A Day Trip to Holland

Yesterday, we took a day trip to Holland.  We have wanted to take Carson to the Dutch Village for a couple of years now.  I'm glad we waited till now to do it, though.  He's really at the perfect age for it.  He had a blast and was able to do everything.  He didn't understand the historical stuff, but that's ok - we didn't expect him to.  We'll take him back again some day to teach him about the historical stuff... or hopefully we'll be fortunate enough to take him to the Netherlands when he's older (like high school) to teach him about his heritage (on Kevin's side).  

We woke up in the morning to a lot of rain in the forecast all the sudden.  We'd been watching all week and it was looking perfect with a slight chance of rain.  But the lake was causing some big storms to develop.  Thankfully they were spotty and we really lucked out.  We got some rain for about a half hour or so while we were at the Dutch Village, but it never down poured.  It mostly just sprinkled with a steady rain for a very short time.  Other areas of Holland got more than an inch of rain, just pouring down rain, I guess.  So we were lucky and the rest of the day had perfect weather.  It was overcast and cooler while we were at Dutch Village and then the sun came out and it heated up when we went to the beach.  Perfect! 

Carson had so much fun at Dutch Village.  His favorite things, according to him, were the carousel, the windmill, the big yellow shoe slide, and the train cars (the pedal pumper cars). 

He also loved watching the water wheel, seeing the fountains, making a wish in the wishing well, and seeing the animals in the barn. 

Carson wasn't too crazy about the Klompen dancers, but Kevin and Sara thought they were pretty neat.  One of the dancers broke his wooden shoe during the dance!

While the Dutch Village is a tourist trap, the Nelis family really did do a decent job of capturing Dutch history and creating a small dutch village with the waterways and traditional architecture.  It was cute. 

After our visit to Dutch Village, we headed to downtown Holland for a late lunch.  We had wanted to go to New Holland Brewing Co., but they had a long wait, so we ended up at the Irish Pub across the street.  We got to sit outside on the patio and enjoy some great tasting food. 

Then we took off for Tunnel Park to enjoy the beach.  We haven't been to the Michigan side of Lake Michigan yet this year and we've never taken Carson to Tunnel Park, so we were looking forward to it.  As expected, Carson loved walking through the tunnel to the beach.  He joined the other kids in hooting and hollering to hear the echoes.  And he had a blast at the beach playing in the sand.  Mama helped him build a deep tunnel to drive his truck through and Daddy helped him build a big mounded sand castle.  Carson and Mama went for a swim, but the water was too cold for Daddy.  We left covered in sand from head to toe, literally... which always means a great day at the beach!

We left the beach to head over to Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Van Heukelum's house for dinner.  We had a nice visit with them - it had been too long since we'd been to the farm. 

It was a long day, but it was such a fun, family day! 

Fun in the Sun!

We have been taking full advantage of the heat wave we've been having lately.  We've made many trips to the splash pad, the beach, and the lake.  And we've been enjoying lots of backyard water fun, too!  Nana's co-worker gave us a 15-ft diameter, 4-ft deep soft-sided swimming pool this summer and we've really been enjoying it a lot.  We swim almost every night after we get home from work.  So we're in it at least once every day and usually about four different times on the days we're home on the weekends.  It has been wonderful! 

Carson is quite the fish.  He puts his life jacket and swimmies on and jumps right in.  He swims all over the pool.  He floats on rafts and rings.  He wears his diving mask to "dive"... since he's wearing things that make him float, he can't really dive, but he puts his face under water and locates the diving rings for Kevin or Sara to dive down to.  Swimming is one of Carson's favorite things to do right now. 

Sara and Carson had their friends Kati and Tony over on Friday to enjoy the pool.  Tony is 4 months old and this was his first time in a big pool.  He loved it!  He laid back in the floatie and just pimped around the pool.  :)  He was even kicking his legs and propelling himself around the pool!  Too cute! 

We've also set up the slip 'n slide, or the "sprinkler slide" as Carson calls it, a couple of times.  Carson hasn't wanted to dive onto it and slide down it yet, but Kevin sure has been loving it.  :)  According to him, he's been living out a childhood fantasy... I guess he always wanted a slip n' slide, but never could have one.  So he's been having a lot of fun.  :)  Carson does enjoy watching the sprinklers spray - he still loves his sprinklers.  :)  And Carson likes to walk down it when its off and usually ends up slipping onto his bottom and laughing.