To a thousand generations: September 2011

Friday, September 30, 2011

the High Dunes

The High Dunes at West Lake are beautiful and so tempting to roll down!

Even Oma tried it! Here's proof:

Good thing the kids were there to help her back up that steep hill!!

Don't they look well? Outdoor living does them good!

(Thanks for the pics, Rachel!)

Thursday, September 29, 2011

After a fun, busy time (& thankfully accident-free) with the family at RLL, we went directly from RLL to Sandbanks with Maurice & Rachel. They had a nice (albeit open/windy) spot just down the road from us for the weekend.

A cutie who's supposed to be sleeping... having too much fun for that!

As you can see the weather warmed up very nicely on Sunday and the beach cleared out so we had it all to ourselves!

The next weekend the Pastor B & Joanne came for 4 nites with their nifty swing-up A-frame!

Sunday evening supper at a gourmet beach-side diner!

So neat to be able to spend that time together with this dear missonary couple, and our former pastor and Dad & Mom's long time friends! Lots of swimming (at least Joanne, Dad, & Mom), star-gazing, and good conversations. Good to hear again how the Lord continues to bless the Migrant work and ELM.

Friday, September 23, 2011

RLL with the seniors :)

This year Klaas &Ann graciously invited us to join them, her mother, and a couple other friends from church, the week before our family week at the cottage!

How nice it was to spend those few relaxing, fun days with them!

These folks know how to rest easy, play hard, and eat heartily! Boy, I never knew how competive they are! In fact they had a number of tournaments going - complete with prizes!

Bob won the Friesian Fling tournament. Friesian fling you ask?
I don't have any photo of it so just close your eyes and imagine this: Bob & Jim are standing behind "a line drawn in the sand" with one hand gently cradling a metal ring and then smoothly swinging it forward with such style & technique & concentration you'd think they were doing Tai Chi or ballet ;). Suddenly the serene silence is shattered either by the crashing of metal upon metal or the thudding of metal on a hollow wooden box and the accompanying scream of “yes!” or “no”. Did you get that? Well, you'll have to ask Bob to play you a round some day. Its his game & he won - just in case you missed that- even tho he hasn’t a drop of Fries in him!

And then there was bocci ball. Miep was always asking to play it and most her enthuisiastic shouts could often be heard above the rest - and of course we had to scrounge up a tape measure just to be sure for some games but you can guess who won that one!

"Mother" belied her age and kept up with all the activities, only occassionally opting out to read or visit with me.

All meals were enjoyed together (Mom & I opted out for breakfast) with Dad
accompaning the singing afterwards on the piano.

The third competition occured primarily at mealtimes (& snack times, & before bed) -who could put out the most tempting spread - and the quantity of food and the speed at which it was consumed was incredible to behold! ;) No winner was announced for this one nor the resulting contest of weight gain (I most wanted to win that one but not being able to sample all the fare I'm sure I lost!)

Lots of helping hands! Can't fit another one back there!

The water was quite cold till Friday when it really warmed up outside but a few brave souls went swimming, Klaas, of course, and Mom & Dad went in! Finding it just too unbearable to walk in, I bravely followed Dad's example and dove in - to the shock of everyone watching and to myself especially - WOW! was that ever breath-taking, heart-stopping!!!

A nice relaxing canoe ride is more my style

and Bob kindly took me out on the lake - even tho he said he couldn't steer - but he managed quite well with his unique" dip, shake, switch & dip" paddling :).

The rescue crew waiting to help us to safety...

We really appreciated all their consideration & care for us (esp'ly for me). Jim even brought special electrical cords so I could have heat in my tent :).
Yes, I slept in a tent- alone braving the bears -without anything but my recorder to scare them away! There was actually sightings of a bear & cub quite close and evidences of them on the property even! However, I figured that they would prefer a subject with a little more meat on it and so wouldn’t bother with me! Tho I did pray extra for protection and had to sing myself back to sleep the first night after waking up from noises in the night (tho the night was so fresh and the night sky so amazing it was almost worth being woken up!). I was relieved tho when the compost was moved to the far end of the parking lot! and it was nice to have Rachel join me on Friday - with her pan lids and muscles!

Enjoying the quiet beauty of a beautiful sunset and sweet fellowship.