4-20, dude!

i'm a little late putting this blog up because our computer had NO space on it for me to download the pictures. so for the past several days i have been uploading them all to shutterfly and then putting them onto discs so i can erase them from the computer. it's quite a job seeing as though i have about 2 years worth of pictures on here. but i have finally freed up enough space to download my most recent pictures.
so to you table 17ers, i apologize if you've been checking the blog and there have been no pictures. but here they are in all their glory.
7 years ago we were attending the bridge church in pontiac. dave and i were getting ready to leave that church to help plant another church. at the time, we hadn't invested a ton into the bridge and we hadn't formed a whole ton of relationships, so the move to the new church was not going to be such a big deal.
on april 20, 2001 we attended the wedding of eric shanburn (the pastor of the bridge) and jennie palsgrove (did i get that right? totally going off the top of my head). at the reception we were seated at table 17 with a couple of people that we did know but a bunch of people we didn't know at all. seated at the table next to us were most of our friends and those that we were going to go to the new church with. we couldn't really understand why we hadn't been seated at that table.
not long after being seated and making our introductions, we realized these people we were sitting with were 10x (maybe even more) cooler than those at table 16. or 18. or whatever number was next to us. seated with us was scott and susie loudon, matt and niki nichols, kacha and michelle azema, and when she wasn't performing her bridal party duties, melissa weckler.
it was the first time we'd ever met, if not ever seen, the nichols and the loudon's but we all hit it off immediately. after leaving the wedding, dave and i looked at each other and said "moving to the new church just suddenly got a whole lot harder."
in the end, things ended up not working out with us and the other church which was good on so many different levels. we stayed at the bridge until it shut it's doors about 4 years ago or so.
we have remained friends with everyone from table 17 and every year around 4/20 we have our anniversary party. now that we all are at different churches and spread out a ways from each other, it's great to be able to have everyone together once a year. this year was the first year that EVERYONE was able to make it, even eric and jennie.
due to crazy, busy schedules we typically don't find a date that the majority of people are available for until sometime in may. this year we were able to have the party on saturday, april 19th. the nichols graciously let us use their house. and thankfully, the weather remained beautiful so we were able to hang outside most of the evening!
table 17 now consists of scott, susie, estella, and samuel loudon, matt, niki and everett nichols, kacha, michelle, cielle and eden azema, melissa weckler, eric and jennie shanburn, dave, jill, hayden and talan skiver. we have gone from a group of 11 to a group of 18. it's been so cool to see all of the changes we have gone through and i look forward to another 7 years of celebrating our friendships!
happy anniversary, table 17!

dave, talan, scott and estella:
the azema's:
hayden and cielle coloring (hayden never does this anymore...it looks like he was doing it to get out of eating):
niki and everett:
talan, eden and michelle. eden and talan are just about 2 or 3 weeks apart. we tried having her teach talan to walk, but he still wasn't having it:
samuel....such a cutie:
talan. he's cute too:
dave, susie, jennie, melissa, eric, kacha, eden, talan, cielle and michelle watching the jumpers:
the favorite part of the evening was jumping off of the porch. even after hayden skidded across the concrete just the day before, he had no fear. and stella kept right on with him:
discussing what kind of jump to do next:
i wasn't around when this first started, but i can only guess it was all hayden's idea:

sam decided to get in on the fun too:
what we did with the kids:
matt and niki...thanks for having us!:
when it was too cold to be outside, this is what they did inside:
hayden and stella's prom picture:
it was a long, fun day: