 mile hike
to Mohawk Lake :(

Beautiful views...beautiful flowers

An old miner's cabin...we hoped the rain would hold off

so we wouldn't have to spend the night in it!

Grandma and Jerrod

David, me, Luke, Ruth, Jim and Marleyse went

white water rafting in the Colorado river,

near Glenwood Springs. Wet and cold!

Sunday after church at Denver, we stopped by St Mary's Glacier.

It was a short hike to beautiful views of the lake, mountains, and glacier.

We had so much fun hiking, taking pics, playing with the snow....

I wanted to build a cabin next to the lake and stay there for weeks!

Snowball fight!

On the glacier.

We had evening entertainment when Sharon, Amy and Ruth

had the kids help out with some skits. They were pretty funny :)

This one, Amy is supposed to be doing CPR on Ruth,

and asks Sharon what Ruth's name is. "I don't know," Sharon

says. "But what if she has dependents?" Amy asks incredulously.

Dad, mom, David and I went to Colorado Springs for a day.

First stop: Focus on the Family and Whit's End!

Dad and I have been wanting to go there for a long time :)

Eating our Wod-Fam-Choc-Sod's at Whit's End

(World Famous Choclate Soda's)

We stopped at the Colorado Springs Fire Dept museum.

They had lots of old apparatus and equipment.

It was all really cool to look at.

We breezed through the garden of the gods before

returning to the lodge on our last night in Colorado.

The kids (and adults) love to play Dutch Blitz. We brought

along a life-size version of the game. We played for a while,

had a great time, and it was a good end to the vacay!

Sunny Summer

Nothing better than lemonade in the summer!

The Fire Department spent a Saturday morning

training on an old house in Wing. After setting a

few fires and putting them out, they let it burn!

Celebrating Mom Z's Birthday

Loretta opening her gift while Cole and new baby Will look on.

The Kids Table



David and I had our 1st anniversary on August 16 :)

He came to work with me, and then we ate out

at a new restaurant in Champaign, Buttitta's.

Chicago Air and Water Show 2010

David and I went up to Chicago with JR and Larissa

and other friends. We all went to the air show on

Saturday, getting fried in the sun and loving the

Blue Angels.




This summer we spent some days trying to paint

our house. This is what it was before....

We borrowed Dad Z's manlift and that sped up the

painting process so much!

The finished product :)

ahhh...all done....

We went to Oakville in July, and I spent

a Saturday morning with my friends

in our annual "Creek Stompin'."

We came over for six baptism's at Oakville, and two

of them were from my Sunday School class.

We met Fred and Abby at Olde Worlde before we left

to catch up, have a few laughs, and try out the

new ice cream.

Lindsy and Evan met Janella in Galesburg and we

all had a fun day of shopping, eating, and talking, talking, talking!
Good times :)

Rebekah and Leah came over to our house for

afternoon tea. We found some clothes to dress up in,

and had our lemonade in teacups.

OHIO TRIP

David used to go to college at OTC, and lived

with Wes. We came out for the weekend to

visit Wes and see all the places David went

out here: college, Brown Bag Burger, the

ford dealership, and the old apartment.

Checking out the sweet BMW cars :)



Cleveland Zoo

David acting like the gorilla

The spider monkey's were so cute! They even hugged each other.

David and I went to Turkey Run State Park to camp

with Dad and Mom. The weather was perfect, the

stream was full, and our hike was fun.

Caleb and Brooke eating the homemade Popsicles :)

Spring Fever

We hosted a Zimmerman family grocery shower

for Tyler and Casey...in our new living room!

It was fun to finally have company over :)

Joel Graduates

from Prairie Central in May

Visitors

we had a lot of visitors this spring :) yay! Emily Sinn came to visit,

then when she left, I picked up my aunt Sheryl at the airport. Mom

came to visit both of us. Then that weekend, dad brought Grandma

Gerst over so they could go to my cousin's graduation in Congerville.

Whew!

Mom, Sheryl and me having lunch at Lost in Time in Fairbury.

David was starting an EMT job at Duffy Ambulance

in Pontiac that day.

Grandma crocheting in the shade.

Trying to keep down the weeds in our weed patch...

I mean, garden.

We put everyone to work when the whole family

was here :) and got a lot done. Our big job is

putting rock in our landscaping. We have been hauling

landscape rock from mom and dad's old house in

Iowa. It's really pretty, but really dirty after the flood!

Aunt Sheryl worked hard on getting the rock clean

and the landscape looks so much better.

Mom tackled the big job of sanding this old wardrobe.

It was one that Grandma Gerst had painted and made

into a cowboy theme for Uncle Bill when he was little.

Mom and I spent an afternoon striping the paint,

and she worked on the sanding. I told her I shouldn't

have let her leave without getting it done - it's a big job!

Iowa Trip

Emily came out to Illinois for her cousin's wedding. She spent about

a week, and we went out to Iowa for two days. We met Wendy Wettstein

and went to Bloomfield, meeting a lot of Emily's friends and visiting an old

church in Bentonsport. We met my mom and dad for supper in Mediapolis,

went to Oakville church for wednesday night, and stayed up way late at

Wendy's :) The next day we went to visit my dad at work, then Candace

had a bunch of our friends over to visit. Whirlwind trip, but worth it!

Emily, Wendy and me at Russel Wuthrich's in Bloomfield





Emily's church

Pulling the church bell!

Friends get together in Candace's to visit and for a "light" lunch :)

We went out to Oakville the end of April for Grandma Gerst's

90th birthday party. Benjamin's birthday was coming up,

so David and I took him swimming in the pool of the hotel

where we stayed. Then to supper at Applebee's and more swimming :)

Benji and his gifts


Mom and Dad come to visit

Are you levelheaded??

Playing with the tools David got from dad and mom

for his birthday.

After our floors were refinished (see pics below), my

parents came out to visit and help us get settled.

Dad did the huge job of cleaning off all the walls...

the dust was everywhere. :(

Mom, Interior Designer, helped me figure out where

to put up all my wall hangings. We spread them all over

the living room floor...very overwhelming at first!

But when we got done, it was a lot better!

After 7 months, we finally have decorations :)

OUR FLOOR SANDING PROJECT

Our living room as we were getting it prepped to sand.

We also re-did the office, stairs and upstairs hallway floors.

We ended up staying up til 2am for two nights in a row

(including David's birthday) and staying at David's parent's

house one night before the project was all done.

Finding lots of interesting things under the carpet.

A lid nailed to the floor to cover up a hole???

There's no turning back now......

Two Day Trip

David and I went to Oakville for a few days in March,

so Carly and I could celebrate our birthdays together

like we have every year for the past 20 years :)

We made an appearance at the Fellowship Center

for a world relief night, visited Grandma Gerst

and spent some time with Lindsy. Had supper with

Walt and Nola's and to Oakville Church for Wednesday night.

We stopped by Grandma's for a while and we took home

her sewing table to go with the sewing machine

that she gave me earlier! With her free space in her

sewing room, we moved a bookcase up from the

basement for her to put to use.

Cleaning at Grandma's. Benjamin and my mom came over to help

out and we all cleaned the bathroom, dusted, vacuumed,

swept and scrubbed.....

.....then played games!

Birthday Buddies! Carly and Janella

Colin and Barb had us over for supper and gifts to celebrate our birthdays.