Travlin' to AZ!

Yesterday something happened that just melted my heart. As I got ready to leave the house I waved bye to Heather and Elise. And for the first time, Elise waved back. I thought for sure it was a fluke so I waved again. And she waved again. I did it a third time. It was no fluke! Something so simple, and Heather and I were both just thrilled by it! Tomorrow Elise gets to go meet her Arizona relatives. We are traveling out there for my good friend Eric's wedding. Elise is going to meet her great grandma and grandpa out there, and her auntie Kelly who is just dying to meet Elise (and who is expecting Elise's little cousin Isla any day now!) On that note I am thrilled to see my beloved twin sister pregnant. And pretty soon I will have my first niece! Elise is also stoked to get to spend more time with Grandma Robin and Grandpa Buddy out there. We are really excited to see what her reaction will be to all the animals....especially the chiuhauas. No doubt there will be a video posting or two on here of Elise's response. Here are some recent photos.

What a view!!

Last night Heather and I sat on the porch and watched as the setting sun made the clouds in sky a fiery orange. I said "we really should watch one of those from the air sometime." Heather said "Yeah, we should." I looked on the schedule, the airplane was available the next night, so we got a baby sitter for Elise and went on a flight to remember. We took off 20 minutes before sunset and headed straight for lake Michigan to watch. We patrolled up and down the shoreline at 4,000 feet as the sun set over the lake putting on a show that words (or these pictures) can't describe. As the sky glow began to fade, we turned the airplane back towards Grand Rapids and watched as the city lights began to emerge brighter and brighter as the twilight faded. We went past downtown and made a landing at Grand Rapids International Airport (AKA Gerald R Ford Intnl). On the way back to my home airport of Sparta we got a great view of the city lights, and a special surprise. The local minor league baseball team just happened to be having fireworks after their game (the stadium is right on the way back to Sparta airport from Grand Rapids) so we had accidentally timed it just right to watch the fireworks show as we flew back to Sparta. What a beautiful evening, completely calm and not a bump in the sky. And a special vantage point to get to enjoy all that beauty tonight. Here's a few pics we took.....


...since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:20

New Pictures

We added some new pictures to the slideshow below......

Very Funny

I really got a kick out of this. A guy who got his guitar broken by the baggage handlers of United Airlines made a music about the ordeal and put it on youtube to get back at them. And it is very funny. I especially appreciate it because I got my guitar smashed by the airlines once. A few Christmases ago when Heather and I visited Arizona I got a guitar for Christmas....it was a really nice one that my mom won in a raffle. I was super excited. Well Southwest airlines smashed it on the way home. And it was in a really nice hard case. It came down the conveyor belt in the airport with a hole right there in the hard case. Amazing. The difference between this guy's experience and mine....it was actually a very good process Southwest Airlines had for dealing with these things. After filing a claim, I dealt with one person until they issued me a check for the guitar....that's right, they paid for it! Amazing. Anyways here's the video. Enjoy!

Real Simple magazine subscription for $5

I have to put this link on here. For any of you who like the magazine "Real Simple"-you can get a subscription for $5. I found it on a friend's blog: http://www.bargainshoppingparadise.com/

We received a special visit from some family on the Fourth of July weekend. We had a lot of fun. We went to this little place called Reeds Lake and walked around. And we couldn't really attend a fireworks show with Elise around this year, but fortunately we could see a local show from our porch!! Elise was sporting a little patriotic outfit and was lookin' cute. And Ellen and Dave just celebrated their anniversary (hence the cake!).