mackinac island part 1

mackinac island 2013

1. it took us 8 hours or so to get to mackinac island since we took the scenic route suggested by my parents. 

2. michigan is really a pretty state to drive through with its rolling hills and natural forests. plus, they had smooth, paved roads to drive on.

3. we stopped for lunch at manistee and ate at a local pub called tj's. i had the best sandwich there called the italia.  i re-created it tonight and it was almost as good.

4. once we hit mackinac city, we missed the ferry by a few minutes so we went to another local bar for a few drinks waiting for the next one to show up.

5. our hotel was right on the water and as soon as you got off the ferry. a guy took our luggage on a bike and dropped it off to our hotel for us.

6. there is no automobiles on the island which made it just that much cooler. you either walk, ride a bike or a horse and/or carriage.

7. mike went and got starbucks before our bike ride the next morning. he's such a yuppie.

8. mike got the honeymoon suite not because it was our anniversary but because it was the only room left. they gave us a bottle of sparkling wine and wine glasses.

9. mike also rocked my dooney and bourke purse.

10. photos 11 + 12 [from top to bottom] is the grand hotel. i heard the rooms weren't all that but its super huge and the lounge area was also decked out with tons of seating. the horse and carriage flower sculpture was on their lawn.

june cara box exchange

not sure how i ran into wifesessionals blog but once i saw she started the cara box exchange, i was in! our theme for june was "going to the fair/circus or carnival".  i got teamed up with the adorable ginny over at buttergirl diaries. since i was on vacay, i had to wait till yesterday to see what goodies she had sent. boy did she go over and beyond even sending ollie a treat!  thanks so much ginny for the box of awesomeness!!!

while i thought the theme was kinda hard it was still fun trying to come up some ideas. here's what i ended up sending to april at hansen love. a funnel cake kit, chocolate covered bacon, kettle corn, sweet tea and a zebra print tumbler since she loves zebra print!  

[photo via april]

if you want to see what goodies others have gotten, go here. its fun to look and get ideas for future swaps or gift giving.

and we're back

sunrise in arkansas through my buggy windshield

1. we didn't make it as far as last year before mike had to stop and get some sleep. i could feel him drifting so i made him stop somewhere.

2. after 3 hours of sleep and another 6-8 hours of driving, we finally made it to his folks house where we stayed for the first 6 days.

3. sleeping in a car squishes my body and it ached the next day even though theres so much more room in the armada than the rover.

4. it was awesome seeing our family and friends.

5. but bad when mike left me with his parents. even though we get along- its still not cool man. 

6. he went out with his buddy brent one night, went over to another buddies house with kaylee the next night and went golfing with said buddies the day after that. 

7. kaylee and i did some shopping at the outlets when he went golfing. kaylee loved spending pooppoops and nanny's money. [they each gave her 10 bucks!]

8. after ham saw both sides of the family, he ditched us the rest of the time to hang with his buddy tommy,  at purdue.

9. i have more photos and more of the trip to share.

10. after being gone for 15 days and driving more than 3700 miles, it sure feels good to be home.

road trip!

sunrise in missouri

1. this photo was taken last year on our last road trip to indiana. the 3 of us had just waken up and mike was ready to fall asleep.

2. i was hoping this road trip, we could take our time but mike's already complaining that the trip took so long last year because we had to stop every 2 hours. [an exaggeration]

3. so today is cleaning and packing day because i like to return to a clean house.

4. i told ham that could be a new business- someone does all the work involved for your vacation and once you return they would unpack, do laundry, buy groceries etc.. but he said the people who could afford to hire me probably already have people who do that for them.

5. but i was thinking more for people like me who don't have people.

6. kaylee has a cookie baking class today. i planned that so we could have homemade cookies to take with us. 

7. and she's excited because she's going to have a sleep over at granny's house with all her girl cousins and get to see her bff on another day.

8. i'm looking forward to my nerd herd's reunion and mackinac island!

9. 2 days of no whining, complaining kids! [man were they on a roll yesterday!]

10. so no more blog posts till i return. it might only be indiana but its my only escape for the year so i'm taking advantage of it.

a drop-out and getting ready for our road trip

taken a month ago

1. little peanut is funny. i found these on photo booth the other day.

2. i have a summer school drop out. calculus is a hard class to be taking in a 6 week time frame. 

3. so he will take it in the fall when he will have more time to actually learn and study for it.

4. it was causing so much stress that he felt like eating 100 mcdonalds cheeseburger and if you know ham, he don't do fast food. 

5. nor does he quit anything so this was a hard decision for him.

6. he is now going back to indiana with the rest of us. his decision. i did tell him if he stayed, he had to look for a job which he was okay with.

7. so we plan on leaving tomorrow evening and hopefully make it to mike's parent's house by friday afternoon.

8. yesterday was a busy day running errands. i did get the oil changed, our phone line fixed, 2 baby gifts bought and my passport ordered.

9. today is kinda a free day so kaylee and i are heading to do some more shopping for house warming gifts. [this trip back to indiana is already putting me in the poor house with baby gifts, house warming gifts and 4 birthday gifts]

10. mike said he thinks we will be moving overseas by this time next year, the reason why i got my passport. so we will be ready to go and look at housing when its time.

the weekend

 at the astros vs white sox game saturday night

 she is SO silly! [and mike said him wearing his hat backwards and with the mitt is called something but i can't remember]

little cutie pie

1.  ham came home for the weekend so he could go to the baseball game with us.

2. i felt super bad for him because he came home SO upset and stressing about his summer class and how much he's hating redneck texas. 

3. so being the good parents that we are, found him a tutor today and he said he feels much better. the tutor was better at explaining things than his professor.

4. guess we'll see if she's worth the money after he takes his test tomorrow.

5. saturday we went to see the white sox get beat. the score was 3-4 and the player on second base got tagged in the last inning because he was off base. such a stupid way to lose a game!

6. but we had fun anyway and mike said that was a great father's day gift!

7. today we hung out by the pool. it was super hot like 97 degrees but felt like 102 said the temperature channel.

8. ham texted me asking if i could come up and clean his apartment this week so kaylee and i are heading up there tomorrow. he's the only left in the apartment but he says its still gross from them living there.

9. then the rest of the week is spent running errands and getting stuff together for our road trip to indiana.

10. i'm still not all that thrilled to be taking a "vacation" back to indiana but it will be good to see family and friends.

kaylee is awesome

toast

1. kaylee is so stink'n cute. she wanted to surprise us and make us dinner last night.

2. she wouldn't tell us what she was making but did ask how to work the toaster and if we wanted butter, peanut butter or nutella.

3. she ran out of grapes or else we would of had more and she wanted to add some bananas but ate the last one at lunch.

4. she got really upset when mike got us fast food since i had a horrible headache. [toast wasn't enough to eat] my nose was smelling lots of yucky stuff.

5. yet 7:30pm came around and i felt an urge to go and run. i was bored and feeling antsy.

6. i only ran a mile since it was getting dark but it felt good.

7. today andre had me row 250 meters, 25 sit-ups, row 250 meters, 24 sit-ups till i got down to 5 sit-ups and the last set he had me do 10 sit-ups.

8. i ended up rowing 6500 meters and doing 325 sit-ups.

9. i'm going to be pretty sore tomorrow but its worth it. i feel slimmer today.

10. kaylee went to see epic with one of her friends so i'm enjoying a quiet house right now.