We rehearse ... and then we eat!

Last night was the wedding rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner for Dylan and Kelly. I'm quickly posting just a few photos for you to see ... I haven't any time to do a better job at this ... so it is what it is! This first picture is of Jackson, the ring-bearer, and Naomi, the flower-girl. Naomi was three in April. She wasn't real sure about Jackson at first, but ... little kids are something, aren't they? Jackson persisted in getting acquainted with this little girl, and pretty soon, the ice melted ... and she was happy and fine!

Dylan and his groomsmen ...
The bridesmaids ... and Father Nick ...
Dylan giving instructions to his ring-bearer (who is VERY proud to do this job for his Uncle Dylan!) ...
Kelly's father, Patrick O'Brien, walking the bride down the aisle ...
Dylan and Kelly requested a casual outdoor dinner of pizza ... so we booked Ada Park for the occasion ... hoping very much that it would NOT rain ...
This is Naomi (isn't she the prettiest little thing?) getting ready to open her gift from KellyO ...


Jackson opening his gift for being such a wonderful ring-bearer ...
And ... Sabrina with baby Jeremiah ... we could NOT have pulled off this dinner at the park without Sabrina. She ran errands for us all day long ... posted directional signs, arrived early at the park to set the tables up, gathered wild flowers for our centerpiece, and I can't remember all of the other stuff she did ... but we thank her! The rehearsal and dinner went on as planned ... NO rain at all!

Well ... it's wedding day and we leave for the church in 30 minutes! It's a beautiful day. The sun is shining, a wonderful breeze is blowing ... and Dylan and Kelly are about to join their lives together. So much planning and emotion goes into this day ... I am just praying that the Lord will be honored in all that is said and done ... because He is the One who really matters. :)

Beach Day ... Yay!

Sabrina and the little kiddos are here visiting until next Wednesday. When we were trying to decide about the fun stuff we were going to try to do during their visit, we designated today as BEACH DAY. We could not have picked a more perfect weather day to spend the day at our favorite spot on planet Earth!

After we took Jackson over to Afendoulis to be fitted for his tuxedo for Dylan and Kelly's wedding, we drove on out to North Park Beach in Ferrysburg ... this beach is two miles north of the lighthouse and it's usually less crowded than the State Park at Grand Haven. We brought a bunch of sand toys, staked out a spot near the water, and had the best fun ever.

The water temperature was 76-77 degrees today ... warm enough to really have a good time (I HATE cold water!). So we got to swim and dive and play in the water as much as we liked!
We had very friendly sea gulls everywhere around us, begging for food. We didn't have any to give them! We had already eaten all of our rice crispy treats!

We made lots of cool sand mold castles and even dug our own river to the sea ...
Do you like this picture of our "muscle man Jackson?" Yikes! Look at the ribs on this child!
We drove over to Grand Haven and ate lunch at the Snug Harbor on the deck outside. This was our beautiful view. We got to watch all kinds of interesting boats coming and going while we waited for our food. Does it get any better than this??!!
We took a wonderful walk all the way to the very end of the pier ... with about 10,000 other people who were crowding the beach along with us!

We got to see the Wind Dancer hoist its sails and ... sail! Grandpa Jones and I sailed aboard this ship last summer ... it was wonderfully thrilling!
We were too late to catch the fishermen today ... they must have been smart enough to come to the pier in the wee hours of the morning to do their fishing ... when it was nice and quiet and there weren't so many beach goers around.
Here are Jackson and Karis showing us their "dance moves" ...
And Karis kept up an entire song and dance routine, completely uninhibited and totally entertaining ...
After she was finished, she did a very fancy BOW ... like she was a true performer!
Can you see how amazingly beautiful our day was? Mmmm. I could've stayed forever.
What a great day to spend at the beach. I will have lovely memories of it ... for always.

Jackson gets "fitted" ...

It was "fitting day" for Jackson ... over at Afendoulis Tuxedos. I slipped into the dressing room and just snapped a few pictures. I liked watching the process of Sabrina attempting to get this wiggle-worm of a six-year-old boy into ALL of these various clothes ...
However, Jackson did really well with the whole thing
He definitely liked getting really really dressed up!
I think he looks smashingly handsome in a tuxedo, don't you?
Perhaps you are not aware of the fact that Jackson is the ring-bearer for Dylan and Kelly's wedding. It wasn't in the original wedding plans ... because the bride does the choosing of most of the wedding party. Kelly had a good friend's son all lined up to do the job ... but then kind of last minute, he was unable to do it. Since Jackson's family was coming into town for the wedding, Dylan called and asked if Jackson could do he and Kelly a really BIG favor and be the ring bearer!
Jackson is very excited about his job at the wedding! And his tuxedo fits perfectly ... except the trousers need hemming ... just a bit. Two more days now until the wedding ...

A few snapshots from a busy day ...

Our internet has had issues the last 24 hours or so ... so I'm posting just a few pictures of what we did yesterday, as I am trying to get ready for what we are doing today! Not a good combination, but it will have to do.

Sabrina, Jackson and Karis arrived very late Tuesday night. Our day started bright and early yesterday morning. We played around the house for awhile, but then we had some important errands to run in order to get ready for the wedding this weekend.
This is Karis's assembling of ALL of the stuffed animals in our basement playroom ...
We drove out to Ada Township Park to check out the area where we are having the rehearsal dinner for Dylan and Kelly. I just had to do a double check of the area and the decorations we are bringing for the occasion. I knew Jackson and Karis would love a nice walk in the woods too.
Don't they remind you a little bit of Hansel and Gretel?
It's difficult to catch them both in the same picture because they are usually RUNNING in two different directions!
We had a nice time playing at the playground and exploring the pathways through the woods ...
We enjoyed a nice dinner with Adam and Emily and baby Jeremiah later in the evening ...

The little kiddos ran through our sprinklers to TRY to cool off from the tremendous heat we were experiencing yesterday ... our house felt like a sauna!
We really had a nice first day together. I don't have time to tell you many details ... I've got to get ready and pack up for a day at the beach! I'll try to post some pictures later.

Out at Ada Township Park

I drove over to Ada Township Park this afternoon to check out a few last minute details for our rehearsal dinner on Friday night. It's SO beautiful out there!
Everything is so lush and green ... and gorgeous! This is the view of the fish ponds from the gazebos.
Look at these mushrooms! I've never seen them growing out of a tree before ... they were everywhere!


Just a little bit behind the area where we are having the rehearsal dinner, there are pathways that lead to a butterfly sanctuary. It was a very warm and sunny afternoon, so I thought I'd just take a quick peek to see if I could photograph some butterflies out in the wild ...
But I only saw TWO butterflies and they were far far into the fields of flowers where I couldn't go. There are signs all along the pathways telling visitors NOT to stray OFF of them. So I didn't!

I had a little mishap while I was at the park today ... but it had a happy ending, and one I'm thankful about ...

I hate wearing glasses ... so I don't (!) ... unless I absolutely have to! I have to wear them when I am driving ~ it even designates that fact on my driver's license ... so I'm stuck! But I don't really need glasses to SEE except for distance. And I didn't need glasses one single bit until I was about 40 years old ... I was just too old to make that huge of a change in my life! So I have resisted.

When I parked my car and started walking at Ada Park this afternoon, I had my glasses on. I usually whip them off my face as soon as I put the car in park! But I had walked quite a way today before I realized I was still wearing them. It was very hot this afternoon and my face was uncomfortable with glasses resting on my nose ... so I just took them off and put them on top of my head ... out of the way!

The pathways that lead out to the butterfly sanctuary kind of weave in and out of high grasses and woods. I had been deep in the woods for about 20 minutes when a bee kind of dive-bombed at my head and I jerked suddenly ... only to realize my glasses were NOT on my head! They were not anywhere to be seen!

Oh great, I thought. I've had a few days in a row now where I've been more than usually scatter-brained ... and I hate that feeling of being ... stupid! It's disorienting and aggravating! So I started re-tracing my steps ... backwards through the woods and the high grasses and the pathways, trying to figure out where I could possibly have dropped my glasses. I had covered a huge amount of ground in my walk and I couldn't even exactly remember which pathways I had walked! I felt like I was close to a panic about it ... yikes! My glasses! I can't drive without them! I am low on cash presently ... how would I afford to replace them? And when would I have time to get that done before the wedding this weekend? All of these questions and fears just poured into my brain.

And then I began to pray. God says that when we are afraid, we need to talk to Him! So I told Him everything! And I asked Him to PLEASE help me find my glasses!
I retraced what I thought were my steps ... twice ... NO glasses. I kept praying! And then I remembered those mushrooms! I thought they were SO weird growing out of those trees, and one time I bent right over to get my camera nice and close ... and that's where my glasses fell right off my head ... and I never noticed!

So ... thanks Lord! Thank You for helping me find my glasses today ... even IF I don't like wearing them!