People

So, there are a lot of people who's pictures did not make it on here yet, and I'm sorry about that. I don't want anyone to feel neglected here. :)

We went to Tim and Lisa's house for dinner last Friday night. Thanks you two! And sorry for those of you who were there earlier, I totally forgot to take the picture until later. It's kind of strange when your old youth group students are married and having kids and stuff. Oh, it's not Tim and Lisa who have the kid, by the way. :) Just so rumors don't get started.

Anna! We went to high school together and had lunch on Monday. It was nice to see her. She's so cute!






Before coming home, we also saw the Heatons and the Roers. Travis had these folks in youth group when they were younger. When we were at the Heatons' house, we received our own personal concert from Jake and one of his bandmates Nick. It was great! If you'd like to check out any of their stuff, go to www.purevolume.com/witner. They are in Grand Rapids, so if you're interested in seeing them live, you'd probably have to live there. But they were very fun.






































On our way back to St. Louis, we made a stop in Wheaton, to meet up with Rachael, who had left St. Louis in July and didn't go back before school started. I missed her a lot so I really wanted to see her and we did and it was great! We got to meet some of her new friends and hear about her two week trip into the wilderness of the U.P. of Michigan.

And last, but not least, is a picture of what was waiting for us when we got to the place we're staying this week. We're staying with the Walkers and they had this goodie-basket for us as well as the sheets of the bed turned down with mints on the pillows. How precious. Thanks Cindy! You rock!

Sorry for any of you who are bored by this, but I just wanted to make sure no one was sad that they didn't make the wall of fame! :)

Lake Michigan

My sister and I set a day to go to the beach at Lake Michigan before I even got to Grand Rapids. You see, she has a real job now, so she can't just go to the beach with me whenever I feel like it. Which was a bummer, because there were several warm sunny days during the week. But when it came to Saturday, the weather was not so nice. We decided we were going to head out there no matter what. So, we went. We actually picked a great day to go because the beach was close to empty! We had a lot of sand to ourselves. We went in the water a few times, and it was just cold enough to take my breath away when I went under. We went for a walk on the pier in Grand Haven and saw some 10 year old boys jumping off, so we decided to jump off with them. But they were jumping off into the channel side, where the water looks brown insead of blue like the other side. We just jumped with them into the nasty water, and it was suprisingly a lot warmer. Hmmmm. I'm trying not to think about it. I just made sure to take a shower and wash my bathing suit when I got home. :) It was a good day at the beach even though it wasn't hot and sunny. I hope you enjoy the beautiful pictures!

Colleges and Friends

I attended 3 different colleges in the city of Grand Rapids. It took me a total of 5 years of school to finish, but it really took 6 years since I took a year off in between colleges. The first college I went to was Grand Rapids Community College, and the year after that I attended Aquinas College. I pretty much chose this college because my dad graduated from there, and they were trying to build up their cross country and track programs so I decided to run there. It wasn't because I knew what I wanted to do or anything like that. I just wanted to race again. Well, I met Brian there, and Travis and I met up with him today. Brian is a world traveler, so it's always exciting when we're in the same place at the same time. He races bikes, or I should say, is a cyclist, and just accepted a coaching position at a college in North Carolina. He is racing in Rockford tomorrow and will most likely win the race. Crazy! After going to Aquinas, which I loved, I made the difficult decision to take a year off of school and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Have I found that answer yet?

We met up with Karen and Juanito and their kids Houston, Katrina, and Zane again this morning. I bought doughnuts from Sandy's, one of the best home-town places, besides Marge's Donut Den. Anyway, we ate with them and played with the kids again. Houston brought his globe out and we showed him where we were going to be for the next three months, and he asked Karen when they were going there. Aaawww! He wants to come visit us! He's come to St. Louis two times so I think he just assumed he was going to come to our new place too. Well, maybe he will some day. :)

High School Buddies

Just a quick post to put the picture of Kimmy and Emma on here! Aawww, aren't they cute? We went to Union High School together for 4 years, but Kimmy and I did 2 years together at Westwood Middle before that. Yes, we are all products of the Grand Rapids Public Schools, and we've turned out ok! :) Emma and I stole Kimmy away from work for a lunch date. It is always great to see them again. I love you girls!

Travis and Kids

Travis and kids seem to have a love-hate relationship. Some kids, like Houston and Katrina pictured here, think Travis is the best ever. He can throw them and rough-house with them and teach them about guns and stuff. But Alec, our nephew, does not really know what to think about Travis. He started crying the first time he saw Travis on this trip. Like hysterical crying! It was pretty funny, actually. When my mom asked Alec if he liked Travis, one time he said no, and one time he said yes. So, I guess time will tell what Alec really thinks about Travis. :)

The Homeland

Travis and I drove up to my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday. It took us 9 whole hours, instead of the usual 7. Oh well. When we were sitting in traffic for an hour and a half, I was crocheting a purse and Travis was driving, well, actually just sitting behind the steering wheel because we didn't go anywhere very fast, and Travis said, "Look at that deer!" There was a huge 8 point buck running across an overpass outside Chicago! That was something we had never seen before.

We were listening to a book on tape and the main character had put 3 million dollars in his trunk, so every time we got out of the car, we kept thinking we had 3 million in the trunk. But when we emptied it at my parents house, it was just filled with our suitcases with clothes. Nothing too exciting!

The pictures are Stacy and me in their backyard. It was great to see her and her mom Nancy. Stacy is leaving for college soon so we got to hang out before she left. I also got to see their dog Katie (the one in the picture), who is one of my favorite dogs. Don't worry Addy, you're still my number one! The other picture is Rosalie and her youngest daughter Lindsey. Lindsey, who is 8 years old, spent about a half hour on Sunday afternoon driving me around on their big golf cart. It was one of the funniest things I've done lately. She was actually a very good driver. Well, that's about all for now. Hopefully I will be able to post something again later this week.

Washington, D.C.

I don't know if you know the reason I got to visit Dave and Laura in DC. Well, back in April, I decided to clean our bedroom because it was really nasty and there were things in there from Christmas. So, as I finished unloading a Christmas gift bag, I found an envelope in the bottom containing $400 cash! It was a gift from Travis' grandparents for us to use on our trip to England in January. I don't know how I forgot about $400, but somehow I did! So Travis and I split it up and he put it towards his tattoo and I put it towards a flight to DC. I got to visit Dave and Laura who I had not seen in about a year. Their son Andrew was born last October, so it was nice to meet him. But we all know the real reason I went was to see their dog Addy. She is one of my favorite dogs. She even went to Michigan with us one Christmas. We had a great time cuddling and going on walks and runs. It was great to see Laura and do some fun things around DC.

The pictures are:
1. Laura and me before going to our separate parties.

2. Kaarli and me at her "Did you miss us yet?" party. She has lived in DC for about 7 years and a couple months ago moved to Nairobi, but happened to be in DC again for a wedding the same time I was visiting Laura, so I got to see her too.

3. Addy and me with our eyes closed.

4. Dave and Andrew at the "Awakenings" sculpture in DC.

Juarez, Mexico

It has taken me so long to update this with pictures, I am having a difficult time choosing which ones to show you! I will start with the mission trip we took to Juarez, Mexico. Next time I'll share some from my trip to DC. Mexico was an amazing experience. We all had such a good time with one another, with the kids we worked with, and with the missionaries. It was nice to see people serving others in such a loving way.

The pictures are:
1. Me and two of my roomies, Lauren and Haley.

2. The two kids are Maria and Angela. They are so beautiful! When Angela would jump rope, she would giggle the whole time. It brought a smile to all of our faces.

3. I was aiming to take a group photo of the kids who came to the camp when Samuel jumped in front of the camera and timed it perfectly! He is the one who was in charge of the camp. He also works at a local hospital as a nurse every night. He is amazing!

4. This is a picture of my D-Group girls who went on the trip: Lainey, Amy, (me, duh), Emily, and Lauren. They have just graduated and we are all going our separate ways this August. I will miss them so much!