Grandpa Bill 5/4/24 - 8/19/15

We have a new angel looking over us today. Chris's Grandpa Bill passed away last night after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 91 years old and lived 90 1/2 years in pretty good health. If there was ever going to be someone who could live forever, it was going to be him. I loved that guy. I first met him at Christmas in 2001. We bonded right away because I was finishing up at Luther and would become a teacher. He taught math for 40+ years, so it wasn't a coincidence that he died on 8/19 at 8:19pm. He was a numbers guy...even made up a song (that we all have memorized by now) about numbers that he would sing to his grandkids and later his great grandkids. (1 and 2 and 3 and 4...watch the numbers going...)

 I always had a special place in my heart for Bill and I think he had one for me as well. Recently when we were there he had one piece of blueberry pie from Bakers Square or somewhere like that in the fridge. He told everyone in the family that he was saving that piece for himself, but then later told me that I could have it if I wanted;) I lost my Grandpas when I was 13 and 17, so Bill filled the role for me as Grandpa beautifully. I told my kids last night that he was probably meeting my Grandpas up in heaven and they thought that was so cool. (I even had to tell them the story about how 3 days after my Grandpa Huinker died, I hit the game winning 3 point shot against Cresco and was pretty sure my Grandpa had a part in it. If you're from NE Iowa, you know what this means:)

Bill was full of wisdom and some of the advice he has given me, I will take with me forever. I will never pull into a parking spot again without thinking of him. He told me that if it was possible to always pull all the way forward into the spot so that when it was time to leave, I could pull out instead of backing up. He also told me to plan out my trips and try to take right hand turns as much as possible because they were so much safer than left hand turns. He also told me if I was ever running out of gas to shake my steering wheel and it will move the gas around and give me a few more miles. I'm not so sure about that one...:) He was quite a man. He was still living in his house and up until a few months ago, taking care of it and his 100 pound husky Alex on his own. In fact, when we saw him less than 4 weeks ago, he was telling us how he had just mowed the lawn and was showing us how far he had been walking and what his goals were for the week ahead.

I'm convinced he stayed young and healthy because of his love of reading and his beloved dog Alex. The Hakalas had more magazine subscriptions than a dental office. He read the Star Tribune daily and the crossword was always completed by lunch time. He had an amazing family who supported him and was there for him. He was able to stay at his house with his dog through everything these past few months.  He was so great with my kids. I asked all of them what they remember the most about Bill and these are their answers. Max: I remember how he had a bag of stuffed animals and every time we came, he would let me choose one to take home with me. Mya: I loved playing with the toys out on his porch where Alex couldn't bother me. Ivy: I remember Alex and Grandpa Bill holding me.

We are sure going to miss him. We've spent many many holidays down in Bloomington at his house and it won't be the same not seeing him sitting in his chair in the kitchen peeling potatoes and waiting for the 4th pot of coffee that day to be ready. I'm even going to miss the screeching in my ear from his hearing aids every time I gave him a hug hello or goodbye:)  Every time we left he made sure we knew he prayed for us every night and that he loved us. I'm so happy he is at peace and is with his love Beverly.

                             A throwback Thursday pic below. I think it's from a 4th of July parade in 2005.

                                                        Below with baby Max at Easter 2007

Bill was very proud of this family below! 

Rest in peace Bill. We love you so!

Summer 2015 Vacation part 3...Decorah!

We were able to end our Minnesota part of our trip down in Bloomington at Chris's Grandpa's house. It's always good to see Bill and anyone else from the family that happens to stop by when we're there! Tara came to Minneapolis to pick me up so we could have a little shopping time and more importantly...3 hours of alone time to drive down to Decorah to catch up! I hadn't seen her since September 18th, 2014 so we were long overdue for some face to face time. You can see below that the kiddos were pretty excited to see Auntie Tara.

It felt so good to be back at Target:) I spent a boat load of money on things we can't get up in Canada..like cherry coke and jif peanut butter! Who knew I could spend money that fast. 

It was Nordic Fest in Decorah the weekend that we got there. As if we didn't have enough going on with family, we threw some Norwegian festivities in there as well! Max wanted to do the Elvelopet 5K with Tara and Chris on Saturday morning. Mya and I went to support them along the trail. Maxwell started out pretty fast...you can see in the picture below that he was way out in front of my sis and Chris, but eventually he realized that was a mistake. Ended up finishing in 33 minutes and was 19th in his age division. When I picked him up after the race he told me he just wanted to see grandma. He knew she was the only one who would give him sympathy!  He says he'll do it again next year, but will train a bit and won't go out as fast! #lessonlearned. 

After the race, we got ready to go to the parade. Max and Mya were lucky enough to be in the parade again with Uncle Brian, Olivia and Grace. They threw candy, but ran out just a few blocks into the parade! My parents, Ivy, Chris and I watched from the balcony at the bank and had a great time. Ivy consumed about 11 suckers in an hour and a half we're pretty sure. 

The weather was super hot the week we were there so we enjoyed a few days at the Decorah pool. It's just a block from my parents house. I scheduled a couple swim lessons from Mary Kathryn Maher and they went so well. Max and Mya were both really close to being able to take off, but couldn't quite get the breathing down. MK taught it to them in less than 10 minutes. The best quote was from Max when he said...why didn't my other swim teachers teach me like that??!? The other highlights were Grace, Olivia and Mya going off the boards for the first time, (even the high board!) and Mya doing a flip off the diving board. 

The kids had so much fun with their cousins. The girls loved watching Tara be a mom to a baby and they loved helping with Quinn. Mya held her more than me and Quinn loved being with them! Her cute little face just lit up when the kids were around and she always wanted to be with them. One morning Tara took Quinn and Chloe for a walk and the girls followed with their babies in their carriers and Olivia even pulling the toy dog behind:) #monkeyseemonkeydo Then, Tara helped them swaddle their babies in some of Quinn's old baby blankets and they thought it was the coolest thing ever. 

Aunt Amanda helped them organize a lemonade stand which was on our summer bucket list! The little buggars ended up making $29 and even got to take a pic with the sheriff who stopped by! They spent their hard earned money at the Whippy Dip:)

When Quinn wasn't completely distracted by all of the commotion, we got some good kisses in from her! She's definitely a lover...when you hear the "mmmmm" as she's about to go in for the kiss, my heart pretty much melts. Even if it is to kiss Chloe:) She wasn't a huge fan of Chris, but that worked to my advantage because if it was just Chris and I in a room, she would come to me! We loved our time with Quinney and all of the kids. (more to come on her in a later birthday party post!) 

One of the nights that we were home all of the guys (my dad, Brian, Chris, uncle Geoff and Andrew) went golfing and all of the girls and Max and Grady went out to my aunt Mary's house for a nice dinner and some play time! It was so fun to get out there and see their beautiful lawn, sit on their back porch and look out at the fields! And a bonus is that my cousins Kelsey and Kylie are so so good with all of the kids. My kids light up when they hear we're going to see K&K and it makes me so happy! Just wish we lived closer:) I also got to play a little tennis with my sister and Kelsey...those two showed up to the courts in the exact same outfit! 

more to come....

Cabin trip 2015 (summer 2015 vacation part 2)

We had a great 5 days at the cabin! It was the perfect way to start the vacation after driving 20 hours. Cell phones didn't really work and there wasn't much to do other than relax, which is what we all needed! I read two books, worked on my tan, enjoyed coffee time at 3:00pm every day (complete with rhubarb pie, brownies or some other yummy homemade goodness), watched Chloe roll in the sand/dead fish and then shake off on all of us, watched my kids ride the waves, build sandcastles, bury themselves, dig enormous holes in the beach, change swimsuits 10X/day (Ivy), swim at sunset, swim at every other waking moment, we played pickleball, went for walks, spent some time with our friends from Dubuque, the Arlings, who were at another cabin 45 minutes away, sat by the fire, stained the swing and just had a lovely time all together. 

Summer 2015 vacation part 1 (of many:)

Let the vacation blogging commence! I took nearly 1000 pictures between my phone and my good camera so this may take a few days to get caught up! We got back Monday afternoon after being gone for 24 days. It was a great trip and we got to see lots of people and we missed some people too. It's so hard to split time. Hopefully anyone we missed, we can see them at Christmas when we are home!

We left at 2:00pm on Friday July 17th. Chris worked until 1 and I spent that morning doing a bunch of last minute cleaning the house/fridge, packing, taking Max to camp, picking him up from camp assuring our crazy, nervous, pacing dog that she was indeed coming with us and we would not leave her behind, and everything else in between. I was extremely nervous for the 20 hour drive to the cabin, but it ended up being one of the highlights of the entire trip. I spent a couple of hours before the trip planning some activities, putting together binders for each kid and looking at pinterest for fun ideas. The best idea I stole from someone was a long ribbon with a marker for each hour of the trip. Max made a little car out of paper and then we moved the car along the ribbon each hour. The kids loved seeing how far we went and I have to admit, Chris and I thought it was pretty cool to move the car each hour too! The first day we drove 10 hours to Estevan, Saskatchewan. The drive was uneventful except for it rained on and off the entire time. We stopped in North Battleford, Saskatchewan for gas, the bathroom, to let Chloe out and dinner. I packed a picnic dinner so we ate on the go. Believe it or not, other than a quick stop on the side of the road for Mya to go to the bathroom, that was our only stop that day. We pulled into Estevan around midnight and less than 5 miles to empty on our gas tank. I was a nervous wreck! The kids were all asleep, but transferred right into the hotel and into bed really quickly and easily. We wished Mya a quick happy birthday as it was after midnight and went to sleep!

Chris packed the car top carrier the night before

Chloe was not going to be left behind! She spent a majority of the day laying in front of the car:)


In between the rain showers, we had some pretty awesome views of the canola fields.

The next day we got up, wished Mya a happy 7th birthday, ate a hotel breakfast and were on the road by 7:30. We drove about an hour and then crossed the border at North Portal. I've never crossed the border by car before so it was a new experience, but pretty uneventful. I spent $88 the day before to get a health check for Chloe before crossing the border and they never even saw we had a dog! I guess it's a good thing in the end. North Dakota is pretty boring...we went through Minot, Jamestown (and others in between..those are the only two I remember) and then into Minnesota. The last couple of hours seemed to take forever. We pulled into the cabin at 5:50 and were all so so happy to be out of the car! That night Linda made Mya her requested birthday dinner (party chicken) and we had a yummy chocolate cake and ice cream! The kids had their suits on within minutes of being there and had some play time on the beach before bed.