Aric and Missy's Wedding

The promised Vanderzee Wedding post…

As we said in the previous post, C.J. was an usher in our good friend Aric Vanderzee's wedding last Friday. The Vanderzee’s (Aric’s family) have been long time friends (essentially family—the kids call each other cousins) with Keri's family, so it was really special to be there and a part of everything for Keri too.

The rehearsal for Aric and Missy’s wedding was last Wednesday night with the dinner afterwards. Aric and Missy didn’t have a wedding planner which was a welcome change. Maybe it’s just our experiences, but all the wrong people seem to be wedding planners sometimes. A few of C.J.'s friends from high school were also involved in the wedding, so it was great to see them all again. C.J. also re-met Nathan Kooi, a friend that he went to elementary school with back in Lynden, WA. Nathan happens to be a friend of Aric’s from college, and his wife was in the wedding, so it was fun to see him at the rehearsal too.

Practicing the ring exchange

The California boys

Thursday was the bachelor party for Aric. All the guys met in the morning at Aric's condo and headed out for a canoe trip. We canoed for a few hours on the Grand River. It was a lot of fun—few remained dry—lucky for Bryan and Tyler they had cell phone on board. We grabbed lunch on the way back to Aric's condo, relaxed for a few hours, and played some PS3. Later in the afternoon, we went to some baseball fields and played homerun derby. C.J. surprised all (most of the guys actually played baseball) with an impressive 2nd place to Aric's wonder-athlete brother Tyler. The evening consisted of Papa John's, poker, and more PS3 (how's that alliteration, Werk?). All the guys stayed over at Aric's that night, but we allowed him a decent night of sleep before the big day.

Gotta keep those eyes open, Aric

The big winner

One last night with the guys

C.J. spent Friday morning and afternoon getting ready with all the guys for the wedding. C.J. and Donny (the other usher) got the wedding started on time (our main job per the mother of the bride) and took care of a lot of other last minute jobs like rolling out the runner during the ceremony. If anyone’s done that before you know how big of a pain those things can be, but we prevailed. The ceremony and reception were a great time—California Love, baby!

All the guys before the wedding

Decorating the car

The new couple

The whole wedding party before the reception

Us with Keri's siblings

We like to dance

It was tough for C.J. to say goodbye to all his friends, but he really enjoyed hanging out with them so much while they were in town. We loved seeing all of the Vanderzees again, and we're so happy for you, Missy and Aric! Welcome to the married ranks, and we're looking forward to Office Thursdays!

Back on the blog...

It's been a busy two weeks since our last post, but we're back on the blog. We’ll apologize ahead of time for the length of this entry—we really need to start writing more often so we don’t have to write so much each time. I guess some people like details though…

Keri’s been busy with fieldwork and plans to update on her work at Mary Free Bed soon. C.J. has been working about 15 hours a week for McGinnis & Associates and taking care of a lot of stuff around the apartment. He's really enjoying having time to do other things like exercise and practice percussion (he misses playing with real people, though!). He also was able to be at Keri's parent's new house in Spring Lake for a whole day and help out with moving them in and working on their yard.

We went back up to the cottage for another weekend there on the 20th. We had the cottage to ourselves that night, and it was nice to have a bit of time alone after a busy week. Keri's siblings and their families flew in for a week of vacation at the cottage and an upcoming wedding. They all came up to the cottage the next day to join us. The last time we were all at the cottage was two summers ago, so it was great to be there together again. Plus, we got to see our nephew (Nate) again! We saw Nate in April, but he has changed so much in the past few months. He loves to play and is talking so much now. He is such a joy, and it’s a blessing every time we get to see him!

Nate enjoying his trip down the dune

Playing bocce with the guys

Another beautiful sunset at the cottage


Nate singing "The B-I-B-L-E" song

Cottage time included time on the beach, pure relaxation, reading, games, badminton, bocce, and other "cottage traditions" like picking blueberries. On Sunday morning, we were all introduced to the church where Keri's dad has been the preacher since Decemberr (Covenant Life CRC in Grand Haven). We had been there once before, but this was the first time for Keri's siblings. We are overwhelmed by God's provision of a new, caring church body for Keri's parents. They are thriving and it was so good to meet some of the people that are making them feel at home! After another afternoon and evening back at the cottage, we left the family at the cottage and headed back to Grand Rapids.

At church with the family

After a few days of normalcy, we entered into wedding craziness. C.J. was an usher in his friend Aric Vanderzee's wedding on the 27th, so we were able to participate in all of the activities for that. There is a lot to tell about all of the wedding events, so we’ll include that in another blog entry. A highlight of the week for Keri was a yacht ride with her parents and siblings while C.J. was busy with wedding stuff. After seeing all of us at church, a member of Keri’s dad’s congregation offered the ride to us. Also during the week, Kelly and Ryan, Keri’s sister and brother-in-law, heard that they are going to be able to go to England for a post-doc for Kelly. They’ve been waiting for a long time for grants to come through, but they’ll be leaving in January. We’re definitely going to be making a trip to see them!

Jon, Haley, and Nate on the yacht

After the wedding on Friday, the whole family headed back to Keri’s parent’s for the night. We all said goodbye to Kelly and Ryan, who had to leave in the morning and went to the cottage for the rest of the weekend. It was sad to have to say goodbye, but we’re excited for them to be able to go back to San Francisco and make preparations to leave for England. Their future has been unsure for a while now, and we thank God for revealing his will for them.

We finally had a good swimming day at the cottage (water warmer than 65 = good swimming day), so we really enjoyed the water. The remaining Vanderzee kids were also able to come to the cottage and play a very competitive (we tied—as is customary) game of beach football highlighted by a last-second, Boise State-like play!

Jon with Bryan Vanderzee and his son Jake

We headed back to Keri’s parents house in the evening and went to Covenant Life again in the morning. Jon, Haley and Nate left for Seattle that afternoon, but we went back to the cottage for the rest of the day. It was very quiet at the cottage with all of the siblings gone, but it was a good way to end such another busy week. We’re so thankful for all the time that we got to spend with Keri’s family. We’re also incredibly blessed to have families that love each other and really enjoy each other. We’re not sure when we’re going to get to see all of them again with all of our travels out of the country, but we know that time spent together is something that we all love and value.

More to come on the wedding soon…

Back to STL

We went back to St. Louis this past weekend. We had some forgotten things to pick up, but we also got to see Katie and Eliot Mohr back in the USA for the first time.

We stayed with Jerad and Kelly (and Ian, too) Gilbert (we really are going to have to start paying you guys rent) on Friday night and hung out with them for most of the morning on Saturday. In the morning we went through our pile of belongings in their basement to retrieve our forgotten bedding and to look for the mysteriously missing bike rack. Since we know the rack's not in Grand Rapids or with the other people who helped us move, we figured it had to be in the pile. We went through the entire pile but couldn't find it--so frustrating. Luckily some friends of ours (thanks Torgerson's) had a bike rack that we could borrow.

After breakfast with the Gilberts at Bevo Mill, we headed back to our old apartment building where we hoped to find C.J.'s bike still locked to a basement column. We buzzed one of our old neighbors to let us in the basement and found C.J.'s bike just as he had left it. C.J. is very happy to have it back.

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Mohr residence. It was so good to see Katie and Eliot home with Russ and for C.J. to meet Eliot for the first time. We also got to see some of Eliot's "tricks". The "Freak Out" is definitely the most entertaining! (Check out the video below)

After a quick dinner with the Torgersons at our traditional place, Qdoba, we headed over to 212 for porch night. It was so great to be back at the Seibel's and see some friends from our small group again--we love you guys! Satuday night we stayed with the Werkheiser's and went back to our church in the morning. It was amazing to worship with good friends again--just the way it's supposed to be!

Church led to lunch with Beth Werkheiser and the Mohr family. Almost 2 hours later (good times, but a VERY slow waitress) we headed back to Grand Rapids.

It was great to see most of our St. Louis "family" again, but it was tougher in some ways to leave this time. We knew we'd be back fairly soon when we left in June, but now we had to say goodbye until January. There are some exciting things that are happening in St. Louis right now, and we are really sad to be missing out. Don't talk about us like we're dead!!!

It's a boy!

C.J.'s former roommate, Kirk, and his wife, Amy, had a baby boy on Tuesday night, July 10. We went to their house last night and got to meet their new son, Caleb Lewis Starnes. Kirk and Amy got married on the same day as we did, and they are the first close friends of ours to have a baby. It was really exciting (and a bit strange) to see such good friends with their son. He is a really cute baby, and we're not just saying it!

More detailed review

In case anyone's interested, we thought we'd add a bit more detail about the places we've been so far this summer. After packing up and storing all our earthly possessions in St. Louis (thanks Joe and Kim) we headed to California for a much needed vacation. The main reason we went to California (if you really need a reason to vacation in SoCal) was to see C.J.'s brother (Kevin) graduate. It makes us feel pretty old though! Kevin and two friends had their graduation party together. (The picture above is the graduates with their sisters.) Other than graduation, we didn't have much that we had to do--it was a welcome change. We had tons of time to relax, bask in the sunshine, watch soccer, and really just do what we felt like doing.

We flew back to St. Louis on a Saturday. The next day we packed up our cars and made the 7-8 hour trek to our new home for the summer, Grand Rapids, MI. We ended up making it to Grand Rapids safely but...there were a few glitches. We hit some really hard rain and figured out C.J. hadn't ever taken his bike out of the basement of the apartment we moved out of. C.J. was about to head back for the bike but realized that he had no idea where the bike rack was packed. We haven't completely figured out that mystery yet, but we are headed back St. Louis this weekend and expect to resolve it. Though we made it to Grand Rapids safely, it was not uneventful!

Keri started her fieldwork at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital on Wednesday of that week, and it was a lot to take in and adapt to. We did get to go to one of our favorite places on earth that weekend though--the cottage! Keri's grandpa built the cottage on Lake Michigan beach front property before he died, and it has been an amazing place of peace and renewal ever since. Keri's parents live in Michigan now, so we got to spend time with them there as well as some of Keri's other relatives. The cottage has four bedrooms, but with all of the people that were there that weekend, Keri and I ended up sleeping in our tent. C.J. cleared a nice spot for us between the cottage and the top of the dune. It was great waking up with the sunshine and to the sounds of waves on the Lake.

Wednesday, the Fourth of July, we flew back to LA for C.J.'s sister's (Angela) wedding that weekend. C.J.'s family, along with his Grandpa Boersma and Aunt Dot, greeted us at LAX. We then proceeded directly to the In-N-Out right by the airport. It was only 10:30 in the morning, but Keri and I were ready for lunch, so we grabbed a couple #2's and headed outside to watch planes land (If you ever fly into LAX, this is a GREAT first stop).

The next few days preceding the wedding were FILLED with activity. We often commented about how much we were glad to not be the ones getting married this time. It was awesome to see friends and relatives and actually have time to spend with this time! C.J. was even able to go to surfing with some cousins (thanks Maryanne) at San Onofre on Friday before rehearsal. The wedding was Saturday, and it ended up being beautiful (the first picture to the right is Angela and Cody with C.J.'s parents and grandparents). The ceremony was highlighted (ok, maybe not) by a duet by the two of us--yes, C.J. can sing too. The reception was in the very large back yard of some friends of our family. It was decorated amazingly and was a lot of fun. Sunday, after getting all of Angela and Cody's (her new husband) friends to the correct airport, we, along with C.J.'s relatives that were still in town, went to Huntington Beach to do some unwinding (the second picture to the right is Rayana (sp?)--the daughter of C.J.'s cousins Randy and Julie). It ended up being a beautiful day, and some impressive body-surfing was witnessed.

We left LAX on a red eye to Detroit that night. We were able to sleep quite a bit on that flight, but then had a 3-4 hour layover in Detroit before our flight to Grand Rapids. When we got to Detroit, we thought we could try to fly standby on an earlier flight to Grand Rapids. Not only did we find out that Northwest Airlines (don't get us started on them) now charges you to go on standby, but also, our flight ended up leaving Detroit an hour and a half late. If we would have left Detroit in a car when we arrived there, we would have beaten our flight back to Grand Rapids. Needless to say, we were quite tired when we finally made it back to our apartment on Monday.

Keri went back to Mary Free Bed on Tuesday, and C.J.'s continues to work part time for McGinnis & Associates (his company in St. Louis). It's already been an amazing summer, and we praise God for keeping us safe through all of our travels and providing the means to be able to travel as we have. We now enter into a more stable and subdued part of this time of fieldwork for Keri, but we do so with a bit of relief. We look forward to seeing our friends in St. Louis again this weekend, but also look forward to getting into a bit of a routine in Grand Rapids. Thanks for logging onto this edition of our blog--sorry it ended up being a bit (or a lot) long!

Welcome to our blog!

Well, here it is--our blog so you all can keep track of where in the world (literally) we are. It's July 10, but already this summer we've packed up in St. Louis and flown to California for C.J.'s brother's graduation and a longer vacation there, flown back to St. Louis and packed up our cars to move to Grand Rapids, MI, managed a weekend trip to Keri's family's cottage on Lake Michigan while living in Grand Rapids for just over a week, flown back to California for C.J.'s sister's wedding, and now flown back to Grand Rapids yesterday. We'll be in Grand Rapids (with some side trips to St. Louis and the cottage) until mid-September now, so we can at least catch our breaths a bit. We've added a few pictures below of where we've been:

C.J.'s family at his brother's graduation

Moon through the palm trees outside C.J.'s parents' house

Sunset at the cottage on Lake Michigan

Us at C.J.'s sister's wedding