October camping

It is always a bit risky to plan a camping trip in late October, but if the weather is mild, cool weather camping beats a hot summer tent anytime! We traveled south a bit in Indiana to Mississinewa Reservoir SRA which is huge and has a lot of sites to explore and a huge campground. This is only a few minutes from where my sister Emily lives and works, the city of Peru. Emily joined us for camping and my brother Zach and our parents came down on Saturday for the day. Well the weather was PERFECT, mild and cool and falling leaves. We hiked the Lost Sister Trail with, we visited the loud crashing side of the dam which makes the reservoir and we explored along the river. Steve joined us for the weekend so we spent several hours imagining we were solving a mystery or setting spiders loose in bark ship races down the river. He is very talkative and imaginative and loves the outdoors so it is very fun.

It rained north of us in Chicago most of the weekend, but we only got a few drizzles at the most during a dry weekend, which for basic-outfit tenters, makes the difference between a fun campout and a sloppy miserable mess.

Visit to Grand Rapids

In early October the three of us made a short visit to downtown Grand Rapids to see some of the special exhibits for Art Prize. We visited the Ford Museum and the Grand Rapids Art Museum for the first time, and enjoyed crossing the river on one of the bridges. We also enjoyed the hospitality of our friends Amy and Dan and their children, so it was a fun 26 hour getaway!

Sweet sleeper

Had to catch a shot of this when I checked on him near the end of a very long nap!

Douwe turns three

After I blogged about Steve's birthday, I realized that I forgot to put in an entry for Douwe's 3rd! His birthday is the same as his dad's, which is quite interesting, but maybe means that Jeff does not get as much attention on his birthday now. Douwe's cousins came to celebrate and Grandpa and Grandma Groen picked up Steve, so he could join us!

Steve turns 11

Jeff's parents hosted a backyard birthday party for our beloved Steve. He invited 5 of his siblings, 2 neighbor friends and 2 church friends, so we had a fun crowd in the big back yard at the Groen's! We roasted hot dogs, played badminton, tee-ball, croquet, and ladder golf and every one enjoyed craft time and cake and presents. We are so proud and honored to see Steve on occasion and see him growing up and staying as enthusiastic as ever about the joys of being alive.