Oh my, it has been so long since I wrote a message that I had to figure out how to do it. This might get kind of long, so get prepared.
In August, we spent two weeks with Debbie & Tony in Iron River, MI from Aug. 10 - Aug. 23. We had a wonderful - fun time. The drive was good and the weather was perfect. What more could we ask for. We got to see all of our grandchildren except for David. We also missed seeing Tony's daughter, Amber's husband; and Tony's daughter, Angi and her son, Austin. All the families are doing well. ;o)
Debbie jogs - walks and works out on the bow flex machine every day before she goes to work. A lot of the days, I walked on Gibbs City Road and Dad walked a couple days or so. Since Debbie had to work most of the days, I did a lot of crocheting and Dad did a lot of reading, but it was just so relaxing for us.
The grandchildren (great grands) are growing so fast. When they are together, they have a lot of fun and they are all so close in ages. They'll have a lot of fun the older they become, too. Right now one of the hi-lights for them when they go to their Cristan grandparents is the HUGE sand pile. When Grandpa Cristan has the floor poured in the pole garage, well the sand pile will disappear! How will Lane be "King of the Mountain"!
Grandma Cristan got to take her grandson, Lane, to the fair and that was sure a lot of fun. Lane really loved riding on the rides, playing the ducks game, the fun house and seeing all of the animals.
One morning, we went to Gaastra and Debbie took us to breakfast. Yum! Yum! Then we went across the street to a wood place and ordered wood to redo the walls in our family room. The drive to Gaastra was beautiful. Gaastra is a little town right by Iron River.
Tony's Mom is in the Rest Home and we always go to see her. She is doing good and she was getting ready to go with the residents to the fair. ;o)
The Demo Derby was lots of fun as always. Tony was in a couple of heats and Little Tony made it to the finals. They have so much fun. What good memories for father and son through all the years they have spent working together on their demo cars and, hopefully, many more years to come.
Debbie took us to their camp site and we sure were happy to see all of that area. Now when they talk about going to camp, we know what it looks like. It is fun to drive through the forest and see all of the trees. (We saw one deer in Tony & Debbie's yard on our trip this year.) On this trip, Debbie took us to a couple of lakes near the cabin area.
One day was spent driving to and from Appleton when we saw Dana. She is doing well and working at a very large Interior & Outside Decorating and Nursery Store. I think the name is Stietz. She likes her job and is happy. ;o) We went to Olive Garden for lunch and just had a real good time together.
Doug & I took a little road trip one day to Geegobic Lake and Lake Superior. We couldn't see Geegobic Lake for ALL of the trees, but found a large rest area with a dock and the view from there was great! ;o) We ate lunch at a restaurant in Ontonogon and had huge ice cream cones on our way home at Kenton. They were hand dipped. ummm - ummm!
Debbie had lots of good meals for us and the night before we left, she and Tony took us to Woods Inn for a laraping good supper. We all had some type of fish - sea food.
As you can tell, we had a wonderful trip and we were so thankful to see most of our northern family.
We were back home for about a week before our grandson, Daniel, arrived in Salina after serving a six month tour of duty in Iraq. ;o) Of course we went to Salina to see him and celebrate his June 9th birthday. We also got to see our grandson, Joe, in his JV game with Newton. ;o)
Now we are enjoying the produce from the garden. We have sure been blessed with many beautiful end of the summer days. Fall begins Sept. 22nd. Hope ole' man frost stays away for a while as we have lots of food continuing to ripen in the garden.
I'll try to post some pics for all of you. Hope this finds all of you wonderful family doing well and we love you all.
"I'm home"!!!
Celebrating my June 9th birthday!
Just relaxing.......
Shane, Zach & a glimpse Beth
Joe #61!!!!
