Fall Update

Well, the summer simply flew by...

Ben had a tremendous time in Turkey, and if he had ever given me copies of the pictures from his trip, I would have posted them here. But, alas, I have no pictures... and we had Ben only two months this summer, when it was all said and done. Never long enough, I guess...

Ben is working on his senior year at Hillsdale-- how could it be?! He will be travelling to Rome and Florence in January for a short course, which likely means a short time home over Christmas break as well, and then finish his classical studies degree. In addition to working on his honors thesis, he is looking at graduate schools, and hopefully will get moving on the application process soon.

Tim is back at school and having a great cross-country season so far. This is his first season to start without any injuries and a good mileage base. He has won his first two races: the UW-Parkside Midwest Collegite Invitational (Results here: http://www.uwp.edu/athletics/stats.cfm?sportID=8 Pictures here: http://www.dcrunnerpics.com);
and the MIAA Conference Jamboree (Results here: http://www.calvin.edu/sports/mxc/MIAA_MEN_05jamboree Pictures here: http://webapps.calvin.edu/gallery/jamboree)

Tim is also underway in his junior year as an engineering major, and is doing well in his classes. He is part of a wonderful new program at Calvin called Alliance: for upper-class athletes. It is intentional Christian community and leadership training all rolled into one, and it seems to be challenging and affirming Tim in many important ways.

Marilyn survived our hectic summer, and enjoyed three weeks with her daughter Kathleen and son-in-law Kirk in Pennsylvania.

And we enjoyed about three weeks of a Penssylvanian ourselves: Tim's running collegue and friend, Bill Reynolds, spent three weeks running at altitude at the end of the summer. It was great having him here.

Other hioghlights of the summer included:
~Celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary with a weekend get-away to Colorado Springs
~Meeting our new niece, Zoe Rose Hanson, and visiting with Matt and Maria on a trip through Chicago
~Helping Mom and Dad Hanson move from Iowa to Rio Rancho, NM, just north of Albuquerque
~Having visits from Chris' sisters Annie and Jeni
~Enjoying a trip through the Black Hills and Badlands in South Dakota, and a ferry trip across Lake Michigan on our way to deliver things to the guys at school. And we enjoyed visits with friends along the way (Beth Harvey in Colorado Springs; the Manweilers in Valpo, IN; the Finches in Lindsborg, KS; and Jeni is Cedar Rapids, IA)

Dave continues to stay busy at work, and with teaching an adult Sunday School class on the Larger Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith and leading our evening fellowship group on Sundays.

Chris is again teaching a worldviews class for 13 home schooled high schoolers, and is teaching a high school composition class for the first time to 15 home schoolers. She is also directing about 90 students in the homeschool chorus, directing a church choir, and leading the women's bible study.

So as you can see, we are back to the scheduled business of another school year!