One Last Week

Since we got back from California we have been keeping busy seeing family and friends before we leave and working on wrapping everything up here. Everything has gone so smoothly and we have really enjoyed everyones company.

We had a potluck with our small group from church, it was really fun seeing everyone and playing with all the kids.

Sunday we had our commissioning at church. We got to tell about how we've come to this point and what we will be doing once we get to Romania. Then our pastor called people down to lay hands on us and pray for our journey. Many of our family and friends came which was great, they have been so supportive. Afterwards we had a get together and had a light lunch that we put on. The cake had red, blue, and yellow flowers, which are the colors of the Romanian flag.

We had buns, ham & turkey, cheese, coleslaw, watermellon, chips, and cake. It turned out to be a very nice meal. Over 100 people came to this event, wow! Thanks all for coming!

This is us with Rebecca's parents.

This is us with Mark's Dad & Stepmom.

This is us with Mark's Mom.

During the week we visited lots of people too. This is us with Mark's sister and brother-in-law.

These are our adopted parents, they live close to where we lived and we have been getting together with them regularly for a long time. They have been a very big part of our lives and we have really enjoyed getting to know them.

These are our friends Scott & Kayleen and kids Sam & Lexi. We have become great friends with them in the last few years too and will miss them a lot.

Same goes for our friends Jonah & Jes and their daughter Precious.

We will surely miss all of our family and friends and are hoping to stay in touch over e-mail and online chatting, especially with programs like skype. If you have skype you can search for us and our user name will come up.

This week we also sold both of our cars and tied up any loose ends that we could think of. Everything has gone great and we are really relieved to have everything taken care of. We are even finished packing now and are all ready to go. We will be at the Kent County airport at 3:00 today and will fly out at 4:50.

It has been quite a journey getting to this point, it seems a bit unreal that we're leaving in a few hours and we'll be gone for so long. God has been so faithful and we've just been amazed at how he has worked. Thank you all for your continued prayers, we know that they have helped and we continue to ask for them on a daily basis.

Fun At The Big Lake

With our departure to Romania coming up fast we have been trying to get in as much time with family and friends as possible. It has been really fun seeing everyone and spending good quality time together. The weather has been beautiful for the most part lately so we have headed out to Lake Michigan for some fun times. We'll miss the lake, the beaches, and the lighthouses, but they will be nice memories for us.

The lighthouse in Holland.

We walked the pier with Mark's sister and brother-in-law Sandi & Jay after eating out at a Thai restaurant.

Our friends John & Karen took us sailing out of Muskegon Lake into Lake Michigan, this was quite an enjoyable and relaxing ride. They also treated us to a BBQ before and ice-cream afterwards. This was a nice way to enjoy friends and God's beautiful creation.

We spent some time with Mark's Dad & Stepmom in Ludington. It rained quite a bit that weekend but it let up so we could have a nice campfire and bike around Ludington State Park.

As much as we lament the long winters, lots of snow, and often cloudy skies, this still is a very beautiful area to live. There are so many things that nature has to offer in our state, probably more than most people usually think of.

We have really enjoyed the time we've spent with our family and friends, we'll miss you all dearly when we're in Romania, please keep in touch with us.

Shedd Aquarium

Since Mark has been unemployed, we have had lots of extra time to do different things. The only problem is that many fun activities cost money. When we looked on-line and found out that the Shedd Aquarium has community days in which the general admission is free (instead of $25), we decided to go on a day road trip. We happened to know a little boy who loves fishing and pretending to fish so we thought this would be a great time for him and his family. On Tuesday the 16th of June we headed out to Chicago with some of the Jasperse family. When we arrived at the aquarium the parking garage said it would be a two hour wait. We decided to go ahead with our plans even though it was lightly sprinkling. Once got to the line we were told they had a separate stroller line and the wait there was only around 30 mins! The inside was packed with people but we still had a good time and saw lots of big fish.

Mark and Rebecca in front of the Caribbean Reef

Kayleen with Sam and Lexi (Scott had to work)

Tim and Terri (Grandparents) and Sam

Rebecca and Lexi-bug

Caribbean Reef with diver feeding fish

Nickel the sea turtle - she got run over by a boat

Hello

Nemo and friends

Sea horses

Lobster

Frog

The Shedd also has a shark reef, dolphins and whales, but that costs extra so we didn't see those exhibits. It was a fun trip and worked out well since Mark is back to work on contract this week. He will be working for about a month. Our Romania plans are progressing and we will probably be there in the beginning of September.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend has always been a special weekend for us and our families.  Usually we go camping with Rebecca's family and friends at Yankee Springs Campground.  We have camped there almost every year since we first met but this year was a lot different.  We instead filled the weekend with several different activities, all of which were very fun.  Friday we hung out with our friends Scott & Kayleen.  We played games, went to some garage sales, and watched Ocean's 11.  We had some awesome egg-rolls for dinner and brownies for dessert, mmm.

Saturday we headed up to Great Aunt Phil's cottage on Lake Michigan.  It was a little overcast but overall it was a nice day.  Rebecca's parents brought their camper and Mark helped set up.  We enjoyed some good food, usually on weekends like this there are lots of goodies and this was no exception.  We had a hamburger fry for dinner, and one of the dogs ate part of Grandma's hamburger right off her plate she was holding.  Fun times.

We went for a walk along the beach and Rebecca spotted this, a Bald Eagle.  It isn't every day that you get to see one of these so it was pretty exciting.

The cottage sits atop of the sand dune, so there are quite a few steps down to the beach.

We always enjoy seeing rays of sunshine.

There was lots of extra sand on the beach piled up because the water level is so high.  We saw many cool erosion patterns in the sand.

Sunday we took a walk, the weather was beautiful.  We relaxed the rest of the day and played some games.

Monday we went to the Essenburg get-together which happens every Memorial Day at Mark's late grandma's house.  We had a hotdog roast with potluck side dishes and enjoyed seeing lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins.  It was another beautiful day and a nice ending to the Memorial Day weekend.

Ludington Fun

Last weekend we headed up to Ludington for a mini vacation with some friends.  Our friend Jonah's work gave him two nights free at a hotel there, and one of his coworkers gave him their room so we had two free rooms for two nights.  

Rebecca was popular with all the kiddos, Lexi, Sam, and Precious.

We spent some time each night swimming in the pool and hanging out in the hot tub.  It was the biggest hot tub we had ever seen.  These are our friends Scott & Kayleen with their kids Lexi & Sam.

This is Jessica with Precious...

And this is Jonah with Precious.

On Saturday the guys went fishing at Ludington State Park.  It was a gorgeous day!  We didn't have much luck fishing though.  Scott just about hooked a two foot long dog fish but his hook was too small.  Just before heading back we decided to try one spot out again, and Mark had a bite.  The bobber went down and then the battle began, with a roughly 12" large mouth bass.  Unfortunately the bass swam right into a downed tree and the line got stuck, so he got off.  Man, the disapointment, but there will be another day to catch him.

Sam loved going fishing, and he kept saying "I'm going fishing" over and over.

On the walk back to the car we let Sam carry the worms.  To every person we passed he proudly exclaimed "I'm carrying worms!"  It was so cute and funny, boy was he having fun being a good helper.

Saturday evening we went out to eat at a local brewery and then ordered dessert to go for later.  Who could resist the chocolate mousse cake and snickers cheesecake?  Mmmm.

It was great spending time relaxing and hanging out with our friends.  It was a refreshing weekend and it was nice to get away for a couple days.  Too bad we can't do something like this more often!

Peeps Roasting Over An Open Fire

Last weekend we had some really nice weather.  We had our friend Mandy over for dinner and we decided it would be a perfect night for a bonfire.  We had a brush pile in our backyard that we had been wanting to get rid of anyway, and so we lit it up after dinner.  

This is the brushpile as it was being lit.  It was created when we cleared out the woods behind our house, and we had been throwing weeds and dead plants on it for around a year.  Needless to say it was really dry and it really took off.

The conditions were perfect for a rip roaring fire.  The wind was blowing directly away from the woods so we didn't have to worry about burning anything down.  The wind really whipped the flames up until it was so hot that we could stand no closer than 10 feet.

This is our friend Mandy, from Madison Wisconsin.  She brought lots of peeps and we figured since they are marshmallows that we should be able to roast them.  What a great idea!

This was about as close as Rebecca could get to the fire in order to roast her peeps.  Good thing we have long roasting forks.

Here's some peeps roasting away.  We were afraid that the sugar would burn, but it actually caramelized, creating a hard shell around the molten marshmallow.  We liked them so much and we decided that this was the creme brule of marshmallows.

Of course no fire would be complete without smores, so we tried peeps smores.  Yum!  It doesn't get any better than this!