Our Anniversary Trip to Mackinac Island

For our 4th anniversary we decided to go to Mackinac Island. We love the Island...it's where we spent our Honeymoon and we just had to go back!!



We stayed in a cute little bed & breakfast and had a tiny little room on the top floor. It was a cute room and minus the flower wallpaper we loved it.





We spent a lot of time walking around, looking in the shops, riding our bikes, playing on the swings at the school, eating great food, and just relaxing.



We walked up to the Grand Hotel and took our pictures by it. Since it costs money to see it on the inside (if you're not staying there) we decided just to see it from the outside. Besides we paid to see it when we were there for our Honeymoon.



One of days we spent at Mission Point Resort. That's the hotel we stayed at on our Honeymoon. The Mr. got very nostalgic...it was so cute. When we were first there the tower, which is a museum, was being redone. So we knew the next time we were on the island we wanted to go and see it. So we rode our bikes to Mission Point, relaxed on the front lawn, and then headed up the tower. It was so hot in there on the first few levels. Then on the smaller, all glass levels they had little air conditioners to keep things cool. It was much more pleasant. We learned all sorts of things about the island, Mission Point, Michigan lighthouses, and the Great Lakes shipwrecks.



On our last day we went to see the Governor's Mansion. We hiked up this awful hill, waited in line for probably 20 minutes, and walked through the main level in 5 minutes. It was really neat to see and hear about how it came to be, but I wish we could have seen more.





Overall our trip was fantastic! We had a great time and didn't want it to end. We highly recommend that if you ever get the chance to go...GO!!

A Special Day at F.M. Gardens

On the day of our 4 year anniversary the Mr. and I spent the day at F.M. Gardens. It was a beautiful and pretty much perfect day. Inside we got to see the work of Degas! It was really cool to see the work of someone I have studied. Then we went to see the dessert plants and the tropical plants. I had some fun taking pictures of several of the tropical plants. Please enjoy...





After we saw everything we wanted to inside we headed outside where we found the strangest looking bug. We have no clue what it is. It looks like a combination of a crayfish, hummingbird, and a bee. If anyone can identify it for us that would be just dandy!



From there we headed to one of the board walk trails. It happened to take us into some wet lands where we saw over a dozen turtles, some ducks, some Canadian Geese, and plenty of bugs.



The trail ended at a make believe farm with fake animals and a bathroom! Here are some sheep for you all to enjoy. There is a small hint of "something" to come. See if you can figure it out...



On our way back we spotted a small Gwen Frostic garden. Here is the sign for it...I thought it was pretty and since nothing else screamed Gwen Frostic in the garden this sign was it.



Before we left I talked the Mr. into checking out the kids area. There was some really fun stuff for the kids to do. There was a really cool tree house and this neat Great Lakes water feature. All in all it was a great day!

A Trip to the Local Zoo

One of my good friends invited me to go to our local zoo with her, her son, her sister-in-law, and her two nieces. It was priceless. We had a great time and I got some fun pictures of the kids and these animals. Our local zoo is constantly improving, but I still remember it be a whole lot bigger when I was little. My favorite parts of the day were watching the little ones at the petting zoo and seeing the new lion exhibit. The lioness just stared at me with her beautiful brown eyes, she probably wanted to eat me because I looked tasty, but nonetheless, thank you Lord Jesus for that beautiful animal.

Summer Fun with the Friends and Family

The Mr. loves his video games and as a Christmas present we got a Wii! We both love our Wii and love to share it with our friends! Here are the boys playing Mario Cart. You can tell they are having fun by the looks on their faces.



What is summertime without some fun in the sun, a boat ride, and a nap? My parent's have an awesome cottage and a speedboat. I love to ride and plenty of others like the torture of tubing. I don't have any tubing pictures to share with you because no one seems to be tubing when I remember my camera...others have been lucky enough but not me.



One of our good friends from our small group Bible Study played slow pitch softball on his co-workers church team. The Mr. and I enjoyed sitting with his wife and watching him play. We even made some signs to cheer on the team. They won almost every time we went...before we started going they weren't winning...we like to think that we were a good luck charm...not really, they were just playing better, but it was a good thought. :)



Here we are hanging out at the cottage with our small group Bible Study friends. We ate some great food, fished, and my dad dumped the boys off the tubes quite a few times...I of course forgot my camera for that part of the day. Oops! Could there be a reason I am so forgetful?!

This One is for You Em

As you have read below, the Mr. and I had our deck taken out and a patio poured. Well, we then had to decide what to do with the old deck wood. The Mr. didn't want to just throw it away and it being treated wood we couldn't burn it, not to mention that we live in the city and burning things is not allowed. Anyway, the Mr. called around and found a place that takes all kinds wood and recycles it. Two full car louds later the wood was finally out of our driveway and going to be reused again somewhere! The Mr. took pictures of the event because he wanted his big sister to know that her values weren't that much different from his!