BIRTHDAY TIME FOR PHIL & MEREDITH

Today is Meredith's 5th birthday. She is excited about that because she is going camping and will get to be with some of her cousins to celebrate(as well as grandpa & gramma of course:) Meredith is such a sweetie pie and loves to help with anything and is always busy about something. We love you Meredith and hope you have a very fun birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Phil is celebrating his birthday today and is 41 years young. We appreciate and love you Phil and thank God for the husband, dad, and son-in-law that you are.

CAMP GRAMMA 2009

CAMP GRAMMA 2009

Our theme was OBEDIENCE

This is our group after the T-Shirts were handed out - we just finished our first orientation meeting and they are ready to swim and have fun outdoors.

Sleeping Quarters
Below are the boy's tents and the girl's tent was in the other far corner of the yard
We are so glad we have a huge back yard but it was very HOT the first night and the second night was a little better but the third night was nice. We had fans in the tents. The real help is to let them go swimming just before bedtime.

these are the girls in gramma's tent

some of the younger ones enjoy playing under our pine tree in the back corner of our yard(Eli - Ethan - Meredith)

Ella and Hudson swinging

Wednesday afternoon we went to take a hike on the walk over bridge at 30th & 61 highway - they love getting semis and cars to honk at them

at this end of the bridge there is the train track where the train would be too close if one came

the bonfire was ready to be used

the meeting around the bonfire on the last night

Grandpa & I took that opportunity to say something special about each grandchild and let them know that we love them and are praying for them

grandpa and Eli checking out the map for the zoo

the group moving around at the Wichita Zoo

watching some of the animals at the zoo

BIG turtles at the zoo

our sandbox is new this year and we thought the little ones would love it but I think even the big boys loved it

rode the tram around the zoo

the gang at the entrance of the Wichita Zoo above

One big Bear below

Elisa and her children(left:Trey,Raegan, Ethan, & Avery)

Greg & Susan & children(left: Caleb,Brendon,Trevin, & Meryn)

June and her children(left:Maggie,Molly,Eli,Evan,& Micah)

Melanie and her children(Ella & Hudson)

Susan & her children(left:Trevin,Brendon,Meryn, & Caleb)
the twins were the oldest campers this year having just turned 12 in June

These 5 ladies are the best help you could ever have.
left: Julie, Susan, June, Elisa, & Melanie
Thank you girls! We could never do it without you.
They constantly clean, help serve the food, lifeguard, taxi service, and much more but they did enjoy hanging out in the air-conditioned house at night when the kids were down for the night in the hot tents:)

Julie & her children (left:Owen,Malia,Brooklyn, & Meredith)

Exhausted after our day at the zoo and exploration place

our outdoor cafeteria

Our camp meetings

the swimming 18 ft. pool(which we made bigger this year)

we had a small pool outside the big pool for the 3 littlest ones to play in

What fun for us with the grandkids and the cousins loved it too.

FAMILY REUNION WEEKEND

We left for KC a week ago on Thursday and met some of our children to take off for Omaha, NE. John & Melanie had their car with Ella, Hudson, and Meredith in it most of the time. Rog & I had June and Brooklyn and Phil & Julie drove Damon & June's van with Malia, Owen, Micah, Evan, and Maggie with them. We arrived at our hotel Thursday evening in time for the cookies and milk hour. The cookies were scrumptious.


The next morning we headed for the Omaha Zoo and the grandkids were looking forward to a fun day.

the gang was ready to roll

A good view of things in the zoo on the ride below

Grandpa and Ella & Meredith on the "wings" as Brooklyn called it

stingray fish above and a leafy fish below that you wouldn't know was a fish

pretty birds

penguins

????? below:) ugly whatever!

most of the grandkids piled in a jeep

Above is Rog by the house he grew up in and we took the grandkids that were with us to walk around the farm and see the place where their grandpa played as a boy.
Below is the creek where he would fish and pull huge mud turtles out of the water. In the back ground you can see a windmill that grandpa climbed to the top.

Later on Friday we left the zoo and headed for Marcus, IA, for the Neir family reunion. Above the younger ones are swinging on the nice playground they had for the children.

Below you see the George Neir family represented at the reunion.

Below is Rog's Great Grandpa & Grandma with their family and George is in the middle of the back row.
From the left: (Bk row)Harley, Eula, George, Ione, Margaret
Front row: Gladys, Grandpa & Grandma, and Mildred(Margaret & Mildred were twins)

We stayed in a new motel just outside of Marcus that only has 17 rooms so it was nice and quiet. It was a fun weekend and 2011 is the George Neir family's turn to host the reunion.