Concluding a Much Needed Weekend

Let's get pictures out of the way first:


We had a great weekend with family here. We hadn't gotten the chance to do all the "tourist" stuff in Holland, we had saved it up knowing that we had people coming.

On Friday we spent the day in downtown Holland. Which is kind of like Valley Junction. Lot's of little shops, restaurants and coffee shops... you get the picture.

We first went to JP's coffee shop. It's a great little local place that serves a great coffee. Then we went up and down the strip hitting all the shops. Holland is a sister city to Pella so they are coming off there tulip festival. So there are remnants along the strip. Joni and my Mom hit just about every shop, while my dad and I made up games with Miya to keep her entertained.

We stopped for lunch at the 8th St. Grille. They have awesome soups, I've been there twice since we've been here.

After that we went back to my parents hotel room to go swimming, play ping-pong and just have some fun, relaxed down time. We then went out for pizza and beer at the New Holland Brewery... good food, good beer. It was perfect.

Saturday we wandered the farmers market downtown, and then went to the beach on Lake Michigan. It was Awesome! Chilly, but very fun. We played in the sand, got our feet in the freezing water, played frisbee and just enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and the chance to get out and do something unfamiliar. We closed up the day with a little miniature golf, that was a lot of fun too.

Sunday came and we had to make a tough decision. On Saturday Miya had a meltdown because she wanted to go home. Sunday morning we sat down and had a talk with her and we decided that she should go home. It was a tough decision because she keeps us entertained and feeling somewhat normal. But she was missing things from home, Gizmo...our dog, and we knew her last day of preschool was this week and she would benefit from having closure with that.

We were very sad to have her leave! It brought out the homesickness in us. We had a rough couple hours as we just let out all our emotions. It's been an emotional month and it all came out.

At this point we are blessed by the people we have met and the time we have spent here, but we are ready to be home. We know that by this weekend we should be on our way, but this weekend just can't come fast enough.

So we are making plans for the week to keep ourselves busy for two reasons. One, to keep time moving so we don't get bored and the time goes fast. And Two, because we don't want to be loafs, we need to have fun while we are here.

Thanks for the support. We love and miss all of you.