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tonight we start the 2010 timothy christian volleyball season! after practicing for about 3 weeks, i am definitely ready to change things up and start playing some games. and play we will....from today through saturday, we will have 6 games and 1 practice. the team's looking good so far so i am really excited for the season. if you really want to check out what's going on with our team throughout the season, i have a blog for that too - tcvolleyball.blogspot.com. go trojans! :)

air & water show

a couple weeks ago we went to the air and water show in chicago. it's always something i've wanted to go to since living here, so this year we decided to brave the crowds. we found a nice place in the shade, got ourselves some subway and italian ice, and enjoyed the show....

the acrobat planes

parachuters

the blue angels were definitely my favorite

doing some of their tricks

off and running

ready or not.....here we go! volleyball tryouts start tomorrow night. if you think of it, i would greatly appreciate your prayers for the next 3 days. i have at least 18 girls trying out for the team this year, meaning i definitely have to make some cuts. so the next couple days will probably include lots of writing, scratching, rewriting....a hard time sleeping...and talking matt's ear of with all my thoughts. definitely my least favorite part of coaching. but after friday, i'm looking forward to another great season - should be fun!

finally home

after 2 weeks, 4 states, and roughly 1,500 miles later.....we are home. our 2010 summer vacation started off in edgerton, minnesota to visit family and friends. we were able to golf, bike at lake shetek, mow the lawn (something i actually really miss!), visit friends in sioux falls and sioux center, see how much dordt's campus has changed, go fishing, and just spend some good time with family and friends. unfortunately, i don't have any pictures from this first week...

after minnesota, we left for northern wisconsin to majestic pine lodge near hayward and spent and wonderfully relaxing week with my family. here are just a few pictures of that week...

i only tried my hand at fishing one morning and actually caught something.

every night the sunset was gorgeous!

one day we went to duluth, mn and got to see the tall ships going by the harbor. it was hard to believe that it's already been 2 years since matt and i went there on our honeymoon!

we also made a stop at amnicon falls state park.

and if we hadn't had enough vacation, we made a last minute decision to stop in chippewa falls on the way home and tour the leinenkugel's factory. of course, this was just a pit stop on our way to sheboygan. the only family members we hadn't seen on this vacation were brent and becca, so we just had to stop by and eat at the best pizza ranch there is!

a week in michigan

what a great wedding weekend! on friday night we went to dave and karissa (phelps) klyn's wedding in holland. it was the first time in 3 years that all of our senior year college roommates were able to be together in one place - what a great reunion! quite a bit has changed since then but it's crazy how easy it is to pick back up like we haven't missed a beat.

karissa and dave's wedding was on windmill island. it was a beautiful night!

saturday night was luke and ruth (nederhood) holtrop's wedding in grand rapids. it was so great to have our whole family together...we just had to go to michigan to do it! it's always such a beautiful thing to watch two people who love the Lord unit their lives in love.

i also took a group of girls to calvin volleyball camp this week. spending 5 days with 15 high school girls definitely proves to be a tiring week! i worked at the individual camp that was held during the day and then coached our girls for the team camp at night. i had to drive the girls back to chicago on friday morning after camp, repack my suitcase and come back to michigan for the weddings. so after a crazy, full week, it's great to be home and sleep in my own bed again!

earlier this month it was matt's birthday. he got to pick where we went out to eat, and not much to my surprise, he picked the fish co. restaurant that's in bass pro shops. :) they have a really cool 13,000 gallon fish tank and reeeally good food.

and my surprise birthday gift to him was this awesome painting, custom done by my cousin Elliot Slenk. pretty amazing, i'd say. our apartment has stark white walls right now, so it kinda looks like it's painted right on our walls, but when we change apartments in a few weeks, i'm sure it will have a very special spot.

that's about all for us....i hope everyone's having a great summer!

independence weekend

matt and i went to wisconsin for the weekend to meet up with his family at brent and becca's place in oostburg. we had a great time catching up with family and relaxing. we went to the beach to play some volleyball, freeze our bodies numb in lake michigan, watch some fireworks, and play some bocce ball. we also joined the record setting sales crowd at brent and becca's opening day for the sheboygan pizza ranch.

we also celebrated matt's birthday. here's my crazy husband with a couple of his presents and the wrapping paper that just kept on giving! :)

the sheboygan parade - here were a few of my favorite parts...first, the bagpipers

a dutch area parade is not complete without a few dutch dancers!

and the moment we all waited for - the pizza ranch car! brent's spreading the word of opening day

2 years!

it's hard to believe that our wedding was 2 years ago already! a lot has happened since then.....we've lived in 2 different states, 3 different apartments, i've had 2 different jobs (well, major jobs - i'm not counting dog walking and all those crazy part time ones i had when we first moved here!), and all in all we've had 2 wonderful years together. i thought i'd be fun to relive that day with a few pictures....