Sunday nights...a special family time

One of the privileges of having Grandpa live with us is we have now come to look forward to more visits from my brothers and sisters. Prior to July 2006 when Dad moved from Roundup to Mandan, the only relatives that came to visit were my nephew David and his family (who live in Plentywood) and my sister Janet and her family (who live in Rapid City). Now we are visited by my brothers Randy and his family (who live in Bozeman), Gene and his family (who live in Billings) and my sister Susan and her husband (who live in Pocatello).

But nearly every week, we have the opportunity to visit with them as they call or we call to find out how we're doing and what's new. Last night was just one on those opportunities.

My sister Janet spent the weekend in Parkston, South Dakota, watching her grandson Joshua while his parents sprinted away to Sioux Falls to attend a concert in honor of Valentines Day and their third wedding anniversary. Joshua is the little boy, now nearing his first birthday, who had such a tough time of it for the first six months of his life because he couldn't produce any red blood cells and needed lots of transfusions. However, that all seems to be behind him and the little boy is now learning to walk. What a champ.

Gene had spent the better part of his week at basketball games and his youngest son Colton is one of the players for the Broadview team. They are heading into districts this weekend and have even made plans to head to Miles City in two weeks for the divisionals. Now that's an optimistic Dad. We wish Colton and his team the best.

Talking about sports, Randy and his family spent their weekend in Havre watching his youngest son Patrick play hockey. Randy was joined by his oldest son Gary for the trek from southwestern Montana (Bozeman) to northeastern Montana (Havre). Although Pat's team didn't win, Randy said it was fun watching them play as Pat gives it his all out there on the ice.

Then there's Susan and Rich way out west in Pocatello. We found out that their oldest child (Dylan) is planning on getting married on July 11th. They just had another wedding in Bozeman when their daughter Marissa got married on the last day of January. Their youngest daughter Lindsay was the first to marry. She and her husband Kris are waiting now to hear about an offer they made on a motel in Washington.

Now, we also got a call from Dad's sister Ruth out in Salem, Oregon, Ruth had five children, three sons and two daughters, however, the youngest daughter Amy was killed by a drunk driver on Christmas day probably 20 years ago. Anyway, Ruth told us that three of her grandchildren are expecting babies in 2009. She had two great grandchildren in 2008, as well.

So, all in all, Sunday night was very eventful for the Van Dyke family. It's part of our tradition in keeping up with one another. Sure, we exchange e-mails every once in a while and an occasional card, but the glue that keeps us together are the Sunday night phone calls.