Grand Rapids!

Last weekend, I had the awesome opportunity to go up to Grand Rapids and visit my amazing friends! We didn't have school on Monday, so it was a long weekend for me. Actually getting there was quite an adventure with missed trains, cars not starting and errands to run, but I made it and it was a phenomenal weekend!

I got in late on Friday night and stayed at Abby's apartment. I woke up early and joined the divers for practice on Saturday. It was so good to see everyone and meet the new freshman. It was fun to get back on the boards again too :) I don't miss it like I miss vaulting, but it was definitely good to be back. I hadn't touched a board since Nationals in March, so it had been a while. But I can still do a front two and half pike, so I was okay with that, even though it wasn't that pretty.

I got to catch up a little bit with Sam, one of the divers after practice. I miss her so much! It was so good to just chat and hear about the team and everything.

I then went back to Abby's and Elizabeth came over. I essentially spent the whole weekend with the two of them and it was AMAZING! I love them so much and we had so much fun! It was great to catch up on the summer and life in general. Oh I miss them!

We packed some lunches and headed to Reeds Lake. It was the PERFECT weekend to go to Grand Rapids! It was truly a fall weekend! The weather was gorgeous! We sat out on a blanket and just chatted and ate lunch. Then, of course, we had to go to Jersey Junction to get some ice cream! Probably the low of the weekend was that they didn't have Chocolate Almond. My favorite. (but not too shabby of a low for the weekend)

We then went bargain shopping and got a couple things. It wasn't as successful as I was hoping, but it was fine. There aren't too many thrift shops around Chicago, so I miss them. We had some good finds though.

Then we headed back to Abby's for dinner and met up with our guy friends to play some games. It was good to see everyone! I miss those guys a lot.

Sunday morning we went to Crossroads. Oh my goodness I can't explain the love I have for the people there and that community. Such amazing worship and rich fellowship. It's sometimes painful how much I miss it. It was so good to be back. Yet it makes me want to go to Grand Rapids every weekend. I feel like Crossroads is the one thing that would ever keep me in Grand Rapids, but sometimes I think it would be worth it. Rod didn't preach, so that was unfortunate, but it was still a great sermon and so good to be back.

After church, we headed straight to an apple orchard and went apple picking! So much fun! We got there right as they opened, which was perfect timing.









We picked lots of apples and had to search for them. It was a bad crop this year, but it was fun to have to climb for them :) Then we got donuts, which is always a plus.
Love these girls!

We then headed to Chris' house and made apple crisp with our freshly picked apples. YUM! Zack and Tim came over too and we just chilled. We watched a movie and ate goodness. Sunday night we just hung out, tried to go bowling, but it didn't work out and then crashed. I was exhausted.

Monday I slept in, then went to Calvin's campus and had lunch with my old suite-mate. It was so good to catch up with her! I hung out at Calvin for a while and ran into a bunch of people, which was so fun! It was so weird being back there, yet it felt so normal.

Then I headed back to Chicago and got in around dinner time. It was a spectacular weekend, really, couldn't have gone better! The weather was absolutely amazing, I got to see my dear friends, and we had so much fun! Now, everyone has to come visit me... :)