Blake Purcell Family

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Chicago/Michigan

September 22nd found Blake and I boarding a plane in Salt Lake City heading for Chicago. We stayed the night in the historic Congress Plaza Hotel in downtown Chicago.

The next morning, we toured downtown Chicago from an open double decker bus.

We saw lots of cool tall buildings.

When we were done visiting the sites in Chicago, we got in the rental car and headed for the Stevensville, Michigan....our real destination! We were excited to see Cindy, Ken and Sydney. We arrived at their home before they got home from work and let ourselves in. Blake immediately began making friends of the animals.

Stormy wasn't so sure at first, but it didn't take her long to figure out that Blake was a great friend!

Pretty soon 3 of the 4 cats came to see who was invading their house.

When Cindy, Ken and Syd got home we left for Silver Beach Pizza. Blake loves the pizza there, he must have said a dozen times that it was the best pizza he's ever had. I do have to admit that it is good pizza.

When we finished eating we went down to a new fountain by the beach. Syd loved it and ended up getting soaked. They were pretty interesting fountains.

On Friday we went to Grand Rapids to a Botanical Garden that also had art and sculptures. It rained on us for a little while, so we looked at the flowers and displays inside and after lunch in the cafe we were able to go outside and see the entire place. There were some very interesting flowers and exhibits.

After leaving the gardens, we planned to eat at "The Melting Pot", but it wasn't opened yet, so we saw the movie "Marmaduke", it was a pretty cute show. "The Melting Pot" is a fondue restaurant, it was pretty fun, and pretty tasty too!

On Saturday, we went to an apple orchard. We went on a hay ride to get to the apples, we stopped and picked some raspberries and some apples. Blake, Ken and Syd went to a haunted house, Cindy and I didn't want to go there! After we picked all the stuff we wanted Cindy, Blake, Syd and I rode on a ferris wheel. Then we left to go home. We made apple pie and Cindy made a raspberry pie/dessert that was wonderful. I didn't get very many pictures of the apple orchard, so you'll have to check out Cindy's blog for more.

Here we are picking raspberries.

We had a great time, Syd and I played some games, Cindy and I played one game, we watched some TV, Blake took Stormy for many walks, we ate good food. Thanks Ken and Cindy for the fun, food and the great bed! Sunday morning found us getting ready to head home.

Stormy telling Blake goodbye!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Tennis

Jared has been playing on a tennis league in Idaho Falls this summer. His team has done really well, they qualified to go to "state" and represent Idaho Falls. That was while we were in Washington. They won state which qualified them to play in the sectional tournament. There were teams from Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado. The sectional tournament was held in Salt Lake last weekend. It is played in a Round Robin format, and the winner goes to nationals. It was a very good tournament and Nevada, Utah and Idaho were basically tied at the end, each one having only lost one match. When it got down to brass tacks, Nevada ended up winning because they had lost less sets in their five matches. It was fun to watch tennis on that level. We stayed at a Residence Inn, in downtown Salt Lake. Brian, Celia and Maden came down to watch, too. Randy, Julie and Tanner were able to come and watch the Saturday morning match, it was fun to see them, but silly me didn't get a picture of them!

This match was played at the Salt Lake Swim and Tennis club, it was a very nice facility. Some of the matches were played at Liberty Park, which was also very nice.

Here's Celia watching Maden crawl around on the grass outside the courts, it was on a hill so he could go really fast down the hill, but was a little slower coming up.

Playing with Maden after a match.

Blake has started playing in another league this fall. It is a mixed doubles league, he is playing with a someone he had never met, but he is enjoying the playing time.

Brian, Celia and Maden came to watch Blake play. This is how Maden watches, by crawling away! He's like the energizer bunny, he just keeps going and going....

So cute!

Jared's on the move...

On August 16th, Jared moved to Twin Falls to start college at CSI. We loaded both our cars and I followed him. He lives on the 3rd floor and it was hot, so we were both sweating pretty good by the time we got the cars unloaded. He has 5 roommates, but they all have a private bedroom, so that is nice. I didn't get very good pictures, so what you see is what you get.

Here he is carrying stuff up the stairs.

In his bedroom, trying to figure out where to put stuff.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Birch Bay Washington

Blake, Diana, Randy, Courtney, Brian, Celia and Maden took a little vacation and drove in two cars to Blaine, Washington. We left just before midnight on July 27th, it took about 14 hours to drive there. It was kind of a long night/day. We arrived at the Worldmark Resort on the Birch Bay of the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, July 28th at about 4:00 Pacific time. Blake, Brian, Celia and Randy played tennis some of the mornings, they found out that you can't use high altitude tennis balls at sea level.

Thursday, we rested and went to the beach when it was low tide.

Maden is working real hard at crawling, he almost has it down!

We all did a lot of playing with Maden. He was soooo good!

We also did a lot of eating!

Maden's just "hanging" around.

Blake found a crab down at the beach.

They had a grand time digging for clams.

Maden loved the water, and didn't mind the sand.

Can you see the sand on his face? He did try to eat some, but mostly just splashed.

The boys went out for a long way, maybe just a little too far, because they had to swim back and there was an undercurrent, but they made it back safely.