My Little Sister's Wedding

On July 25, my little sister, Katie, got married to Kyle Bultman. I was home the entire week before the wedding helping with last minute details and set-up for the wedding. Thursday night was Katie's bachelorette party planned by some church friends. Brian came into town that night after he had worked. Friday night was the rehearsal and dinner at the camp where the wedding took place. Saturday was the wedding complete with makeup and hair appointments and lots of pictures. The ceremony and reception all took place at Camp Manitou-Lin on Barlow Lake near Gun Lake and it was an absolutely perfect day for an outdoor wedding! It sprinkled for about 5 minutes during the reception, but it brought out a beautiful rainbow that made for some amazing pictures! It was great to see friends and family at the wedding and get to enjoy a relaxed wedding reception with them. Enjoy the pictures!

Mexico

This past weekend Beth and I, along with my family took a trip to Mexico - Nuevo Vallarta - to witness the marriage of my little sister Jamie. It was good to see my sister again and meet her now husband, Edgar. Edgar was a bit timid at first but once we got to know each other he fit right in. Edgar is a true gentleman and was always looking out for us and making sure things were right. This could have something to do with the fact that he could speak to the people there and tell us what/where we needed to go. It was HOT and HUMID there. There was not an hour that we were not sweating unless we were in the A/C. The day of the wedding was perfect; however, it was a little too hot during some of the pictures before hand but all in all it was good. There was a nice breeze coming off the water and the sun was behind the clouds a bit. Below are some of the pictures we took during our time there. Beth and I hope to be able to make a trip to the base where Jamie and Edgar work/stay in the next few years to see what they are doing there firsthand. We did get to meet some of the people from their base (some were at the wedding) and they shared stories with Beth and I at the reception because we sat at the same table as them.

July 4th weekend

Friday, we went to the Edsel & Eleanor Ford house (son of Henry Ford). Unfortunately they do not allow pictures to be taken inside the house, so to see it you will have to make your own trip. The inside is very glamorous with many priceless works of arts. Every room has several paintings or ancient artifacts. The house was designed such that the doors to the hall could be locked to the hall way and you could still get from room to room through a series of closets and rooms. This was designed into the house so that if an intruder were to come into the house they could lock all the doors and the governess could tend to the children. The house is over 30,000 sq/ft (more than 10 times larger than our homes.) on almost 100 acres. Our favorite place at this estate would be the huge yard and pond; however, Beth did like the library.

After viewing the Ford house it was Beth's idea to go to Carrabba's for dinner. You might say it was to celebrate our anniversary. I was not very hungry so I ordered a bowl of Minestrone soup and the waiter gave me a look that said; "Is that all...just soup...you came to Carrabba's...don't you want more than just soup...?" By the way the soup was excellent. Beth proceded to order a nice piece of Salmon that came with their wonderful potatos and a salad. It was planned that I would eat some of Beth's dinner because their portions are on the large side for us but the soup was much more than I expected. To give you an idea of the size lets say I ordered a cup of soup rather than a bowl. The cup of soup would have to be as big or bigger than a normal size breakfast bowl.

Saturday, Beth and I went to Silver Lake (NOTE: not the Silver lake known for the sand dunes. There is one by us) We rented a canoe for an hour and went on the lake. It was fun and relaxing and will probably do it again. We had lunch on the grass over looking the lake because there is no beach. Shortly after eating a bunch of high schoolers (50 or more) came over where we were sitting and sat around us you might say. They were from Ann Arbor Public schools. Why they were all there when school is not in session was beyond us; however, Beth got to work on her Spanish skills because the domanant language was not English but rather Spanish. Shortly after they came I went for a swim in the lake. Burrr it was cold, but not too bad. To recap - I feel a little sore from swimming and Beth is burnt from the sun.

After the lake we went to church with a couple of co-workers of mine (Andre & Jessica) that have been asking me to go to church with them a few times now. They go to NorthRidge Church (it is kind of like Sunshine but different). NorthRidge has services on Saturday (5pm & 7pm) and Sunday - all of which are the same message. After Church we went out to eat at Max & Erma's. We were going to go bowling but they were closed - go figure 4th of July and the bowling alley is close at night, so we decided to go watch a movie - Ice Age 3 in 3D. It was a good movie.

Sunday, We did our normal Sunday thing Chuch and doing things around the apt; Oh yeah, and getting things lined up for our trip to Mexico. If you didn't know my little sister, Jamie, who works for YWAM is getting married to Edgar Martinez this comming weekend. Edgar was having visa problems to come to the USA, so we determined that God was telling us that we had to go to Mexico for this wedding.