Da' Yoopers Come Visit the Trolls

For those of us living under the Mackinac bridge (the Trolls), we enjoyed a visit from our Yooper relatives the end of June. The Yoopers are all relatives on my Mom's side of the family, and they consist of my Grandma and Grandpa Patterson, and my Uncle Mike, Aunt Karen, and cousin Blake. Ben, Kelly, and Owen were up from Kentucky for a week as well, and so the week was a full one for the Glupker's of Saginaw, MI. I threw in a little commentary along with the pictures....just to jazz things up a little. I love my family and am grateful that we can come together and get along really well; it's a gift that I've been given, that I'm allowed to belong to, and for that Intangible in my life, I am truly thankful.

Drew giving my Grandma and Mom a hug... yep, he's still quite the ladies' man, and he's pretty darn good at it.

Lt:Drew and Amanda Rt: Ben and Kelly
Gpa Patterson treated us all to dinner at Fire Mountain one night and besides the boys stuffing themselves to no end, we had a good time around the table.

The profile of a fierce Scotsman (aka Robert Patterson: WWII vet, Michigan Tech Librarian for 2 1/2 decades). My grandfather is almost 83 yrs. old, but he is still very active and very fit for his age. His mind is also very sharp; he's an avid reader, is engaged in current political events, still leads the Sparkies games for AWANA at his church, and is an all around joy to be around. Nobody laughs like my Grandpa does, and generally it is an infectious laugh... gets me every time, doggone it!

My brother, Ben, and Gma and Gpa Patterson during our walk through Frankenmuth. Doesn't Gramps' fishing hat take the cake?? He's always entering into the realm of "outlandish" with his fashion statements.






My cousin Blake is 9 yrs old and is the only cousin that I have on my Mom's side of our family.
He is a precocious but funny little guy, very smart for his age. When I visited him a year and a half ago, his big enjoyment at the time was reading the different states on car license plates whenever he was riding in the van with his parents. He's since moved on to bigger and better things, but he's a good kid and he has a tender heart for animals (much to my Grandmother's satisfaction). Here he is playing toys with Owen (baby O).







Yes, here is Ben telling people what, when, why, and how to do things, which is always the case when it comes to a game (doesn't the Oldest always make and enforce the rules to every game?). We enjoyed playing a few rounds of the card game GOLF; here we have Ben teaching my Uncle Mike, Aunt Karen, and Blake how to play the game. The following picture is the incriminating evidence as to who the true Champion of that game was ( and who it was not...BEN!). ... I couldn't resist.