Happy Birthday, Rachel and More.....

We were happy to have Dave, Rachel and Ally home this past weekend to celebrate Rachel's birthday!  Dad was here for Sunday dinner, so he was able to see them, too.  He and Ally are buddies, as you can see, below:

Dave and Rachel are two of the best puzzle put-together-er's (word?  whatever...haha) that I've ever seen.  They finished two of them over the weekend:

It was a good weekend to sit by the fire and hunker down, what with the cold, rainy weather...

Rachel picked Pereddie's for her birthday supper; we enjoyed a nice meal there and then came home for some birthday cake from Alpen Rose....

Just a little bit of a "baby bump" starting to show (Rachel is 16 weeks along).......Ally loves to help get the paper off the gifts...

Ally and her pal, Rufus....

Last week, Dave Hall had successful kidney surgery again!  This time the donor was his sister, who was a perfect match.  (Long story, last time she was not able to donate.)  So, he already looks and feels much better and everyone is extremely grateful.  I stopped up to see him/Lynne and Chelsea at St. Mary's a day after his surgery.


Already looking more chipper...


My dear friend, Lynne (relieved at last)

Chelsea

 Can you tell we were all in a festive mood?

Just a couple of pictures from our trip to Savannah and Charleston - had a great time!

 Old church in Bluffton, S.C. - built during the 1700's..

 What a good boy - going to church, even on vacation....

 Azaleas in bloom everywhere....

 Buildiings like these are one of the reasons I love Charleston...

 We had our own private tour with our very own pirate, and his parrot, Captain Bob.  This guy told us all about the pirates that used to roam around the coast of Charleston - a few were even women - it was fascinating!

Before ending this post, just a quick shout out to our darling little Kelsey, who will have her tonsils taken out on Thursday - what a big girl you are, Kelsey - we'll be thinking of you that day, and Silly Uncle Scott and Aunt Jean love you - hope to see you soon!

The Wizard of Oz and "Scott-In-Stein"

What fun we all had at Macey and Kelsey's birthday party last weekend!  They looked so cute, and Jenny and Brenda put in a lot of work to make everything so festive - loved the birthday cake, the rainbow fruit, the ruby slipper cookies, and the adorable Dorothy and Good Witch Glinda costumes, too.  And, I was happy that our Rachel was visiting from Chicago and could join us, too!  I'd say the girls are all set for awhile when it comes to pretty dresses!

Pretty Aunt Brenda with "Dorothy"....

Adorable would be an understatement....

A close-up of Keith's ear, ha ha.....

So pretty, Macey!

I just love the crown.....

Another pretty dress!

My favorite - Great-grandpa in his glory.....

So pretty, Kelsey!

Brenda, this cake was fantastic!

I'm not kidding when I say these ruby slipper cookies were some of the best I've ever had - delicious!

Aunt Brenda went all out with her birthday preparations - some more yummy cupcakes!

The girls with Uncle Dave....awwwww

This one makes me smile....

The inside of the cake was even more fun than the outside, and that's saying something....

Macey, how did you get to be so big already?

And now, we go from all the cuteness to a poor soul who had a rough day at the doctor's office.....I know, it's a little scary.....

"You should see the other guy..."

Scott had a spot of skin cancer on his nose that was removed this week.  He is fine, and it was all removed successfully, but he did end up with quite a few stitches along the way.  They'll be removed next Thursday, and we're told the scarring won't be bad.  We're very thankful all is well.....

Awwww, poor baby (no worries, I'm taking good care of him).......

Just Because....

Just had to post this picture and web link because the books and cards on this site are so frickin' adorable!

http://laughingelephant.com/

Mom would have loved these.  She had all kinds of books and cards that looked just like these when we were growing up.

Adventures in Chicago

Last weekend Scott and I headed to Chicago for Katie's birthday.  Usually we drive there, but both girls advised us that we'd never find a parking spot with all of the snow that had fallen.  Boy, were they right!  We chose to drive to Michigan City and then took the train to the Millenium Park Station, where Katie met us; then we just used taxi's for the rest of the time we were there.  Scott enjoys sitting in the front seat and talking to the drivers.  It's so funny, because none of them seem to be from America, they're all from somewhere else.  This weekend our drivers were from Morocco, Pakistan and Egypt.  They were all very friendly and talkative - I find it amazing that so many people from the Middle East move here, and then send money home to support their families.  As you can imagine, the man from Egypt had lots to say about everything that's going on in his country right now.  I asked him if he was afraid for his family (they live in Cairo), but he said no.  His wife is actually a professor there, but here he has to come to the U.S. to help support the family.  Guess that's why the people are revolting there!

So, anyway, we had a delightful time visiting, as usual.  Katie chose to go to "Joe's Seafood, Steak and Crab" Restaurant downtown for her birthday dinner.  It was very good and a lot of fun.

Katie and our friendly waiter, David.

Our beautiful birthday girl.

Me and my gal....



A couple of weeks ago Scott and I enjoyed seeing some old friends that we've known for over 30 years - Doug and Marlin Prins.  They live in Palmer, Alaska and were in Holland for a month or so after the holidays.  Our plan is to the take our RV (you know, the "P-Mobile") to Alaska for a couple of months after Scott retires, so they had lots of tips for us.  Of course we plan to see them while we're there, and maybe even take a couple of short trips with them.  Dad was interested to hear about our trip, because we'll be near where he was stationed during World War II - the Aleutian Islands.  Don't know if we'll actually get there or not, as these island are over 1,000 miles in length, and the only way to get there is by plane or boat (on extremely choppy waters)!  We will see.....

Doug and Marlin Prins

Old buddies, Scott and Doug (they have actually known each other all their lives, as Doug's parents were friends with Scott's parents)

We enjoyed having Perkins Restaurant practically to ourselves that night.

As I write this, the snow is melting outside and it's just about mid-February.  Makes me feel like Spring might finally be on its way!  It was great seeing some of the family at DeBoer's for breakfast recently.  Hopefully we can do that again soon......and by the way, HappyValentine's Day!!