May 2021

 

Memorial Day at grandparent's house

Cooking smores and trying to stay out of poison ivy

Nate rolled the girls into the moving truck

Moving day with Nolbi

Berkey Ave house

Mother's Day

Caleb's pin

Early May. Too cold for waverunners? No way

Boat ride to Saugatuck for lunch with Carl and Karin

Leila and Julia

The Korean group's zoo trip

Grandparent's Day

Saugatuck boat ride

Smore fun with Aunt Jenny

Mother's Day Spectacular

Looking handsome for the band concert

Playing with Ruth and Naomi

Mother's Day

Tulip Time

-Holland had a modified Tulip Time this year. They did not have parades, but they had pop up Dutch dancers and still had food trucks. We had supper at the food trucks one night and got the obligatory tulip pictures. Isaac was a little disappointed that he has not been able to march in a parade yet. 

-On Mother's Day we went to Melody's dedication and then had a family lunch at our house. 

-Every year Mr. Harig, the Forest School kindergarten teacher does a Mother's Day Spectacular. As Lexi's class couldn't do it last year because of covid he held it this year. The kids sang various songs and were just cute in general. Grandma also got to attend Grandparent's Day with Stephen and Lexi in the forest. 

-We had the DeWitts and Hollebeeks over to watch the high school's Les Miserables over livestream. We ate French food and were impressed with the high school talent. 

-We bought a house in Grand Rapids that Enedina is renting from us. She is very happy to not have to move anymore and is excited about the house. Nate, Stacy, Isaac and Julia helped Enedina's family move during Memorial Day weekend. It was an easier move this time with her brother Abi and boyfriend Abel helping. It was a stressful day with moving truck issues and 3 little kids around, but we got it done! 

-Caleb had an in person band concert and it was fantastic. One covid benefit is that all of the concerts have been livestreamed so grandparents can see the concerts as well. 

-For Memorial Day we grilled out with the family at Grandpa/Grandma's house. 

April 2021

 

Isaac's 7th grade baseball team

Caleb's broken pinky

Julia's choir concert

Isaac pitching

Celebrating with the grandparents

Birthday toy

She was a little excited about her bday meal, and no she could not eat it all

Julia learning to mow the grass

First time playing softball

-Stacy, Nate and Caleb were able to get covid vaccines in April- very exciting!

-The Korean group met back up again after a long covid hiatus.

-Stephen and Lexi began having baseball and softball games. Nate coached Lexi's softball team. It was challenging in the beginning to help the girls not be afraid of the large ball coming towards them. Stephen really enjoyed playing baseball, Lexi did not enjoy softball much. 

-Isaac's baseball season was fast and furious. Every game was a double header and sometimes the games were about 1 hour away, with no school transportation. Thankfully parents helped each other out. Isaac mostly played first base and short stop with a little pitching time as well. 

-Caleb had some lax practices after spring break, a player tested positive for covid and the players in close contact had to quarantine. Unfortunately that meant Caleb had to quarantine for 14 days. Caleb played his first lax game and an opposing player hit Caleb's hand with his stick and broke Caleb's left pinky. We didn't know it was broken at the time, it was very swollen and we assumed it was jammed. Grandma saw the pinky about 2 weeks later and said it was probably broken. We took him in and sure enough it was. The Dr recommended surgery the next day to put a pin in his finger. Caleb had the pin in for about 6 weeks which meant his lax season was over. That was very disappointing. There was no lax season last year because of covid and now he missed this season. Caleb stayed engaged though and stood on the sideline for every practice and game. The athletic trainer also gave him some workouts he could do. 

-We celebrated Lexi's 7th birthday! She chose chicken legs and mac and cheese for her supper. I also made a strawberry cake. She received some legos, basketball arcade game, a China flag, and a panda night light. Lexi likes learning Mandarin (most of the time), she loves Forest School and is liked by everyone, and she likes playing outside with Adeline, Ben and Charlie. Lexi is smart, independent, funny and kind hearted. She misses her birth parents and wants to travel to China again. Lexi likes playing card games like kings in the corner, trash and Rat a tat cat. How is our baby 7 years old already? We love you Lexi! 

-Julia had an in person choir concert. They sang in masks, which led to some kids not singing as the teacher couldn't tell if they were singing or not.. Ah the covid memories. 

-I started taking 3 online classes thru MSU to work towards becoming a school social worker and am also trying to line up an internship in a school next year to gain experience. My current job as a trainer for foster/adoptive parents is fine, but it's not very fulfilling and the hours are mostly evenings and weekends which does not work well for this season of life when kids are in activities. And I would like to try working professionally as a social worker, so we will see how it goes! 

Spring Break 2021

 

Even the teens liked Aladdin's carpet ride

Maybe someday we will have a pic of them here when older too

We have a picture of them here in 2012

Jacob, Caleb, Isaac, Stephen and Levi

Celebrating Sophia's birthday

Fun Lightning McQueen show

Yay Universal!

Gabrielse and DeMaster kids

Caleb, Nathan, Jacob

Karin and Stacy

Julia and Sophia

Harry Potter world!

Kelly, Karin, Stacy, Nate and Carl taking the pic

Isaac, Nathan, Jacob, Levi, Caleb-Star Wars

Enjoying the rides

Mickey ice cream bars

Mulan!

Riding the Aerosmith ride

Millenium Falcon!

Stormtroopers!

Po from Kung Fu Panda

-Caleb left on April 1 for FL. Kelly DeWitt took his son Nathan, Jacob Gabrielse and Caleb down early. Kelly had some Disney passes and they stayed on Disney property. They did Animal Kingdom one day, Epcot on another day and some Orlando sightseeing. 

-The rest of us drove to Steph's house on the 3rd and spent the night. We then drove to Atlanta and spent a night at a hotel. We ate supper with the Custers at a bbq restaurant and had dessert at their house. 

Supper with Russ and Kay Custer

Spending time with Hez

-On Monday morning we drove the rest of the way to Orlando- we were ready for some parks! We rented a friend's house in Orlando. When we arrived at check in time, the rental hadn't been cleaned yet and it was gross. Our friend felt bad, but couldn't do anything about it as the cleaning crew was behind schedule. We put all of our suitcases on the lanai and met up with Kelly and the boys at a restaurant. We then went back to the house and swam in the pool while the cleaning crew finished. The DeWitts stayed on Disney property and the Gabrielse and our family shared the house. It was large enough with a game room, separate tv area for kids, and a pool/hot tub. 

-On Tuesday morning we got up early and went to Universal Studios. We did the park to park in one day.We started in Universal Studios Florida (USF) and spent the last half of the day in Islands of Adventure (IOA). All of the parks required masks at all times, unless stopped to eat or drink. The parks were also operating at reduced capacity, about 50% I think. People were spaced out in the lines, hand sanitizer was everywhere and rides were cleaned often. Some of the rides and shows were not open. We felt fine with being in the parks as they had good covid protocols, but it still felt odd to be around so many people. Harry Potter world was a highlight, for Stephen especially as he is in the middle of reading the books. The other kids enjoyed it as well. Some of the rides people did were-Minion Mayhem, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, Transformers Ride 3D, The Hulk coaster, Adventures of Spider-Man, and rides in Seuss Landing. We ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks, which is from Harry Potter. We tried Butterbeer and Stephen thought it was delicious. We rode the Hogwarts Express from USF to IOA and that was a cool experience. The older kids liked the big coasters and stayed later in the day while Stacy and Karin took younger kids back to the house for swimming. 

-On Wednesday we got up a little less early and went to Hollywood Studios. Star Wars rides/attractions was the main event here. We were all excited about the Star Wars stuff, some people in our group were really geeked out! The Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run ride was alot of fun as was Star Tours. The other popular ride is Rise of the Resistance that only has virtual reservations. So you have to get on the app at 7 am and try to beat out thousands of other people for a reservation all within about 10 seconds. We weren't able to get reservations during the 7 am time. You can also try again at 1 pm for reservations. All of the adults were on their phones and we got 10 reservations- it's like we won the lottery! Unfortunately we had 14 people in our group, but Stephen and Lexi were too little. Nate took one for the team and stayed with them. Karin gets motion sickness so opted to not go. The Rise of the Resistance was an amazing experience, it's like you are in a Star Wars movie scene. Some of the other rides people did were- Alien Swirling Saucers, Slinky dog dash (very long wait), Toy Story Mania, Aerosmith Rock n Roller Coaster, and Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. We also saw the Lightning McQueen Racing Academy show, the Bourne Identity stunt show and Muppet Vision 3D. For lunch we ate at PizzeRizzo. We learned Julia likes roller coasters that are dark because then she can't see where she is going and it's not as scary. Whereas Stacy does not like dark roller coasters as she can't see where she is going and that is more scary. We ate supper back at the house. Kelly and Nathan slept at the house Wed night and let Karin and Stacy have the hotel room for a night, which was a pleasant break! 

-Thursday was our down day, which we all enjoyed. We stayed at the house playing games and swimming. The neighborhood had a large pool/swim area, but our kids preferred swimming at the house pool. 

-On Friday the DeWitts left for home and the Gabrielse and DeMaster families went to Magic Kingdom. Some of the rides people did were- Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain (very long wait), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan's Flight, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Tomorrowland Speedway, Space Mountain, Astro Orbiter, and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. We bought Dole Whips and Mickey Mouse ice cream bars and we ate lunch at Pecos Bill Cafe. Magic Kingdom didn't have their typical parades during covid, but we did catch a couple of the pop-up parades and we saw Mulan in the princess parade. We finished up at Magic Kingdom by 3 pm. We were glad we went, but Magic Kingdom is really a place of nostalgia for people who grew up going there. Our group didn't fall in that category so we don't have a need to visit Magic Kingdom again. 

-On Saturday we packed up early and drove to a hotel in TN. We ate breakfast at a Waffle House Sunday morning and drove the rest of the way home. This was an exhausting and fun spring break vacation!