Well it's been quite a busy weekend. School planning for PIG's for next week isn't yet finished (or even begun), but I wanted to get these pictures up for Danielle, who has been patiently waiting (not that she had any other choice). :)
The first big event was an impromptu trip to Grammy's to get a new van. Grandpa ran into a friend a couple weeks ago who wanted to sell their 2008 Chevy Express 12 passenger van. As it is much newer than ours and has much less mileage, plus is a nice upgrade, it seemed like a good idea. And since we have a friend who would like to buy our old van, it's a win-win situation. So, we are now trying to determine this new van's name. I like Big Blue, or the Blue Whale (our old van was Moby D or Ahab's Folly). Andy thought we should get vanity plates that read, "I8Jonah". :)
The next big event was to finally pick out a new cook top. Yes, Sears is finally replacing my stove. It has been broken for exactly seven weeks today. I had to spend an hour on the phone with whatever department of Sears resolves customer grievances, but thankfully the woman I talked with was sympathetic to me being without a stove for then 6 weeks...and I never even told her I had seven children to feed! :) The only challenge is they no longer make our exact same cook top (maybe a blessing in disguise?!), and the new stoves are a different size from the cut out in our granite. SO...we have to get the granite company out to adjust the hole (wider one way, narrower another) in order that the new stove will fit in properly. Looks like I am still a couple more weeks on the camp stove.
The final big event for the weekend was the Wilson's 2nd Annual Labor Day Volleyball Picnic. We had five families over (37 people total) for volleyball, hamburgers, hot dogs and fun. I think everyone had a good time. It rained again (did last year, too), but that didn't stop anyone from playing. Thanks to friend Katie Soost who played photographer for me. Here are the pictures:
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| Andy took this picture to post on Facebook for Danielle. To answer your question, D-, both vans are the same size, the blue one just looks shorter because of the angle. |
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| It's the four car line up! And only two drivers in the home...:) Our friends will pick up the old van on Friday. Had to move all the vehicles out to the pad to make room for the picnic. |
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| Promise is showing off a cool feature of the new van - a sliding door! It also has a running board, which makes it much easier for the kids to get into and out of. Had hoped for doors on both sides, but oh well. |
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| And the coolest feature according to the kids is...the dvd player! This was the first time they were excited to leave Grammy's - only because they got to watch a movie the whole way home. Can you say tv deprived?! |
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| Lots of backlight, but trying to show the console - it's a bit nicer than the old van. |
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| The reason of the picnic, Volley Ball! Here an epic battle of boys v girls triples is underway... just, where is the ball? |
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| Bill Wells, impromptu personal trainer, instructs Joshua on the finer points of acing a serve. |
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| Who says Joshua is too short to spike? |
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| Once the Stickneys arrived Volley Ball really started. |
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| Nothing worse then having half the team disappear in the middle of a volley ball match. Oh well, looks like they had some fun. |
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| If you'd just take your hat off Daniel, you wouldn't keep hitting your head on the rope. |
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Promise attempts to prove her epic jump roping prowess
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| One of the best dishes served at the picnic, funny stories and good fellowship |
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| Trouble and trouble |
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| Mrs. McMahon's definition of a good story |
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| Trouble and trouble returns |
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| Joy Anna enjoyed stealing other people's full water cups. She was wet even before it started raining. |
