Mueller's Orchard

A couple weeks back, on Sunday, October 17th, we decided to take an afternoon drive to check out the fall colors and make a stop at an orchard or cider mill. We decided we'd like to go to Parshallville Historic Cider Mill because it has been many, many years since either Kevin or Sara had been there and Carson has never been. So we headed that way. It was such a beautiful fall day, everyone else seemed to have the same idea! We arrived in Parshallville to see people lined up all over the place just to get into the cider mill... we decided we weren't going to wait in that line. :) So we headed towards Spicers Orchard a few miles away. Spicers was even worse! So we decided to head over to Mueller's Orchard in Linden. On our way there, we passed by Uncle Jason, Aunt Julie and the kids heading the other way. We called them and turns out they had the same ideas we had and were headed to Parshallville. Once they heard how crazy it was, they decided to turn around and meet us at Mueller's, too.

Mueller's is kind of off the beaten path and I think a lot of people forget it's there, so it's rarely crazy-busy. They have a good selection of apples at great prices, the best fresh donuts out of all the orchards, and very tasty cider and caramel apples. Plus, they have a really nice playground, petting farm, hay rides, and ponies to ride. And you don't have to deal with the crowds! We ended up spending a couple of hours there and had a great time! We ran into our friends Jennifer and Evan, so it was fun to catch up with them, as well! Carson, Anna, Joel, and Jonah all had a great time playing on the playground and we got some super cute pictures. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Voogt Farms and ArtPrize

I'm continuing to play catch-up. With all of our traveling lately, its been difficult to keep up to date on the blog. Hopefully I'll be caught up soon!

Back on September 25th, we took another trip west to Grand Rapids... our third trip of the month! I think that's a new record. :) It was so wonderful to see our family out there so much last month. We were able to see Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Van all three times we were out there and we got to see Aunt Mary and Rebecca twice and Uncle Justin once. It was great!!

On this trip, we first went to visit Voogt Farms in Marne, Michigan. This is the farm that is owned and operated by Justin's Uncle Gary and Aunt Shirley Voogt. They raise black angus beef cattle and meat goats for sale, as well as chickens. We have purchased some of their beef for the past two years, so it was really great to be able to see the farm where the cattle are raised and hear more about their practices.

It was quite a chilly, drizzly morning, but we all still had a lot of fun exploring the farm. We met up with Uncle Justin, Aunt Mary, Rebecca, Great Grandma, Great Grandpa, Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Danny. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Carson and Rebecca had a lot of fun together, running around and exploring, seeing the bulls, chickens, goats, and tractors, and picking themselves their own apple to snack on before we left. It was a great way to spend an early fall morning!

After our visit to Voogt Farms, we stopped for lunch at a local diner with Great Grandma, Great Grandpa, Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Danny. The food was very good and it was great to spend a little more time visiting. Carson and Uncle Danny went into the little Veteran's Memorial park next to the diner to check out the big canon after lunch. I think they both thought it was pretty cool! :)

Then we took a drive around for a bit so Carson could get a quick nap in. We stopped at Wells Orchard to pick up some apples and honey, then we followed Grandpa out to see a nice piece of property in which he has always wanted to invest.

Then we headed into downtown Grand Rapids to check out ArtPrize. This was the second year for ArtPrize. We had wanted to go check it out last year, but never made it, so we were excited to see it this year. Its an open art competition with the world's largest prize for the winner. It was founded by Rick DeVos and offers $500,000 in prizes to the winning artists. We think Uncle Danny's interest may have been piqued and maybe we'll see some of his art featured next year!

We started at the Y and then walked downtown to the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Campau Building, and the BOB. We only got to see a very small percentage of the art displayed throughout the city, but we did see some pretty neat stuff.

 A cow made up of smaller plastic cows.

 This is made of all toothpicks!

It was another great trip west! We look forward to our next trip out to the Grand Rapids area!

Grand Rapids Children's Museum

On Saturday, September 11th, we headed west to Grand Rapids again.  This time we were going to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum to meet up with Aunt Mary and Rebecca.  Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Danny also decided to meet us there for a fun-filled morning.  The museum was hosting a Curious George exhibit that we were very excited to see.  Carson and Rebecca both love Curious George, so they were both very excited... both for the exhibit and to play together.  Carson loves playing with Rebecca and he loves childrens museums, too.  But what kid doesn't?  They're just filled with so many fun things!  We had a lot of fun checking out the new stuff at the CG exhibit, as well as the favorites from the last time we where there.

After our morning at the museum, we had planned for a picnic lunch at a nearby park.  But since the weather wasn't too cooperative, we went over to Aunt Mary's house to have a picnic lunch in her living room.  Carson and Rebecca got lots more great play time in together.  They had so much fun!  It was a great day!

Labor Day Weekend

I'm quite behind on posting again. This last month was a very busy and crazy one filled with lots of fun things and business travel for both Kevin and Sara. Kevin traveled to Germany for a week and Sara leaves for Montreal this week. The fall is always our busiest time of year for business travel, it seems. October will be quite busy with work trips, as well.

So let's do a little catch-up here. We'll start with Labor Day weekend. We spent Saturday of the holiday weekend working on projects around the house and yard. We finally got the rest of our front yard graded and seeded. Its now growing pretty well and is such a huge improvement! On Sunday of the holiday weekend, we went out to Aunt Jeri's and Uncle Mike's house on the lake. I think this was the coldest Labor Day weekend we've had in a long time, so we didn't get to enjoy the water like we normally would have. But we still had a good time visiting, playing bocce ball, and trying to enjoy the sun as much as possible... even though it was only in the low 60s. Carson and Mackenzey had a great time together, as always.

On Monday of the holiday weekend, we went to Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Van's house in Hudsonville to celebrate Great Grandpa's birthday. Kevin's Uncle Rich and Aunt Lynette were in town to visit while on their way to their new home in New Jersey, too. It had been quite a while since we'd seen them and we had a great visit. Carson had fun playing with box of toys that Great Grandpa and Great Grandma keep around for the kids and he got to know his Great Aunt and Uncle a little, too. He also got to go for a nice ride on the golf cart with Daddy.

All-in-all, we had a great holiday weekend.  We are thankful to have spent some good, quality time with the different sides of our family.