Do you have your ear phones in?

I recently downloaded a new book to read. In the last week, I've found that I've had long periods of time with nothing to do (something which I will explain later in another post, most likely). Anyways, I figured that reading a new book would be a good way to fill these empty spaces in the day.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I kind of like hiking. So I looked for a book that involved hiking in someway. After searching ibooks, I found the book Hiking Through: Finding Peace and Freedom on the Appalachian Trail by Paul Stutzman. You can find the author's website here. I was first intrigued by the book because it involved the Appalachian Trail. Recently, the Appalachian Trail has fascinated me. Perhaps someday I might be able to thru hike the trail, but that's another story/post. Anyways, the book is about a man who recently lost his wife to cancer.  After the death of his wife, he believed that God was calling him to pursue his life long dream to hike the entire Appalachian Trail.

If you are not into hiking and care nothing about the Appalachian Trail, then this book is probably not for you. He goes into deep detail about the trail and trail life in general. But beyond the descriptions of the trail, he has some very profound statements about God and life in general. I find many of his questions, thoughts and ramblings echo my own.

Today as I was reading the book, I came along a passage that struck me. I probably wouldn't do it justice if I tried to paraphrase, so I'm just going to let you read it for yourself.

From the book Hiking Through: Finding Peace and Freedom on the Appalachian Trail by Paul Stutzman

"Every day, it seemed that God revealed more of Himself to me. Perhaps it was because I wanted to hear. Several days before, I had been following a young man on the trail. When I was within speaking distance, I attempted a conversation with him, but was ignored. I realized he had earbuds in and was focused on his music. Everywhere these days, people are plugging their ears and depriving themselves of good conversation. That earpiece is like putting up a 'Do Not Disturb' sign. This ear-plugged hiker shut out not only all conversation with fellow humans, but also all the sounds of nature. He could not hear the singing birds or the whispering pinces.


"Apparently he could not even hear the approaching thunder. The ear-plugged young man had a hiking partner who was a short distance ahead of him. Thunder had been rumbling around us, and rain drops started to fall as we crossed a road. The unplugged hiker had heard the warning rumbles; catching sight of a country church down the road, he dashed to the refuges of its little porch. But the other hiker marched on, head down, watching the trail and concentrating only on his music. His friend stood on that dry porch, calling, but the hiker never saw his friend leave the trail and certainly did not hear his name called out. He was soaked by the rain and separated from his partner. I wonder how far he walked before he realized he was alone.


"Though I watched with amusement as this little scene played out, I felt an inner nudge that said, 'That's you, you know.' And I got it. I saw myself in church on Sunday mornings, hoping to hear from God but letting so many worries and distractions clog my mind that I never could hear Him, even when He stood there calling my name."


My wife can definitely attest to the fact that I often let all the stresses and cares of the day (particularly work and finances) distract me from the here and now and from listening to her. How much more does this distract me from listening to God's still quiet voice. This is something that I have been praying about lately, particularly that I would be open and attentive to what God is trying to say to me. It is definitely something that I have often let fall along the wayside to the pressures of this world.

So, how about you? Do you have earphones in?

Fire

There are few things that I find more relaxing than sitting by a fire. Watching the flames flicker and dance; listening to the wood hiss and pop. Last night was a nice cool night, so Jamie and I decided to have a fire. Last summer we put a fire pit in the backyard, so we figured we needed to put it to good use.

Just a good relaxing night.

Welcome to Stem Fest 2012

Oops, I mean Tulip Time 2012.

If you aren't from the West Michigan area, Tulip Time is an annual celebration of the Dutch Heritage of Holland. In typical years, there are blooming tulips everywhere. However, this year we had some unusually warm days in March. Consequently, most of the tulips are already past their prime. And thus many have dubbed this year's festival as Stem Fest 2012. They even have t-shirts with Stem Fest Logos, as seen here.

Despite the lack of bright blooming tulips, that isn't stopping the locals from getting out and celebrating what Tulip Time is really about. That's right. Going downtown and pigging out on some greasy fair food.
During Tulip Time, downtown Holland is sieged by all the mobile food stands. Below is one of the junk food alleys that are all over downtown.

Being good locals, we met up with some friends to indulge ourselves on the greasy goodness like the glutinous masses.

There are so many options that sometime it is hard to pick your poison. That's why I typically make multiple stops.

Jamie has been belly aching for weeks about how she's been wanting an elephant ear. So that is where we headed first.

Yep, that made her happy.

Mmmm, elephant ears. Satisfying pregnant women every where.

I ended up eating a corn dog, and then later a Polish sausage. While we eating, my friend Justin was impressing the crowd with his bilingual dog.

Seeing a dog respond to commands in both English and Spanish is definitely impressive. Good dog, Naiya. After we gorged ourselves, we headed down to Kollen's park for the fireworks, where we had an annoying group of high schoolers sit in front of us and annoy the crap out of us. They kept standing up and sitting down, and switching who they wanted to sit by. Stinking kids. Man, I sound like an 80 year old man.

Any ways, there were fireworks.

Yep, it was a pretty good day.

Oh yeah, just to prove that there are tulips at Tulip Time....

Weekend Getaway

After a long and stressful tax season, and months of working six days a week, Jamie and I decided it was about time for us to get away for nice and long weekend getaway (also an early anniversary getaway). We took off Thursday to drive up to Traverse City and stayed until Sunday. Now that Jamie is pregnant and is going to be quitting her job in a few weeks, we have to be a little bit more conscious about where we spend our money. That being said, we looked high and low to find an affordable room. After searching and searching, I found what looked to be a decent room at a great price. I was a little nervous though. The room was in the old Michigan State Asylum (you know, a place where they kept crazy people). My apprehensions were only worsened when we pulled up the drive to see this run down gated up building.

Hmmm. Strange sign to have at a place where you are renting a room to guests....

Jamie and I followed the directions we were given and arrived at the door to our room.

I think I need to have a talk with the better business bureau. This place looked no where like the pictures on the website.


Just kidding. So apparently, only half of the Michigan State Asylum has been renovated. The above pictures are from the portion that has yet to be renovated. The pictures below are from the side that HAS been renovated. A little bit nicer, I think.

And this is what our room ended up looking like. Suite 202 at the Grand Traverse Commons.

One of the main reasons I picked this room is because of the loft ( as seen in the above picture). It was kind of fun having to climb up a ladder at night, but it was also kind of annoying as well, particularly in the morning when you really needed to go to the bathroom. But overall, I was happy with the room.

If you like how the room looks and would like to rent it, you can follow the link here. The Grand Traverse Commons is located close to downtown and has many little shops and restaurants on the ground floor. As well, there were some nice walking trails close by as well. Despite our impending poverty, we probably spent more on this condo than we would on a typical hotel room. But we figured this will be our last weekend away with just the two of us for a while.

Most of the weekend was just spent relaxing and enjoying time together. We enjoyed eating out at some great restaurants such as the Red Mesa Grill and the North Peak Brewery. We spent most of Friday walking around downtown Traverse City and just having fun together. We played mini-golf on Saturday at Pirates Cove. Just a fun weekend spending time together.

We also took a few "belly shots" of Jamie. These were just a practice run. We'll try more later.

I always find that after a really nice weekend that I get a little depressed going back to work. If only everyday could be spent just having fun with Jamie.

Long Time; Long Exposures

So, I realize that it has been a long time since I have done a post. This is due to the fact that life has gotten busy with new and exciting things. My supervisor at work quit, so I was busy learning how to take over her job. But the most exciting news over the last two months is that my wife learned that she is pregnant. Words cannot describe how scary and exciting that is, all at the same time. As well, we've been busy with the typical holiday things that go along with the months of November and December.

But, finally after about a two month hiatus, I have some new photos to post. For Christmas, my in-laws gave me a new tripod, a monopod, and a remote timer. I was very excited to get out and try my new toys. Then, this last week one of my good friends called me and wanted to do something since he had some time off of work. Since we both enjoy photography, I suggested that we go out and take some night time photos.

Here are some of the photos that I took that night. We started by the power plant.

The last two pictures above were some of the longer exposures that I took, from 4 to 6 minute exposure times. I learned that the longer exposure times revealed how dirty my lens is. You can tell by all the dark spots. I think these are from water spots I got on my lens from the boat ride to Mackinac Island. So I really need to figure out how to get those off.

After the power plant, we moved downtown.

That's all for now. Hopefully, I'll be more diligent in posting this year.

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

but two Wrights make a Kailyn...

Last weekend, we had the privilege of  taking family portraits for a family from our Church, the Wright's (Tom, Tammi, and Kailyn). Below are a good chunk of the photos we took. I was very happy with how they turned out, so I'm putting a lot on here.

We took the pictures at Riley Trails on the north side of Holland.

Kailyn is one of the most out going little girls I've ever met. It seems like she knows the name of just about everybody at our church.

The one below is probably my favorite that we took that afternoon.