I really like this picture.


Heather and I like to explore new places. Last Sunday we loaded up in the car and checked out a little town called Rockford nearby. We were pleasantly surprised and wondered why it's taken us so long to find this little place. The highlight was a wooden walkway that goes along the river. We were "packin' elise" and she seemed to like that. We stopped by a popular little hotdog joint which was fun too. The tricky part was eating hotdogs while packin' Elise. I had to be really careful this time!!

I have a whole new appreciation of mothers day now. Having been side by side with Heather watching her mother our little girl, I can appreciate how much work goes into it. And I am amazed at how God has created mothers to be so in-tune with the needs of our little babies. A good examle came the other day when we took Elise out in the jogging stroller. We needed to keep her out of the sun, because young babies aren't supposed to have any sun exposure (I might have figured that out eventually) but they also aren't supposed to wear any sunblock yet (I never in a thousand years would've known that!!) That's just one of a thousand examples of how God has gifted Heather to care for our little girl! She does such a good job, and she pours her heart and soul into Elise. Being a new parent has caused me to stop and think more about other mothers. As i talked to my mom today, I wondered how in the world did she fasten twins (my sister and I) into carseats in the back and transfer us to the huge stroller every time she wanted to go somewhere all while keeping us pacified! Motherhood is hard work! God bless you mothers!!

We celebrated mothers day by going to Meijer gardens (that's mey-ee-jur to you Madison) which is a huge and popular garden and sculpture park here in Grand Rapids. The big flower-of-choice here in western michigan is the tulip, mainly because there is a large dutch population here and dutch people like tulips! (They even have a tulip festival here every year...complete with wooden-shoe wearing dutch dancers). The city of Holland Michigan (where the tulip festival is) is so serious about the tulips, that we found out they hire something like ten people to work year-round on planting the tulip bulbs. And to think, they bloom for a couple weeks, and then they're gone! So much work for those beautiful flowers and they're gone just like that! So Meijer gardens was replete with tulips today, and we took advantage of our short early-may window to see them! I was amazed at all the beautiful colors and varieties. The flowers reminded me of a verse, which I will post after the slideshow:

"Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow:  they do not labor or spin thread.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, won't he do much more for you--you of little faith?"  Matthew 6:27-30

Sunshine, Dresses, Jogging Strollers

Here's a recent batch of photos. The last few are of Elise's first trip in the jogging stroller. I think that the jogging stroller could be one of the best inventions ever. We found a good one on craigslist a couple weeks ago and now we're putting 'er to some good use. (a wink for my dad). Heather rode along on her bicycle while I pushed Elise and we went a good couple miles. Elise seemed to do pretty well. Because it is still slightly cool, or you could say not warm yet, we had her plenty covered with clothes and blankets. And rumor has it babies of her age aren't supposed to get any sun exposure yet (or wear sunblock) so we put some pretty stylish glasses and a cool hat on her. And she played the part very well. She acted like Joe Cool during the whole jog. She didn't act like her usual giggling giddy self. She fell asleep after a little bit of jogging (how she manages that, I know not) and then she woke up near the end with a slightly perturbed look on her face (masked by the pacifier in the picture).

What a Thrill!

Need some motivation in life?




If the setting sun shining off that awesome thunder-storm doesn't do it, maybe Dave will.




Dave is 63 years old, and he flew an airplane by himself for the first time today.






That's right, he "soloed" for the first time today. Dave is the first flight student I have ever trained for their first solo. We began the day with a few trips around the traffic pattern which helped confirm my suspicion that I was ready to let him go for it. So I asked him to head back to the hangar and drop me off. He got a grin a mile wide. And the only person as excited and jittery as him around was myself! Of course I didn't let Dave catch wind of how my heart was pounding in my chest with nervous excitement. No it wasn't because I had any doubts that Dave could do it. I was just hit with the gravity of the whole thing! I could honestly say I was more nervous than I was for my own first solo years ago. My friends who are flight instructors have told me about similar feelings the first time or two they had a person solo. I remember one of them saying he was so nervous he almost got sick. Well fortunately I didn't. And as Dave taxied back to the end of the runway and took to the sky, my nerves turned into a calm excitement as I watched his three landings and congratulated him on the radio after each one. And when he was done, he was floating on cloud nine! He espoused the "kid in a candy store" kind of excitement.