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!"