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Happy New Year from Key West. Pictures coming soon. Hope everybody is having a good holiday.

I posted new pictures in the gallery:
Tailgating - We tailgated at the MSU vs. Notre Dame game. John came from North Carolina for the game. We hadn't seen him in years, and it was good to catch up. It was incredibly hot that day, and we ended up packing up early and watching the game at Mark and Jessica's house.

Fall 2008 - Chase has been taking the camera with him when he walks Sam. He took lots of fall pictures, plus pictures of Sam being his crazy self. There are also pictures from David and Daniel's soccer games.

Halloween - We went to the Bosch's for the annual pumpkin carving party. We helped the kids carve their pumpkins, and had a pumpkin-goop war. We also had a Halloween party at our house. Mark and Jessica came in goth costumes. It was so realistic that they were hard to recognize. Raj had a very cool costume, and came as an Indian King. Robin was Sarah Palin...scary! Jill was dressed as a Best Buy employee, and Jason was dressed as a Circuit City employee. Chase was a Scottsman, and I was a fairy. We had lots of fun :)

Summer is over, and I am back to work. Before things get too busy, I thought I had better post more pictures. We had a party at our house with Chase's friends from MSU over an extended weekend. We went to Frederik Meijer Gardens, played Rock Band, had a bonfire, and played poker. Chase's cousin Alex got married on the following weekend at Fallasburg Park.

I'm just getting around to posting a few pictures from a business trip to the LA area (Long Beach specifically) way back in May. The pictures are from the couple hours I took in the evenings for sight seeing. All in all, it was a good trip, though I'd be perfectly happy never passing through LA International Airport again.

First comes a few pictures from Shoreline Park, in Long Beach. It's on the southern part of town, where a river meets the ocean. The Queen Mary dominates the riverside, and there are lots of trails, palm trees, and restaurants.

The second set is from Sunset Beach. It was apparently a bit early in the season still, and it was relatively chilly and windy. It was pretty empty, with more of last year's litter than people. Even so, there was a dolphin, and a pair of determined surfers in the water.

Next is Huntington Beach. This day was much warmer, and so there were lots more people. Given the crowd there already, I can't imagine what it would be like in the height of summer. The pier was nice, with almost as many fishing lines dangling from it as there were people on it. Even those hooks didn't seem to deter the surfers. It was warm enough to stay for a nice sunset, and a couple beers at the Huntington Beach Beer Company (I'd recommend both the beer, and the fish and chips).

The timing of this post is a bit odd, since, as most of you probably know, I've been laid off from GE. The situation isn't too bad, though, because I've already accepted an offer of a position at another company. More on that later. Hope everybody is having a nice summer.

We spent a few days in June at the Kent cottage. My parents, sisters, and their families were there also. We had really good weather. We celebrated Fathers Day, Brian's birthday, and David's birthday. We spent our time either in the water or at the campfire. While we were there, Chase got news that he will be laid off from his job at the end of July. We are staying optimistic though that he will find something soon.

We went directly from the cottage to Fisherman's Island State Park for a camping trip. Fisherman's Island is just south of Charlevoix, and is right on Lake Michigan. I survived the "rustic" bathrooms. Chase's mom, Kyle, Aunt Lori, Rachel, Aunt Jenny, and Nancy were there. It poured the first night we were there. Chase and I luckily sealed the tent before we left, and it kept us dry during the storm. The weather was nice during the rest of the weekend. We ate in Charlevoix on the first night at an oyster bar, which was very good. We ate well during the rest of the weekend at the campsite also. We had breakfast burritos, spaghetti and garlic bread, and brats all made either over the fire or on the camp stove. We went to an art show in Charlevoix, and spent a lot of time at Lake Michigan on the beach.

Over the fourth of July on the following weekend, we went to the Bolen cottage on Lake Avalon near Alpena. Chase's grandma, mom and dad, and Kyle and Jacquie were there. Chase's grandma is doing really well considering what she has been through over the past few months. We had very nice weather. We swam, went out on the boat, had campfires, and had a really good time. We saw a very funny sign in Vienna at a gas station on our way home. I made Chase turn around so I could take a picture.

We spent the next weekend in Mt. Pleasant. Chase was a groomsman in his friend Ben's wedding (better known as Wookie). Chase has known Ben since elementary school, and they grew up a couple of miles from each other. The wedding was in the chapel at Alma college, and the reception was right outside the chapel. There was a tent for eating and a tent for dancing. They had lots of flowers which they grew themselves. The weather was very nice, despite a gloomy forecast. Ben and Kate are a really good match, so it was fun to be a part of their day. Chase's friend Dave and his girlfriend Lindsey came from California for the weekend. We haven't seen Dave in two years, and it was really nice to get caught up. We were also able to meet Chase's friend Justin and Abby's new baby, Kaylee. Congratulations, Kate and Ben!

Pictures are in the gallery.

The Wever family came over a few weeks ago to celebrate Jenny's birthday. Pictures are in the gallery.

We went to Crystal Mountain last weekend with Tim, Nancy, Kyle, and Jacquie. Chase used to go skiing with his family and with the Pollacks at Crystal Mountain when he was younger. He also skis with Sam in our yard. I have only been to Thompsonville to go to Mike's for the annual canoe trip. I used to cross country ski with my family when I was younger, but hadn't skied in a long time and had never downhill skied. This promised to be an interesting weekend :)
We stayed in a condo right by the resort. On Saturday, we went ice skating and celebrated Chase's birthday. We got lots of snow Saturday night into Sunday, and the temperature dropped to 0 degrees. We decided to brave the cold and go skiing on Sunday. When we got there, we found that they had shut down the chair lifts. A couple of people walked up the hill with saucers and sledded down, which looked like a lot of fun. We went cross country skiing on about three miles of trails. Just about all of us took a spill at some point. Chase's beard froze, my hair froze, and Jacquie's nose was frostbitten for a little while. It was really fun though, and we warmed up pretty quickly with hot drinks and appetizers at the lodge afterward. Pictures are posted in the gallery.

I am finally getting around to posting pictures from Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve going between parties at Chase's grandpa's house and my dad's house. Thankfully, they live across the street from each other. We spent Christmas day at my mom's house and Chase's parents' house. Christmas break made me look forward to summer vacation. As usual, I was not ready to go back to work. Chase did not get much of a break since he was asked to work over Christmas. We got lots of wonderful gifts. Most notably, Chase's man-cave is now outfitted with a pool table, dart board, and kegerator.
We decided to have a New Years Eve party since the man cave is now full of fun stuff. Mark, Jessica, Kyle, Jacquie, and Jill came over. We played pool, darts, hearts, and Apples to Apples. We watched tv long enough to watch the ball drop and then turned it back off again. Chase and I had a lot of fun. We hope everyone else did too!
I also added some random pictures from December and January of Sam and Mitch, and of the snow.

We went to my dad's house on Halloween to celebrate Benny (10/31), Jackie (11/1), and Angie's (11/2) birthdays. Ryan, Aaron, and Dylan went trick or treating dressed as Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and Yoda. Unfortunately, we did not take any pictures. We're not sure if we got any trick or treaters at our house, but I really doubt it since we live so far out in the boonies.
We did take pictures at our party on November 3. We watched the MSU - Univ. of Michigan game before the party. It has been pretty disappointing that they have all been such close games, but we can't seem to get a win. We cheered up though when the Halloween party began after the game. Chase was a jedi, and looked an awful lot like Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. I was a pirate, Jill was Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Robin was Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, JC was wearing his U of M gear, Raj came as a cowboy, Mark was gangster Tony Chicken Legs, and Jessica was a flapper. Kyle, Jacquie, and Niesha came as themselves. We had a lot of fun, and thanks to everyone who came.