The Kenney's are on our way to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to spend a week with family. We are extremely excited to have this opportunity, as it has been two years since we've been to Michigan.
I have decided I will blog about our adventures when we return. Look for a new post sometime after August 10th!
See ya then!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Great Grandpa & Grammy Kenney's
One of our favorite times so far this summer was the opportunity to visit Verne Sr. & Joanne Kenney (aka great grandpa & grammy). It had been eight years since Wes and I had been to their house in Naples, Florida, and they had never had the opportunity to meet Katherine & Sebastian. We were extremely excited to be able to take extra time and see them while in Florida.
We arrived at their home on Thursday, June 17th, and that evening great grandpa took the kids out after a wonderful dinner for a ride in the golf cart around the golf course. On Friday morning Wes & his grandfather played a round of golf while Grammy & I took the kids to the beach. The kids LOVED playing in the water. Wes was a little disappointed that he wasn't with the kids the first time they went to the beach, but he was happy they enjoyed it so much. We did go back with him later.
Grammy and a friend of hers received two free tickets each to the Naples Zoo for donating blood so on Saturday morning Wes, Katherine, Sebastian, and I visited the zoo. It was hot, but we had a good time! After the zoo we met up with my college roommate, Lori Edwards, and her three kids. Lori and I chatted as Wes watched the kids color & get to know each other. By the time we ordered yogurt the kids were all friends and everyone was having a blast. By then it was getting late in the afternoon and time for us to head back so Wes & I could get cleaned up for our dinner date! The kids enjoyed alone time with grandpa & grammy while Wes & I enjoyed our night out. Grandpa let us take his Chrysler Crossfire roadster, and it was nice enough to have the top down! A great way for us to end our fun filled day!
On Sunday morning we attended First Baptist Church of Naples, FL, with the grandparents. When we were checking the kids into the kid's area at church we saw Lori and her family. We were able to met her husband briefly. Seeing them there was a nice surprise, and Lori was very helpful in helping us locate the kids after the service too. After church we enjoyed a wonderful family brunch together, and relaxing afternoon at the house. The kids (& grandparents too) took a nap, Wes studied, and I did laundry. Later in the evening Wes, the kids, and I went back to the beach where we were surprised to see large groups of stingray swimming near us.
It was time for our visit to come to an end with great grandpa & grammy on Monday morning, June 21st, as we were headed back to Orlando to Disney World, but as fun as Disney World turned out to be it couldn't compare to the wonderful time we had visiting Grandpa & Grammy Kenney!
We arrived at their home on Thursday, June 17th, and that evening great grandpa took the kids out after a wonderful dinner for a ride in the golf cart around the golf course. On Friday morning Wes & his grandfather played a round of golf while Grammy & I took the kids to the beach. The kids LOVED playing in the water. Wes was a little disappointed that he wasn't with the kids the first time they went to the beach, but he was happy they enjoyed it so much. We did go back with him later.
Grammy and a friend of hers received two free tickets each to the Naples Zoo for donating blood so on Saturday morning Wes, Katherine, Sebastian, and I visited the zoo. It was hot, but we had a good time! After the zoo we met up with my college roommate, Lori Edwards, and her three kids. Lori and I chatted as Wes watched the kids color & get to know each other. By the time we ordered yogurt the kids were all friends and everyone was having a blast. By then it was getting late in the afternoon and time for us to head back so Wes & I could get cleaned up for our dinner date! The kids enjoyed alone time with grandpa & grammy while Wes & I enjoyed our night out. Grandpa let us take his Chrysler Crossfire roadster, and it was nice enough to have the top down! A great way for us to end our fun filled day!
On Sunday morning we attended First Baptist Church of Naples, FL, with the grandparents. When we were checking the kids into the kid's area at church we saw Lori and her family. We were able to met her husband briefly. Seeing them there was a nice surprise, and Lori was very helpful in helping us locate the kids after the service too. After church we enjoyed a wonderful family brunch together, and relaxing afternoon at the house. The kids (& grandparents too) took a nap, Wes studied, and I did laundry. Later in the evening Wes, the kids, and I went back to the beach where we were surprised to see large groups of stingray swimming near us.
It was time for our visit to come to an end with great grandpa & grammy on Monday morning, June 21st, as we were headed back to Orlando to Disney World, but as fun as Disney World turned out to be it couldn't compare to the wonderful time we had visiting Grandpa & Grammy Kenney!
Jentes Reunion & Adventures
The kids and I enjoyed our visit to Ohio last month. The purpose of our trip was to attend the Jentes family reunion. My dad's family holds this reunion every two years on the farm where my dad & his two brothers were raised. The dairy farm is now owned and operated by one of my dad's cousins who have been gracious enough to hold this event for the last 12 years. My dad, brother, sister, and I attended the first reunion together back in 1998, but we hadn't all been back until this year. Two years ago the kids & I flew up with my dad, and I blogged about it here.
Katherine & Sebastian were once again treated to a plane ride with their great Uncle Chuck, and the next day they had an opportunity to ride a horse. I took them to play at the elementary school and the Smithville park before they spent some more time with their grandpa Homer. I was able to reconnect with some of my cousins, and even had some time with my brother & sister. I was so blessed to be able to have this time with family.
Here is a short video of our fun.
Katherine & Sebastian were once again treated to a plane ride with their great Uncle Chuck, and the next day they had an opportunity to ride a horse. I took them to play at the elementary school and the Smithville park before they spent some more time with their grandpa Homer. I was able to reconnect with some of my cousins, and even had some time with my brother & sister. I was so blessed to be able to have this time with family.
Here is a short video of our fun.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Father & Daughter
These were taken at the wedding reception for Glen & Angela Posthuma.
I had to add this one too. I love Sebastian's expression as he looks on while I snap the picture in the foyer of the church where the wedding was held!
I had to add this one too. I love Sebastian's expression as he looks on while I snap the picture in the foyer of the church where the wedding was held!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Creation Museum Pictures & Video
The following video is three short clips taken at the Creation Museum.
We hope to go back when we have Wes with us. It was VERY interesting. A great place to visit!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Reading Material
Over the last couple months I've pick up a few books I've wanted to read for awhile. Now if I can only find the time to read!
Here's my list:
I Will Carry You by Angie Smith * currently reading this one & I'm half way through!
5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Daughter by Vicki Courtney
Your Girl by Vicki Courtney
Your Boy by Vicki Courtney
Making Brothers & Sisters Best Friends by Sara, Stephen, & Grace Mally
When You Rise Up by R.C. Sproul Jr.
The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer & Jessie Wise
If you have read one of these books, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts.
Here's my list:
I Will Carry You by Angie Smith * currently reading this one & I'm half way through!
5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Daughter by Vicki Courtney
Your Girl by Vicki Courtney
Your Boy by Vicki Courtney
Making Brothers & Sisters Best Friends by Sara, Stephen, & Grace Mally
When You Rise Up by R.C. Sproul Jr.
The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer & Jessie Wise
If you have read one of these books, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Disney Vacation
It's been a BUSY summer of traveling. When we arrived home from Florida I had so much to tell, but not enough time to blog about all our adventures. As you know I wasn't even home long enough to get caught up on laundry and household chores much less blog!
It has taken me a while to sort through pictures and decide how best to blog about our vacation adventures in Florida. After uploading 35+ pictures for one post about Disney I decided a slideshow might be easier, and give you a greater opportunity to share in our memories. I only took 174 photos between our trip to Naples and the trip to Disney in Orlando! Then there was the Disney PhotoPass CD with 74 photos. No wonder this post has been in the making for several weeks!
Anyway, we had an absolute blast at Disney World! After we checked into the Disney Polynesian Resort we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. We strolled down Main Street and headed straight for Cinderella's Castle. Katherine was beaming and Sebastian was too! We continued through the castle and made the decision that the first ride must be 'it's a small world'. We rode in Winni-the-Pooh's honey pot through the Hundred Acre Wood storybook. We helped Buzz defeat the Emperor Zurg on Buzz Lightyear Space Spin Ranger, and visited Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Caribbean. We enjoyed some overpriced water and ice cream snacks! We walked through several souvenir shops to visit the air conditioning & attempt to cool off. We walked through Mickey & Minnie's houses and met both of them; however, I hadn't purchased the kids autograph books yet, so we didn't get their autographs at that time.
We stayed for the Electrical Parade that night, and that was where some of our best memories where made! We stood along the extremely crowded main street. Sebastian sat on Wes's shoulders and I was able to get Katherine right up front as the parade started where she could see. Both kids had birthday buttons on as we were celebrating Sebastian's half birthday that day and Katherine's (yes, a little early) on this trip. As Snow White walked by during the parade she wished Katherine happy birthday. Katherine had the biggest smile ever at that moment, and when Tinkerbell rode by Sebastian yelled " Tinkerbell...Tinkerbell... HEY TINK, IS THAT YOU?!?" It was priceless!
Our second day was a little more relaxed. Wes took off to play golf at one of the resort golf courses while the kids and I took the monorail back over to the Magic Kingdom. First stop was to the souvenir shop to buy autograph books! It wasn't long after we left the souvenir shop that we saw Ariel and Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, so it was a VERY good thing we had our autograph books in hand! Katherine's favorite Disney Princess is Ariel, so she was floating on a cloud at that moment. Sebastian had a special moment with Ariel as she kissed him! Yes, it was another one of those precious & priceless memories! Oh, I almost forgot...per Sebastian.. I'm not supposed to tell that Ariel kissed him...oops! :-)
The kids and I rode on Aladdin's magic carpet and walked through the Swiss Family Robinson's Tree House before we decided it was hot and we'd rather go back to our room and spend a little time swimming in the really cool pool. We swam and played in the water until Wes got back from playing golf, at which time he joined us for a little pool fun.
Later that evening we headed over to Epcot where we rode The Seas with Nemo & Friends & Soarin' before getting autographs from Mickey, Minnie, Daffy Duck, Pluto, & Goofy. By then it was almost mid-night and we were tired. It was time to go to bed!
Day three was spent at Hollywood studio's where we met many more of Katherine & Sebastian's favorite characters. We saw Muppet Vision 3-D & Voyage of The Little Mermaid, rode Toy Story Mania & The Great Movie Ride, as well as enjoyed playing games & eating at Pizza Planet. After leaving Hollywood Studios we headed back to our room to freshen up for a very special dinner. Wes had made us a reservation at the Grand Floridian where we dined at Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner at 1900 Park Fare and were greeted by Cinderella, Prince Charming, and Cinderella's step mother & sisters. We finished off the night by watching the fireworks from the beach and swimming in the pool.
As we wrapped up our last day at Disney we went back to the Magic Kingdom and finished with a few rides and shows we missed before. We rode Splash Mountain, Peter Pan's flight, Buzz Lightyear's Space Spin Ranger (again), and saw Mickey's Philharmagic.
We had a wonderful time at Disney World and are looking forward to going back in the future. And now let us share our memories in a 6 minute slide show:
It has taken me a while to sort through pictures and decide how best to blog about our vacation adventures in Florida. After uploading 35+ pictures for one post about Disney I decided a slideshow might be easier, and give you a greater opportunity to share in our memories. I only took 174 photos between our trip to Naples and the trip to Disney in Orlando! Then there was the Disney PhotoPass CD with 74 photos. No wonder this post has been in the making for several weeks!
Anyway, we had an absolute blast at Disney World! After we checked into the Disney Polynesian Resort we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. We strolled down Main Street and headed straight for Cinderella's Castle. Katherine was beaming and Sebastian was too! We continued through the castle and made the decision that the first ride must be 'it's a small world'. We rode in Winni-the-Pooh's honey pot through the Hundred Acre Wood storybook. We helped Buzz defeat the Emperor Zurg on Buzz Lightyear Space Spin Ranger, and visited Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Caribbean. We enjoyed some overpriced water and ice cream snacks! We walked through several souvenir shops to visit the air conditioning & attempt to cool off. We walked through Mickey & Minnie's houses and met both of them; however, I hadn't purchased the kids autograph books yet, so we didn't get their autographs at that time.
We stayed for the Electrical Parade that night, and that was where some of our best memories where made! We stood along the extremely crowded main street. Sebastian sat on Wes's shoulders and I was able to get Katherine right up front as the parade started where she could see. Both kids had birthday buttons on as we were celebrating Sebastian's half birthday that day and Katherine's (yes, a little early) on this trip. As Snow White walked by during the parade she wished Katherine happy birthday. Katherine had the biggest smile ever at that moment, and when Tinkerbell rode by Sebastian yelled " Tinkerbell...Tinkerbell... HEY TINK, IS THAT YOU?!?" It was priceless!
Our second day was a little more relaxed. Wes took off to play golf at one of the resort golf courses while the kids and I took the monorail back over to the Magic Kingdom. First stop was to the souvenir shop to buy autograph books! It wasn't long after we left the souvenir shop that we saw Ariel and Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, so it was a VERY good thing we had our autograph books in hand! Katherine's favorite Disney Princess is Ariel, so she was floating on a cloud at that moment. Sebastian had a special moment with Ariel as she kissed him! Yes, it was another one of those precious & priceless memories! Oh, I almost forgot...per Sebastian.. I'm not supposed to tell that Ariel kissed him...oops! :-)
The kids and I rode on Aladdin's magic carpet and walked through the Swiss Family Robinson's Tree House before we decided it was hot and we'd rather go back to our room and spend a little time swimming in the really cool pool. We swam and played in the water until Wes got back from playing golf, at which time he joined us for a little pool fun.
Later that evening we headed over to Epcot where we rode The Seas with Nemo & Friends & Soarin' before getting autographs from Mickey, Minnie, Daffy Duck, Pluto, & Goofy. By then it was almost mid-night and we were tired. It was time to go to bed!
Day three was spent at Hollywood studio's where we met many more of Katherine & Sebastian's favorite characters. We saw Muppet Vision 3-D & Voyage of The Little Mermaid, rode Toy Story Mania & The Great Movie Ride, as well as enjoyed playing games & eating at Pizza Planet. After leaving Hollywood Studios we headed back to our room to freshen up for a very special dinner. Wes had made us a reservation at the Grand Floridian where we dined at Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner at 1900 Park Fare and were greeted by Cinderella, Prince Charming, and Cinderella's step mother & sisters. We finished off the night by watching the fireworks from the beach and swimming in the pool.
As we wrapped up our last day at Disney we went back to the Magic Kingdom and finished with a few rides and shows we missed before. We rode Splash Mountain, Peter Pan's flight, Buzz Lightyear's Space Spin Ranger (again), and saw Mickey's Philharmagic.
We had a wonderful time at Disney World and are looking forward to going back in the future. And now let us share our memories in a 6 minute slide show:
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
COSI
*Update: Added short video at the end.Katherine, Sebastian, and I visited the Center of Science & Industry (COSI) in Columbus, Ohio, where we had a fabulous time! The first thing we did after purchasing our tickets was to tour the Titanic exhibit, where I was not allowed to take pictures. Sorry; however, the exhibit was totally awesome! The kids got a little bored during parts of the Titanic exhibit, but I enjoyed every minute. We each received a boarding pass with the name of an actual passenger. Mine and Katherine's boarding pass was from first class passengers while Sebastian's was a second class passenger. By the time we reached the end we didn't look up whether or not we survived, but Katherine and I decided we would look that information up as a school project once we're home.
Once we finished with the Titanic exhibit it was time to hit the Atomic Cafe' for some food. Sebastian and I enjoyed some pizza while Katherine devoured some chicken nuggets. Their dessert of choice was the chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream. I sampled a bite and it was good!
After we had been refueled we did our best to see the rest of the center. Below are just a few of the pictures from the day.
Yes, it was a FABULOUS day! Thank you Aunt Elaine for telling us about it!!!!!!
Monday, July 05, 2010
Checking In
The kids and I have been on another little trip. We left Thursday, July 1st, for Wooster, Ohio, to attend the Jentes family reunion, which is held every two years. I drove from Valliant, OK, to Franklin, TN, on Thursday, and then drove onto Wooster, OH, on Friday.
We are currently on our journey home, but we'll be taking our time and visiting a couple museums along the way. We are currently in Columbus, OH, and are planning on stopping by the Center of Science and Industry tomorrow before heading to Petersburg, KY, where we will stop at the Creation Museum.
The kids and I will make it home at some point, but we're really not sure when and aren't in a hurry. We're enjoying ourselves!
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