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!