Amy and Trevor's Wedding

Last year Erin told me that she hoped she would be a bridesmaid at least one more time. We're moving past the "wedding phase" of our lives and many of our close friends are married. Erin didn't want to say goodbye to wedding parties and last weekend she got her wish. Her work friend Amy got married and Erin was a bridesmaid.

The wedding went very well and we both got to ride around on the party bus between the ceremony and the reception.

The party bus went downtown and to Rockford for pictures.

Here we are at the Gerald R. Ford museum with some beautiful sunshine. Literally, 10 minutes later it was completely cloudy and raining.

It also rained in Rockford. I wasn't in the wedding party, so I stayed on the bus and ate ice cream while everyone else got rained on.

We enjoyed the reception with the whole Spectrum gang and lots of dancing.

Ketchup

I love Ketchup. Here are my personal guidelines, I'm sure you will disagree:

• Put ketchup on virtually every type of meat - steak, chicken, hamburger, sausage, hot dog, brat. Notable exceptions are turkey and ham (except when they are dry, then ketchup is appropriate).
• Put ketchup on most types of potato - french fries, baked potato, potato chips.
• Put ketchup on anything fried.
• ALWAYS dip everything - dipping ensures the optimal amount of ketchup for every bite.
• I'm not a ketchup snob. Any U.S. brand tastes good to me. The only ketchup I haven't liked is a European version that was way too sweet. Kyder (Aldi) is what I have at home.
• No ketchup on eggs.
• No ketchup on Mac and Cheese.
• At fast food restaurants, I either create a ketchup mountain directly on the tray, or on the bottom side of a super size beverage lid. There is no point in using those dinky paper cups.
• If necessary, ask for ketchup packets by the fist full.
• When dining in, check the level of the ketchup bottle at your table immediately when you sit down. If less than 1/2 full, request a new bottle way before your food comes. Remind the server if necessary.

Celebrities and Basketball

It was a busy weekend for our family. On Friday and Saturday I played in a Zeeland 3 on 3 basketball tournament. We finished 2nd out of 7 teams. Our 2 losses were both to the winning team, 27-25 and 21-19. Games were to 20, win by 2, so it was about as close as it gets.

On Saturday night we went to a "celebrity" poker party which was a lot of fun. I went as Michael Phelps, Erin went as Britney, Evie as Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, and Derek as John Daly.

We hung out around the house for part of the weekend because of the rain. This is how Evie would prefer to eat most of her meals...comfortably lounging with her feet on the table.

A scholar and a shopper.

Sunday was really hot so we went to Tunnel Park. The park was packed like I've never seen it before. Evie spent the whole time running around -in and out of the waves and also trying to steal other kid's sand toys.

After 2 hours at the beach we drove home. 1 mile down the road I turned around to see why Evie was so quiet and to our great surprise I saw this! Evie virtually NEVER sleeps in the car, and when she does it isn't until after fighting it for a long time.

Cottage Week

For the first time in 5 years (since graduating from college) I've had enough vacation to take time off for a long cottage weekend. It was awesome. We shared the time with my parents and siblings. We had plenty of time for golf, running, boating, basketball, swimming, walking, and socializing.

Evie loved the water slide. She likes normal playground slides, but really couldn't get enough of sliding into the lake.
Evie proved she's growing up by nicely sitting with her cousins Andrew and Jacob, and her 3rd cousin Esther.

Grandpa E's highlight of the week was tubing with the naughty one.

Always an adventure...

To top the weekend off we celebrated Erin's birthday! My cake this year was another marble creation. I thinned the layers enough to make a quadruple-decker. It didn't look as imposing as previous years, but tasted just right.