Late-winter 2017

It was a fairly mild winter, so the apple trees were looking pretty good as they budded. There was no late frost, so they were looking good for October apples. At some point Briggs got a notion to bake a cake, so he did. It came out fine. I was reminded of the time Eli got a similar idea. Without Eli at home, food consumption is different but things still manage to disappear regularly. I came home one afternoon to a flurry of activity in the back yard. A hawk had gotten a critter and was trying to finish it off. Mostly flying leaves and feathers, but I was cool if a bit gruesome.

Birthdays and sports in winter 2017

Here are a few pictures from winter-time birthdays and sports. It's a fun season of the year.

Calvin worship symposium

This was the 2nd year I had been to the worship symposium at Calvin College in Michigan. It's a really good event: lots of student groups are present giving a youthy vibe to everything. It's also a very large event on a rather small campus, so it get a little crowded sometimes. While I've enjoyed the event both times I've attended, I'll probably try for something different in 2018. This year the trip back was a nightmare. It began with a damaged window on the plane I was supposed to fly GR-ATL. I was delayed, missed connections, and then Delta had a massive tech incident which brought everything to a halt. I finally crawled into bed at home at 530am! I had to drive from AVL in snow! An international travel ban was put in effect while I was in GRR; there was a protest at the airport while I was awaiting my later flight. They disrupted car traffic but nothing in the airport was really affected. Eli was going to be heading out for AmeriCorps a few days after I returned, and he had lots of questions about air travel, so I took lots of pictures for him