Exposing Noah to the Finest Popular Culture

The Only Way He'll Quiet Down...

First Bath at Home

Home From The Hospital

Little Old Noah

Happy Belated Birthday...

...to Renee who celebrated her (...) birthday this past Wednesday. Sadly, however, she has been under the weather for the past week so the celebration was rather muted. The below picture of the half eaten brownie with the cold medicine in the background sums up the evening quite nicely. Out of respect for Renee there will be no picture posted of the birthday girl.


The last few weeks have been rather low key. Renee started up again with school last week and has been busy finishing her applications for her practicum placement that begins next academic year.


We've also spent the last month seeing new things and people in the city. In other words, we have some semblance of friends! In January we had dinner at the home of a woman in Renee's program, went to a birthday party of another woman from Alliant, and just today watched the Super Bowl with yet another person from school. Renee's clearly doing all of the heavy lifting lately when it comes to our social life.

We've also seen new parts of the area we hadn't checked out before, including Twin Peaks where the views were as good as promised. For the second time we crossed the Golden Gate north to the Marin Headlands where we went for a short hike in the late afternoon on a Sunday. We need to spend some more time there as the scenery was absolutely gorgeous.

Two pictures above taken from the top of Twin Peaks

The above four pictures were taken from the Marin Headlands, Marin County

Christmas, Part Two

After spending time in New York we were fortunate to spend time with the Lubbers/DePotty crew in Michigan for a week. Just like the Shands the Lubbers family was very good to us during our stay there. Also, Amy and Bryan were nice enough to rearrange their schedules to come home for the second time for Christmas in order to see us. Plus we got to see them one more day than we thought they would. Oh, and they brought their adorable and well-behaved puppy, Sadie. Sadie kept us on our toes to say the least.

Pictures below...

On New Year's Eve we went out for dinner at Boatwerks in Holland, the same place where we had a post-wedding reception last July for friends and family who couldn't make it to the wedding. Just days later we learned they're temporarily closing down until April. Hopefully they'll be able to make it as it's a great restaurant with a wonderful location on the water.

After dinner we made it back to Mom and Dad's just in time to ring in the New Year with Sadie.

Dad, Jeff and Bryan went to the "Born to Play Ball" baseball exhibit at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, which displayed old memorabilia and and presentations on the top 5 players at every position over the course of the game. Can you believe they listed Pete Rose as a better player than Rickey Henderson? Unbelievable.

Grandma and Grandpa came over for our late Christmas celebration and had a great time.

Amy C. came all the way from Ann Arbor to catch up with Renee and was also nice enough to spend some time with the Lubbers family before leaving.

And finally, one last picture of Sadie for no good reason.

Christmas, Part One

After multiple airplane delays we have safely returned from our cross country Christmas tour. The first part took us to upstate New York to celebrate with the Shand family followed by a belated Christmas with the Lubbers crew in Michigan. A wonderful time was had with both families and it was great to finally celebrate Christmas together for the first time as a couple.

Below are some pictures from the first part of the trip in New York. We'll post Michigan pictures sometime after we finally finish unpacking.

Renee's parents waited until we both arrived in New York to decorate the enormous tree. Renee willingly served as Santa's little helper.

Janine's son Evan kept us very amused during his visits (and Renee on her toes while shopping).


No bones were broken while sledding/sleigh-riding. It should be pointed out that Ma Shand seemed more enthusiastic about going than anyone else.

It's not Christmas with the Shands unless you swim in wrapping paper after opening presents.




It's also not Christmas with the Shands without a ridiculously large tree ornament.




Joseph called from Scotland on Christmas making Renee's day.

Porter in one of his few calm(er) moments.

We took a trip to the home of the Orange County Choppers and saw some amazing bikes.

Jeff, Renee and Ma Shand played tourists in New York City on a 62 degree day. Hotspots visited included Times Square, Rockefeller Center, FAO Schwartz, and a horse-drawn carriage ride through Central Park.