I was born on May 9, 1977 to H. DeWayne & Cheryl Price in Frankfort, Indiana. My freedom of being the only child ended three years later when Crystal was born. Throughout my life I have lived in Frankfort, IN; Spokane, WA; Kinde, MI; Washington, MI; Novi, MI; Fremont, MI; and finally to join Wendy and her family in Jenison, MI. In this time, I have made many friends and learned countless cultural differences in each society. From early childhood, I devoted my time to the Boy Scouts until the age of 18. I received my diploma from Frankfort Senior High School in 1996. I worked for 7 years with Carter Lumber, both in Frankfort, IN and in Muskegon, MI. I left Carter to become a Team Leader at Lowe’s of Grandville (MI), and am currently awaiting a Department Manager position to become vacant. I enjoy woodworking year round, skiing in the winter, and spending time at the beach (where I proposed) with my new family in the summer.

Early in the week, Brad had asked Wendy if she wanted to go to Via Maria Trattoria (It is a very nice Italian Restaurant – in the heart of Dutch country) for dinner on Wednesday, then maybe go to the beach, as he had the day off. We figured it is a weekday; we will go when there should not be any prom kids or many people from sightseeing during Tulip Time. I was game – we had not been out to the lake yet. He said he might take the kids if they had done there chores and stuff. Wednesday comes around, and we got to the restaurant, got in right away – if memory serves us correct, we did make a reservation. We shared a dinner for two, while the kids shared a pizza.
After dinner, we went to Lake Michigan in Holland State Park. We all walked along the beach, to Brad’s favorite spot – the lighthouse. Wendy will not go near the edge of the pier, so she hid under the life preserve station. Aside of the fact it was colder than cold out on the water. Land temperature was nearly 60°, but the winds on the water made it feel like 40°. Brad forced (yes forced) Wendy out into an open area for “pictures”, but Wendy being the stubborn Italian she is, made him face the coldness, to block out the wind. Joshua starts taking pictures, and Brooke being the giddy one is just laughing away. (This is not out of the ordinary – she can laugh for no reason).
Brad starts babbling about the first serious conversation we had. How he wanted to prove to Wendy that he was in it for love, and how he wanted to be a part of the family. He proceeds to move away from Wendy – so she is freezing, and gets down on bended knee, and ask her to marry him. Wendy, being the stubborn one, actually asked him, “Which answer do you want?” Literally, as his teeth are chattering, he says, “Well, the one that says, YES.” For those of you who do not know Wendy, sometimes getting an answer out of her is like pulling teeth. A good minute goes by with no answer. Yes, she was actually going to say no! However, before she could get it out, he proceeds to say, “The reason I brought the kids with us was because I wanted you to know, I have their permission to marry you – oh yeah, and everybody else in your family as well.” How could anybody say no to a proposal like that? Without hesitation, at that point, the appropriate answer murmured out of Wendy’s mouth “YES”.
Wherein, Wendy says, “Everybody in my family knew?” Evidently, Brad had taken a day, gone up to Wendy’s parents’ house, and actually asked her parents for permission to have her hand in marriage. Wendy thinks it was more like – “I’d like to make an honest women out of your daughter.” Nonetheless, Brad must have seen the perplexed look on Wendy’s face. She did not quite understand why one would bring kids to a proposal. Moreover, if he had not, who would have known to take pictures at just the right moment?