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Monday, May 21, 2018

A special weekend

I know I've shared with you before about how special I think my family is.  I was blessed with a loving Dad and Mom, and siblings who have remained close through the years.  My mom passed away 15 years ago, and my Dad remarried almost 11 years ago.  We all love Ann and are happy to have her in our lives.
This past weekend, my Dad invited the whole family to Frankenmuth Michigan. It's about 2 1/2 hours from our home.  The whole family was able to go, except for our son Andy who lives in KY, and our niece Arianna, who was had final classes to attend.  There were 21 of us in all.
Frankenmuth is a beautiful city with a Bavarian history.  Many of the buildings have an old time Bavarian look, there is also a covered bridge and it's just a great place to visit.  We stayed in a hotel with an indoor water park, so there was plenty to do.

Warning - lots of photos!

 Entering Frankenmuth

 This was taken from our deck.  The tubes are one of the water park rides.  Several of my family did this one. Climb 5 flights and ride a raft down the tubes!  I just took pictures.  :)


 Alaina and Ruby arrive and greet Great Grandpa.



 Our hotel was next to Bronners, which is a well known store in Frankenmuth that sells Christmas things all year long.


Our room was a loft room, with room for 8 people.  The girls loved looking over the edge and running up and down the stairs.


Here are a few photos from Frankenmuth.  Such a pretty city!  The middle photo is a bell tower.  The bells played music and the deck had automated figurines that came out different doors to tell the story of the Pied Piper.



We took a ride on the Bavarian Belle which is a real riverboat.  It was a one hour ride and we thoroughly enjoyed it.


Here's some nieces and a nephew, Laura, Aaron and family, Ruby with Ann, and Heather and Andrew.



We saw turtles and baby ducks!



Beautiful scenery.



Ruby and Alaina think they are steering the boat.


 Dad and Ann



Our little captains after the ride.


 Dad took us to Zenders for supper. They are famous for their chicken dinners and we agreed!



Ruby was enjoying the soup!


 Ruby and Grandpa were having fun looking at pictures together before bed.



The next morning, Alaina was up as usual, but Ruby had a hard time getting up.



We had a room where we had the most wonderful buffet breakfast!  We all agreed it was probably the best breakfast buffet we ever had.


After breakfast we had a church service before we left for home.  It was a wonderful weekend!


The whole bunch of us!

22 comments:

Terri D said...

Family. Just THE best. Great photos. Great memories!!

Karen said...

I've been out of the loop with blogs of late, so just catching up. This looks like a fabulous place for a family get-together. I think I would really like that Christmas shop!

Linda said...

What a memorable time for all! Ann is so lucky that you all love her. I became a step-mom 2 years ago and we just haven't gotten there yet, much to my disappointment. They don't reach out but I just keep plugging along in hopes for a loving and more cohesive relationship at some point.

Joyful said...

What a generous gift from your dad and how wonderful to have a great weekend of family fun and visitation.

Jenny said...

This is just too awesome for words. Your dad is a prince of a man. So generous and thoughtful, and how great to include everyone. Excellent memories. I've never been to Frankenmuth but I've always wanted to go, so that I could visit Bronner's! Now I want that buffet breakfast. Haaahaha xoxo

Anonymous said...

How nice to have so many of you together in such a lovely setting. The riverboat ride would be very nice. I know the granddaughters loved that! Many of my late mom's Christmas ornaments came from Bronner's.

Hootin Anni said...

I could, and probably would spend hours in the Christmas store!

What a fabulous time had by all! Yep, family is great & you and Bob are blessed!

Ramblings of a Retired Lady said...

What a great trip and beautiful area. So glad you got to go and thank you for sharing all the pictures. I can tell it was a good time by all.

Jean said...

What a wonderful time together!! So many good memories made!

Sandi said...

We used to go to Frankenmuth when I was a kid. I remember the Bell Tower! Did you go to the Christmas store?

Beth (A Mom's Life) said...

What a great weekend with family! And what a neat town! It looks like you were in Bavaria!

Linda said...

What a great post, Mari. Thank you for all the smiles.

Sally said...

Beautiful, Mari. How fun! So glad y'all had a great time, and thanks for sharing the photos. The one of Bob and Ruby? That's so special, the look they have for each other, priceless. :)

xoxo

Changes in the wind said...

What a wonderful gift! Looks like everyone had a wonderful time and the place was very interesting.

Connie said...

How fun, to get all the family together for such a sweet weekend. You certainly picked a perfect spot; that city looks amazing and that riverboat ride looked relaxing. Such a lovely family everyone looks so happy. God bless you all :)

Dianna said...

What a gracious Dad you have, Mari! Such a lovely weekend and after the work schedules, you've been keeping I can only imagine how wonderful it was to have a change of scenery and enjoy your family.

Michelle said...

This looks like the best time. You are so lucky to have family who like to get together like this!!

LL Cool Joe said...

Ooh I've been there with my partner years ago. Bobby Vee, the singer recommended it to us. We didn't stay but just did a day trip and it was pretty unique. Glad you all had a wonderful time.

Vicki said...

I LOVE that your whole family gets together like this! And what a great place to visit. My favorite times are spent with my family.

Saleslady371 said...

I love the girls captains hats.

Laura said...

Great pictures of a great time. We definitely made a lot of memories!

Cherdecor said...

What an awesome trip! You gals have the best dad in the whole world.

I am assuming the Frankenmuth is the place to go at Christmas time. I would love to go there at that time of the year.