Catch Up

We have had a crazy May right from the beginning. On Tuesday, May 1st, Noah and I went to Grand Rapids. We were taking a trip to the wonderful Target Greatland and had the opportunity to visit Jen and her kids, Maddie and Leighton. There are days where the best times to spend with friends is just walking around Target while visiting with each other and sharing child-rearing tips and stories.

After leaving Target, Noah and I made a stop at a library in GR to get a book that isn't available at any of our Muskegon area libraries. After getting the book, we were traveling west on Leonard street to get to 131North to go home. While going through a green light at an intersection, a driver coming from the opposite direction decided to turn left and slammed into the front of our car. Thank you, Rachel and John, for coming to pick up me and Noah and for your calming presence!The picture doesn't seem to brutal, but we found out the next day that it was enough to total the car. Yippee. We were provided with a rental car at a crazy cheap price. That was Wednesday.

Thursday afternoon we took our cute rental car and headed to Ohio. After staying the night at Tim's parents, we left early Friday morning and headed down to Purcelville, Virginia. BEAUTIFUL! What gorgeous country lies in the south! Tim's Uncle Warren and Aunt Ellie were kind enough to host us for a few days as we visited family.

This is Brayden, son of Tim's cousin, Jeremy and his wife, Carrie. He is only a couple weeks old in this picture.

This is Brooklyn, daughter of Tim's cousin, Jonathan, and his wife, Shelley. All these adorable babies everywhere!
This is Brayden's older brother, Luke. We had the opportunity to go watch Holland and Carter "play" soccer while we were visiting. This was at the field.
This is Carter, who is "attacking" aliens with a soccer ball. I can't wait until Noah learns all this.

Holland is in the pink sweatshirt and her younger brother, Austin, is in the yellow. They are Brooklyn's older siblings. The oldest, Anna, I don't have any pictures of because she wasn't feeling well.

Grandma Sommerfeld and Noah color while waiting for lunch.

Family pictures.

It was so special for us to get to spend this time with Grandma. We had not seen her since our wedding, which was 4 years ago this month.

We were able to see Tim's Grandma Sommerfeld, his cousins and their families, and even took a day to go into Washington DC. I have to admit, my favorite moments were actually in the evening after Noah went to bed. Tim and I and Warren and Ellie would sit on their front porch and talk until the sun was set and we couldn't see each other. Tim and I found out so much family history. Tim also had a great time being able to hear stories about his Uncle Warren's work, and get some advice and ideas on what he can do in his own business to improve it.

This is our the only picture from our day in DC with all 3 of us. It's at the FDR memorial.

Watch out for sea turtles! We quickley went into the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

Noah and me at the Lincoln Monument. You can see that famous reflection pond and the Washington Monument in the back.

Did I mention we got a flat tire on the rental car while driving by the White House? We did. Tim hit a curb while turning a corner and it hit in just the right place to put a hole in the tire. He had to pull over and change it on Constitution Avenue. Ah, this is what memories are made of...

We left on Monday after lunch and stayed the night in Ohio again. Tim dropped Noah and me off at my parents' on Tuesday. Our original plan was that he would go back and work long days to catch up on some projects and then come back Saturday morning to pick us up. I called him Wednesday night and said we were going to have to come home sooner because Noah was having the worst day of his little life. My mom and I think he was breaking down from being gone from home for so long. He started throwing horrible temper tantrums and every noise set him off: the oven timer, airplanes overhead, the phone ringing. He spent 80% of the day crying. I held out until he went to bed and then I broke down. So on Thursday afternoon my dad drove us to Portland, where Tim picked us up.

We went straight to a small used mini-van dealership in North Muskegon. After test driving a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan we bought it. It has high mileage, but it runs, is in good shape, and is larger than our Honda Odyssey, which we call our "mini" minivan, or our glorified station wagon.

Friday was a catch up on laundry and cleaning day.

Saturday morning Noah and I went to the Farmers Market. I just love Farmers Markets. Yea for summer and the arrival of them. Our friend, Lindsay, stopped by and had lunch with us. That evening, Jen, Scott, Maddie & Leighton came over for dinner. It was their first time seeing the apartment. Afterwards, we all traveled to Holland to celebrate the first birthday of Owen Baker. It was so good to see Jack and Kelly. They told us they just bought their first house, which excites me, but makes me kind of sad because it means they're putting roots down in Indiana and we want so badly for them to end up back here. I guess it could still happen when Jack is done with Purdue. We'll see.

Kari draws with Maddie and Noah at Owen's birthday party.

Owen was pretty excited about his Curious George theme party. Yum, cake!

Leighton is growing so fast! At first glance I think he looks like Scott, but I definitely see Jen's features in him as well.

Owen (we're so glad he still has his red hair!), Kelly, Noah, and me saying good-bye. We're supposed to see them again at the end of June, so it's something to look forward to!

It was a lazy Mothers' Day, which I think I've earned. I'm so thankful for my mother, my mother-in-law, and the son who has made me into a mother.