Life

Things have been a little busy lately and this week will be about the same but I thought I'd post a few quick pictures for anyone interested! :) This is what we've spent 1 1/2 hours each day doing for the last 2 weeks! They all LOVED swimming lessons and learned a ton. Now we just need to test out their skills the rest of the summer. So can you even figure out what one's are mine! The poor teacher, she had 5 kids in their class and 3 looks exactly alike when soaking wet and a 4th who didn't look much different. She did great and had them figured out by the end.

And while we were doing that, Eric spent a long weekend up in Alaska doing what he loves in the water. While the run was late this year he still took home 28 lbs of delicious, wild salmon!



And the last week we've enjoyed playing with new friends!!! While these girls have all met before (about 2 years ago) this last week they've been inseparable. Some of our dear "old" friends :) from college (and before) are staying next door while they're in town visiting. So any waking moment that Taryn and Seth are "at home" the kids have been out playing with them. When they aren't around they just sit around and wait. :) It's going to be so hard to say good-bye!
And THANK YOU to all our Flat Friends who are arriving! Just a few more days and we're off on our adventure. Some of our Friends even came with a suitcase of clothes and even packed their Bible (Sadie and Allison!) Pictures to come soon....

Summer Fun

The weather has been awesome lately and we've been taking full advantage. Saturday night we had a summer party to go to and Hot Wally was playing. Ah....good times! I think the kids ran up and down that hill about 3000 times and passed out when their head hit the pillow that night. Eric missed out on the fun but we'll fill you in soon on what he's been doing.

And a little Flat Friend update. We're getting a few in but will gladly take anyone else! Thanks to those of you who are playing. We won't disappoint. :)

Happy Dad's Day...

...to 3 of the greatest Dad's I know! We spend our day at the Flight Museum in Seattle. We had a great day checking out some of Eric's favorite machines. I also noticed the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree with some of the other expressions I was hearing all day!
I'm assuming my Dad spent it in MI?!? ;) You never know where you'll find him. I called the other day and they were in CA. Oh, the retirement life! Hope you had a great day, Dad.
And Bob is with Dee, vacationing. Today they should be somewhere between Vegas and San Francisco. Hope you had a great day, too!

We love you all!!

P.S. We still want a lot more Flat Friends to take on our trip. Mia is checking in daily to see who else will be joinging us! ;) You still have two weeks!!! Don't be late!!!

Come along with us!

We're getting so excited for our big trip this summer but I've been hearing some rumblings from Mia and Holly about how they are going to miss their friends. So in an effort to help with that we'd like a little help from you! We're hoping that we can take some "Flat Friends" along with us and maybe even leave a "Flat Holly" and "Flat Mia" in town so they don't miss out on any of the fun here this summer.So, here's where we need your help. If your kids (or you!) would like to go on our 16 state adventure with us, help them make a flat version of themselves and get it to us by July 2. As we travel to our different destinations we'll post pictures us with our "Flat Friends" all across the country. You can make your "Flat Friend" however you want. One way would be to cut the head out of a picture and make a body to go with it. If you have some contact paper in the house, cover it with that to make it a little more stable. I made Holly's by printing a picture of her on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of card stock and cutting her out, then covering it with card stock. For Mia's, we "extracted" her head out of the photo using Photoshop Elements and printed it on a piece of card stock and she's adding her body. Then we'll cut it out and cover it with contact paper.

We're also wondering if anyone would like a visit from "Flat Holly" or "Flat Mia". All you need to do is be willing to take then along with you during your summer adventures, whatever they may be, just hanging around home would be great! Then write in the notebook they come with and maybe snap a few pictures (and even e-mail them to us if you want so we can see what they're up to!) For anyone interested in "hosting" either of them, let us now and I'll make a list of where the different stops will be in their notebook so you know where to send them when you're finished. So, if you are in Lynden and want a "Flat Friend" to visit you sometime this summer, let us know.

Maybe, when we get home, we'll be open to sending them on a cross country adventure of there own so our out of town friends and family can play. But you certainly may send us a flat version of yourself for us to take along if you want!! The more the merrier.

We hope you'll play along! We're excited to see who will join us on our adventures!

Congratulations, Alyssa!

One of our favorite people turned 18 this week and 2 days later graduated from high school. Although, we're a little sad we are so happy for you! Congratulations, Sissa! We love you!!!!

Thanks, Friend...

...for the BOATLOAD of Rescue Heroes. They are helping us survive these terribly rainy days! Our friend Traci literally brought over a truckload of these goodies which my boys are lovin'! And, schools out for the summer....now, just bring on the sun!

We're pretty normal

We did go camping this weekend and I'd love to show you some pictures. However, blogger is preventing me from adding any more....check back later!

So, instead of pictures I'll share a funny little thing that happened. On our way home we had made it over the mountains and threw the woods and were about an hour from home. We decided to stop at Mc Donalds for some ice cream. As we were in there waiting there were 4 ladies checking our family out. After they ordered and were waiting with us one of them asked the question they were all dying to know "Are they twins?" Seriously! There's 3 of them standing in a row but people just don't dare ask the obvious some times! Anyways, we made a little small talk and she finally says "You look pretty normal." I'm just curious what we're supposed to look like? :)

Just good family fun.

We had our first boys vs. girls t-ball game last night. (in the front yard no less, so I'll apologize to our neighbors now...so sorry...we got a little loud!) It was a hard fought game on either side but in the end...the girls won!! ;)

A little hopscotch...note the high heels (hard to tell but they're her "wedding shoes") and the ice cream cone!
Everyone had to have their own hopscotch "board".

Spring is trying to arrive, (note the dark clouds in the sky...we only got a few sprinkles all day) tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70's...hurray!

The sun will come out tomorrow!

Oh yeah...the sun finally showed itself and it was beautiful! It's going to get better and better and better!

Hello from Holland

At 89 years old, my Grandma passed away. On Thursday I headed to MI for her funeral. It was the first time in almost 20 years that just mom and dad and us 4 kids slept under the same roof together. After the funeral today we enjoyed a walk around her old farm remembering all the memories that were made there.
And our whirlwind trip would not have been complete without a trip (or 2) to Russ' and to Tulip Time (which happens to be this week).

So, it was Mia's birthday

It was Mia's 9th birthday on Thursday so last night we had a party with a few friends. We started out going bowling after school and then they came over for a little sleepover. It really went great but by 1:00 A.M. Eric finally asked them to stop talking so we ALL could get a little sleep. And wouldn't you know, they were up and at 'em by 7:00 A.M.

A Day With the Clam Hunter

Since Mom and Dad are here and have never been clamming (and truth be told, Eric and I haven't been either!) we called in the big guns to find our dinner.

....Lisa, your husband and son are alive and well!

And it was finally time to undo the braids from Mexico. What took 1 person an hour to put in,

took 3 of us about an hour to take out!

Visitors

When we arrived home last Saturday, my parents had gotten into town about 5 hours earlier. We've enjoyed a great week so far and are looking forward to a couple more with them. Here are just a couple fun pictures from our walk today.

Uncle Dave's dog, Butch, took Tyler for a great walk.

Since it's snowing today

I thought I'd share a little more from our trip.

On Tuesday the girls and Nate headed into Cabo to do a little shopping.Everyone found lots of little treasures.

The guys joined us for dinner in the evening.
Eric and I shared this enormous!!! seafood platter...we didn't even make a dent in it.

Then we headed back to the hotel and the kids went swimming one more time before heading to bed.

More from LAX

...just for you Vonner (and anyone else interested) A whole lota what Hofwegens do, no mater where they are!

Good Morning, Laur!

On our way home we had a 5 HOUR layover at LAX so a few Hofwegens descended upon the airport to visit with us and help pass the time.

Back from Cabo!

So we headed to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for spring break with the whole gang. We had a great time and the weather wasn't to shabby either! I'm not even sure where to begin with pictures but here are just a few. One highlight was the kids got to go swimming with the dolphins.