Tubing on the Lake

Following the wedding we were back in New Jersey at Nanny & Poppy's house. The girls really wanted to go out on the lake to do some tubing. Kelly and Megan showed up and we waited out a thunderstorm before heading to the lake. Poppy got the boat ready and we all headed out. Emilie, Tori and Megan all took turns on the tube and then started pairing up for added excitement. At the end of the tubing fun we headed down to a no-wake zone so that the girls could go swimming. Mommy ended up joining in the fun (though she didn't have a bathing suit). It turned out to be a wonderful day on the lake and we all had a good time. Thanks Nanny & Poppy.

Chris & Erika's Wedding

We all converged on New Jersey so that we could attend Cousin Christopher's Wedding to Erika. They were getting married in Pennsylvania and both Emilie and Tori were flower girls for the ceremony. On Friday, we drove to Erika's hometown and met up with the Issler family. We proceeded to watch the rehearsal. The girls did a couple of run throughs to hone their flower petal dropping skills. After the rehearsal, we headed to Erika's Dad's house for a barbeque. The girls got to go swimming in the pool and we all had a great time hanging out with the wedding party. We stayed in a local B&B with the Isslers. The next day we got up and got ready for the ceremony. Nanny took care of fixing the girls hair and we then headed off to the wedding. The wedding was beautiful and Em and Tori did a great job walking down the aisle and sprinkling petals. During the beginning of the ceremony Tori saw Erika's family crying (Erika's Mom passed away at Christmas) and began crying herself. She sat on Aunt Betsy's lap and stopped crying. After the ceremony, we hung around for a family picture and whole wedding party pictures for the girls. Then it was off to the reception. It was great seeing a lot of our family members who traveled from all over to attend the wedding. The girls were getting tired and bored through dinner. They really wanted to hit the pool. After completing dinner Justin, Sammy and Megan dragged them on to the dance floor. Well, then we couldn't get them off. We all had a blast dancing and acting silly. We pulled a prank on Christopher that made everyone crack up. Immediately following his dance with Aunt Betsy we stormed him and shot him with 10 cans of silly string. It was totally unexpected and hilarious. He was a good sport and laughed it off. It gave the kids a job to do to clean up all of the string post ambush. After the dancing, the girls got to go swimming and we ended up calling it a late night. The next day we had brunch with Nanny and Poppy and then headed back to Jersey. Overall, it was a very nice wedding and we had a great time. The girls did a great job in the ceremony and ended up having a blast with their cousins. We send our best wishes to Chris and Erika on a long and happy marriage.

Europa Park Germany

Our Nephew Justin was on a cultural exchange with his German class from High School. He has been attending German High School with his host and traveling in and around their home town. He had an opportunity to come and visit us in Belgium. So on Saturday we drove to his host family's house. They were wonderful and welcomed us into their home (which overlooks the Black Forest and valley of the Rhine). Justin was on a day trip to Switzerland and returned in the early evening. The next day we were all going to Europa Park in Rust, Germany. Europa Park is an "Epcot" style amusement park with different areas themed on parts of Europe. Justin hung out with his classmates for the first part of the day and then joined us for the latter half. It was a great park with a lot of rides designed for kids our children's age. We had our fair share of spinning, twirling, floating rides to last us for a while. We all had a great day. It was nice to see Justin and the girls were in heaven to hang out with "my Bubba" for the afternoon. After we left the park, we drove home to Belgium. Poor Justin had to spend 5 hours in the back with a car seat and two kids. He was a real trooper and we made it home safe and sound. The next day he and Buffy went to Brugge to visit the medieval town. After that, he got a tour of Mons and SHAPE before finishing the day off playing Wii. Buffy drove him back to his host family today so that he can finish his final week on tour. He will head to Munich, Dachau and other places before heading back to NJ. Thanks for visiting us Bubba and we'll see you in a week.