White Pine Trail

Today we crossed off another item on our summer vacation bucket list:  biking on the White Pine Trail with Grandpa and Grandma W!  It was a beautiful morning to ride.  Esther and Grandpa took the tag-along to Belmont and rode the 5 miles from there to Rockford, where the rest of us met them.  Then Miriam hopped on the tag-along with Grandpa while the rest of us rode our own bikes.  We rode about 7 miles all together and then had a picnic lunch with our favorite Corner Bar hot dogs!  Peter and Grandpa rode back to Belmont and the girls headed home, although we all stopped for ice cream on the way home.  Then it was time for Esther to head to Grandpa and Grandma K's house for her birthday sleepover!

Peter and Grandpa's ice cream stop in Comstock Park:

Plantinga Family Reunion

Saturday was the actual reunion day.  We gathered at Casey's Uncle Henk and Aunt Thres' house so that we could use the pool.  There were around 40 of us and we had a great time together, swimming, talking, playing and eating delicious food!

All of the kids (except for 1 baby):

All of the kids with their grandmas (Casey's mom and her 3 sisters):

Meijer Gardens

On Friday some of the guys went golfing in the morning, so the moms and kids went to Meijer Gardens.  Alissa and I were joined by Casey's sister Renee as well as his cousin Joanne and cousin-in-law Becky and all their kids.  It was a beautiful day to enjoy the children's garden and all the kids had a fun time together while the moms got to chat and catch up with each other.

We packed a picnic lunch and after lunch Alissa, Renee and I took all of our kids back in for a few more hours of fun at the farm and seeing the big horse.  It was a long but great day!

Playing "old fashioned" games in the log cabin:

Sand area:

Beaver hut:

Fun at the farm! 

The kids got to do an egg hunt and gather eggs from the lawn.

They also got to cut out a piece of cloth for this quilt and put their name on it:

Sing-along with instruments:

Cooling off in the water!

Human sundial:

Top of the hill by the big horse...

Such a great hill to roll down!

This was the reaction we got from Peter and Mason when I (jokingly) suggested walking through the rest of the sculpture park after we'd been at the gardens for 5 hours and we were all exhausted...

Craig's Cruisers

This past weekend we had a family reunion with Casey's mom's side of the family.  Casey's cousin John and his wife Alissa, along with their kids Ashlee, Case and Mason came from Virginia and stayed with us for the weekend.  We had a blast with them!  We had stayed with them 2 summers ago, so it was fun for our kids to reconnect.

On Thursday we had hoped to go to the beach, but it was cool and rainy so we opted for Craig's Cruisers instead.  We had a great time racing go-karts, playing laser tag and arcade games, and stuffing ourselves at the buffet. 

Alissa is a great photographer so I just let her take all the pictures of the weekend. Here are some pictures of our fun at Craig's Cruisers!