And then it was Monday ...

After having not seen the kids since Saturday, the 48 hours kind of dragged by until 3:00 Monday afternoon ... Diana and I and the children headed over to visit Grandpa Pahman and Uncle Shane. We all went over to Palmer Park, on the southwest side of Grand Rapids. What a pretty place it is! I think it's probably been 20+ years since I had been here.
There is really nice playground equipment here, and the children had so much fun.
It was a very hot afternoon in Grand Rapids, so it was nice to find a playground with so many trees and shade!

Diana liked it here too. I like this picture of her, having fun on the equipment. She even went down the biggest curly slide at the park, but the picture I took of her while doing that just isn't the best ...
This is the park where Grandpa Pahman spent a lot of his time as a child, so it was delightful for him to be here with the grandchildren.

Isn't that a sweet little picture of Matthew? He enjoys heights and has absolutely no fear ... so you have to watch him carefully! He stopped running and playing just to enjoy the view.
There are lots of interesting trails throughout the park, some that take you to swampy areas ~ perfect for frog hunting, etc. ~ but it was just TOO hot to do that today. We decided to walk the boardwalk instead.

I'm going to have to come back here in the Fall and take some pictures of the colors and the leaves ...

It was a nice, long hike through the woods ~ the kids were really beat by the time we were finished ~ and then we went over to Grandpa Pahman's to eat supper and play ...
Uncle Dylan and Shane played with the kids for a long time. Matthew especially attaches himself to Dylan ~ we're thinking it has something to do with how much Dylan and Jesse are similar in appearance ... And Christopher LOVES to rough around with Uncle Shane ... it's very fun to watch them.

Time to say good-bye ... until the next time!
We took Diana back to her parents' house and then drove over to the Jones Junction for the night. It was nearly 8:00, but it was still SO light outside. We played for a little while, and then started the bedtime routine: snack, story, music, hugs ...



Ever since we read the story of creation the other night, Emma has been saying that she wants to see God and play with Him! She wants to see Him now! It's difficult to explain to little children how God is a Spirit and He is invisible to us ... so since Jesus came for the very purpose of revealing God to us, I decided that our storytime should be about Jesus. We actually read two stories from The Jesus Storybook Bible (by Sally Lloyd-Jones). One of the stories we read was about Jesus when He was out on the lake in a small fishing boat in a huge storm with his friends. Oh my word! The author does an amazing job with this story! And the illustrations of the huge waves and lightning and the tiny boat, and Jesus sound asleep ~ just beautiful! All of us were in my big bed reading the story. I had the kids make the sound of the wind and I rocked back and forth and acted out the story with them. When we got to the part where the disciples were screaming in fear and finally woke Jesus up, the kids were SO into it. And to have Jesus just say, "Hush!" and have everything STOP ~ the wind, the waves, the storm! I love how the author brought us back to the creation story ~ how the wind and the waves recognized Jesus' voice! Christopher said, "Wow! Jesus has a lot of power, grandma!" And then we talked about how Jesus is with us when we are afraid and how much He loves us, with a never-ending love!



After our stories, the kids were asking me questions about their dad (Jesse), about what he was like when he was little. I asked them if they wanted to see some pictures of him when he was a kid, so I took them into the lighthouse room (the other spare bedroom) where I have boxes of pictures stored underneath the bed. We got out an old photo album that still had some pictures in it of Jesse, Shane and Dylan ~ of when they were born, up until about Emma's age. We had so much fun! The kids laughed so hard to see photos of their daddy and their uncles (and me!) and how we all looked so many years ago.




And then we all went to bed! I'd like to tell you we all slept soundly, but these little ones talk in their sleep! But at least they all stayed sleeping and seemed to be well-rested in the morning ~ and that's the only thing that is really important anyway!