Fuelling Up On Family

10/09/21

 

That morning we had to get our covid tests taken care of, to have them ready come flight time, and after those were done, we drove to meet up with the parents, to visit Mikes uncle for a bit.

Lake got to swap cars, and go for a ride in the convertible with Opa as we left there, heading for the great grandparents house 😏

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They have a dog, Rose, whom Lake thoroughly enjoyed, giving her open mouth kisses on her nose and all 🤪

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More family came, and some afternoon visiting took place. 
After which, we left, and did some more family visiting 🤪 
Making full use of our second to last day 😉

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We visited, were served more cappuccino’s as well as some peppernuts, and filled up on a little more family time, whilst it was available 🙂

After getting back to the house, we quickly freshened up, said goodbye to Lake, as he was going to spend the evening with his grandparents, and we were going to go out for our sixth anniversary dinner date ☺️

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The sky and airplane trails mixing with the sunset, put on an enjoyable show for us as Mike drove us to  Doetinchem, a town I’d actually not yet been to.

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We parked, and then walked the streets to get to the restaurant Mike had seen online. 

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Though we passed many other interesting looking  places to put on our ‘to eat at’ list 😉

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We started with a tasty appetizer platter.

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Shrimp, fried shrimp, bitterballen, olives, bread, spicy broccoli soup, ribs, carpaccio and dipping sauces. 
The ribs were very tender, and so tasty. The crispy fried shrimp was enjoyable, Mike got all the bitterballen 🤪 
The actual whole shrimps, creep me out a little bit, so while they were good, they were also a little bit tricky to get down 😂 
The pleasant carpaccio was topped with cheese shavings, pine nuts, and arugula and the broccoli soup was really good, all be it, confusing 🤪 
The little shots of soup were swallowed, and at the start, the flavour was just ‘broccoli soup’, then it turned to ‘oh, a really nice broccoli soup’, which then turned to ‘oh wow, that’s a hit of an unexpected  kick!’ 😅 
We cleaned up the remains of that platter, then waited for our main dish to come.

And waited. And waited 🤪

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It ended up being over an hour for our main dish to come, which maybe isn’t the most insane of waits, but it felt like forever 😂 
The appetizer was for sure more of an enjoyed moment then the burgers that followed, but it was fine and we ate them, and departed 🤪

 

10/10/21

 

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The slanted ceiling in our room was often the cause for many a head bang, but the window there, also often afforded a nice morning view 😉
It was the typical Sunday morning. Prepare, eat, out the door, an hour or so drive to church.

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That Sunday the sermon was actually spoken in English, by a family friend whom we know from the states 😅
So, Oma Inge took Lake to the baby room, and I got to sit and listen to one more, entire service, since Lakes birth 🤪
We mingled for a good chunk of time after service ended. It being our final day to see any of them, and wanting to get in one one last hello, and goodbye.

I also had my first ever, completely bilingual conversation 🤪
Meaning someone spoke Dutch to me, and I answered in English and I think we actually managed to make sense. Don’t ask her 😂🙈 I do live with a slight fear that I was answering her, completely wrong 🤪 It is an odd realization, knowing that you can possibly get the idea of what someone is saying in another language, but not having the words to answer them back in it. I guess it’s not that strange, especially for those who’ve grown up speaking multiple languages but for my little brain, it felt interesting 🤪

Not long after we got back to the house, Mikes sister and her kids also arrived.

One last group bike excursion was taken by Opa, Oma and their group of grands, while we stayed back with Judith and her youngest, who wasn’t feeling the biking vibes 😉

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Our opa and oma joined in on the visit not long after 💗

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It was a lovely time, spent soaking up the last of the visiting and eating, being served our favourite broccoli tart and of course, one more after eight crème dessert for Mike 😉

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Aunty Judith thought she’d do something nice by giving Lake a bath with his cousin, and it was going fine, until the ‘fun’ blue bath coloring was added 😅  
There was no calming him down from the shock of that, so the bath was quickly evicted 🤪  
Memory made 😂

A time of song ensued before goodbyes and goodnights were said.

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Lake loving the guitar and songs, all the while doing his best to imitate the actions that went along with them ☺️

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Mike always postpones the packing for as long as he possibly can, which drives me a little bonkers.
But he’s much better at it than I am, thus I just wait until he deems it time 🤪

We started that night, mostly due to my harassment 🙈😅

Into The Jungle… I mean, ‘Bush’

10/08/21

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After Oma took Lake for a morning bike ride, and then brought him home for a nap, Opa was on listening for Lake duty and Inge, Mike and I went for a walk.

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It was an extremely fog filled morning, making it impossible to see much beyond what was right in front of us.
Inge said she likes the feeling of being surrounded by it, where as Mike and I said it gave more of an entrapped feeling 🙈 

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I had to photograph one of the disgusting ‘naked slugs’ they have 🙈
Making for interesting little obstacles to avoid stepping on, along the way 🤪
We dropped by a dairy farm where you can buy fresh milk from a little tap in a shop.

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I’m not a milk drinker, so I for sure didn’t appreciate the unrefined flavours 🙈

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Mike and Inge liked it though… I just liked the other yard occupants 🤪

As we entered some tree covered areas, it seemed as though it was lightly raining, but that’s how thick the fog/mist was.

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Creating enough moisture on the leaves, to drip down on us.

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In the end we did a 6.85 km loop and our worked up hunger was filled with kibbeling 🤤

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Crispy, salty, fried bits of fish with tartar sauce 👌🏻
Once lunch was eaten, we  were off to visit the zoo! 😁

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The fog had lifted and the sun came out, making it a lovely day to be wandering around, exploring and viewing the animals ☺️🌤🐅🦍🐠

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We all enjoyed ourselves, Lake being possibly more distracted by other attending children, than the actual animals at times, but he was happy, so we were happy 😋

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We paused our animal viewing for a hot chocolate, caramel macchiato, cappuccino and poppy seed muffin ☺️

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All of which were tasty and enjoyed 👌🏻☕️

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After being thoroughly entertained by the gorillas…

It was then time to go into ‘the bush’ part of the zoo.

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‘The bush’ referring to what we would call ‘the jungle’ back home.

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The thickly humid air hit us like a wall, and our light jackets and sweaters were quickly removed, as we searched for any tropical bird sightings.

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From the bush, came the ocean, and we wandered into a slowly darkening world of the underwater 🐠🦀🐙🐡

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As I carried Lake through the dark tunnels separating the illuminated tanks, he nervously picked at my fingers with his own, being uncertain of this new surrounding.

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The vibrant colors and unique shapes of the animals we so rarely see, meant that we took our time.

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Sharing in the childlike wonder, at the creations before us.

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One place that the wonder left and the feeling of unease came, was when we turned the corner, and were in front of a floor to ceiling tank, in a darkened, cave like room.
The dark, thick, inky blue, hiding murky shapes of some very large things just beyond our field of vision.
Until they swam up to the glass, and we were greeted with the relaxed, underwater sort of saunter, of sharks 🦈

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I hate them. Mike wasn’t overly comfortable either. We went. We saw. We felt gross. We quickly left 🥴😂🙈
You can safely say we are not the couple that will ever want to go snorkelling and or cage diving 🤪 


Finally, we wandered out of the ocean and through the desert, before making our way to the zoo gift shop.

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Where Lake got a cute little stuffed sting ray from his Oma, and then we headed to the entrance to take a couple of photos with the animal statues.

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19,000 steps later, we drove home, happy that we’d been able to take the time to go and experience it together ☺️

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Sadly it was the last time for wearing of this particular shirt for Lake, as his belly hung out more than it stayed covered, but I’m glad it had its last finale  there 😉

A special delivery arrived at the house that evening. It turned out to be a box of entirely pistachio flavoured macarons from Tout, for me, from Mike, for our next day’s wedding anniversary 💗 

(What’s so sad, is that come the day we departed, we both thought to ourselves to eat the remaining macarons, and then we both forgot 😭)

I Say Pancake, You Say Pannenkoek

09/22/21

1 week and 5 days in, I got my first day at the house to do nothing but unpack, tidy up, shower, laundry (though my kind mother-in-law did most of the laundry during our stay 🙈) etc.

12 days of being on the go, visiting people, and being out and about amidst other humans in some form or another, is, as some may know if they  know my personality, A. LOT. 😅🥴

I was so ready for a chill day. Meanwhile, Mike was not capable of relaxing in the day, wanting to know what we could do, or where we could go and when I stated no where and nothing, he managed to go out multiple times alone for different things, but that didn’t totally satisfy him 😏

He got us kibbeling and loempia’s for lunch.

Kibbeling being a delicious freshly fried fish with tartar sauce. The man even told Mike that the fish they use for it comes from Canada 🤔
But the seasoning and crunchy batter is 👌🏻

Lake decided to walk that afternoon!  As we were sitting in our various spots, he suddenly stood by a chair, turned and walked to Mike with no cajoling. From there he walked to me and then so on and so forth until Opa came downstairs to witness it and the game continued.

He walked between us all for some distance and time, and we figured our days of having a crawler were no more.

Opa offered to babysit Lake, while we were allowed to take out his Porsche for a ride 😎

The Pannenkoekhuis Strijland in Velp ended up as our destination.
A fairly renowned restaurant which we had never actually been to together/Mike hadn’t been for to years.

One sweet and one savoury were ordered to share, peaches with sugar and Italian.

The pancakes are a little tricky to explain, as they aren’t as thin and light as crêpes, nor are the as thick and fluffy as some North American pancakes. They are on the thinner side, but also more dense, bordering on a heavier, custard like texture.
We were without a doubt the youngest couple in there 🙈
It appeared to be ‘the’ spot for those who are let’s say…of a wiser and more learned place in having lived a more substantial amount of life 😜
The flavours on the Italian one were very nice, and the peach one was good as well, I’d just expected a little more than it came with topping wise 🤪
All in all, it was nice to try, we checked that attraction off of our list, and we probably won’t be headed back overly soon, but that’s just because we’re not huge Dutch pancake fans to begin with ☺️

John, Inge and Lake were met back in Doesburg, as they were finishing up a little snack at a restaurant there, and we didn’t have keys for the house.

Lake may have had a look of slight confusion for a fleeting moment, not understanding how mom and dad were suddenly on the path where he was after not having seen us for a while 🤪

We all headed back to the house then and later that evening, our delivery from Tout Pâtisserie arrived 🤤

The best macarons we’ve found in our European travels thus far 💗
The taste, the texture, the crunchy chewiness, the thick, creamy filling. They are amazing.

We always try to get them, but they are in some out of the way spots for us, so it gets tricky. Thinking of having them deliver, worked out perfectly 👌🏻

Lake showed his newly rekindled talent for walking once we got back to the house as well, getting giddier and picking up speed as well as some extra swaying, the more praise he received 🙈

(I say newly rekindled, because over a month ago, he was walking between us and from furniture and whatnot for a couple of days and then just stopped until now 🤪)

Meneer En Mevrouw

09/18/21

‘…Going to the chapel, and we’re, gonna get married, going to the chapel …’

… or in this case, not ‘we’, but ‘they’, and in a converted barn and outdoor ceremony space, not a chapel. You get the idea though 😉

Packing and wedding preparing took up the morning, and then we were off on the two some hour drive to the wedding location in Groningen, where our cousin was going to be tying the knot. 
We ended up getting to the area a little earlier than expected, so we found some coffee and a cookie to hold us over until after the ceremony.

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It was humorous to us that the ‘to go’ cup proudly stated ‘I’m a big, hot cup’ when it was very clearly, ‘a small little cup’ in our Canadianized eyes 🤪
But that’s fine, and the white chocolate chip with macadamia nuts was actually really tasty 👌🏻

At the wedding location, Lake was more than ready to be out of his car seat and or stroller, walking with anyone who’d take him. Though going to anyone who’s willing to have him, has NOT been a problem whatsoever this trip 🤪

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He and I watched the groom arrive in a vintage mustang, and the bride exit the building, from a little seating area, away from the actual event.
He finally settled down and stopped his possibly unwelcome noises, once he found a stick to scratch the dirt with 🤪 
Daddy came for us, saying the announcer had said the kids were welcome to be decently free, since it was a smaller, mostly family wedding, with many of whom, had many small children 😅🙈 So, the stick held him over for a while, then his distant cousin the row in front of us and finally, the baby’s breath decorating the chair, is what took over in the area of distraction until the ceremony ended 😬

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‘Meneer en Mevrouw Ezra Hagenouw’, were announced 💗🎶💐 

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We were then dismissed, and the greetings began as everyone slowly made their way into the open courtyard area for the cutting and eating of the cake. 
That is when Lake and I again took our exit, as nap time was due.

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After sometime, the pleasant weather and jostling of the walk had its way, and Lake entered dreamland.
There wasn’t really anywhere to leave him that would be easily accessible/not loud, so I sat with him outside…catching up on blog writing while I had a moment. 
(While also trying to ignore my belly’s disappointment at missing out on the cake 🤪)
45 minutes later, his little nap ended and then his oma took over 😉

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Weddings in Holland generally have servers roaming about, taking drink orders, clearing away old ones. It’s such a nice  feature that makes it feel that extra bit of special. Though that could just be my perception of it since it’s not something I’ve ever experienced at a wedding at home 😋

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Chatting amongst the everyone passed the time until dinner was served, at which time Lake become our charge again, and we happily partook of the meal ☺️
An ice cream cart was presented come dessert time.

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Meanwhile, I’m not sure where Lake really was or what he was doing, but I assume he was for the most part with either his oma or opa 😅🙈 It was a smaller wedding and Mike was related to, or friends with almost all who were in attendance, so it was a nice place for Lake to mingle.

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He is also the one responsible for the destruction of this hay bale…

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These are the only ‘us’ pictures that were captured.

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The wedding moved into the enclosed side of the building as evening came and brought a chill with it.

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The time for speeches, slideshows and games thus began. 
Lake’s patience was waning but another nap via the stroller wasn’t going to be an option, as he knew not to fall for such trickery again 🤪

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Finally, the night drew to an end, and we drove a couple of minutes to the home of some family we’d be staying with over the weekend.

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Lake succumb to sleep the moment we drove out of the parking lot and stayed that way as we deposited him into the crib in our room…

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Day One Desynchronosis 

09/11/21

Lake awoke crying about 45 minutes after he’d went to bed, so I settled him down and he joined us for the remainder of the night.

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So much for bringing his crib sheet from home so his bed felt more familiar 😜 My sleep was restless until around 2, when Lake then awoke, ate a big bottle and didn’t want to go back to sleep 🤪

Mike took him to the play room for a while and then Inge took a turn because she said she was awake anyways. Eventually he began to seem drowsy again, so they tried to lay him down, but that was a no go 😅 So we took him bed once more, where he flip flopped around, watched some Luca, crawled all over us and then finally settled enough to be slowly rocked back to sleep around 5.

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We all slept in until 10:30 and could have kept sleeping, but figured if we wanted to attempt to get into the rhythm of the days ahead, we’d better not. It was just us three for  the morning, as John and Inge had left that morning to attend a weekend church camp being held nearby.

We figured we’d see how the night/morning went and go from there if we’d join them at all or not.

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Mike made us coffee and sugar bread toast for brunch and by the time we ate, tided, cleaned up the room from the night before and got the diaper bag restocked etc.etc. It was time for Lake’s first nap of the day, which he took easily, in his crib.

We had to wake him up in order to go to the camp, which was around 25 minutes away.

He sat calmly and lazily in his car seat (not something he’s really done for any amount of time before🤪) for more than half of the drive, looking up at the trees through the sunroof. Here they let babies sit front facing from 9 months old, so he’s been enjoying the views I think 😉

We shall see how much he likes being faced back again, once we go home 🥴🙈

We arrived, and the meet and greet began 🤪

It was a lot of family/extended family, so it was nice to be able to see them there for a moment even,  in case we didn’t get a chance later on. 
Lake did so well with meeting everyone and being squished and squeezed and  handed around, not playing strange or getting upset at all, so that was relieving 😅 
So many remark that, ‘he is so soft?!’… I thought all babies were but it’s seeming like perhaps that isn’t actually the case? 😜

He got to meet both sets of great opa’s and oma’s and sat for a ‘four generations’ photo with his great opa Hagenouw, opa John and daddy 🙂

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We went to a cabin the family was renting for the weekend and used that opportunity to change him out of his wet clothes and give him a snack. The rained on grass having been too much of a crawling temptation 🤪

The coffee table was spread with tea and coffee, cake, cookies and sweet treats. The most classic of Dutch spreads 😉

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I truly still do not understand how they stay so slight of stature here 😅 Bread in the morning, the afternoon and the in-betweens, as well as some warm drinks and sweets sprinkled in and possibly some cakes/tarts depending on where you are 🤪

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We visited there for a while as the rain came down outside and then Lisanne took Lake to the nearby park before the church service began. Mike wanted to stay for the songs at least but midway through, Lake had more than enough so we tried to quietly exit and head back to the house.

Lake fell asleep on my shoulder a few steps out of the church, which I don’t think has ever happened during this first year of his life 😅


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He’s always been too easily distracted to relax enough to sleep out in the open, since he passed 5 months or so. 
The poor little guy was very done with the big day, but he did very well despite the lack of naps and all of the new faces 💗

He awoke at 1:30 am and played calmly for a couple of hours before I got him back to sleep for the duration…

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 * I ask that you do your best to ignore any spelling mistakes, as on my iPad the set up is different and I can’t find an easy way to do a spelling / grammar check. Thank you for your understanding 🤪

In-Laws – In Quarantine, A ‘Jem Moment’

Jem Moment 

It’s been a long while since I posted a ‘Jem Moment’ but I think it may be time to try to bring them back with a little more regularity 😉

To start off their renewal, I’d like to give a shout-out to my in-laws.

Not only did they travel to see us from Europe but they did it during a time in which they knew they’d have to be quarantined, in our house, for two weeks, with only one day of freedom before they continued on their way.

That would be tough to accept when paying for tickets and using up vacation days, even if you were going somewhere with nice weather to enjoy but they came to Saskatchewan, in November, a few days before a record breaking dump of snow…

I think we were all holding our breath a little wee bit, wondering how the family morale would stay high and contemplating just how slowly time would pass during those two weeks. In the end, it actually went rather quickly. Perhaps even quicker than a visit full of activities has passed?
That’s my opinion though… you may need to ask them personally, for theirs 😜

Along with the visiting and usuals of a visit from family members, there were some added perks…

I got spoiled with babe free mornings.
Mike took to delivering Lake downstairs to his mom, when he’d leave the house for work.
Meaning I got to sleep in… even later than I slept before Lake was actually born 😅

Along with sleep filled mornings, I hardly had to do any dishes, maybe half of the daily bottle feedings and very few #2 diaper changes.

I always thought it would be odd to raise kids how the royals used to… having a servant bring them their baby when they wanted and also taking them away when wanted.
But now, I’m not so sure 😂🙈

Mike got some help from his dad too, having him assist in insulating walls and then beginning to instal metal on the ceiling in the garage.

(Note the difference of height they are standing on their ladders?
I feel like I got a glimpse of how it looks when Mike asks ME for help. Always having to stand on something taller, stretching to my max to attempt to level out with his end of things 🤪)

 

So this little post is simply to say, thank you. Thank you for making the effort to come see us during these uncertain times and for the time and attention you devoted to Lake, along with all the treats and help you gave his parents 😉

They have now gone on to spoil the next grand baby and enjoy some well deserved sunshine!

…and a baby is once again laying in my bed come early morning 😉

Thank you for the rapt attention, cuddles and love Opa and Oma! ♥️


Love, Lake

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