We were surprised by my Dad and Jo and spent the week getting to meet our awesome family. The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousins and we met so many people. We stayed with our Aunt Nathalie who made us feel very welcome.
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| Teaching the Cousins to play Cricket |
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| Cricket - yes that's a slightly bigger ball than normal... |
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| I think that one's a wide... |
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| The kids found that they could make bubbles using the output of the airconditioner |
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| Cam made himself comfortable watching sport |
For some reason Tomas decided he wanted to sleep in the walk-in closet in the room we were sleeping in. Cam slept on the floor just outside the closet. He was so tired that he didn't notice when Tomas extended his leg in his sleep and kicked the door into Cameron's head:
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| And he didn't even wake.... |
We got to meet my Grandfather Duane Balko for the first time and got a shot with four generations of the family in one shot:
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| Four generations of the family - Grandpa, Dad, me and the boys |
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| The family |
My Great-Aunt Nath's husband Ray used to work in the salt-mines in Saginaw and we continued a family tradition of tasting a piece of salt from the mines:
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| Cameron and the salt |
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| Alana and the salt |
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| Tomas and the salt |
We also went shopping to find some new shoes - there was a big sale on and we tried to find out how many Pupletts could fit in a shopping cart:
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| The answer is quite a few.... |
It was pretty warm so we took the kids down to Haithco Recreation Area for a swim - well that was after trying several pool and splash parks (and Aunt Penny having a chat with a statue):
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| Swimming in the lake |
We also found time to play a couple of games - the family had a fun game called Pie Face, which was a form of Russian Roulette involving whipped cream:
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| The tension was high.. |
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| Alana gets a face full of pie |
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| And so did I... |
and we bought our own weird game from Sweden called Låg Ågg (Lay Eggs) - the idea was to clip a magnetic chicken to your shorts (the kids dubbed this the "Butt Chicken") and use it to pick up and egg and carry it back to home base without breaking it.
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| Cousins (or thug chickens) |
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| Picking up an egg |
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| This is the grave of my great-great grandmother - Anna Elizabeth Leuenberger (nee: Marti) (born 1830) |
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| And my great-great grandfather Andreas Leuenberger (born 1823) |
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| My great grandfather Henry Leuenberger (1868) and my great grandmother Olga Leuenberger (nee: Laderach) (1872) |
On Saturday 18th we had a BBQ with all the extended family and Sunday was American Father's Day so we took a special trip to a place that is important to that side of the family: Frankenmuth.
Frankenmuth is a German village near Saginaw, Michigan and is the home of Bronner's Christmas shop - the largest Christmas shop in the world:
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| Looking into the entrance of Bronners - this is only a tiny selection of what is for sale |
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| Looking to the right - this is just the entrance area |
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| Christmas mugs and statues |
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| More of Bronners - Section 3 of 10 |
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| One of my favorite ornaments - I'm guessing someone wanted cheese nachos on their tree? |
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| One part of the outside of Bronners |
We had a walk through Frankenmuth and then ended up at a famous restaurant Zehnder's for lunch.
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| Frankenmuth bridge |
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| Frankenmuth |
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| The bridge |
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| The Bavarian Inn |
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| The bells in the inn |
Frankemuth was settled by 15 people in 1845 from the Franken region from Bavaria in order to preach Christianity to the Chippewa Indians. The name of the settlement means "Courage of the Franks". The township was founded in 1854.
After an awesome week meeting family, it was time to return to Canton, Ohio and to prepare for our trip to Orlando.
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