RAGBRAI: July 18-22, 2014

This past weekend I was able to go away for 5 days with my parents and sister to enjoy part of RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa).  My dad has been on about 27 of the 42 rides and I completed 3 of them with him before we had kids.  For the first time ever, the route went through Hull, the town where my dad grew up.  We thought it would be fun to go explore his hometown, spend some time together, eat delicious food, see extended family, and do some biking as well.

My dad went out with a friend on Thursday.  On Friday my mom and I left Grand Rapids and picked up Karen at an oasis on 80 in Illinois (Juan brought her there to meet us to save some time).  We got to LeMars and had a quick dinner at Pizza Hut.  Then we went to the home of my dad's childhood friend and his wife.  Cal and Dixie are a lot of fun and we had a great time seeing their new house and then going for ice cream at Blue Bunny.  We had fun using their photo booth to take some funny pictures!

Meanwhile, back at home, Casey took Friday off so that he could spend the day with the kids.  They started the day at IHOP, went to the pool with a bunch of friends, and then Casey had a dinner date with the girls at Olga's while Peter went to a sleepover.

On both Friday and Saturday nights we stayed in the dorms at Dordt College in Sioux Center, which worked out great.  Saturday morning was our day to explore northwest Iowa and my dad's "roots."  To start the day, we went for breakfast at Casey's Bakery.  We knew it was a classic Dutch bakery by the brogue of the woman who served us and the fact that rusk buns were an option for the breakfast sandwiches.  Everything was delicious!

We then drove to Rock Valley, which was the starting town for RAGBRAI.  We drove around a bit and then walked around the vendor and expo area.  We enjoyed some delicious freshly-made mini donuts too!

There is always so much to see on RAGBRAI.  People do fun things with signs and props and it's entertaining to see what people come up with along the route and in the towns.  We thought this was cute...

There is so much beautiful countryside to see.  Karen was good at taking pictures of scenic things along the way.

Our next stop was Hull, the town to which my dad moved when he was 2 and spent the rest of his childhood.  We saw the houses where he lived, visited the memorial park, and went to the drug store so that we could buy souvenir shirts for dad and Peter.

Any residents of Hull that have served in the
military have their names on the plaques in this park.

My Grandpa and my Dad's 2 older brothers

We thought this sign was kind of discouraging,
but funny too.

We left Hull and drove to Orange City, the town where my Dad was born.  We had a great lunch at a  Dutch restaurant there.

We went back to the dorms for a while and then headed back to Hull.  On the way we stopped at the Foreign Candy Company outlet store.  Then we went to my Dad's cousin's house for supper along with a few of his other cousins and my aunts and uncles and cousins who had come from Michigan and Wisconsin. One aunt and a cousin from Iowa did part of the ride, and the rest just came for the experience.  We had such a great time together and it was so fun to meet my Dad's cousins and their spouses and just be together with family.  It was a neat experience and we really enjoyed our evening with them.

Dad and 3 of his sisters with their matching Hull shirts

Siblings and spouses

The whole crew!

Meanwhile, back at home, Casey and the kids were...

Picking raspberries off our bush...

Going to see Planes 2 with some friends...

Eating "Robert," the beer can chicken Casey made for dinner on the grill...

and going to a Whitecaps baseball game with Casey's parents and Nick!  They had a busy and fun day!

Sunday morning was the start of the ride.  We brought one bike for Karen and I to share, so we took turns riding with my Dad on the 2 days that we rode.  The other one of us would ride in the car with my mom to the next stop and then we'd trade off biking/driving.  I did the first leg from Rock Valley to Hull (about 9 miles).  We spent quite a while in Hull enjoying a church praise band, eating some food, visiting with the current owner of my Dad's childhood home, and seeing the relatives again.

Ready to leave Rock Valley

My Dad, Aunt Judy and Aunt JoAnne
in front of their childhood home on Main Street

This was my Dad's cousin's granddaughters' stand.
They sold homemade cinnamon rolls.

Chris' Cakes pancake breakfast

Typically about 10,000 riders do RAGBRAI.
They estimated that there may have been closer
to 20,000 people who rode on Sunday.

Dad and Karen in front of the house his family
rented before they built and moved into the
house on Main Street.

Karen and Dad rode from Hull to Sheldon.

We enjoyed our first ear of sweet corn in Sheldon.

Karen and I each rode one more leg and then decided to head to the hotel with my Mom and let my Dad finish the last part of the day by himself.  We stayed at a hotel in Spencer on Sunday and Monday.
After checking in and then heading back to pick up my Dad, we all showered and then met some of the relatives for dinner at Napoli's, an Italian restaurant in Spencer.  The meal was delicious and we had a great time together.

Meanwhile, back at home, Casey and the kids had a relaxing day.  They went to Casey's parents' house for lunch after church and then watched a movie later.

Monday was a shorter day from Milford/Okoboji to Emmetsburg (about 40 miles), so Karen and I took turns riding the whole route with my Dad.  I did about 17 miles and she did 23.

Gooseberry and pecan Amish pie!

After showers and a little down time at the hotel, we went to Lake Okoboji.  It's a beautiful area with a bunch of lakes.  We also enjoyed some time at Arnolds Park, an amusement park with rides and shops.

Karen and I rode the roller coaster that originally opened in 1927.

More Blue Bunny ice cream!

We were going to take a boat ride on this boat behind us in the picture.  We had the tickets and were ready to go when we found out that there were problems with the boat's generator so the ride was cancelled.  We were really disappointed, but went for an earlier dinner at a great restaurant called Tweeter's.  The food was excellent!

Meanwhile, back at home, the kids spent half the day at our friend Erin's house and the other half at Aunt Renee's house.  They had a great time.  Peter and Elizabeth built a fort!  We really appreciated their help and also Casey's mom having them on Tuesday so that Casey didn't need to use more vacation days.  They also had dinner at our neighbors' house on Monday evening.

On Tuesday morning it was time to say goodbye to my Dad.  He stayed to ride a few more days with his friend and the 3 of us headed home.  We had seen a Cheddar's restaurant on the way out and figured it would be a good lunch stop on the way back.  It worked out great and we enjoyed our lunch and a cookie monster for dessert!  Grand Rapids had a Cheddar's until 7 or 8 years ago after they had 2 fires and then closed down.  We used to eat there a lot, so it brought back good memories!

Meanwhile, back at home, the kids had their first McDonald's meal of the weekend (pretty impressive) after spending the day with Grandma K.  She took them to her sister's pool, so they had fun swimming with some cousins there.

Souvenir shirts!
The girls' shirts say Lake Okoboji on the flowers.
Peter's shirt matches my Dad's shirt from Hull
and it says, "Start of a Sweet Ride" in reference
to the Foreign Candy Company headquarters
being located in Hull.

So, we packed a lot into those 5 days.  It was a neat experience to vacation with my parents and sister as adults.  We enjoyed a lot of fun conversation, delicious food, good reminiscing and playing "Dutch Bingo," and shared lots of laughs.  It is definitely a trip with many good memories that I will treasure!  Thanks to Casey for holding down the fort while I was gone!

Our life this week...

Well this has been an interesting week to say the least.  It's also been a week filled with lots of great family time and seeing how our community helps each other in times of need.

On Sunday night (July 6), we had a pretty major thunderstorm.  Casey got a text from his sister Renee saying that a tree had fallen on their screened in porch.  Since Jeff and Casey had just finished completely gutting and remodeling the porch we were thinking that was really disappointing!  Casey decided to head to their house to see if they needed help.  He called me a while later to say that he couldn't get to their house because so many roads were closed because of downed power lines and trees.  I turned on the news and realized that this was a much bigger deal than we realized.  We found out later that it was actually a tornado, and the damage at their house was quite major.  They had several large trees on their house, a couple broken windows, some interior cracks in the walls and trees covering their entire yard.

Almost a week later, most of the trees have been cleared and plans are being made to repair the damage.  Meanwhile, we've had the McCaul family living at our house and it's been a fun adventure!  The cousins have been having fun playing together and have a sleepover every night.

Ty is sleeping on the floor in Peter's room.
Here Peter is reading him a book before bed.

Miriam and Cassie are sleeping on the floor in Esther's
room so that Jeff and Renee can have Miriam's room.

Since Ty and Cassie had day camp at the Kroc Center this week, the kids and I still did some fun things that we had planned.  Monday we went to For the Kidz for open gym with our friends (and Cassie).  Tuesday we were at my parents' house for a bit in the morning and they had found my dad's old Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys in the basement.  The kids had a great time playing with those!

In the afternoon we had a kids' book club at a friend's house in our neighborhood.  Esther and Peter got to attend the book club and I had Miriam and Cassie here along with the hosting mom's youngest daughter.

Wednesday we went to some friends' house for the day and swam for a bit.  It's actually been relatively cool here, so not the greatest pool weather!  In the evening our amazing neighbors did a hot dog cookout for us and the McCauls.  It ended up being a huge block party with almost everyone on the street attending!  We are so blessed by our neighbors.

Thursday we went to the public museum with my parents to see the Lego exhibit.  I think the kids would have stayed all day to play with the Legos they had there.  Somehow playing with other people's Legos is more fun than playing with your own??  We also explored some other areas of the museum and rode the carousel.

Chicago buildings made of Legos!

Esther's creation.  They had Lego boards attached to the wall
for kids to build, and also tables with lots of Legos.

Miriam's house

On Friday morning Peter went to a friend's house.  On the way back from dropping him off, the girls and I stopped at Tim Horton's for a donut.

When we got home our neighbors were outside.  The girls got a chance to hold sweet baby Maggie!

In the afternoon we met some friends at the pool.
In a weird accident, Peter sort of bit his friend's finger and knocked
out his loose tooth.  (The finger did not sustain any major
injuries in the incident!)  He managed to catch it in his
hands without it falling into the pool!

Now we're enjoying a relaxing weekend without a lot of plans!

Happy Independence Day!

After a year hiatus (we were in New Jersey last year on the 4th), we resumed our traditions for the 4th of July.  We started off at the Kentwood Parade with our friends and cousins.  Then we spent some time at home getting a few things done and relaxing.  Finally, we enjoyed a bbq and watched the Kentwood fireworks.  It was a great day!

My Uncle Carl and cousin Chuck were in
the parade again this year

Spring Hill Day Camp

This week Miriam and Peter attended a 4-day session of Spring Hill Day Camp.  Esther and Peter had attended at the same site (Tabernacle Church) two years ago and really enjoyed it.  Since they have a donor that brought the cost down to only $25 for the week, we were definitely up for that!  The kids had a great time doing all the activities and learning more about God while they were there.

Miriam was given the award for
"gentleness" by her counselors,
Ivy and Gabby.

Peter was given the "passionate" award
by Madeline and Phil.  He had a lot of fun
with them during the week because Madeline
goes to Hope and Phil goes to Calvin.
Peter enjoyed teasing her about Hope and
playing up the Calvin-Hope rivalry.

Esther's birthday shopping spree

Esther had a hard time coming up with birthday gift ideas this year, so she ended up with several gift cards to Target and JoAnn Fabrics.  While Peter and Miriam were at day camp this week, she and I had a fun time shopping so she could spend her gift cards.  Here she is with most of the stuff she bought:

Fun turquoise chair and lamp for her room, some fleece to make pillows,
a rainbow loom organizer, a wallet, nail polish, magnetic board, and
a couple other misc. items.  What fun!

She also had a gift card to Toys R Us so she got a tie dye kit.
She made a shirt and a pillow case.