presidents day off

when we got up on presidents day we invited jill and the kids over to hang out with us for a while. at one point jill needed to take their car in to the shop, so we made the best of it and enjoyed our time together. bub brought his walkie talkies with him, so he and i spent the afternoon playing with them and messing around. diana went with the girls upstairs to play in the toy room. bub wanted to do a little james bond style spying, so he and i would take turns going up to spy on the girls and report back over the walkie talkies what they were up to. it was a grand plan, but unfortunately the walkie talkies make a loud 'beep' every time you start or finish a message, so the girls were on to us pretty early!
(more pics)

livin the life

after dinner everyone headed over to mom and papa's place for a nice relaxing afternoon together. the girls suggested that we play a board game and even brought the game life with them- now thats planning ahead! almost everyone got involved, there so many players that we almost ran out of pieces! jill says that this is the girl's new obsession, they just love to play life! we had a fun time going around the board. i was impressed that the girls are now old enough for a game like this to hold their attention for over an hour- they sure are growing up fast! by the end of the game we realized why they like it so much: tweets and aves both did really well! tim swooped in there and won the game, but tweets was a close second!
(more pics, and some pics of tweets new musical endeavour)

beltline

over the weekend we went out to eat with mom, papa, tim, jill, and the kids at beltline bar. we were really excited to see the kids and they were pumped when they spotted us in the parking lot- running all the way over to join us at the front door! its always funny when we get to sit down to eat with them, they are so worried about the seating arrangement! bub always wants to make sure he can sit by me and papa (sorry tim, you often get the shaft on that one...), and the girls have to fight over who gets to sit next to diana! looks like tweets won the fight this time, but i'm sure aves will be trying again next time! the food was really good, as always, and we had such a good time there!
(more pics)

after party

after the fun time at the ottowa tavern in downtown grand rapids, all of us headed over to jill's place to hang out. jill was worried that we wouldnt be able to find anything to do there, but little did she know that we never need anything to do- we are more than capable of entertaining ourselves! we did just that with tons of strange and silly conversations. aaron and rex stopped by to see a couple of their friends at another bar, but came to join us soon after. we were still just hanging out and catching up. the best part of the whole night was that everyone was in such a great mood! often times there can be one or two people who are having a bad day or decide to be sarcastic and annoying, but that night everyone was up for some fun. as we were talking we realized that this was only the third or fourth time that we had gotten to hang out with jeffry lee and jill together, and only the second time we got to see allison and brains together too! diana had a great time with those two girls and is convinced she has found a couple new best friends. ah, my plan is working perfectly: get the wife to actually like to hang out with my friends!
(more pics)

out

i had presidents day off of work, so diana and i decided to head up to grand rapids for the weekend. on of the things we knew we should do was hang out with the guys. ive seen them from time to time when we go home, but diana hadnt seen most of them since the summer! well, we wanted to change that up right quick. diana and i picked up rex on the way downtown where we met up with everyone at ottawa tavern. i had never been there, but its a pretty cool bar downtown. when we got there we hung out with keith, brains and his wife allison, and aaron. jeffry lee and jill showed up about a half hour later. we had a great time having a little food and a little spirits. it was so much fun to see everyone together again! diana really hit it off with jill and allison too! a great time was had by all. as the night was wearing on, jill asked if we wanted to continue the party at her house. well, of course!
(more pics)

mom and papa meet up

it had been so long since we were back in grand rapids to see the family that mom was getting anxious! she called me up on saturday afternoon and was wondering if diana and i would like to meet up with them that night for dinner. as a matter of fact, we would! we each drove an hour to meet up in the middle, which happens to be benton harbor. we met them at the steak house and had a great time spending a couple hours with them! i think mom forgot that we were going to be coming up there the next weekend, but it didnt matter, we had a blast just hanging out and chatting. dont worry, it wont be so long between our next visit- only about 7 days!

soda flashback

the other day i was at menards getting some supplies. i know its half way through the winter, but i finally got around to weather proofing the windows in our bedroom. after i got the stuff i needed, i walked to the checkout counter. as i was waiting in line i noticed the soda cooler at the end of the lane. the specialty soda looked familiar so i stepped over to see what it was and it turns out that it is sprecher brand soda! that was actually the brewery that diana and i went to check out in milwaukee with miranda and levi! i was quite surprised that such a small brewery had some of their soda all the way down here in indiana! we really loved their different sodas when we took a tour of the brewery, so its good to know that we can pick up some more any time we want!
(here's my post about when we went to the brewery)

on display

diana wanted me to make something to display her necklaces. i was a bit skeptical because she has dozens of necklaces but never wears them! she said the reason was because they were all tucked away in a drawer of her jewelry box and since she didnt see them she would always forget to wear them. all right, i guess that makes sense. well, i gave it some thought, and a visit to the hardware store, and this is what i came up with! its just a simple piece of wood with two rows of hooks on it. she was really pleased about it and we hung it up in the bedroom right next to her closet. it didnt take much work, and now she wears a different necklace all the time! this makes me happy because it makes her happy, and when she is happy, everyone is happy! (thats a little marriage lesson i learned right away!)

blizzard '011

we had been hearing about it on the news for a couple days. they kept saying how we were going to have a blizzard, but the weather people on the news almost always seem to be wrong. well, this time they werent! tuesday around noon the bad weather started and we got an email from the principle that we were going to be getting out of school early to get all the kids home safe before the worst of it came. strange, huh? well, that afternoon they also cancelled school for wednesday so diana and i got to enjoy a wonderful snow day off together! the weatherman was right for once because we ended up getting a few feet of snow and 50 mile an hour winds! that means that there's some awesome snow drifts out there! wednesday morning we woke up, late of course, and peeked out the windows. well, we had to peek out the top of the windows because the snow drifts actually covered the bottom half of the windows! i trekked out there to see it for myself and it was amazing! in some places the drifts were as high as my shoulders! since neither of us had anywhere to go, we didnt even bother shoveling it! early wednesday morning i already had a message on my phone that school would be cancelled for thursday as well! awesome! two snow days in a row is unheard of around here, so i knew we were going to have a great time doing nothing! diana and i sat back and relaxed on this unexpected two days off and watched movies and played tons of yahtzee!
(more pics)