Pictures for your viewing pleasure

We're moving!

Hi everyone!
We are moving to a new WebBlog.
Effective immediately, the new blog can be found here.
If you wish to be a contributor or post comments, we need to send you an invitation.
Simply send us an e-mail and we will send you an ivitation.
It's easy and it's FREE!

Happy Blogging!
The Van Ryn's

Driver's Training 101

I'm a new to blogging

This is my first post. Mike, thanks for setting up the blog. Looks like you put up some nice photos already.

More pictures of the girls

A visit to the pumpkin patch

Jillian and Olivia in the hay pit

Tayler and Olivia

Tayler manning the corn cannon

Tayler, Jillian and Olivia

The Van Clan at the pumpkin patch

Happy Halloween!

Pictures from the 2007 West Chester Halloween Parade

Here are some pictures of the girls at the WC Halloween Parade.
They were dressed as cats.
Enjoy!

October 24, 2007

Hi all,
Just wanted to give everyone an update on the Van Clan.

• Mike is back to work after being out of the country for a week. Jet-lag aside, he found it tough to get back in the swing of things. Work has been very busy too.
  
• Kristen is in desperate need of a vacation after taking care of the girls while Mike was away. She's been asking to go away to some place warm and sunny (Bermuda perhaps). She deserves it!
  
• Tayler visited Penn State's Wilkes-Barre campus over the weekend. He was impressed with the campus and the facilities offered. While he's not sure whether he plans to attend PSU, the visit was his first to a college campus. More to follow...
• Jillian seems to be enjoying school more and more each week. She brought Buddy the class mascot home last week and was responsible for taking him around with her. See the pictures below. At show-n-tell today, Jillian brought sea shells that we collected while we stayed at Long Beach Island, NJ.

• Olivia is more and more animated everyday. Her vocabulary is growing and she's definately sure when she wants or doesn't want something.

Over the weekend, we raked a pile of leaves for the girls to play in. Jillian loved them-Olivia did not. Oh well, there will be other piles of leaves to play in. The picture above shows the girls in their pajamas and their swim suits. We know-but sometimes you must pick your battles and this one was not worth fighting over. Besides, we can use this picture to blackmail them later when they get older! :)

That's about all that's new from PA.

Love to all,
The Van Clan

Hello from Germany!

I'm here in Germany and wanted to share some pictures with you.

This is my room at the Hotel Kral in Erlangen. As you can see, the room is very European. The bed is quite firm and the pillow is quite soft. The hotel is located just 2 blocks from Siemens Medical HQ so walking is a breeze (even if you have to look out for the bicyclists).

I've spent three days in our other factory located in Forchheim, which is about 13 km from Erlangen. Our CT (Computed Technology) systems are manufactured here as well as our X-Ray equipment. There are approximately 300 employees at this location.

Erlangen's factories employee thousands of people and manufacture MR (Magnetic Resonance), SP (Special Products eg. Mammography systems), and several other medical imaging devices sold worldwide as well as R&D, Clinical, Finance, HR and other roles.

I hope to have more images uploaded shortly.

Until then,

Tschuess!

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Erlangen,+Germany&sa=X&oi=map&ct=image

One year ago today

October 5, 2006

October 5, 2007

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Olivia turns 1

We had a little gathering at our house on Saturday to celebrate Olivia's first birthday.
While her real birthday is on October 5th, we decided to celebrate it early because Mike is traveling to Germany on October 6th.
Here are some pictures from Olivia's party.
Enjoy!

"Hey, where's the beer?"

"I remember when I turned one, Olivia. It's no big deal!"

"Uhm, has anyone seen my fork?"


"Jillian, this is MY birthday-get your own presents!"

Home again, home again...

Sadly-our vacation time is over! We made it home safely despite the gloomy skies and the intermittent rain showers.
We had a wonderful week enjoying the beach and the ocean and now it's time to get back to the 'grind'.
As if to add insult to injury, the whole lot of us came down with head colds (runny noses, sneezing, coughing, etc.). The girls fared better than the adults. While their noses ran like drippy faucets, their spirits did not seem to be dampened. Ah, youth!
Now, it's back to work. Argh!!!

Greetings from Long Beach Island, NJ

Hi everyone!

We are in full swing of our annual vacation at Harvey's Cedars on Long Beach Island, NJ. The weather, albeit cool and windy, has been fantastic so far and according to the local weather station, it appears the remainder of the week will only get better.

The girls are having a wonderful time at the beach. Jillian loves playing in the sand (she's not too crazy about the ocean) and Olivia is crazy about the ocean and eating the sand. Go figure. Luckily, the family below us has four kids and they all play together on the beach. We are so fortunate to have nice neighbors below us.

Kathryn has been wonderful with the girls and is truely a fantastic "Georgie"!

Here are some pictures from our vacation, enjoy!

Welcome to The Van Ryn's Blog

We will use this to post events, pictures and short videos of our lives here in West Chester, PA