Flash Back Friday 150

John & his brother Dave, Three Rivers, California, mid 1970's

Flash Back Friday 147

John & Maria, October 1992

Happy New Year!!! 2010!

Edward starts the year off right by getting a 2nd place medal in the Resolution Run (actually took place on Dec. 31)

John & I had a fairly quiet New Year's Eve because the kids were all with friends. We went downtown for awhile to check out the scene and John took my picture with his Blackberry in front of the GR version of the ball up high on a crane. I was very bundled up for the cold and had a silly hat on if you can't tell. There were zillions of people down there (someone thought 30,000 throughout the night, but I don't know about that). We went home to watch a movie and ring in the New Year by the fire.

Merry Christmas to All

Grilling Greatness

This past Thursday evening while the Queen Mother & Dad were in town, we went over to our church fundraiser at BD Mongolian Grill. John and Cathy spent some time as "Guest Grillers" stir-frying up the suppers of the guests. MCC was able to keep all of the money in the tip jar as well as $1 for each reservation. We had such a fun time with everyone there!

Birthday Week Kick-off

There's something special about the week starting with November 1. The ugly holiday is over, Thanksgiving is coming, All Saint's day. Yesterday, it was so great to see our friends at church, and then we met Edward at Wolfgang's in Eastown for a pre-birthday brunch. And later, our friends Cathy & Ben came over for a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit.

The waitress was kind enough to take our pre-birthday brunch photo


The kids enjoyed big sweet plates of Belgian waffles and French toast


I was trying to capture some of the left-over glitter from Edward's "Edward Cullen vampire costume" but you can't see it


I had Spinach Eggs Benedict


What fun kids! I love how they know how to do this part.

A Ghost Post

The sad thing about all those beautiful fall leaves is they need to be raked up. Well, just in time for Halloween, a very friendly hard working ghost came:



But so that we did not get too spooked, a fun one came too!

Marathon Man X 4

I'm happy to say that John succeeded in running his 4th marathon on Sunday, that's 26.2 miles. He has been training steadily for months and he ran it in 3:49 - not his best time, but still a good show. The girls and I stopped at a point half way through it on our way to church to cheer him on and get these photos and he met us later at the church potluck. Edward was a race marshal at the 4 Mile mark.

Stepping Into a Different River

Heraclitus said "You can't step into the same river twice." One thing I love about photographing them is the way they always change - the light, the flow, the reflections - according to the angle, shutter speed, aperture, time of day, etc. so they are an endless photographic study. We're done going there for awhile though, but I'm already imagining the possibilities when the colors change.

A River Runs Through It

After we moved Edward back to Calvin, we commenced a restful Labor Day weekend. Sunday afternoon, John & I went up north to the Rogue River where he could fly fish and I could take pictures for a couple of hours.

Flash Back Friday 131

John & his little brother Dave, 1970's, before their hair knew the razor

Happy Birthday to John ♫♪♫♪

A little late here... we are now finished with the celebration! We had fun with John's favorite food, angel food cake, candles, singing, and presents. Oh, and long exposures on the tripod with the cable release which caused great laughter for some reason. Oh yeah, they were laughing at my un-wireless technology!

Chi-town!

Maybe you thought we disappeared in Chicago. Well, never fear, we returned safe and sound after staying a night in the big city where just walking around is an event. We had some great pizza at Bella Bucinos and went to see Second City. In the morning, we had breakfast on the sidewalk at the Corner Bakery where I had an awesome cup of coffee and a very chocolate muffin. This was the view from my seat:

Flash Back Friday 129

Jonh & the blogger, 1988, at a Cub's game in Chicago

Today, John & I are headed to Chicago for a night downtown like we used to do before we had kids.

Flash Back Friday 127

John & Julia, 1988

I'm flashing back here to one of my faves - it came to me in a stack of old pix that belonged to Oma. Anyway, I also had the honor again this past week of photographing another wedding. So, so amazing! I hope to post it soon.

Flash Back Friday 125

June 11, 1988

Weddings on my mind today - tomorrow I'm shooting one! Pray for me :)

Love Thursday

John & I are celebrating our 21st anniversary today!!!

Last night I said, "Who knows what tomorrow is??" Bridget said in a monotone, "Your anniversary".

So I said it at a higher pitch to be heard over the baseball game and John said, "Is it the day we got Leo?"

He's still the funniest guy I know.

Like Father, Like Son

We've been in the process of recovering from a very bad computer virus and I had over 250 photos backed up on my camera and maybe just a few stories to tell leftover in my brain. This past Saturday morning, John ran in his 5th consecutive 25K River Bank Run which goes roughly along the Grand River in ole Grand Rapids. The big excitement this year was that Edward ran in it for the first time and he finished in 1 hour, 42 minutes for the 3rd place medal in his division.   Rain poured down for the first half of the race.

Edward crossing the finish line.

John had an offical time of 2:21.  It's funny to compare to the first post I did on the run 4 years ago when I was still a baby blogger.

John is a BLUR as he crosses the finish line.

Flash Back Friday 114

Maria & John, Panama City, 1999

Relaxing

We came back Saturday morning after a very relaxing week in Panama City. With 2 teenage girls, there were no bodies buried in the sand up to the neck, no sand castles, no buckets or shovels. But what we did have was a lot of sunbathing and modeling. Maria loved the new camera and it was more difficult than usual for me to squeeze in shots of the girls (I did manage a few). We were happy to be back for Easter breakfast at church and later, a supper with John's family in town.