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our friend andrew erickson is a busy guy living out in the la area. we haven't seen him in years but on friday evening a group of us were able to meet up with him for dinner (unfortunately his wife, mary, couldn't make it...next time!) at what used to be dave's least favorite restaurant simply because of all of the "stuff" on the walls.
the food was great and the company even better. it was great seeing you, andrew, and we can't wait until you're back in town again!hayden, talan (reaching for the glass of water which seconds later spilled all over him), jessica, jenne and joe villanueva, andrew and heather wood, andrew erickson, dave:
what happened after the camera snapped the picture:
jenne and joe:
heather and andrew:
i gave hayden a new video game right before we left the house. it worked like a charm as we didn't hear a single thing from him the whole evening:
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:
our good friend tina was able to get us tickets to the shrine circus yesterday. we almost weren't able to go as hayden came down with 104 fever on friday, but he was doing much better by sunday.
tina, jessica (who was afraid to go), dave, myself and the boys headed to the state fair grounds for an afternoon of cotton candy and clowns.
hayden, taking after his mom and aunt, wanted nothing to do with getting his picture taken with one of the clowns. he happily accepted a balloon that they threw to him, but that was about all he wanted to do with them. and i don't blame him. clowns are serial killers, ya know?!
we tried getting hayden to let us put him up on the rail so we could take his picture with the elephant behind him, but he wouldn't have any of that either. i guess he's see one too many videos of elephants going crazy in the circus and killing people.
all in all, the circus was horrible. hayden loved it though. and talan seemed to enjoy it as well. i, on the other hand, felt as if i was at some cheaply done high school production. there were no lions or tigers or bears or trapeze artists. they had some singers come out singing a tina turner song. and it was horrible. when the song was over, did they leave the ring? oh no, they got to sing another song.
apparently kwame decided to give the shiners the building to use and they don't need to pay for it until they see how much they made off of it. well, i think kwame must have said...i'll give you the building but i'm not heating it...because it was FREEZING in there. hours later, jessica's feet were still numb.
everything was "breathe taking" and "spine tingling" but my breathe wasn't taken and my spine didn't tingle even once. but again, the boys enjoyed it. and i got to eat cotton candy, so in all...it was a great afternoon.
in case you haven't heard me complain about it before, my less then 2 year old camera died on talan's first birthday. so i had my mom's camera with me to capture our afternoon. due to the lighting, a lot of the pictures didn't turn out so great. but here are a few.
i did order my new camera today so i'll hopefully be taking pictures with it by next week.
thanks again for the tickets, tina! no offense to tony or the rest of the shriners, i complained this much after seeing thomas live on stage too.
as close as he would get:
he loves cotton candy:
dave texting everyone to let them know what was happening at the circus:
my things:
bag pipers:
these dogs were pulling people around. it was funny:
tell me this clown isn't scary:
pegasus!:
a unicorn!:
motorcycles jumping through fire:
2 motorcycles in the "big metal ball" i think they called it:
the end is finally here:
i was a little nervous about dave doing the cutting, but he did a great job. he made 2 perfect cuts on the accent piece and i don't think anyone else could have done a better job!:
finished (minus the grout):
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