The Jones Family Junction

Thursday, December 29, 2016

A few fun hours ...

I had Wednesday off work, SO I asked if I could take Brendan downtown to the Grand Rapids Public Museum to see the whale exhibit and the Charlie Brown exhibit and just hang out down there for a few hours.

We always have a ton of fun at the museum. This grandparent membership thing is really a deal.

Brendan caught a few magnetic fish at this little play area ... and bowled a little bit too.

The Charlie Brown exhibit was upstairs on the second floor. I think it was mostly for older children because it required a lot of reading of the comic strips framed nicely and hanging on the walls ...

Brendan got to play Schroeder's piano ...

I think our favorite part of the exhibit was Snoopy's dog house. It was just so perfect, and INSIDE there were two puppets: Snoopy AND Woodstock!

This little sweetie LOVES puppets ...

He was quite taken with both of them!

We went all the way to the 3rd floor to see the whale exhibit. There was a bunch of stuff to see and do--again, I think mostly for older children and adults. Also, I didn't like the science part of it because it assumed that everyone was an evolutionist--I'm not! But the exhibit was well put together and worth seeing. There was a GIANT heart model that kids could actually crawl inside--they claimed this model was LIFE-SIZED!!

This was also the ONLY place in the entire whale exhibit where photography of any kind was allowed!

Just a few more pictures ....

I love the gift shop at almost any museum ... such fun and interesting toys to play with!

Naturally, we rode the carousel too! For some reason, Brendan wanted us to SIT on the chair part of the carousel instead of on the animals this time. That's okay--just a bit unusual--Brendan usually always picks the giraffe to ride.

After the museum, we went to Culver's for lunch so that Brendan could get a FREE scoop of his very favorite chocolate ice cream for dessert. YUM.

Christmas Day 2016

Christmas fell on a Sunday this year. I love it when it does that! Calvary Church has been going through its Grace Beyond building project and last Sunday (December 18) was our first Sunday back "home" to worship after spending the last eight months over at the field house at Calvin College. So Christmas day was our second Sunday back in our newly renovated, not-quite-finished building.

I picked Nana up and we went to church together. It was a "family" service, so all of the little children were IN the service and had a special message given to them too. Pastor's message was about Jesus becoming a human and what that meant--that laying aside of His glory and becoming one of us. Pastor also talked about what that transformation meant for Jesus for eternity. It was a very thought-provoking sermon. I loved singing the Christmas Carols, too, with nearly 3,000 people all back together at our church again.

After the service, Nana and I came over to my house and ate lunch together (I had it all nicely cooking in the crock pot). We visited for awhile and watched some of "Home Alone 2" (just because it is a funny movie), and then I took Nana back to her house and drove over to Dylan, Kelly, and Brendan's place where we celebrated Christmas. Shane was there too.

Weeks ago, I had asked what I could get Brendan for Christmas that would be SPECIAL. !! So Dylan and Kelly were kind enough to let me get Brendan his very own rainbow ukulele!

Brendan is very patient about opening presents. At one point, he had gotten most of the wrapping paper off and said with his sweet voice, "It's a box!"

Ah, but INSIDE the box was this very pretty ukulele for our Little Fellow!

Look at his little face! And Dylan's too! Priceless.

Dylan tuned up the strings, attached the rainbow strap and made sure it fit inside the very cool carry case. Everything was Perfect! :)

Brendan has had quite a Christmas this year! His grandma Julie and grandpa Pat sent him a Polar Express lionel train with sound effects galore, remote control and everything! Brendan is absolutely thrilled with it.