The Lost Creek Wilderness with Luke, Charles and Zoe

The week after our trip to Michigan we drove back to Colorado with Luke, one of my (Bryant's) best friends from college. We then spent three days in the Lost Creek Wilderness backpacking with our dogs, Charlie and Zoe. The picture below is of the dogs on day one, when they still had plenty of energy.

We ended up at McCurdy Park, one of the most amazing camping spots I've ever seen. It was so great we decided to just spend both nights of our trip there and decided to just do a day hike on day two. The next two pictures show some of the views from our campsite.
We had such a great time hiking and enjoying the incredible beauty of Colorado - I still can't believe I get to live here.

Here the dogs are starting to tire out a bit...

...and eventually they formed a mutiny against their owners and decided they were going to sleep instead of hike with us. (Please note: this pictures was not set up at all, they did this on their own).
In the end we covered about 24 miles in three days, had great conversation, enjoyed incredible scenery, and poor Charles left with some sort of intestinal situation which led to a nice vet bill for Luke. I hope we get the chance to do it again someday soon.

Michigan Trip Part 5: Sarah and Josh's Wedding

By far the best part of our week in Michigan was Sarah and Josh's wedding. All of the family and friends that had gathered in Holland from all over the country and the world (Switzerland and Canada were also represented) were just so full of happiness for the two of them.

As usual, the night before was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner, which was held at Via Maria. The food was so great and a handful of family and friends offered very nice toasts to either the bride or groom, or both.

Sarah and me at the rehearsal dinner.

The wedding ceremony was so beautiful. Sarah and Josh decided to devote a significant portion of the service to worship through music. My dad gave the message which was just awesome and very personal to the two of them. My very talented Aunt Wendy wrote a song for them which she played during the lighting of the unity candle, as she had done for Becky and I when we got married. Becky and I both had the honor of standing up for them and we had such a great time being a part of the wedding party.

The new Loomis family (Grandma, Dad, Mom, Sarah, Josh, Wendy, Bryant, Becky).
After the ceremony the wedding party boarded a limo bus where we celebrated with champagne as the bus took us to the park where the pictures were taken.

As expected the reception was awesome. As I'm sure most of you are aware I love to dance, as does my sister and her many friends from Hope that were also dance majors. Needless to say the dance floor was bumpin'/rockin'/and any other silly word you can think of to insert.

In the end it was just such a great day, and everyone was just so happy for Sarah and Josh as they started their life together. Becky and I hope that someday we don't live so far apart because we really like them a lot and are very excited that Josh is now a part of the family.

Michigan Trip Part 4: Holland State Park

We spent quite a bit of time during the week hanging out with my parents at their campsite at Holland State Park and at the beach. My dad is a master at cooking delicious meals while camping and you can see how excited we all are to partake in the gigantic breakfast that is sitting on the picnic table in the picture below.


After a trip to the beach we did Becky's mandatory stop at the General Store for Chocolate Monster ice cream.

Michigan Trip Part 3: Family Reunion

Becky and I hadn't seen my parents since last Thanksgiving so we were looking forward to spending time with them while we were in Michigan. Also, prior to this trip, Becky had never met Marina, who was an exchange student from Switzerland who lived with my family when Sarah was a senior in high school. They became very close friends and to this day call each other "Swissters." I hadn't seen Marina since Christmas 2004 so we were all looking forward to having the whole family together for a week (including Josh- the newest member of the family).

We all met up at Crazy Horse for dinner and it was so great to have the whole Loomis + Josh + Marina family together for the first time ever.

At dinner Marina handed out gifts she had brought for everyone. Most of us got some very cool Euro 2008 gear (Switzerland and Austria co-hosted the tournament). Becky got a scarf from Guatemala (Marina is quite the world traveler) which you can seen in the picture above. Zoe didn't get any Euro 2008 gear but wanted to be in the picture anyway.

Michigan Trip Part 2: Bryant's Friends

It's hard when most of your best friends live across the country from you, but it usually makes for quite a fun time when you finally do get to see them again. That was the case for me on our recent trip to Michigan. Ryan and Joel - who live in the same house even though they're married (it's a duplex), were kind enough to host our little get-together along with their wives (thanks to Sarah for the amazing food). As always it was a great time filled with more hilarity then I can explain. There was a lot of reminiscing of the college days, especially once Ryan busted out the photo album containing many ridiculous pictures from our "misled youth" as Joel might say. I've been very blessed throughout my life to have such great friends and often wish I could see my college friends more frequently...I look forward to next time which should be in a few weeks.

Ryan, Joel, Luke, and a soon-to-be-grilled chicken. (Not pictured: me, Justin, anyone's wife or girlfriend...I didn't take very many pictures).

The chicken. (Not pictured: anyone else).

Michigan Trip Part 1: Ron and Luann's Cottage

We've gotten a little behind with the blog since we left for Michigan a few weeks ago. During our nine days in Michigan we had such a great time getting to see our families and friends and getting to be a part of Josh and Sarah's (Bryant's sister) wedding. We will be posting highlights from the trip as we have time. As always, thanks for reading.

The first stop on our Michigan trip was with our very good friends Ron and Luann at their cottage on Big Star Lake. This extended what is normally a 17 hour drive into a 19 hour drive, but it was more than worth it to get to spend some time with them. For those of you who don't know, Ron and Luann are the parents of Jill 'DeVries' Johnson who was Becky's college roommate. I got to know them when they let me take over their basement during World Cup 2002 because I didn't have ESPN2 at my apartment that summer (the games were on at 1 and 3 am and they didn't even know me before that which gives you and idea of how cool they are). Ron and Luann were the Master and Mistress of Ceremonies at our wedding (which interestingly no one from outside of Michigan has ever heard of) and did so much to make sure everything went perfectly for us that day.

It was the first time we had seen them in a year-and-a-half so we had such a great time just hanging out and catching up. We took the waverunner out on the lake and they cooked us a delicious dinner. Hopefully next time we'll be able to stay a bit longer.

Becky and I on the sun porch.

Zoe and Chloe met for the first time and got along quite well.

Ron made me a gigantic steak and asparagus omelet with the previous night's leftovers. It was fantastic.

Backpacking with Zoe

For those of you who don't know, Zoe is our dog. This past weekend Becky was in Michigan surprising her Mom for her birthday and attending Jill DeVries' (now Jill something else...sorry Jut I don't know your last name...I'll look it up) wedding. Since I was sans wife for the weekend I took Zoe with me on a short backpacking overnight trip up Left Hand Canyon at the north end of Boulder (our friend Kersta referred to it last night as a "father-daughter camping trip").

We found a great spot right next to a creek which Zoe swam in all night while I sat by the fire. It's a great thing to once in awhile just get away from absolutely everything and be alone in God's incredible creation. As is usually the case when camping in Colorado the stars were so vivid; a sight you can't get unless you get away from all of the light pollution from the cities we all live in. It was a very peaceful evening and I look forward to many more nights this summer spent in the Colorado mountains. Here's a couple of pics from the trip:

Zoe carries her own stuff...and some of my stuff.

Zoe enjoying the amazing view.