Grand Rapids, Spring 2013

 

The last weekend of April, Ryan, Lilly, and I went up to Grand Rapids for a long weekend. It was the first time we had been to GR since Lilly was born (so it must have been at least 2 years since we were last up there.) The main reason we went was so I could present at two conferences being held at Calvin College, but we managed to fit in a lot of visits with other friends and family, including:

• My cousin Miki and her family, including Zach and Nicole who are graduating from high school this year.
• A gathering of Van Bruggens and Hoekemas (Uncle Jay, Aunt Arlene, Sarah, Uncle Dean, Aunt Carol, and Dot Graham and Dave and Susan Hoekema). We celebrated Uncle Jay's 83rd birthday.
• The Oldenburgers. Lilly had a blast running around with the older kids at Katie's grandpa's farm. It was neat that they happened to be in town from Chicago the weekend we were there.
• Jeff and Kristy Doornbos. Maddy went swimming with Lilly at the pool at the hotel we were staying in, while I was at a social gathering for the conference, then we all had a nice dinner at On the Border.
• Barb Bodenner. We had a nice breakfast at IHOP with her on Sunday morning.

 

 

Lilly with me and Barb at IHOP.

Presenting at the Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference

Unfortunately, on the way back, Lilly got a nasty virus and puked three times all over herself, starting when we were outside Effingham, about an hour and a half from home. She was vomiting until 1 a.m. Ryan ended up sleeping with her on the floor of our bedroom half the night. Two days later the rest of our house got hit with the nasty virus. I'm just glad the virus didn't hit while we were all up there, or we wouldn't have had such a great time with all our friends and family!