Sunday, November 27, 2011

Breakfast of Champions

On Thanksgiving evening we were blessed with a visit from our good friends, The Elsenbroeks. They were able to stay a couple days with us. We share much history with these friends from our time in Visalia and thankfully, our friendship has continued even after our moves to Michigan and Redlands. During this visit we spent time catching up, watching football, and just hanging out. According to Scott a new tradition was born: The Day After Thanksgiving Breakfast Hash. (Let's just say, "Yikes!") Jim and Scott threw as many leftovers that they could find into a fry pan, whipped up some gravy and fried an egg to put on top. They claim it was delicious, but no one else tried it, and they had so much fun cooking it up, it had to taste good! We are thankful for our friendships that continue over miles and years!


"The Elgerbroeks"
We continued the Grimmius bowling tradition on Friday with Visalia and Redlands friends.








Now it's hard to believe we are in the Christmas season already! Can you really decorate for Christmas when it's 80 degrees outside?!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

As many others have mentioned lately, The Elgersma family also has much to be thankful to God for. We had a wonderful day on Thursday celebrating these blessings. We began our day with a great service at church, then headed home to host some friends for dinner. We had about 18 people in our home for the afternoon. We had a pretty traditional menu, with Scott's deep-fried turkey being the highlight! He did an awesome job again and we are happy to report that besides a little extra grease on our back patio, nothing was damaged and no one was hurt! :) Here's the progression.
The turkey has been lowered into the hot oil and the one hour wait begins.

The nicely browned bird is finished!
Carefully lifting it out.
Neighbor, Tom, was checking out the process and was happy to help out.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Forest Falls-Take 2

While we were in Israel last year, the kids and their sitter took a little trip up to Forest Falls to do some hiking one afternoon. Troy had a tough time and ended up disturbing a wasp nest. Long story short, his pants stayed up in the mountains and they made a quick get-a-way in the van. We decided to try again today and had a much more successful time up in our beautiful mountains. It was pretty chilly and there was some snow on the ground, but the sun was out and the colors were beautiful! We took the short hike to the falls and played in the snow and let the dog run to her heart's content. She loved it (and so did we)!
The kids still remember how to throw a mean snowball!








Calvin Soccer

We had such fun hosting the Calvin men's soccer team here in Redlands last week. They were playing in the finals, the first of which was against the local favorite, The University of Redlands. The Calvin team was pleasantly surprised to find so many fans way out here in So. Cal. We packed out the grassy bank which is where you watch from at the U of R and yelled for our team. Calvin beat the U of R team in shoot-outs so played again on Saturday. Although not as many fans were there, we still had a good turn out. We ended up making the winning goal in over time for a great finish. Not super pictures, but here is what it was like.
A shot of the field.
The team celebrating with the fans after the win.
This shows everyone packed in on the sideline hill area!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Go Knights!

We were so excited to find out early this week that the men's soccer team from Calvin would be playing right here in Redlands! The U of R and Calvin are both part of the final eight in their division. The games are to be held this weekend, starting tonight. It's an understatement to say that there is just a little excitement around here. I think the Calvin team is surprised to find out just how many fans there are way out here in Southern California. We're looking forward to a great showing of maroon and gold at the game tonight. There was dinner for the team at our church hosted by some of the alumni last night. What a neat experience to meet the team and coaches. The players did a great job of talking with those of us who were there and even signing Troy's ball for him before they got back on the bus! Although there has been some trash talking and division between the local U of R fans and Calvin supporters, we are looking forward to a great night of soccer! GO KNIGHTS!
Troy with his signed ball.

Hmmm...These girls were all more than willing to help serve the team dinner!

Scott making a new friend.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Update

Some randomness from last week...

Katie and some girls from her choir were asked to sing the national anthem at the elementary school veteran's day chapel. They sounded wonderful!
This is the awkward time that they realized they came up a song too early and had to stand there because they didn't know the words to sing along! (Mr. Mercer sounded great, though!)
This is Mr. Leenstra welcoming a 90 year old veteran to our school. He was wearing his WWII uniform, which was really cool. His comment, "It still fits, too." Sidenote: I was seriously scared that this gentleman would get hit by a flying playground ball on his way out to the parking lot after the assembly. So I told some kids to stop playing for a minute while he went by. I hear this kid yell full-volume, "Don't hit the veteran!"
Kam played 6th grade softball this year. It's a short, low-key season. We'll just say they had fun. Their season wasn't terribly successful, but some girls made a lot of progress. I enjoyed helping out at some of the practices and Scott had fun coaching third base during the home games. (He ran them every time!) Kam looked good out there. It was fun to see her confidence after playing RBY.


Some Christmas card outtakes...Feel the love!

In their defense, the camera was on a timer and we were just trying to get it set up. :)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Homecoming!

Katie attended her last high school homecoming dance this past Saturday! She had a good time with friends. The girls got ready at our house and then friends and family came to take pictures. It was chilly, but thankfully the sun was out on Saturday.
Erin, Sarah, Katie and Zack
Getting ready.
Lookin' good!
Some pre-dance snacks.
The paparazzi that gathered.
Ha-ha!
Katie and her date, Zack.
Putting on the flowers.

Proud parents.

Soccer on Saturday

Here are some more "action" type shots from the kids' games on Saturday. (Per Boppa's request!) It was another beautiful day on on the soccer fields. Kamryn's team is showing so much improvement. That's always fun to see. They ended up tying 3-3 and had some tough calls against them. Troy's team won 2-0 and Troy was so proud that he passed it and his friend, Richie, scored a nice goal.
coming in after the game
Troy throws it out of the goal.
Kamryn during warm-ups.
More warm-ups.
Give-n-go from dad.
Kamryn following up on the shot at the goal.
Kam dribbling down.
Troy in the goal.
The Mighty Eagles after another good game.