Godwin and Jeni's Wedding

Last Friday Sarah and I left little Lex behind with the 'rents and headed off to East Lansing for my friend Godwin's wedding. I met Godwin when I started at the University of Michigan. We were both new arrivals at Phi Alpha Kappa (the Dutch House), and I think I may have been somewhat influential in convincing him to become a pledge instead of just being a boarder. I quickly came to love Godwin as a dear friend and brother, and his love for life and lack of inhibitions always spurred me on to greater depths of outlandish behavior. His love for Christ coupled with his thorough thoughtfulness inspired me and left me wanting deeper things for my own friendship with God.

It was with intense joy that I reunited with Godwin after my return to the United States from Australia. Sarah and I had the privalege of meeting him and his lovely fiancee Jeni at the flapjack place in East Lansing. Their joy was a joy to behold.

More recently I met with Godwin in Grand Rapids to discuss the mysteries which soon be made known to him. Good times.

I was able to meet Godwin again at the flapjack place for lunch before the wedding along with several of his groomsmen. With barely constrained excitement and just less than embarrassing volume we shared the kind of advice that makes you turn red and feel very warm all over. Oh Godwin! The joy and the sorrow, the pain and the happiness which are yours will be deepened twofold now. It is good.

The wedding was beautiful, the bride and groom stunning, and the guests fascinating. All who wish can view the photographs I captured here. More are coming soon that are not there yet. Here is a small sample of the day:

More Cute Pictures of the Nieces

We miss them a lot.







And last but certainly not least:

The CA Crew Shows Up

Sarah's sister Hannah, her Husband Jeremy and their two girls, Clara and Ruthie came to visit for a week recently. We haven't seen them since last fall, so it was great to be back together again for a few days.

Here's Alex showing off his slick reading skills in front of his cousins:



Actually, he usually does get books right side up, and he loves looking at them and being read to lately. His attention span can cover "Blueberries for Sal" now.

Alex laughs his head off with Grandpa Johnston:



Clara has such a wonderful smile. I'm glad she uses it so often:



Ruthie and Hannah search online for the perfect diaper bag design, or some other such elusive prize:

The 4th of July

Sarah, Alex and I spent the evening of the 4th with some family friends and the Johnstons. After a delicious dinner, a wicked game of badminton and a very tense couple rounds of water balloon tossing we watched the Grandville fireworks.

Revealing

The Mackinac Center found a pretty revealing presentation recently. The presentation about the Reform Michigan Government Now proposal was given to Michigan union officials a couple months ago, and clearly states the strategy behind the proposed changes to our constitution.

Back to the Desert

Tom is back in the Middle East after his two weeks of leave. It was really really really good to see him.

The Big Lake Part Two

Just some more photos. Peruse at your leisure.

Contact

Sometimes a little touch is all it takes.

The Big Lake

It was my first vacation day of the year and off to Lake Michigan for the day on Tuesday. My mother's side of the family has made a tradition of camping for a week or two together every summer somewhere north of Grand Rapids in Michigan. This year the place is Pioneer County Park near Muskegon. The weather was splendiforous, the sun as warm as the family, and the water invigoratingly cold.

It was Alex's first beach experience, and he loved it once the siblings and cousins stopped blocking his sun. He was never quite able to bring himself to get in the water, but I can't blame him. It was shockingly cold. You got used to it about the same time your extremities went numb. I love it.

Saturday

Today Sarah held a fancy schmancy spa party at the house. I was banished with the kid to the parent's-in-laws place. We had a lot more fun than those ladies, what with all their funky goop and smelly lotions!



Alex got to watch our friend Mo put in a new screen door. Fascinating!

Dedication of the Babe

Last Sunday we dedicated ourselves to raising Alex for Christ in a ceremony at church. He liked Andy's shoes.

Stuck

My coworker Joe and I went over to a site near Port Huron for work on Friday. It took the expected three hours to get there, but the return trip to took over four and half hours due to an accident in Detroit on 696 and construction on 96, west of Lansing.

Here we're approaching the accident. The smoke was, I assume, from a burning vehicle.



We were stopped for about 15 minutes.



The police eventually had us all turn around one by one and head back the way we had come so we could get off the highway at the closest off ramp.



This is what 96 West looked like west of Lansing. We did left the highway and did some exploring, and I think we beat the people who stayed in the jam by at least 20 minutes.

Family Time

Ah summer. Time to get together.

My brother Tom is home from Kuwait/Iraq for a couple weeks right now, and my uncle and aunt came to visit from Colorado. I love the rush of giddy conversation and exciting stories combined with pleasantly awkward silences that always result from such reunions. I'm looking forward to the big one.





Thomas has cultivated the growth of his mustache carefully for the past several months. It shows.



Run John, run.



Steve has carefully been cultivating his musical taste for the past couple years. It shows.



Suz, beautiful as per the usual. We like the stripes. Bold move.



My brother-in-law Aaron came from Chicago to grace us with his presence for a week. It was good to see him.



Alex sees fit to grace us with his presence pretty much every waking moment of his life. It's quite a privalege, I must say. Here he models his fancy seatbelt pads, custom manufactured by his grandmother using towels and duct tape to ease the discomfort on His Excellency's shoulders.