Trip to Holland

After doing Christmas with the Phillips 4 clan, we drove out to Holland.  We spent 5 nights there.

When we got into town, we stopped by my parents and said Merry Christmas.  We then proceeded to Joel's parents to do the extended Phillips family celebration.  Extended meaning his parents and his brother and sister-in-law.  Yes, I am that old now that extended doesn't mean my grandparents, aunts and uncles, but extended is now my kids' grandparents, aunts and uncles.  JP and Katie were in Texas this year, but we Skyped them in when it was time to open gifts from them.

Anja and her gift from GGma

Kyper with the kids' new able and his dino puzzle

Skyping with JP and Katie and Sumners family.

Wednesday was a pretty low-key day and we basically hung around the Phillips house.  Joel did manage to get a trip to the beach in.

The boys found a fire on the beach,

Thursday was also pretty low-key, but we spent the majority of the day at my parent's house. My brother and sister-in-law were there finishing up the paint job on my parent's bathroom.  One of my best friends, Stephanie, stopped by so she could see the kids while they were awake--she lives in Florida now, but was visiting family too.  The other times we saw her the kids were already in bed.  We then had the Koning extended family celebration.  My mom ordered pizza and had appetizers...it was perfect.  We let all the kids goat their gifts and then once they were playing with their new toys, the adults could open gifts in a much less chaotic fashion.  After gift opening, Joel and I did play a round of hand and foot with my siblings.  We then headed back to the Phillips, put the kids to bed and then headed to the local coffee shop, JP's.  We saw Stephanie, Erin, Bethany and Justin and stayed until it closed 11pm--man, was that a late night.  I never stay up that late anymore.  But, it was worth it to spend about an hour with some of my closest girlfriends!

Some of the cousins lined up ready to open gifts.

Anja happy with a bow

Kyper got a dump truck

My mom with the youngest two grandkids.  Amelia and Anja only a month apart.

Friday, we had breakfast with Scott and Stephanie, some other friends.  We then headed back to the Phillips for morning naptime.  That afternoon, we drove up to Grand Haven to see Joel's cousins and grandma.  Joel's cousin Joe had some tools to give Joel that once belonged to Grandpa Phillips.  Joel was pretty excited to get some of those tools.  He now owns a level and a few wooden handled screw drivers.  He got a few other things but those are going to his brothers, so they can all have a few things from Grandpa Phillips.  After picking up the tools, we headed to Grandma Phillips.  She is in an assisted living home and while we were there Kyper got to try Wii bowling with the other residents and we all got to participate in a fire drill.  We also met the resident flirt when he started blowing kisses to GGma.  Friday night, we hosted some friends at the Phillips house.  It was nice to catch up with them--Tim, Tricia, and Jaxon, Tim, Melanie, and Judah, and Stephanie.

Not enjoying a sink bath. (I have other pics that show her even more unhappy, but cannot post those on the internet.)

Jaxon and his mommy, Tricia with Anja.  Jaxon is two weeks younger than Anja.  Yes, she is my peanut.

Foosball

Saturday, we visited my grandma VanFarowe and my grandpa Koning in the morning.  Late afternoon and evening was spent going to Fredrick Meijer Gardens with my parents.  The Christmas trees were still up.  Kyper loved the train set that was in the garden part and he also loved walking in the jungle at night.  Good ole Russ' was on the menu after seeing the gardens.

Before heading out for the evening, Kyper, Grandpa P. and Joel went hiking in the woods.

Joel was trying to capture her front two teeth, but she was cutely refusing.

Jersey Junction--a figure of a pretty famous ice cream shop to Grand Rapids people.

Family Foto in the jungle

Just a sample of the Christmas trees (they have all different ones representing different countries)

Anja admiring a tree

Sunday, we headed to church with the Phillips and did Sunday dinner with them.  Before leaving we did spend a little more time at my parents' house.  Kyper loved playing with his cousins there.  We left around bedtime and it was a pretty quiet ride home as the kids were asleep for most of it or watching a video. We all were soon fast asleep in our own beds that night!

Kyper and his cousin dressed up in pillow cases and other items.

hat hair

By the way just have to give a shout out to Joel's gift he gave me this year--an electric blanket.  I no longer have a cold bed to go into at night, instead it is pre-warmed.  It is beautiful!