Tag Archives: 2011

Wayfarer's Journal

Anniversary and New Year’s

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New Year’s Eve was Wendy’s and my 6th Wedding Anniversary! We enjoy being with friends on New Year’s Eve, so we actually celebrated our Anniversary the day before. We decided that we’d celebrate this year by checking out all the after Christmas sales, get a few new clothes, and then go out to eat. We had a great day together and did find some wonderful deals. Taylor was working at J. Crew and she told us that Clayton was meeting her after work for a date night, so we met them for coffee when she got off work and enjoyed some conversation. We ended our evening at the Latin King for a nice leisurely evening meal.

New Year’s Eve was spent at the Pella VL’s with a small group of friends. It was supposed to be a potluck of appetizers, but everyone brought enough food to feed an army. We had Wendy’s chicken fingers, meat and cheese platters, chips and queso, a few more meat and cheese platters, pita bread and hummus, and more meat and cheese platters. Then there was Wendy’s snicker doodle cupcakes and chocolate truffle cheesecake for dessert.

There was plenty of great conversation around the room and everyone enjoyed getting to meet baby Camille. She was the center of attention for a while. The VL boys got back from being with a babysitter and we got to enjoy seeing them before they headed to bed. I  even got to read Casey at the Bat to Nathan. With the kids down, the adults retired to the family room to play a hilarious game of Quelf and laughed until it hurt.

By the time Wendy and I got back home, cleaned up a bit, and got to bed it was closer to my normal waking time than I care to admit. We were able to sleep in, however, and we enjoyed a very quiet day spent mostly on the couch Sunday.

Wayfarer's Journal

The Celebration Gauntlet

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For most people, the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays represent a flurry of activity and celebration that taxes energy levels, bank accounts, and both the relational and emotional reserves. For Wendy and me, Thanksgiving and Christmas are just the beginning. Along with Christmas we also get to celebrate Wendy’s birthday and our wedding anniversary in a ten day celebratory gauntlet.

Wendy’s birthday was celebrated with a date day in Des Moines. We went to the mall, did a little shopping, stopped into J. Crew to see Taylor, and went to see Sherlock Holmes in the theater. We then enjoyed a leisurely meal at The Club Car with our friends Kevin and Becky. I took my life into my own hands this year by buying Wendy clothes for her birthday. With the help of Taylor, who has become quite adept at helping people pick out clothes, we picked out a nice sweater and a dress for Wendy. I must admit that I didn’t do too bad with either one. One huge sigh of relief.

After our Christmas in Denver, the rest of the Christmas holiday seemed fairly low key. Christmas Eve day was spent at home. Wendy’s folks and her sister came to town for lunch. I played bass in worship for all three afternoon/evening services at church. Wendy and the family came to the 6:00 p.m. service. Wendy and I then went back to church at 11:00 p.m. to meet Taylor for the candlelight service.

Christmas Day dawned and the morning was quiet. Madison stayed in Colorado Springs to work over the holiday break. Taylor and Clayton were celebrating with Clayton’s family. So, Wendy and I enjoyed a quiet morning to ourselves. At noon the kids came over and jumped in our car and we headed to Des Moines to have lunch with Grandpa & Grandma Vander Well, Jody’s entire crew, and my brother Tim and his girlfriend Kumi. Grandma’s roast had inadvertently been left out of the oven, so it wasn’t done in time for lunch, but there was plenty of her homemade chicken and noodles over biscuits (and her homemade cinnamon rolls!) so no one complained. We opened gifts in the afternoon and Skyped Madison in to say hello to everyone.

We headed back to Pella late in the afternoon and opened gifts with the kids in the early evening. We had delivered gifts to Madison in Denver, but she waited to open them and we Skyped her into the festivities so we could all open gifts together.

The last Christmas celebration came on the 26th. The Halls came back to Pella for potluck at Grandma Vander Harts.

Wendy and I still have our sixth wedding anniversary to celebrate this weekend, but that’s another post 🙂

Wayfarer's Journal

2011 Christmas in Denver with the Halls

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Apologies to those who’ve wondered where my chapter-a-day posts were since late last week. I took a few days off to celebrate Christmas with Wendy and her family in Denver. Wendy’s sister, Becky, was kind enough to host us all for the second straight year. We even got to meet Court, the new man in her life. His folks even joined us for brunch on Sunday morning.

Madison’s boyfriend, Kevin, drove up from Mt. Pleasant on Thursday and spent the night here in Pella so we could leave early on Friday. We stopped in Des Moines to pick-up Taylor. It was a long drive, but we enjoyed some great conversation and made it to Denver in the early evening.

Saturday morning was spent shopping with Kevin and the girls. Taylor helped me pick out a few birthday gifts for Wendy, utilizing those skills she’s been honing at her job at J. Crew. Madison and Kevin worked on some gifts for Kevin’s niece and nephew while Madison shopped for some work clothes.

Wendy’s sister, Becky, was a wonderful hostess and we enjoyed hanging out all afternoon and evening. We ate a lot and laughed a lot. Food and conversation were the order of the weekend. I enjoyed coffee and conversation with Wendy’s dad both Saturday and Sunday morning. Taylor got up to join the two of us “morning people” on Sunday morning which was wonderful.

The family gathered around my iPad on Sunday to Skype with Wendy’s brother, Josh who is serving as a dentist in the Army in Germany. It was fun to watch everyone gathered around to visit with Josh who was half a world away. As a Christmas gift to the family, Josh talked his girlfriend into stepping into the camera so everyone could see her.

Taylor brought a party game called Quelf along for the weekend. On Saturday night the five of us played in the hotel room. On Sunday, we made Wendy’s siblings play with us. It’s sort of a zany mash up of trivial pursuit, charades, and truth or dare. We had a lot of fun playing together.

I drove Madison back to Colorado Spings on Monday morning. It was fun to see where she goes to school, to see the house where she lives and to meet her landlord. After a business lunch in Englewood, I headed back to the hotel to pick up Wendy, Taylor and Kevin to begin the trek home. Wendy had been watching the radar and told me that we could expect to drive through snow, ice and rain all the way home as a huge storm front moved north into Nebraska and Iowa. We were extremely thankful as the front seemed to miraculously stay just south of the interstate. At one point the radar showed that it was snowing right where we were, but we didn’t experience one snow flake or rain drop the entire way home. We arrived home in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

We had a ball and enjoyed the time with family.

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Wayfarer's Journal

Day 28: The Month You Were Happiest This Year

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30 Day Blogging Challenge Day 28: The month you were happiest this year and why (did I mention to you that I DID NOT come up with these questions?)

This is a hard question for me because happiness is not someting by which I typically measure anything in life. Perhaps if I’d gone to Disneyworld this year (“the happiest place on earth”) I could have a quick answer. Besides, at this stage of life’s journey I’m starting to get into that thing where you don’t remember what you did last week let a lone earlier in the year.

But, I digress, if I think about which month of the year seemed most enjoyable I would likely say that it was this past month. Not only because I can remember it, but because Wendy and I have spent a lot of time together on the road visiting friends, going on wonderful dates, and enjoying incredible meals together. We combined some work with some pleasure and visited friends in Michigan, we had a date weekend in Minneapolis, and have spent a quiet week together at the lake. Since Wendy is my favorite person in the world and we love doing things together, I can’t imagine a better month!

Wayfarer's Journal

4th of July Weekend 2011

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Old Glory flies from the Hall’s front porch.

Wendy and I picked up Grandma Vander Hart headed to Boone for a 4th of July cookout at the Hall’s yesterday. It was a gorgeous day and while the family gathering was much smaller than it might have been considering the size of Wendy’s clan, we had great food and a lazy afternoon of pleasant conversation.

That capped off a wonderful 4th of July weekend. Wendy and I enjoyed some rest on Friday night and Saturday, watching Wimbledon together and remembering our visit there a few years ago. We went to a matinee movie, something we rarely do these days. We went to see Green Lantern with extremely low expectations and were pleasantly surprised that a silly movie based on a comic book prompted such great conversation about the themes of love, will, and fear which carried on through the rest of the weekend.

On Saturday night we enjoyed a wonderful date night dinner out with the VL’s. After spending a week together in June with every meal dominated by the chaos of three families and four young children, we blissfully enjoyed a quiet dinner with adult conversation. We even got to extend the conversation back at our house for a dessert of chocolate lava cake and a wonderful Bordeaux. Mmmmmmmm.

I played bass in worship on Sunday morning which was a blast. I haven’t been playing as regularly with our crazy summer schedule, and the drummer pointed out that my fingers needed to limber up. Nevertheless, the joy of playing with the worship team and being part of the music never gets old for me.

We then headed to Des Moines to meet up with Tim & Kumi and Taylor & Clayton for lunch at Court Avenue Brewing company. More great food and pleasant conversation as we celebrated Taylor’s impending 21st birthday (more about that tomorrow).

How blessed to have a weekend full of people and experiences we love and appreciate most in life wrapped around a celebration of the freedom and sacrifice that made it possible.

Tom's Photos, Wayfarer's Journal

Tulip Time 2011

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Taylor had fun catching up with friends.
A bicycle built for four.
Our friend Cal carried the stars and stripes.

I can’t remember a more beautiful Tulip Time from a weather perspective. It seems as if the past few years have always included a day or two of inclement weather, but this year the weather was nearly perfect for our town’s annual festival.

Madison’s friend Kevin came up from Mount Pleasant on Friday and the four of us had lunch together at Monarch’s. Other than that, Wendy and I were busy with work and our house projects, so we missed out on the fun both Thursday and Friday. We took Saturday off and decided to enjoy the festivities that day. Taylor and Clayton were down on Saturday and spent the night with us. Our friends Kevin and Becky also came down with their kids on Saturday and shared some of the fun with us. We wandered to the open market in West Market Park in the morning and took in the afternoon parade. Our meals were mostly spent at the food stands as we gobbled up corn dogs, poffertjes, and Dutch letters. My digestive system is still recovering.

Sunday was Mother’s Day and my mother was down at the lake (wish we were there with her!). Wendy’s mom, grandma and the family all descended upon our house on Sunday afternoon and we enjoyed a light meal together.

Enjoy a few pics I took.

A nice breeze kept everyone cool and the windmill spinning.
Let the parade begin!
Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds
No, it's not Dodge City, but Pella was Wyatt Earp's boyhood home.
The Pella High Marching Band was awesome, as always.
The tulips were gorgeous this year!
Wayfarer's Journal

Easter 2011

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Cubbie Bear stopped by to wish me a Happy Birthday!

The Easter weekend started with my birthday party which was celebrated a week early. Wendy has always wanted to rent a skybox at Principal Park and have a birthday party for me. The I-Cubs aren’t in town on my actual birthday, so the festivities were planned for last Friday night. It was a cold, drizzly night so it was nice that we had a warm, dry skybox to enjoy the game. As the sun went down, fog started rising from the outfield and the game was eventually called after seven innings because of it. There were, however, fireworks after the game which was a great way to end the evening.

Wendy and I volunteer on the tech team at our church and Easter Sunday is always a major technical production. Half of the worship team is in the sanctuary and half in the auditorium. So the Easter service happens together in two rooms with audio and visual hook up between the two. Wendy was on a camera and I was running a light board. So, Saturday was rehearsal and then all Sunday morning was spent helping with two of the three Easter Sunday services.

After church, we headed to Des Moines to have Easter dinner with the VWs. The Keithley crew were there along with Tay & Clay and Uncle Tim. We were also excited to have our family friend Dave with us. Dave is in from Rhode Island helping renovate Tim’s building. It had been many years since I’d seen him.

We missed Maddy Kate who was in Minneapolis. She is finishing up school and will return to Pella in early May.

Wendy and the Girls
The guys brave the cool, wet weather.