CASE V

Hillary and I spent Sunday celebrating her birthday with her family and then running off to Chicago so I could attend the CASE V Conference and Awards.
We were able to meet up with friends Bethany and Micah for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (my favorite!)
I was also on hand to accept an award on behalf of Hope College for a campaign fundraising publication that we put together.
Although it was a terrible drive home with the weather, we had a great couple of days in Chicago.

I found this new site called Wordle, which allows you to place a bunch of words and creates artwork out of them. This is a collection of words used on this blog. Pretty cool!

A Thankful Weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It started with a get-together downtown Holland Wednesday night with friends Kurt and Steph. We ended up seeing a lot of people we know including Karl, Dustin, Mike, and Zach.

Thanksgiving day, we enjoyed a great family get-together with Hillary's extended family at Aunt Jane & Uncle Jim's house. After a full day of food, we saw the movie "Four Christmases" with a group of cousins.

Friday, I woke up at 1:30am and arrived at the Jenison Meijer at 2am and was 11th in line for a 42" Plasma HDTV (pictured). We love our new flat screen! Hillary spent the day shopping black Friday deals with family members.
We drove to Detroit area Friday night and met my dad at the Pistons game, and were pleasantly surprised by the halftime show, Hillary's all time favorite Quick Change! Plus we saw a Pistons victory.

Saturday we got to see my brother Jim and sister-in-law Gerri's furnished house, and spend time with my family the rest of the weekend.

We are thankful for the many blessings in our lives!

Weekend in Chicago

This past weekend we took a trip to Chicago for a little weekend getaway. We stayed in the Courtyard Marriott Downtown, spent most of the day shopping, enjoyed dinner at Weber Grill, and dessert at the Cheesecake Factory.

We spent Sunday visiting friends who live in the Chicago area, Bethany and Micah, and Bain and Laura.

Memphis, TN

On Thursday, October 30th, I left with a few Hope friends for a 10+ hour road trip to Memphis TN to visit our friend Karl and Matt who was in town for a conference. It was great to see everyone again.

Evan Says Go Pistons

Looks like our nephew Evan likes the Pistons chair.

A day in Fennville

Hillary and I enjoyed a great fall Saturday with Kurt and Steph in Fennville Mi. We started out at Cranes Orchard and picked some apples, followed by some cider and donuts. Then we went wine tasting at Fenn Valley winery, and topped it all off with dinner at Su Casa. Good friends, great times!

New Landscaping!

A few weeks ago we worked with Grand Rapids Landscape Management and Shoreline Sprinkling of Zeeland to landscape and irrigate our yard. In the front we have 2 maple trees, 1 evergreen tree, 2 dwarf evergreens, ornamental grass, black eyed susans, spirea, and hosta. We had hydroseed sprayed in the front and back yard and Jason mowed the lawn for the first time last weekend. Here are some pictures.

Jason's wedding present

Hillary truly knows me well. For my wedding present, she completely refurbished an old chair and turned it into a "Detroit Pistons Chair" with materials from my old Pistons clothes and jerseys. It is truly one of a kind. Now I just need the season to start so I can put my sweet chair to use!

Honeymoon in Maui

We were so lucky to have the opportunity to stay at the Kaanapali Alii resort in Maui, Hawaii during our honeymoon. We had a blast!

Our Wedding!

June 21, 2008 was the best day of our lives. We were so blessed to have so many friends and family present for our wedding day. Our wedding was held at Bethany Christian Reformed Church in Holland, MI and our reception was at Raleigh-Woods in Holland as well. We are so blessed to have such great people in our lives to share these memories with.

6414 Bradenwood Drive

On February 18 2008, we put an offer on a house in Hudsonville, MI.

On March 25, 2008, we closed on the house and we became homeowners!

Our engagement photos

A few photos from our engagement photo shoot in Downtown Grand Rapids.

We're Engaged!

On January 26, 2007 we got engaged!

Jason and I were aplanning on going to his house in Brighton for the weekend. I was running a little late, and was freaking out because Jason was right on time. After we packed up the car and were about ready to leave, Jason informed me that he needed to take a picture of a "peaceful place" for one of his classes before Monday. He said he had written his paragraph about Window on the Waterfront (a park in Holland). The park is a place that Jason and I visit frequently in the summer when we rollerblade, bike ride or take walks. He pulled into the parking lot and started getting out. I stayed seated in the car thinking all he had to do was take a quick picture. Jason then informed me that I needed to take a picture of him in the spot as he grabbed his backpack from the backseat, claiming "he needed to check the assignment." As he started to walk to a deck in the middle of the park I began asking if we could just take the picture from the parking lot, with the stuff behind him. He said no and started walking through the snow to the deck. I had on clogs and began complaining about walking through the snow. At one point I said, "Oh I should have grabbed my gloves" Jason asked if I wanted to go back and get them. I replied "No let’s get this over with." Jason was trying to be cute and asked me to hold his hand and I told him no, I was going to walk in his footprints so I didn’t get snowy feet. (As you can tell I wasn't being a good sport about this :) We finally get to the deck and I asked if he came here frequently without me, he said no, and I commented that this was the first place we had ever talked about getting engaged. Jason informed me that he had a confession to make, there was no picture or assignment, but that he had a surprise. He took a blanket out of his bag and set it on the bench. He then took out a book that he had created and had professionally printed and bound full of pictures. He told me to read the book out loud which he had written his own words to "Oh the Places We'll go" based off the Dr. Seuss book. I started reading and by about page five I was crying so hard I could no longer see the words. After he read some of the pages to me, I got to the end which read:

"So there comes a time for everyone,
To take that next big leap.
I have a pretty big question for you,
But I am afraid you might just weep.

As I read that page, Jason got down on one knee, took out the ring, and popped the BIG question. Of course I said yes instantly as he put the ring on my finger. We both have not stopped glowing since :)