Avery's 1 Year Pictures

Here are more pictures from Avery's 1st birthday and party.

Waiting to open presents

the cardboard tastes better than the gift itself

Yummy strawberry cake

skyping with Grandma and Grandpa Bergsma

Updated family photo with a one year old!

A Flooded City

It was a beautiful day this past Monday and so we decided to bring dinner along and head downtown Grand Rapids for the evening.  We had heard about the flooding going on downtown and along other parts of the river, so we wanted to get first hand viewing of this record breaking event.  Due to the limited amount of time we had, we were not able to see everything, but here are a few pictures of what we did see.

Water over the sidewalks along the river

 Stairway leading into the river (used to be leading to a walkway along the river)

 You can see another stairway lost in the water on the other side

 the river almost touching the bottom of the bridge

 Standing in a similar spot where we had our wedding pictures taken

 You can see the water is halfway (or 3/4 of the way) up the bottom row of windows 

More wedding pictures were taken in this 'valley' which is now a little inlet 

 No boats are going to be able to pass under this bridge either

 Here is a closer view of the water against this building

 the Fish Ladder - or what used to be a fish ladder - don't think the fish need it this spring

an almost level dam - I think the fish will have no problem jumping this one

  standing at the fish ladder lookout point

 the concrete pad in front of the fish ladder is at least 8 feet below where we are standing

 A washed out sidewalk across from the fish ladder (Sixth Street Park)

 looking at the dam from the Sixth Street Park

A Beautiful Sunset 

Avery is ONE!

Wishing a wonderful Happy Birthday to our dear little Avery!  She is such a sweetie and we love her very dearly.  It is hard to imagine what life was like without our little girl.  Strange how that happens, eh?  We pray that God will bless her with many more years and that she will become a woman after God's own heart.

Here are a couple pictures I took of her today to share in her special day.

Stay tuned for more 1st Birthday pictures to come! :)

Avery is practicing her walking skills

Master Bedroom Closet Door

We have a 10 foot wide closet in out Master bedroom, but the door was only 6 feet wide.  It was always challenging to try and see what was beyond the opening into the dark corners and reach for some clothes.  We finally were able to cut open the wall a bit wider and make our clothes a little bit more accessible!

Our next problem was that there were no standard closet doors in any of the home centers for an 8 foot opening. So, soon we were having to order a custom door.  We decided to go with sliders because they were easy to open and close and didn't take up any additional opening room.

Here is the work in progress and the final outcome!

Widening the opening on both sides of the existing doorway

It was a messy job!

Avery had to get right in there and help daddy out!

...and the new doors!

They are so much nicer to open and close!  And so glad to be able to reach all of my clothes now!

Enjoying Spring Weather

We have enjoyed having my sister Trienna has stay at our house for most of this week, as my parents and some siblings were on a mission trip to Kentucky.  Since the weather got really nice toward the end of the week, we went for a couple walks down to the local playground.  Avery got to swing on the swings and go down the slide for the first time this spring.  Looking forward to many more enjoyable times this summer.

Avery LOVES Kitty!

We have to 'save' Kitty from the extra 'love' and attention Avery gives to her.