Sweet Summer Memories

We are finally back from our whirlwind week of being in Michigan. I'm a little slow in posting this because it took a week to recuperate from the week of "vacation". What a sweet and special time to catch up with relatives, old friends and celebrate the marriage of a sister-in-law and friend. You know how you look forward to an event for so long and then it's finally here and happening and then you can't believe it's done so quickly? That's how our MI trip felt.

We started out on Thursday, August 11 with a visit to GG VanZees' house in Grand Rapids. We are so thankful and blessed to spend time with my grand parents and Grace's great grandparents! Our time together was spent eating lunch, chatting, Great Grandma reading "Go Dog Go" about 10 times, and catching up. They are not just grand parents to us but also close friends that we miss dearly when we come back to Lombard.

After G and G's we headed to Mom and Dad Plasman's house for a fun barbeque hosted in honor of Annie and Mark with out of town guests and immediate family. Grace got to see her cousins Leo(5), Elin(2) and Nora(9mos) for the first time in a long time! What a fun reunion with her cousins. Great to have the Plasman clan all back together again.

Grace and Elin hammin it up!

Cute Cousins Elin, Leo and Grace

Bride and Groom

Are they siblings or what? :)

On Friday, August 12 we had the opportunity to catch up with two of our dear friends, relationship mentors and former neighbors, Bruce and Sue Osterink or Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Sue. We enjoyed visiting catching up with them in addition to spying on our old house from their attic:)

On Friday we prepared for the big wedding day with the rehearsal at Mayfair Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids. The kids were geared up for their chance to finally practice their wedding debut. Grace and Elin could hardly contain themselves, they were so excited. How sweet to see them holding hands practicing their big walk down the aisle. After the rehearsal dinner we dropped Grace off with cousin Bailey Voss (one of her favorite babysitters;) and headed downtown GR to Bull's Head for the rehearsal dinner. Delicious food and great company! For the after party we tagged along with Mark and Sara to Founder's Brewery to catch up with friends. Suz and John met us there for a fun night out on the town.

Bulls Head in downtown GR

Bridesmaids

August 13 was finally upon us the next day! I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would have liked but that happens when you spend a wedding day as a bridesmaid with a two year old that is in the wedding:) Grace did great given that fact that she took a 45 minute nap. Our morning consisted of getting our hair done and watching the bride get beautiful:) The afternoon was pictures and more primping. Before we knew it we were waiting in the church basement while the guests filed into the church while battling the severe thunderstorm outside. The kids were getting restless but when it came time for their performance they did great! Grace put on a big smile and her and Elin strutted their stuff down the aisle. What a beautiful ceremony. Uncle Dan officiated and pronounced them husband and wife, Mark and Annie Dalton!

We had a nice ride in a Hummer limo to the reception at SanChez in downtown Grand Rapids. Great night of fun and fellowship. Grace danced the night away until 10pm!

Beautiful Bride and Mother of the Bride!

Grace and Ring Bearer Bryson

Tuckered out after dancing all night.

After a good night of sleep at the Voss Condo we went to a nice brunch at the Plasman's. We said our goodbyes to the bride and groom and Plasman family and headed out for Holland, MI. We made a pit stop at the Ruppert's house, close Plasman family friends (the siblings all babysat for the kids). Grace Ruppert was in our wedding and we like to think of our Grace as her namesake.

Grace and Bailey, our wonderful host for the weekend

Grace and Grace

Our time in Holland consisted of a visit with the Vandenberg's, fun in the pool, a long boat ride, another visit with G and G and lots of relaxation! Thanks Mom and Dad for a great couple days.

Grace with the Vandenberg kids

Plasman's and Vandenberg's

Pater and Kerry with Geneva

Sydney and Grace

Ups and Downs

I have just been through World War III at my house. It all started on Thursday night. Grace had a fever and woke up three times in a half sleeping/half awake consciousness. The next day she was complaining that her tummy hurt, her ears hurt and her mouth hurt. She wouldn't drink her milk (which she is obsessed with) and she barely had an appetite. Anything that did go down her throat was met with a cry and her holding her throat. My first thought was ear infection, then I thought she may be teething and then I didn't know what to think. About 5:30 in the afternoon I noticed little blisters on her hands and one in her mouth. I didn't panic about this symptom because I pretty much had it diagnosed: hand, foot mouth virus. My sister had it when she was a baby and my mom still likes to bring up this story every once in a while during our conversations about how I should take away Grace's pacifiers. I like to channel my inner doctor a lot so I was convinced about my diagnosis. And of course the website I was on said that there is nothing you can do for this virus except wait it out. On Friday night, I was up with her about 5 times! The next morning when she was up at 7:30 I thought for sure that we needed to go to the Dr. but, she woke up all chipper and cheerful. What?! Well, sometimes you just second guess your motherly instincts so we took a bike ride and it was during the bike ride that decided I better take her in after bouts of crying from the bike carrier (yes, I felt like a terrible mother after taking her for a bike ride).

Well, turns out I was right. I took her in at 2pm on Saturday and he confirmed the hand, foot, mouth virus. I was relieved that it was nothing more serious. So along with all the sleepless nights this past weekend and the dr. visit Grace decided to start asking "why". Grace, eat your melon. "Why?" Grace, lets clean up your markers. "Why?" Grace, time to get in the car. "Why?" Add to this the virus, lack of sleep (one hour naps or less for four days), tantrums (because of the lack of sleep), and the fact that I had to take her to work with me for two hours yesterday, and you have one frazzled mommy!

So I thought the worst was over, but it turns out that toddlers take a while to overcome a virus and even after the virus is gone, they are so used to mom and dad giving them anything they want when they are sick that they milk it for all it's worth and throw temper tantrums when they don't get everything they want (whew, that was a run on sentence!). And I mean all out, throw yourself on the floor tantrums for things like "no grace, you may not watch a video right now". She couldn't let it go! So we get around to bed time after a relatively peaceful afternoon (thank you Mom for a respite) and dinner that was actually very pleasant. I decide she needs to brush her teeth after a few days of not doing this due to the blisters in her mouth. I go to brush the bottom teeth and notice some food in her molars on the left side. What, molars plural??? Since when does Grace have two molars on the bottom left?? And that's when I add teething to the long list of ailments and struggles these past four days! Her bottom 2 year molars are halfway in and I never even noticed! Poor thing! Her mouth must have been in serious pain:( But despite feeling horrible for the past couple of days she didn't fail to keep me entertained and make me laugh a lot. Kids are amazing and teach us so much about patience, pain, and resilience. I love being a parent in spite of the fact that I wanted to pull my hair out many times during the last 72 hours.

I took these pics on Monday after I had turned my back for a few minutes

Yes, it was on her foot and up and down her leg:)

This was her "makeup"