Nicholas at Farm Day 2008

When have you ever known me to NOT be able to keep up with life at its fast pace! Well, now may be it! Because believe it or not, Donica and I are back in Amsterdam (this time for a month) but are still living in the glow of Farm Day last weekend in Michigan.

This was our 3rd Farm Day in a row at sister Ruth's and Don's farm. Every year it becomes bigger or better or more memorable, as family members gather for one Saturday every August to experience what we've all decided is genetically inside of us: FARM.

This year there were 37 of us (as many as when we're all at the family cottage over July 4th!). And THIS year Donica and I decided to take grandson Nicholas (age 8) with us. We wanted him to experience FARM! So while I work on all the other pictures, here is a post of Farm Day as experienced by Nicholas, covering the span from Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon.

All day Friday was a day of preparation before the rest of the family (read cousins) arrived on Saturday. Nicholas followed Uncle Don everywhere, helping to feed the chickens their grain...

...and the garbage scraps from meal preparation.

And of course, Don and Ruth's son, Peter, was also part of the follow-around mix!

Even Lesley's beau, Brian, got in on the action as Uncle Don instructed Nicholas on how to load and shoot a BB gun, aiming at a quail egg set up in the fire pit. (Don't worry, Amy and Dennis! I watched the entire thing and they were very "cautious" about the whole thing!)

Then all the sports stuff had to be put up, like the Badminton set, with Lesley.

And sand had to be tossed for a nice play-pile for the wee kids...

...and cookies needed to be made (again with Uncle Don) for the entire clan.

In between all the hard work, there was plenty of down time, of course, with games on Uncle Don's computer...

...and even some coloring. You may remember from a couple years ago that Nicholas is an expert colorer. He still loves to do it, as an art form!

Then the tribe arrived, little by little, around noon on Saturday! Aunt Susan had to line up the older kids since she just got a new camera and had to test it out. Nicholas was the oldest, by 2 months!

Then he had to show all the cousins around, since by now everything was old hat for him. The rabbit (which Uncle Don was "babysitting" for one of his students)...

...and the quail! If you asked him what his favorite thing was, I'm sure he'd say "The quail!" At every whip-stitch he wanted to go check on them and see if there were any new eggs hatched (3 or 4 new ones several time a day). He picked them up (the quail) and petted them and even kissed them Good-Night!

There was badminton...

...eating (of course)...

...swimming in the hot tub...

...and playing Nintendo with Eli before the last of the family left for home.

It almost makes me tired to think of everything he did during such a short span of time! He got home to Atlanta Sunday night just in time to go to bed...before school started the next day: THIRD GRADE!

The photo album of just Nichoas at Farm Day will put more flesh on these bones. But these images here give you an idea of why we go each year and why THIS year he went with us.

THANK YOU once again, Ruth and Don. Here's to another fabulous experience of FARM!

Reunioning

I think I am forever blowing bubbles! OOPS! I mean...forever processing photos!! :)

HA! But I love it! We got back on Sunday night from our July 4th reunion with my Hart Family in Michigan. You could go back into my Archives to this time of the year for the last 3 years and see a different version of the same thing! It's always the same and yet always different. We all keep growing up!

The lake, of course, is the central focus for reunioning during the day when the weather cooperates. Sun or shade, take your pick. There's something for everyone!

Nephew Paul is a graphics designer and was the one who encouraged me last year to buy the above Canon lens for my camera. So I brought it his year for him to "test" on his own camera. He loves it. If I ever find it missing, I think I'll know where to look.

In this picture there is a g'ma, g'daughter, mother, daughter, aunt and niece. That's the fun thing about reunions! Wilma is my SIL, a real Dutch lady, and we know what that means to me. She's holding her g'daughter, Clara. Niece Shari in the center is the mother of Emma on the right. Can you believe it!

For me in particular, I'm mesmerized all over again by the wee ones. Little great-nephew Aden (above) stole my heart last year. He and I are both #3 children in our nuclear families. I think I'll really be watching him like a Mother Hen.

Little great-nephew Asher (below) represents the awe I have over the simplest of things that I treasure.

This year there seemed to be more activity in the water than past years. I wonder if it's because the wee ones are getting older and are enjoying it more. So that means the g'ma/g'pa generation (mine) is more involved as well. Reunioning!

And all kinds of little conversations take place anywhere! That's what gives us so many dear memories of the cottage. Three generations are represented here.

Nephew Peter is one of the favorite cousins for the second-generation cousins. You can see why. The reunion-connections are built every year and keep getting bigger and bigger. Squirt guns help.

Then you have the reunion between sister Susan and her g'daughters who are separated throughout the year by several states...Illinois and Florida. The Michigan cottage becomes an oasis in their reunion-desert.

BIL Don (like his son, Peter) knows how to connect with the kids in a way that makes him a favorite. My g'son Nicholas and his cousin Audry know how to wiggle their way in. Uncle Don, incidentally, teaches 3rd graders...Nicholas' grade this year! Nicholas becomes google-eyed when he imagines what it'd be like to have Uncle Don as his teacher!

Sister Nancy does not know how to stop, period. But that was her heaven, to make all kinds of pillow shams and curtains for the cottage. And a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down! But she loves it and is good at it!

Some of my favorite times are the quiet times when you actually can rest, meditate and slow down. Daughter Amy with Nicholas had a few quiet moments before the Tribe arrived after we first got there. In this case, we reunion with the cottage, Hukilau, and get reacquainted!

And at the end of one day, nephew Eric rowed the boat across the lake while 3 of the cousins swan across...and then back again. This is a rite of passage as the cousins get older. It happened to all of us!

Sister Ruth and I are keen on finding those early, quiet moments when the lake is still and calm. This is what we live for...those quiet moments, after all the hubbub.

Family reunioning doesn't really get better than this. I finished my photo album yesterday and sent it out to the family. Every year we all want to "document" our time because the kids are growing up way too quickly. What will they look like next year??!!

Got SNOW?!

Thanks to Donica's fabulous Christmas gift of our flight to Michigan after Christmas, WE GOT SNOW! We were first at Don and Ruth's farm and SAW it snow, about 3 inches. Then we drove to the cottage where even more snow was on the ground.

When you first get to the cottage, you drive in from the back off the gravel road. In the summer time, this entire area is full of cars. We had 35 people on Saturday, the 29th, so there were many more cars than this.

But here's the front of the cottage, taken from the lake. That screened porch in the summer time is fitted with glass windows in the fall, so that we can still sit out there when it's cold and see what's going on. Talk about therapeutic.

In the previous photo you can see the deck to the left of the cottage. Here it is up close, with the kids' colorful chairs stacked up for the winter.

To the left of that deck is state property that can never be built on, so we have such a lovely view through the woods to the lake below.

On the winding steps down to the lake, autumn has taken its fancy, playing with the snow.

And there she is! The frozen lake.

A long winter's nap for our two friends...

...and the memory of days gone by when sitting on the "beach" has new meaning! This was a gift from my older sister and her husband since the last time I was there. So this is beckoning me for the summer to come.

In the meantime, I will hold the treasure of this snow in my heart. I don't get to see it often enough so when I do, I have to store it up!

Will you get your fill of snow this winter? I hope so.

The Last of the Farm Wee-ness

Did I mention that 3 generations of us were represented at Farm Day! Of the 7 sibs remaining on my level (Bennett died in 1996), there were 6 of us there: Susan, Ginnie, Nancy, Jim, John and Ruth, in descending order. Nelson had to work that Saturday!

Then of our 19 kids, the next level down, only 5 were present: Todd, Eric, Paul, Lesley and Peter.

From the third generation down, of the 18 kids of our kids, 5 were present: Lydia, Eli and Aden (from Paul and Manda's family) and Audrey and Asher (from Todd and Lisle's family). WHEW! I sure hope I counted right!

Anyway, the 5 wee-est of them all make a good note to end on for the 2007 Farm Day in Michigan at Don and Ruth's!

It didn't take long for the 3 oldest kids to find Lesley and her books: Eli, Lydia and Audrey, from left to right.

Asher is the wee-est of them all right now (2 more are in the oven, so to speak), giving his Uncle Eric the "You can't be serious!" look.

Aden is the comic relief for all of us, here with his G'ma Wilma.

His sister, Lydia, got in with all the g'ma generation to show how it's done. See, it's really quite easy!

Oops. Can't stop showing pics of this fella, the comic-relief guy, Aden.

His brother, Eli, definitely knows what farming is all about.

The girls, Lydia and Audrey, aren't so sure.

They'd much rather splash around with Lesley.

Audrey gets a chance to ride the bike, with Mommy Lisle's help.

And there's that corker, Aden, again, living life to the full!

There you have it. As you see, I couldn't do it justice in one post, so I divvied it all up. Hopefully you now understand a bit more what it's all about when we say we're going to Don and Ruth's for Farm Day!