now that's a beautiful baby

I'm totally obsessed with these pictures. They turned out so great - we are so happy with them. I don't think family pictures will ever be overpriced. So worth it.  Elise did great too - She mostly just ran around and jumped up and down on the box the photographer brought.  If you're in the Grand Rapids area and are interested in photos let me know I'll send you her info.  Super reasonable and really good. 

john ball zoo

Today was the perfect day for the zoo. Not too hot. Cloudy. Awesome. 

Elise refused to touch any of the animals in the petting zoo.  

She thought the penguins were pretty cool though.

Really not sure about all the chickens walking around. 

On a random note - monkeys are totally gross.  They have gross monkey butts and ew ew ew.  I do not enjoy monkeys.

Nick's Mom and Dad went with us and took us to Mr. Burger for dinner.  The same Mr. Burger where Nick had his first job THIRTEEN years ago as a busboy.  Awwwww.....  Thanks guys! 

advice for bald people

Hey look!  I'm on a blog! 

 Last week Ashley at Lil Blue Boo asked people to send in their before, during, and after chemo hair pictures for her 'Cancer Chronicles' series.  I got brave and sent mine in.  I only took ONE picture of myself the whole time I was bald.   Bald mistake #1.  I wish I had more, honestly.  Bald mistake #2 was letting myself think that keeping the 45 stragglers sorta long-ish was actually doing something for me.  It was definitely not the face framing layers I had once requested and sorta made me look like that old guy in church who thinks his combover looks like real hair.  Sorry to burst your bubble, buddy. 

Anywho......

July 2011, then Jaunary 2012, and exactly one year later -- July 2012. 

There it is.

So my advice for bald people on chemo is:

1.  Take more pictures.  Because hopefully this will never happen again and YOU WERE BALD.  Weirdo.
2.  Just get rid of it all once your head starts reflecting light.
3.  Bask in the glory of the fact you don't have to shave your legs.  Or anything really.  Except maybe your head.  (See #2)

So I'm sorta famous now.   I wonder if I will start getting recognized in public. 

Color Run!

Sunday the sisters and I did the Color Run! It was so fun. My next door neighbor and new BFF Stephanie ran it with us too.

This is the 'before' shot.  Aren't my sisters cute???

The 'after' shot.  This took a couple showers to get off. 

We jumped in the lake and my mom threw us some shampoo.  We looked like little monkeys scrubbing each other down.   Such a fun day!

results, colbie, & a giant popsicle

I should first say - PET scan results are really good. The report states that "no abnormal foci of increased activity are noted withing the neck, chest, abdomen, or pelvis to suggest residual or recurrent lymphoma".  Phew.  So now we're good until another PET scan in November. 

After that was out of the way we went to FMG for their outdoor concert series.  It's pretty cool - everyone brings their own chairs and food and sneaks in drinks.  We used a home-made wine purse with a classy bag of wine (done by my crafty mom) but the people behind us had a binoculars flask.  Awesome.  We saw Colbie Callait who was totally adorable and so so good.  And I want her outfit. 

We got amazing spots because Aubrey sneaked to the front of the line and threw her body on the grass in order to hold spots for 5 chairs.  And a 30 pound wine purse. 

Gavin DeGraw was there too.  Eh.  We left his part a little early to escape the mob of traffic.  I'm pretty sure he's balding under that fancy hat.

I went to the lake at the crack of dawn Saturday morning for the Green Lake 5k.  Dad and all the sisters ran three miles.  Go us!  I ran the whole time but I have figured out I am the slowest runner ever.  Took me 36 minutes.  Gotta work on the speed now...

Nick's work rented out 5th/3rd Ballpark for their yearly party.  There is TONS of people that work for Gentex and they provided food and a really fun afternoon.  Elise never gets pop so we was loving this diet coke.  She wouldn't let go and kept wanting more "nummies". 

And then she got the biggest popsicle of her life.  All of this stuff was free!

It was pretty cool - they had the whole outfield open with games.  Elise just ran really really fast.  Fun fact - that giant Fifth Third Burger was featured on Man vs. Food.  It weighs like 20 pounds or something.

Our friend Jacob was there too!

I've got another post coming up about the Color Run.  This weekend was insane.  I have nothing on my calendar for next weekend and I can't wait.