Skiing is one of our most favorite wintertime activities and each year Jeff and I enjoy an adults only ski trip with friends, usually out West. So far we’ve covered a lot of ground in Colorado and Utah, and in 2023 we ventured even further out to Whistler BC, Canada. This year was a whole new ball game after receiving an invitation to join a 40th birthday party trip to Chamonix-Mount-Blanc, France and it was ‘tres bon!’ Our flight plans from Detroit (through Amsterdam) into Switzerland allowed for a fun overnight exploring the city of Geneva. The city is known for being the headquarters to th ..read more

Chicago is just about a three hour car ride from our home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Over the years, our trips to the Windy City have evolved. I used visit for the weekend and stay with college friends to enjoy big city shopping and late nights out on the town. Later on, I celebrated both my bachelorette party and our honeymoon there. These days our visits to Chicago look a little different. And we love it! Here’s a recap of our latest whirlwind tour to Chicago, Illinois. A lovely thing about Chicago is that they are a full hour behind Michigan time. This means we can leave right around 4pm ..read more

Twenty-twenty-four is here and this past month we spent our time enjoying a few of our favorite things including some massive snowfalls, family skiing and bowling. We rang in the new year with neighbor friends on the second floor at Clique Lanes. It was a toss up on who had more fun, the kids or the adults. Sadly, Jeff was disappointed to find that his custom bowling ball had somehow cracked, rendering it useless and forcing him to borrow a rental. But all is well that ends well, later that same week he found his way back to the alley for a new fitting and purchased a new ball. Jeff’s ne ..read more

The level of delight, surprise and pure magic reached an all time high this month as we celebrated Christmas with friends and family. Throughout December we enjoy many of our annual traditions as well as welcomed some new ones. One of our favorite traditions includes visiting Santa at Fredrick Meijer Gardens. This year the kids had their requests for Santa picked out months in advance: Natalie asked for a game and Thomas a drone (go big or go home I guess). They must have been ‘good all year’ because their items were waiting for them at home under the tree on Christmas morning. Another tra ..read more

The holidays are here and I’m bursting with excitement! Thanksgiving weekend was three days of back to back gatherings with each of our families, followed by a Friends Thanksgiving on the tail end. Let’s begin there. Friends Thanksgiving is an incredibly fun tradition started by Jeff’s high school friends from Calvin Christian more than a decade ago - I don’t actually know how many years it’s been going. Instead of the usual turkey dinner the group all contributes to a soup and salad crockpot buffet that’s topped off with Mrs. Workman’s dirt dessert. The kids fill up on gummy worms and run ab ..read more

October was an absolute blur of fun Fall festivities. We’ve never hit the Halloween scene so hard and created some super fun memories. The kids both dressed up as police officers (something they decided on months ago and never wavered from their choice) so, like we do… Jeff and I followed suit with filling the roll of the robbers to complete the 2023 Kladder Costume: Cops & Robbers. Felt ironically perfect seeing as I’m not employed by a bank. We debuted our costumes at the Zoo Goes Boo event with the entire Kladder Fam at John Ball Zoo. The weather turned out perfect (it had been raining ..read more

According to public record, Fall has officially arrived. However, despite the presence of Fall staples like football (Go Blue! Go Lions!), back to school and pumpkin flavored everything… the sunshine and warm temps suggest otherwise. The weather this September has allowed us to hang onto summer just a little bit longer with pool parties, golf and boat cruises. For the second summer in a row we enjoyed a super fun boat cruise on Reeds Lake with friends after purchasing an auction package at the annual GRCS middle school fundraiser. We had a riot blasting tunes, eating ‘snacklebox’ charcute ..read more

France was pure magic! Simply put, each day felt like we were in the scene of a movie. At times we were in a romantic comedy sipping red wine watching the Eiffel Tower glitter after dark. At others it felt like an epic war film as we toured enemy bunkers off the coast of Normandy and walked the same footpath followed by U.S. soldiers during WWII. We even had moments while exploring the many castles and chateaus where it felt as though we might either be royalty during medieval times or…perhaps, a wizard searching for the Sorcerer’s Stone. Nerd alert. In each of these movie scenes… and for the ..read more

The headliner for the month of July is the announcement of my resignation at Steelcase in order to step into my next career opportunity with Mercantile Bank as their Chief Marketing Officer. My last two weeks with Steelcase where bittersweet as I transitioned out of my old role in order to provide a smooth exit. It was also filled with celebration and hugs from my team and leaders who expressed to me their congratulations and gratitude. On my last week at Steelcase I spent a few days in New York City shooting with the team for my very last project. We dubbed the trip my ‘final farewell tour ..read more

It’s that time of year again when us Kladders pack up the car and head (VERY) North to Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula for our annual Smith Family cabin trip. Eight hours of drive time (plus about an hour of gas/bathroom breaks) gains us a destination in the remote part of the Porcupine Mountains where you’ll find a rustic home away from home that belongs to my parents. It’s ‘off-the-grid’ in every possible way and provides a place where we can all truly unplug from our day to day. It’s a family tradition that’s been around since before I was born and something we all look forward to eac ..read more