Okoboji Family Reunion

The Hoefer family celebrated Great Nana's 95th birthday with a family reunion in Okaboji.  It was fun to spend time at the lake with my kiddos since I have so many memories from past family reunions.  I don't even know where to begin describing the week so I'll stick with captions on the pictures for this post.  We are so thankful to be a part of such a wonderful family.

Drake and Eric on the dock with Grandpa.

Lilly, Sylvia and Phillip on the boat with John.

Enjoying the waves with my boys.

Uncle John patiently helping Drake drive the boat.

Extended cousins pile-up on the slide.

Eric likes to help Great Nana with her walker.

Enjoying some sticky s'more's with Adam and Grandpa.

We spent a lot of time on the Noah's Ark/Pirate Ship playground.

Eric and Noah attempting a game of Connect Four.

An evening out with my cousins.

The Hoefer Family 5K participants.

Eric investigated the boat lifts multiple times during the week.

Family "pedal" boat ride.

Eric and daddy's kayak trip.

The cousins all built flashlights with Uncle Lee.

Daddy is good at swings.

Sylvia's kayak trip with daddy.

Lots of cards and games were played in our lounge.

These two enjoyed the water all week.

Great Nana is good at sharing her snack with my boys.

Filling up buckets of water to take down to the beach.

Eric's family party

We celebrated Eric's birthday with our extended family a few days after his birthday.  They joined us for dinner, gift opening and cake.

Sylvia did some videotaping at the party :)

We enjoyed the leftover robot cake.  Sylvia and Eric each ate most of one of the robots feet.  They were very big pieces of cake.

Before heading to bed, Eric tried out his new batman pajamas from Bill & Becky.

Indianapolis Trips

I believe it is mostly family who follow our blog at this point, so I won't apologize for the number of pictures.  Dan and I had been wanting to take the kids to Indianapolis for quite some time and Sylvia was even asking us when we'd go.  Granny has come to visit us many times recently so we hadn't made the trip there in quite some time.  We knew that Granny wasn't feeling well, so we planned a trip in January.  The kids enjoyed watching movies in the car.

We played and explored at Granny's house while we were in Indianapolis.  Riding the elevator chair was by far the favorite thing to but other top runners were looking at the snow globes, carousel and other decorations, watching TV, jumping around and playing harmonicas in the basement, and playing outside in the snow.

We toured a bit of the city, spent an afternoon at the children's museum and took the kids to the circle monument.  Sylvia and daddy climbed the stairs to the top while the boys and I rode the elevator.  We also visited Granny in the nursing home and later at the hospital.  We read books, sang songs and Sylvia stopped us at the gift shop before leaving so she could buy Granny a balloon.  Before leaving, the kids all gave Granny hugs and kisses and she once again told Dan to take care of all of us.

Granny's health didn't improve and we returned to Indianapolis at the end of February to celebrate her life.  Although it was a difficult time, it was wonderful to see family.  Sylvia wanted to share during the service that Granny loved watermelon and gave good hugs.  Dan also shared when he took Sylvia up.  He talked about how he'll always remember how in love Granny and Granddaddy were and that she didn't have a critical bone in her.  We love her and miss her very much.

Before leaving town, we took the kids to The Indianapolis Museum of Art.  The fountain was on despite the cold.  We checked out an art bag which included drawing paper and crayons as well as some shape blocks.  Sylvia studied a picture of a horse and made a drawing of it.  We also played in the interactive kids room.  On our way home, the kids shared a red slushy during a gas station stop.  It was a bit of a race to see who could get the most before it was empty.

Sundown and Barnhouse

We visited Sundown Mountain Resort in February to go snow skiing.  Our cousins from Illinois were there as well as Grandma and Grandpa.  Sylvia and Eric got geared up for skiing with mom and dad as soon as we arrived while Drake played with Grandma.  After a little time on the bunny hill, the kids were ready to try out a slightly bigger hill with a ski lift.  Sylvia was quickly going down on her own but Eric stayed between my legs or at the end of my ski pole most of the time.  Later in the day, my brother surprised us by gearing up Drake to snowboard.  I couldn't believe how well Drake balanced on the board while going down the bunny hill.  He also rode the magic carpet all by himself.

The rest of our weekend was spent with family at The Barn House.  Grandma and Grandpa rented it for all 19 of us.  We watched the Olympics, played in the snow, did scavenger hunts, bounced in grandpa's bouncy house, and played board games, basketball, ski ball and video games.  The only thing we didn't get enough of was sleep, but we're willing to pass on that from time to time in order to spend time with family.