Gettin' Down on the Farm

My Grandpa Ranschau owns and operates a farm about an hour from my parent's house. We were able to make it up there several times, and we got to help ferry people around during harvest and pick up sticks (Carsten enjoys this activity, don't worry :) ). It was fun to spend time with Grandpa, and I had a lot of fun watching Carsten discover things on the farm, like the kittens, bulls, and corn stalks. I lost my opal pendant from Andy while we were there, but we rented a metal detector and found it, so that was a relief :).  I also got the opportunity to take some photos of Carsten while we were there, and I loved how they turned out.

My Fav

Cheesy baby

Corn stalks are the best

Love this kid

What's even better than a corn stalk? Stirring soybeans with the corn stalk.

What's the worst thing in the world? When Grandma tries to take your corn stalk away. It's true.

We loved hanging out with you Grandpa!

Iowa - Week 1

Our flight from Grand Rapids to Sioux Falls went great - Carsten is an amazing traveler. He slept for about 30 min on our first flight, and then played happily on our second flight. One thing that I'm quickly becoming aware of are airports with nice child play areas. Minneapolis, our connecting airport, had one, which is great, but it wasn't terrific, so perhaps we'll try some other airports in the hopes of getting terrific play areas to wear Carsten out. O'Hare in Chicago for example, has an amazing child play area :).

To start off our time in Iowa, my Dad took Carsten on his very first tractor ride. Carsten just sat (which never happens anymore) and watched and loved it. So over the course of 2 weeks, my Dad took Carsten on 3-4 separate tractor rides, each lasting 30-60 min. And I think this puts Grandpa Hoogeveen firmly in the 'most cuddled with' category. I mostly walked around the first time and picked up sticks. We even did some tree pruning, Hoogeveen style :).

On the tractor with Grandpa!

Yes, Carsten the plastic piece in the middle comes out. Way to figure that out in less than 1 minute of being on the tractor :).

I don't know who's happier. :)

Pruning!

Carsten loved to chase the cats at Mom and Dad's house. However, he wasn't too sure he wanted to touch them most of the time. The cats did make entertaining Carsten a lot easier. So handy to have around!

Grandpa showing Carsten how to pet the cat.

 We were able to all have dinner at my Grandma and Grandpa Hoogeveen's house, which was a ton of fun because almost the entire family was there because my Aunt and Uncle from Texas were also up for the weekend to see Carsten's cousin, Andrew.

Carsten and Grandma.

Carsten and I 

Andrew, you are caught red-handed. 

We also were able to attend Andrew's 1 year birthday party, which my cousin hosted at her new house. They have an amazing yard with fun pay equipment that far surpasses the playground Carsten gets to play on here in Egg. I didn't get a lot of photos here because I was enjoying talking to everyone. Thanks to my Mom for playing with Carsten so much so I could talk!

We also went to my Grandpa Ranschau's that week, but I'm going to post another separate post since I have so many good photos from our time on his farm. All in all, it was a wonderful week and it was so fun that we got to see so many family members. :)

Michigan - Week 2

This week was a jammed packed week full of friends and family as well. So, to start off the week, one of our good friends from Madison, Nicky, drove all the way to W. Michigan (5 or so hours) with her 4 year old boy, Colin, and almost 2 year old boy, Connor. I feel that Nicky is especially great for taking the long trek alone with her kids - what a champ :). It was so fun to see them and we had a lot of fun going to a park, downtown Holland, out to eat, Deanna's playhouse, and Lake Michigan. We have a lot of great photos, so here's a few:

Nicky and Colin :)

Nicky and Connor :)

Beep Beep! Out of the way!

Carsten loved the play money. I don't know what that says about him.

My little dino.

Lake Michigan for the first time!

Mom, look over there!

We also got to see Aunt Barb before we left Michigan, and she brought her two youngest border collies, which Carsten loved to watch but did not so much love to touch. Here are a few photos:

We loved spending time in W. Michigan, and even though we were there for almost 2 weeks, it really wasn't enough time with all our family and friends. We miss you all so much!

The Newest Mrs. Donovan

One of the main reasons to come back in October, was that one of my best friends from college was getting married. I had the opportunity to be in her wedding, which was a lot of fun. It was so great to get all of us back together, and we had a lot of fun. Another terrific part of the wedding weekend for me was that Mom and Dad Huisman took care of Carsten, and I spent ~14 hours away from him (I saw him briefly, but I did not care for him really), which for me, was a luxury. It's amazing how relaxed I could be when I did not have to split my focus in 15 different directions when I'm caring for Carsten. Carsten had good reports from Mom and Dad, so hopefully that means he was a perfect angel :). Thanks Mom and Dad for watching him!  Here are some photos from the wedding weekend!

Kim, my rehearsal dinner date. Oh, and Jeffrey.

Roomies!

Sooooo fun!

Pretty flowers :).

Our dresses had pockets!

Corrie and I

My fav

Corrie's fav

First dance!

The wedding itself was fun, but I think the best part was the amazing dance. I've never been to a dance where the dance floor was full all night and typically there were more men than women dancing. Corrie and Ross also danced pretty much the entire time, which was amazing :). And man oh man, Ross and Corrie's respective fathers were both tearing up the dance floor. So fun!

Michigan - Week 1

Carsten had stayed awake for the majority of our traveling, so we got on the Eastern Time Zone schedule pretty quickly. He did a good job taking naps, and I usually had to wake him up from his afternoon nap because he was sleeping too long (I think he was in his night-time sleep mode).

As expected, we had a wonderful time with Andy's family in Michigan our first week in Michigan. It was a joy to see Carsten interact with his cousins, especially the twins who are only a couple of months older than Carsten. I think one of my favorite memories was when Carsten chased Vivienne across the kitchen where they both stopped at the step down to the family room. They stood there for a moment until Carsten very casually pushed Vivienne down the step. Don't worry, she was just fine. I think it sticks in my mind because it seemed to be a 'what will this do?' moment for Carsten. Another similar moment was when his 4 month old cousin was in the jumperoo, and Carsten enthusiastically started bouncing her (see photo below). We won't encourage this behavior, but I think it goes to show that kids will come up with stuff like that on their own without prompting.

Carsten helping Julia jump.

Carsten also loved watching and chasing after his older cousins and really seemed to enjoy the new environment. He did not have too much stranger anxiety, and I think it really helped that Mom and Dad Huisman had come with us from Switzerland directly, so he knew them really well before we traveled to Michigan. Mom and Dad have a wonderful yard which was fenced in and since the weather was absolutely beautiful the entire time we were there, we had a ton of fun playing in the yard. Here are quite a few photos of cousin play time:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord :)

 My brother took a job in Holland this summer, so we were able to see him while we were there. Thanks for hanging out with us so much Luke! Carsten enjoyed it very much :).

Uncle Luke and Carsten!

 Feeding 3 toddlers is a challenge, but at Bonnie's B&B, we managed just fine :). So amazing to watch!

Carsten got to play with Andy's old trucks.

Love this :).

Great photo of 4/6 of the cousins!

All 6 grandchildren! Quite a challenge to get this photo...

Uncle Jeff with the boys!

We had so much fun, and it was fun to see Carsten enjoy playing with his cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents. Thanks everyone for taking time out of your schedules to see us! :)

I should also add that Mom and Dad Huisman were amazingly helpful with Carsten, especially when I wanted to get a few things done like some shopping and a haircut. What an amazing treat for me to have babysitters! :)