Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Weekend in Grand Rapids

This past weekend was filled with lots of fun! Everything started on Friday. First, we got an extra day to our long weekend because it was too cold to go to school on Friday. So, we got to sleep in and relax all day on Friday. We did go and see "Mall Cop", which was really funny! On Friday night we met up with my family at Olive Garden to celebrate Halle's birthday and Allyson's birthday. Al's birthday is on Jan 18-just 8 days after Halle's. Since my mom was out of town around Halle's birthday, we hadn't had a chance to celebrate with them yet. Olive Garden is Allyson's favorite restaurant so that was the place she wanted to go for her birthday dinner!! We all had good food and our waiter was really good, which made for a nice birthday dining experience.
Al and Hal opened their gifts at the restaurant

I got Al this really cute orange purse- She liked it!!
After eating, we all headed back to my parent's house and Halle played with the gifts that she got-"Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago" computer game (sidenote: I had this same game as a kid and loved it...I also really wanted to be on the Carmen Sandiago tv show back in the day), Coloring books, and the Human Body game with a working stethoschope (from Andy). The rest of us played Scattergories and we all ate cake and ice cream!!

Al and Hal blowing out the candles on the cake



Mom and the Birthday girl



Me and Allyson



Parker getting cozy with Amber



The group



Me and Brad



Me, My brother-Andy, My sister- Allyson

Saturday morning we got up and headed to Grand Rapids, MI. It is about 2 hours away from where we live on the west side of the state. Brad's aunt and uncle live there, so we went to see them and see their new house (they actually moved into it a year or so ago, but we haven't had a chance to see it until now). Brad's parents went the night before so they didn't have to drive through the snow storm like us. Thankfully, we made it safely, even though we saw a lot of cars in the ditch or in accidents on our way there.

Their house is really nice. Just picture a Potterybarn catalog and that's what their house looks like. I totally forgot to take any pictures, but you get the idea. Everything was super organized and decorated so nicely.

When we first got there, we made homemade French Dip sandwiches (Brad's fav) and snacks. Then all the girls took off and went to Rockford, which is only 10-15 minutes away from where they lived. It's a cute little town with a bunch of different shops. We only went to a couple stores because we didn't have a lot of time and it was snowing like crazy. We went to The War Chest, which is a really awesome shop. It is owned by missionaries who go around the world and buy women out of sex slavery and give them a chance at a free life. They teach the women a trade, such as making jewelry, so that they can provide for themselves and their kids. The jewelry is beautiful and their stories are so awesome!!! We all got some jewelry and I will definitely go back again and get some more. We also went to a store called Jade, which has a bunch of neat clothes, purses, etc. I got a bright yellow shirt for when we go to Florida.



Saturday evening we just played games back at their house. Some good friends of theirs came over, so it was nice to get to know them as well. They are really trying to get Brad and I to move over there!!! It is a nice place to live, so we'll just have to see....


On Sunday, we went to their church, Blythefield Hills Baptist Church. It was really nice! Afterwards, we all went to Logan's for lunch! We sat with Nate and his girlfriend, Lisa. My stomach was really upset, so I honestly didn't enjoy the lunch at all. I wanted to eat, but I just couldn't. We headed back home afterwards and spent the evening relaxing!!!

It was a very enjoyable and fun weekend. We were glad we were able to make it over to Uncle Chip and Aunt Sharon's house and see them and their kids while we were there. They are a sweet family and hopefully we can get back over to that side of the state again this summer.

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