New kidz on the block/Michigan activities?random thoughts

One thing that has been a huge blessing is the number of kidz on the block. We live on a cul-de-sac which is awesome for our kids to bike and play games in. 6 out of 10 houses at our end of the street have kids around the ages of ours. There are 3 girls around Dayna's age, 1 who is Kiera's age and a couple in between, (we had 8 girls in our basement the other day playing fashion show) . There are 2 boys the same age as Dirk and a couple of boys in sixth grade who like to rope in the younger boys for games. All within spitting distance. And we have the gully in our back yard which provides Dirk and his friends ample opportunity to explore and catch frogs. SO AWESOME. Oh and did I mention that they all send their kids to either Catholic or Grand Rapids Christian school? Rockin' I don't have many photos of the kids but here's a couple of various things we have done.
I probably won't blog again until the kids are in school. This is their 14th week of summer vacation. I think they will have forgotten everything they learned by the time school starts again. Kiera will start kindergarten this year M-W-F all day. I'm so excited I have a huge list of stuff I need to do yet associated with moving. Send me an email sometime!
sian

New house

We live on a pretty cool street. Lots of trees, gully in the back yard. Our new house is 2X as big as the one in Gallup Huge basement with lots of room for people to stay when they come and visit (hint hint). There are a couple of things we'd like to work on like the paneling in the living room and the cinderblock shower in the basement, but it is pretty cool. Here's a slide show.

update

I know I've been a slcker and haven't updated a thing so here we go with 3 updates. 1. trip 2. new house 3 new kidz on the block

GR

Hi,
I don't have any pictures yet but we had an awesome trip to Mesa Verde, Boulder, Mt Rushmore and the Badlands. Dayna, Dirk and Kiera are currently in Chicago enjoying some Nanna and Grandpa and Leys family time.
Jason and I have been doing all the things that you need to do when you move like banking, mortgage, kids soccer and figuring out how garbage gets picked up etc.
I went into our new house for the first time yesterday and liked it. Jas did a good job picking out a house for us!
laters,
sian

New House

We have some big news. We have a housee in Grand Rapids. It is on Rolling Hills dr se. No bites on our house yet however. We close the end of July and Jason and I will fly back to NM to pack up our house :{.

Grand Canyon

On our way to Phoenix we stopped at the Grand Canyon for a day.
Dayna was 4 and Dirk 18 mos. the last time they were there.

It was fun to show our kids such an awesome part of God's creation.

Miscellaneous May Events

May has been a pretty busy month for us it started out with us getting our house ready to put on the market. A short trip to Grand Rapids to look at schools and houses followed by the last week of school for the kids.

Here is a picture of Dayna's hands she was 4 when we put these on her door.


Mom and Dad graciously agreed to come up from Phoenix and paint.

1st grade field trip to Ft. Wingate fire station and McGaffey





4th/5th grade civil war play

We had Kiera's 5th Birthday extravaganza on a really windy day at the park.









Snow on May 22!!

New Mexico

As our time in New Mexico draws to a close we have been trying to fit as many trips in as we can. Here are a couple of Z Fam photos from around New Mexico.

Family hike to Church Rock


Church Rock

Angel Fire

Rio Grande Gorge bridge near Taos

Santa Fe

Ixtapa Pacific (ah)

We had an awesome time at club med in Ixtapa. we had tons of fun with our family and we enjoyed the activities and separate activities for our kids. I got to do a celebrity work out with Harvey someone from VH-1. Look on my sisters bog a glimpse into our lives for the details. It was wonderful. I don't know what I liked best. Well maybe the buffet but fortunately I did 2 aerobics classes a day to offset the effects of that. Dad and Mom thank so so much for the awesome time.
The Z Zam

Jerusalem

To all of you out there with no Dutch CRC connections whatsoever, Jerusalem is the other name in Dutchie circles for Grand Rapids, MI and come the end of June it will be the new abode of the Zylstra family.
When we started our job search process back in September we said, "wherever God wants us." So after visions of overseas jobs, Grand Rapids came as a bit of a, "Huh? and a Yes,but...?" It comes with many blessings though, our kids will get to live by Grand Parents for the first time in their lives, my sister and fun family live in Chicago and Mom and Dad will be there too in the summer, we can afford a house there, GR has some great Christian schools, my good friend Jess lives in Holland 1/2 hr away, we will no longer have a 4 hr round trip to the airport and orthodontist. Last but not least, we know that all good CRC people are drawn back there at least once in their lives and so we will see all of our Rehoboth friends again. So now we are getting ready to put our house on the market we're going through all of our belongings WOW, it is a little overwhelming. It's just not quite the adventure I had hoped for but maybe that's a good thing......
sian

Easter Sunday Fun in New Mexico

No, the kitchen is not finished yet. It still needs to be painted. BUT. We had a lot of fun yesterday. We went to the sunrise service up on Ressurection Rock, Easter Egg hunt, lunch at Ippels and then the crevice hike. And the piece de resistance! A ride in a car down a dune which is the you tube link. Enjoy!





Sunrise service at Ressurection Rock.





the three amigas





up there?







"oh, I get by with a little help from my friends."



cute new mexican kids














wedged in

just like michigan



just like michigan

Say, "spaces".

So, Dirk started boxing lessons this week.......

Just kidding, he lost 2 teeth in one week, two more to follow next month I'm sure.

No rest for the weary-part 1

Jason travelled 3 weeks in a row. We went to Memphis for a job interview and returned home Sun pm. Mon morning we were ripping out the countertop, sink and stove to put new ones in. Home projects ALWAYS take longer than you want them to. So when we started demolishing stuff I tried to think ahead. We put the fridge on the other side of the kitchen so we can still use it and we still have room to eat. All our meals have been made in the crockpot and we're doing dishes in the laundry room, but it works. There are two advantages to doing dishes in the laundry room. 1. I can shut the door and pretend I'm not there. 2. we get instant hot dishwater as the sink is right next to the hot water heater.

Here we are eating supper with earplugs in as Jason was cutting out the hole for the sink.
DAD BE QUIET!!

As you can see, it's not finished yet, this is just a preview.
Cheers!

Go! snow Go!

There are two ways to interpret the title of this post. The kid way and the Mom tired of snow days way. You may pick your favourite.
We have had 4 snow days since the beginning of 2008, this last front packed a huge wallop. I think we got around 1ft of snow. The most I think Jason and I have seen here since our 1st winter here in 1996/1997. Our kids love it! Fortunately, the past two days the sun has been shining again and it has been cold,(30's), but beautiful.


We made a snow tunnel in our front yard, something we did the winter Dirk was born but haven't had enough snow for since.


This week has been rough for Dayna as she said goodbye to her best friend Shelbey who is moving to Louisiana




The next post will be about Dayna and Dirk playing basketball.

only a 1/2

I will only bore you with this subject once, I promise.
I thought a half marathon was a good way to start out the new year. (My goal is 3 of them this year.) So we headed down to Phoenix so I could do the Rock n Roll 1/2 with Mary Lou. You know, 13 miles is a long way and you begin to realize that around mile 6 when you're not even 1/2 way yet. (I know, marathons are twice as long.) I think my least favourite comment is "Oh, only a half?" It kind of makes you want to say "yeah, want to run with me?" But I think the best reply, one I heard yesterday from a runner, was, "yeah, but it's a whole 1/2."
Here are some things I like about a race.
I like to run 10 min miles. I like to pick someone ahead of me to catch up to and then pass them. I like passing the 10 mile mark. I like listening to the other runners talk, I like to see people with signs cheering on the runners, last but definately my favourite, I like to sprint across the finish line.
Here are some statistics:
running the 1/2 maraton in 2hrs 16 mins I burned 2,456 calories, I run between 9:45 and 11 min miles. Running an average of 18 miles a week I run 986 miles a year, (If you figure I walk an additional 11 miles and bike 16 miles a week, the number is 2340miles a year! which is the distance from Gallup to Montego Bay Jamaica.)
Even though it was my 5th 1/2 marathon, it was my first time running with 30,000 other people. It kind of felt like I was trapped in a parade of running ants. CRAZINESS. Here are some photos, none of me however.
So I encourage all of you to at least walk a 5K this year, more if you are up for it, it really is fun!
Sian

Been Busy

• For all of you out there who are wondering why there are no new posts, well, I've been busy. F.Y.I. the white is primer the rust colour is the new colour.
  
• I have 2 new BFF's as seen below: a roller and a paintbrush.

• I'm painting the trim on our house, here are some photos. I'm hoping to be done sometime in 2009(j/k). Actually I hope to be done by the end of next week.
• God has been gracious and the weather has been beautiful.

• See you in a couple of weeks.
• Check out the Rehoboth link on the web page for the New Rehoboth Gym opening. It is awesome. A little shout out to my man Jas, who has worked really hard on this and unfortunately has not been able to help me paint the house. Talk about getting your priorities out of order!
• T.T.F.N. Sian