Sunday, August 19, 2012

Our Week + One Day Went Way Too Fast!

With mixed emotions we delivered Nanae & Yoshi to the airport yesterday. From here to Chicago, spending the night in Chicago last night & then off for a 12-hour+ flight to Tokyo. I had a post on FaceBook from Nanae & they were an hour past departure & still waiting. After checking the flight, they were more than two hours late -- but now they are over the Yukon in Alaska, about half-way home.
We had such a good time, but keeping up with them (being half our age) was quite a challenge. Dave & I totally chilled out today! Back to work tomorrow for me. Dave is having Matt & Jon come over & get the lawn work done once more before school is out. And Janessa & Jillian are all snuggled down for the night. Janessa wanted to spend the night one more time before school starts & since I had promised Jillian she could stay soon, they are both here. The real thing is having waffles in the morning.
I can't seem to concentrate tonight, so I'll just say that I'll be posting some scrapbook pages from our time with Nanae & Yoshi.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Bsuy Week -- Breather Today

What a jam-packed week we've been having!
Saturday we had the whole family over for a picnic barbecue, I guess I mentioned that in my last post. Then on Sunday we took Nanae & Yoshi to the Silver Hawks game in South Bend. They lost 10 to 6 :( But we had a lot of fun anyhow, lots of action with scores that high. I think both teams could use new pitchers!! LOL

They had a special salute to fallen heroes & the Hawk cheered on with the audience in recognition of them.
Monday Dave, Yoshi & Matt went fishing in the morning. Then after lunch it was off to the grocery store. Yoshi has been so good to our grand kids -- they love playing with him!
Monday evening we went to visit some Amish friends of ours & went for a buggy ride in the rain...I had some time today to play a little & did this scrapbook page to remember the occasion:

Tuesday was another full day with a trip to Dallas Lake & a pontoon ride around the lake while visiting with one of Nanae's friends from the softball team back in high school. And me? -- I forgot to take my camera - YIKES!
The afternoon held Frisbees in the back yard, riding the lawn tractor. A trip to Westview to meet the sixth grade teacher topped off the evening. Yoshi teaches sixth grade near Tokyo, so it was fun for him to visit the school.

It is so peaceful & quiet here right now -- it's fun to have company & be doing a lot of things, but it is also good to take time out to rest a bit.






Saturday, August 11, 2012

They are here! :)

Yesterday was a day we will remember for the rest of our lives!
Jim & Tina & their granddaughter Elizabeth arrived in time for lunch at Ianarrelli's.  Dave & Jim picked up right where they left off in 1968. Tina & I were soon swapping photography stories -- and talking scrapbooking; just like we were old friends, [And then we ate fried skunk at the local saloon. -- inserted by Julie, smarty pants, we really didn't eat any skunk!]
As much as Tina & I like to take pictures, we neither one took a photo of Dave & Jim together. So this morning we got together again for a few minutes for a photo-shoot.
Here's Dave & Jim on our back patio:

We went back to our house for a couple of hours. Jenny had gone to Ianarrelli's with us & was heading off to pick up Kalei from camp so Elizabeth went with her. The two girls seemed to have a good time together on the trip home according to Jenny.

When Jim & Tina left Dave & I headed for the airport to pick up Nanae & Yoshi. We left a little later than we had planned on but made good time & got there about 10 minutes before their flight was due to arrive. Oops -- the flight was delayed for an hour. :(  So we sat around for a while. You know the hurry-up-and-wait kind of thing! Finally the plane arrived. We were so excited to see Nanae & Yoshi. We chatted as we waited for their luggage...we waited & waited again. No luggage! So we waited in line to fill out a baggage claim for lost baggage. The first story we got was that it should be at the airport in an hour or two, but when we got to the counter we found out it might be late morning or early the next afternoon. We decided to let them deliver it to our house & we headed for home.
We once again made good time, went to find some supper -- a late (8 pm) supper. After we had our fill, we stopped at WalMart for pjs & a change of clothes; a toothbrush for Nanae & a few other things they wanted. It was certainly a memorable experience -- like Dad always said when we had things go wrong on a vacation, "This is the one we will remember the most!"

Today we had the girls & their families over for a barbecue. Jon & Logan weren't here, but all the rest of our off-spring were. We took this family photo of all of us...kind of a mini family reunion:


One more big thrill today was after all the kids left. We took Nanae & Yoshi over to the state grounds to show them the eagle's nest. Wow! There was a bird on the nest -- a first for us. I took a bunch of photos as we drove closer & closer. I even got a couple of good shots as it flew away. But alas, it wasn't the eagle. However, it was a bird I had been hoping to see -- an osprey!





God is good! What a blessing today has been!