Senior Pictures

In no particular order, presenting Ryan's senior pictures. He's scheduled to be a 2026 graduate of St. Joseph High School, college bound. 

These photos, taken by Catie at CABB Studios, capture his love of learning, musicianship, creativity, thoughtfulness, and easy going nature. He wasn't thrilled with the whole senior picture thing, but participated with openness nonetheless. So many favorites!

We are so pleased with how these senior pictures turned out. They represent the end of an era which is kind of shocking and sad, but we are excited and curious to discover what comes next as Ryan becomes increasingly independent and moves through life. 

Sports, Music, College

Evan's end-of-season Cross Country banquet was the best sports banquet I've been to so far in my four years of HS sports banquets. The table arrangements, decor, content, and food were all super intentional and well done. 

Only got this one picture of Ryan's end-of-year tennis banquet. He and his partner Ben are getting their certificates and such. One of the coaches had really encouraging words for Ryan, saying he considers him most improved this season. That's that goal right there, on and off the tennis courts.

Ryan is a member of this quartet this year with some of his orchestra-mates. As I understand it, they are participating in this outreach program through the Fischoff Chamber Music Association, which includes things like master classes with professional chamber musicians.

College Tour: This time we visited University of Michigan (U of M). We only were able to tour four. He applied to seven total. He's been accepted to Grand Valley and Western Michigan (WMU) so far. At the moment, his top two choices are University of Chicago and U of M. His third choice is WMU.

The tour goes through the law quad since it's so beautiful. It captured Evan's attention, and he joined mock trial the next week. Not sure if that's a coincidence or not. I always thought he'd be a good lawyer.

inside the law library

I've never been in a place like this, but I think it's a place where Ryan would feel at home. We toured Taubman College or Architecture and Urban Planning at U of M. This is the student work space, mainly for upper classmen and grad students. 

This school year seems to be flying by!

Fall Miscellany

Some autumn highlights...

Evan went to Homecoming with a group of friends.

My musical boys... What's funny is that they weren't playing two different things on their two different instruments. The musical chaos was amusing.

Burke's 47th Birthday

This series highlights their connection and antics.

Ryan and his Quiz Bowl team compete in a tournament in Holland. Being a senior, this is his final Holland competition. Burke and I have really enjoyed watching these events. 

He didn't really want to, but Ryan and I negotiated terms and he got some senior pics taken. He was a good sport about it, and they turned out great. Can't wait to share more of the images with our friends and family!

Evan's cross country season is over. He was able to rehab his shin splints, and finish the season with the team. He participated as best he could considering the end of cross season conflicts with the musical rehearsals. They are performing Grease this year. More to come on that. Anyway, I'm proud of him for sticking with it. Who knows if he'll choose to do it next year. It's not high priority for him, but he does enjoy the social aspect and a few of his close friends run, so we'll see...

Autumn Artie

Evan and his friends dressed as a gang of wizards for Halloween.

This year, Ryan is performing with the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra. He became interested because some of his school friends played with the group, and a couple kids from Blue Lake International do too. It was a wonderful concert, and interesting experience for us all to not have Burke running the show.

Burke had a chest pain scare last weekend. Long story short, his arteries are clear and he had/has pericarditis. After a couple rough days, he is thankfully on the road to recovery, and hopefully will never have to experience anything like that again. Fingers crossed.

He mentioned his ET finger, so we had to reenact that moment of the film. 

Additionally, Burke and I have various other health screenings coming up, and we're hoping for all good reports. This stuff is scary, but part of the life cycle, I guess. As my friend Jeanette said, "We have medical technology on our side." Here's to a healthy, peaceful holiday season. 💜