Just News from Joan: October 2010

October has been an incredible month of fun! Most of the pictures are in slide shows because of the sheer number of them.

First - I spent a wonderful day with sisters Marva and Denise walking around downtown Grand Rapids, enjoying some of the amazing displays at Art Prize.

Deven has had a terrific season of freshman football! He was injured last week, which caused him to spend most of his final game tonight on the sidelines. The pictures were taken during the last few games and the video is from last week's game.

Bill and I had a marvelous vacation in Hawaii, our first trip there since 1973. We were joined by Laura & Ben and Amelia and the five of us were privileged to cheer on our friend Andrew in the Ironman competition. What a thrill that was!

We spent a night at Laura and Ben's in Pasadena before heading to Hawaii, where they arrived several days later.

I celebrated my 60th (!) birthday on the 14th. Laura and Ben sent these beautiful flowers to our condo in Hawaii - a thoughtful gift that we enjoyed the entire time!

These photos will give you a good idea of the luxury that we enjoyed for ten days. (I pulled several of them off from the rental website - with ten days in that lovely place, you'd think I'd have found time to take more pictures....

These are photos of family and friends....what a joy to spend time with all of them!

The Ironman competition was unbelievable. We still can't comprehend what Andrew accomplished - 50th out of over 1850 competitors, 3rd in his division! With a time of 9:00:21, he beat many of the pros! We enjoyed several of the events surrounding the race itself - the athletes' banquet, the Underpants Run, dinner with Andrew's 'fan club' at our condo, and the Awards Banquet. What an experience!

Bill and I spent a day traveling around the island before the others arrived. We took a short hike through a rain forest to see the Akaka waterfall and also stopped in the volcano area. Most of the road around the volcano region is closed because of dangerous levels of sulphur and ash in the air. Still, it was an awesome sight! There are also pictures of the beach and lagoon area by our condo.

We were home for less than 24 hours before hitting the road for a drive to Iowa for the wedding of Josh and Erin. It was a beautiful ceremony and we were privileged to be included in their celebration. We also spent lots of time with Tom and Ila, visiting the highlights of the area which included Hospers where Bill's grandpa served as the pastor of the Christian Reformed Church back in the '50s. We made a stop in Madison, WI on our trip home for a visit with our long-time friend, Bill. It was wonderful to see him and he continues to inspire us with his optimism and joy!

The rest of these pictures are miscellaneous ones taken since my last post....