Alida's pictures 2010-2012

May 5, 2012 Peter's 70th Birthday Party

A milestone for my brother-in-law Peter. Still enjoying life at the age of 70!
Loves his family, (grandchildren being on top of course)
travelling, working on fixer upper vehicles in his shop,
and picking up scrap at Bibles for Missions.

Caragh loves all the balloons.

Peter's hobby since he retired. Fixing up old vehicles

Jennifer's little one Nicholas and Marianne's youngest Caragh.

Many friends and family to celebrate.

Margaret Hoogstad & Pat Bontius.

Opa and his great-grandson Nicholas.

Roy & Jessie Wu.
Roy doing a great job on the BBQ.

Jessie and Brianna.

Peter's sisters: Tineke and Judy.

A party isn't a party without lots of little people.

Huge mocha cake. Peter's favorite.

Tineke and I went to grade school together. (A few years ago)

Peter's brother Hans. Two pieces of cake!!

Peter's brother Joe.

I think all the men got 2 pieces of cake.

Yes, yes they did.

Arlene and Judy.

Jessie and Arianna.

Nicholas

Roy and Jessie.

Peter and Alisha (neighbors) and Janice.

Peter's sister Judy.

A whole whack of cousins. Bontius and Mulder.

Siblings: Margaret, Judy, Tineke, Joe, Peter, Jerry and Hans.
Ineke and Betty were missing.

Pat and Herman

John, Pat and Herman. A bit tipsy?

Brianna, Emma, Autumn and Daniel.

Kristin

Siblings: Margaret and Peter

Friends: Coby and Peter

John and his second cousin Nicholas

Nicholas and Caragh: Henny's grandson and Immy's granddaughter.
And how are they related? Third cousins? Or is it cousins 3 times removed??

Noah and Nicholas: Third cousins?
Doesn't really matter...they are all adorable.

And his youth continues.
Still having fun

May 1, 2012 Cousins

Jeremy and Jelayne (second cousins) playing guitars and singing.
We babysat Leah and Jeremy a few days while Renee went to Ottawa.

Jelayna and Leah looking adorable.

The backhoe was still here to finish the sceptic bed.
Jeremy in all his glory sitting in the big backhoe.

Early in the morning Erin was dropped off.
Quite the treat to have so many little people here.

Marianne came down with her 4 girls also.
Dress-up is the number one favorite for the kids. Adorable.
Leah, Autumn, Brianna and Kristin.

Jeremy doesn't mind at all joining all the girls with their hat show.

Definitely pretty cute.

Two beautiful ladies. Marianne and Caragh

Tried to get a picture with all the little people...but Kristin escaped.

So cute. Jeremy and Caragh.

Kristin being a ham.
Marianne did some grocery shopping leaving all the kids behind.
They had a great time.

Granddaughters Leah and Erin (cousins) giggling about something!!

Without their glasses.

A play: Something we are blessed with on a regular basis when the cousins are together.

We were instructed to hold the flowers and the globe while watching the play. Hmmm.

And the hats.
Making memories.

April 14, 2012 Weeping Bed Fix

After many sewer back ups and floods in the basement, it was time for a permanent fix.
Plumbers were in several times before, but this time to clean the main pipe coming into the house.
Nothing solved the problem.

A lot of hand digging to uncover the header. Then the big guns came down.
Neighbor Curtis came down with his backhoe. Such a great guy.

The weeping runners were clogged solid. 32 years down the drain had consequences.

Weeping tile (runners) trenches were dug by hand to find the other end.
Curtis dug a massive hole at the end of the runners. The caps were taken off to unclog them.
Many, many hours of putting the running water hose and the auger in the runners to unclog them.
We also hired a Mobile car wash with a high pressure wash.

Eventually the runners were clean. Gravel was dumped in the massive hole at the end of the runners.
Then covered with black paper and sand. Hope this is a permanent fix.
Thank you so much for your help Curtis. Couldn't have done it without you.