two turn tables and a microphone

Ryan and I decided it was about time to have Chris and some of his new friends from Hope over for dinner. Monday night we fired up the grill and pattied some of the biggest burgers we've ever pattied. We also stocked the fridge with various 2-liters of pop...only to discover that these particular college boys like tea or water better. Hilarious.

From left to right: Chris, Josh, Caleb and Jacob (who bears a striking resemblance to Beck)

We had a great time meeting the guys, hearing their stories and watching them listen and laugh as Ryan told some stories of his time and friends at Hope. We have our 5 year college reunion in a week - we are old.

Good kids. We had a great time.
Chris, your friends are welcome at our house anytime!

Class of 2003 - Hope College Reunion

Hey Hope College. I just checked out the 2003 Reunion Attendee List online and noticed that a few of you who said you were coming to the party at New Holland Brewery have not signed up yet!

2003 Class Party Register Online!
Saturday, October 4th @ 6:30 pm
New Holland Brewery (Fairbanks Room)

Time is running out - you need to register for our event by this Sunday! You can sign up online at http://myhope.hope.edu or www.hope.edu/alumni or call 616-395-7250 to let us know you are coming!

Ryan and I will also be checking out the Alumni Men's Soccer Game at 11am on Saturday the 4th. For more info about all the happenings throughout the weekend, click HERE and scroll down to check out the schedule.

Can't wait to see you there!

Happy Birthday Dad!

I love you so much daddy! You have brought me joy every day of my life. I'm so proud of you for being the leader you are, pointing people toward Christ and helping people take steps toward Jesus. You are faithful and courageous, wise and hilarious, full of character and charisma, a risk-taker, a loving encourager and to top it off you got a record Michigan turkey last year! You're incredible. I love you. Happy Birthday!

Fun with Ryan's Family

We had quite the weekend! Ryan's mom and dad were in town and Christopher came over from Holland for the day. We had a glorious brunch at Marie Catribs laughing as Chris told us his stories from the first month of college.After Breakfast we checked out the street fair in East Town where Chris found this sa-weet fur-lined NASA jacket in a box full of thrift clothes. He bought it for a mere $5. What a steal!

Hiking - Beeson Family Vacation

Here are some pictures from the day we went hiking on the Platte Plaines Trail. Hiking is a hilarious time with my family because my mom is a speed-walker. She doesn't even realize she's doing it, but the rest of us find ourselves jogging along to keep up with her.

Stop Talking - Start Doing

Dad showed this video at the end of the opening session of Granger's INNOVATE conference this morning. It will make you smile.



Tim, Rob, Mark, and Raj are blogging from the event if you want to check it out.

One more reason why I love SNL

Awesoments

The periodic table of awesoments shows the basic building blocks of all things awesome.

Modern day awesominers know there are actually 118 fundamental “awesoments” that compose all good things. The Periodic table of Awesoments can be a very useful
tool. It’s designed to show the relationships between awesoments, and often one
can even predict how awesoments interact simply by their positions on the table.

here fishy fishy fishy

We did a lot of this:

But didn't catch many of these:

The Platte River

Today is a rainy day, which reminds me of the day the family went kayaking down the Platte River while we were on vacation. Riverside Canoe thought we were a little crazy for going out in the bad weather, but rented us some kayaks anyway.

We bundled up with all our fleeces, rain gear and fishing gear and headed into the river. It was really cold and POURED rain the entire 4 hours that we were out there - but that didn't stop us!

About 1/3 of the way to Lake Michigan we stopped in Loon Lake to try to catch some fish. Even though the salmon were running under our boats, we didn't have much luck with the fishing...

...EXCEPT FOR RYAN! Look at this awesome bass he caught! It was incredible. First he caught this tiny minnow, so he decided to use it as bait, casted it back in and within a minute he had this bass on the line! I'm so proud. The water was pretty shallow at some parts...this is me, beached on the sand bar, and Ryan coming to the rescue.

1/2 way down the river we had to portage at the fish weir. I don't really understand how it works, all I know is they close the gates and all these salmon are swimming up steam to get back to the place they were born, so they use the fish weir to count all the salmon or something. It was so cool to see these huge king salmon whiz by in the clear, shallow water. We probably saw 80-100 pass under us while we were out there. It was amazing!

As soon as we got to the end, we all ran to the car to try to get warm. Everyone was so soaking wet and drenched to the bone that we all shivered the whole way back to the cabin where the men promptly built a GIGANTIC fire in the fireplace.