Our Trip to Ohio

Because Gigi (Daddy's Grandma) suddenly passed away last week, Daddy & Mommy (with my Aunt Blip Blip) drove up to Ohio for the funeral. They enjoyed seeing everyone, even though it was emotionally difficult to say good-bye to Gigi. Daddy & Mommy told me that she is in Heaven now since she asked Jesus in her heart. We had a lot of fun memories with her, and we will miss her! Here is a picture of her taken while she was visiting us in Huntersville just a few weeks ago!

Below is a picture that Daddy, Mommy, & Aunt Blip Blip took with Gramps. He is very sick with cancer, but we are praying that God gives him peace. We love him very much, too, and we are so thankful that he took such good care of Gigi/Grandma while she was here on Earth!

Then, we had a previously planned Van Wingerden family reunion in Sandusky, Ohio while Daddy & Mommy were in Ohio, so our Oma & Aunt Helen drove us to Ohio to meet Daddy & Mommy and enjoy our family reunion. We had a wonderful time. It was at the Kalahari Resort, and we had so much fun with our family. Here I am with my cousin, Stephanie (the front middle) dancing to some music while enjoying dinner. The other people up there with us are not family...just other people dining at the restaurant that evening. It was fun dancing...

...and following the motions of the "leader"...

...and doing the Limbo.

We loved the water park. There was an indoor and outdoor one. Here is Brady enjoying the fountains at the outdoor one.

I enjoyed all the slides. I was quite a dare-devil...going down all the big slides and loving it...even the ones that were in the dark...I called them the "tunnel slides."

And, since Brady isn't quite walking fully just yet, this is how he would crawl on the rough concrete. It was too funny!

Here I am with Daddy & my Aunt Helen going down the family ride. Mommy was at the bottom with Brady cheering us on. We got to ride on this innertube together, and we rode down lots of hills and curves...all in the dark until the very end. I had the best time!

And, here is the attempt of a "small" group photo. These are all the grandchildren present with their spouses and children. And, we say "small" since there were 197 Van Wingerdens at the reunion. (My Opa is one of 16 children, and they all had around an average of about 8-10 children each, who then had about 2-4 children each...and counting!)
And, here is the group picture of all the great grandchildren that were present...the oldest great granchild is my cousin, Eric, who is 16 years old (not pictured), and the youngest is 6 weeks old...with several more babies due in the next 6 months! It was a really fun reunion, and we had so much fun playing with so many kids our age!

On our 11 hour drive home, we stopped back in Columbus so that Brady & I could see Mamaw, Aunt Deb, Sara, Kaden, & Jeffrey again. Daddy & Mommy saw them while they were in Columbus earlier that week, but they wanted to see us too, so Daddy & Mommy stopped by again. I had so much fun with Mamaw (Daddy's grandma). She let me "paint" her fingernails...

...and her toenails. I did a great job!

Then, a picture of me with Mamaw.
Here is Brady Boy...just smiling away at Daddy's cousin, Sara. She was making him laugh!

One final picture of Daddy, me, Brady, & Mamaw before we headed home. It was a long drive in the car, but we are so thankful that we got to spend some fun times with both sides of the family!