Michigan Trip

Back from Jason and I's mini-vacation!  Jason had to head to Michigan for work so I decided to tag along. We started with a VERY early flight on Saturday morning.  We then flew to Baltimore, MD for a 3 hour layover.

Jason trying to get a nap in Baltimore

We finally left Baltimore to head to Flint, Michigan but our trip wasn't over! We had to drive 3 hours to St. Ignace.

St. Ignace is located in the upper peninsula of Michigan and is absolutely gorgeous! You have to cross the Mackinac bridge to get to St. Ignace which is a 5 mile bridge that has Lake Huron on one side and Lake Michigan on the other.  The bridge was one of the most impressive bridges I have ever seen.  

When we finally got to St. Ignace we decided to go have dinner and a few drinks to celebrate making it through our 12 hour trip.  We went to a Mexican restaurant next door to our hotel and ordered a pitcher of Margaritas. Unfortunately this restaurant was probably one of the worst places we have ever been.  The margaritas tasted like they poured a few of those margarita mixes in a pitcher and added a few shots of tequila.  I am a light weight when it comes to alcohol and I barely felt anything besides a sugar stomachache. The food was not any better.  It was not a great start but the view of Lake Huron and the great weather made up for it.

The next day we decided to head to Mackinac Island.  We took the ferry across and decided to rent bikes since there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island.  It was a very touristy place but such a cute island.  

On the ferry with the Mackinac Bridge in the background

Waiting for the ferry. Lake Huron is in the background

We rented our bikes and decided to head up to Arch Rock. On the way up the hill we stopped to admire the most famous hotel on the island The Grand Hotel. Very beautiful!

All the cute shops on the main street

The Grand Hotel

Arch Rock was amazing! It was hard to believe that I wasn't looking at the ocean because it was so blue and pretty.  It is huge!

Arch Rock

The view from the top of Arch Rock.  It looks like the ocean!

I got Jason to take a picture with me!!

We then headed back down and stopped at a cafe to have some appetizers and Run Runners.  Yummy!
We then rode around the island on the 8 mile road that goes along the coast.  It was mostly flat so it wasn't that difficult to ride for that long.  The houses along the beach and the view the entire ride were amazing.  I would have taken more pictures but I was just enjoying riding the bike and taking it all in. It was so much fun!

My transportation for the day

The view during our bike ride

Jason is in the background:)

Taking a picture of the amazing view

After 4 hours we finally headed back to town, had a beer, returned our bikes, and headed back to St. Ignace.  Jason was working with the Sault St. Marie and they have the Kewadin Casinos.  We headed over to their St. Ignace casino for dinner and some slot machine fun.

View from the casino

On Monday, Jason had to go do some work so I went and sat on the beach for while before I met him for lunch.  Later that day we decided to head an hour north to Sault St. Marie to see the Soo Locks on the Canada/USA border.  We watched the freighters head into the locks to move along the St. Mary's River that connects Lake Superior with Lake Huron. We headed back to St. Ignace and ended our trip with some yummy ice cream along the coast.  It was a great trip!

Soo Locks.  The bridge in the background takes you to Canada

Birthday weekend/4th of July

I love that my birthday is on the 4th of July.  Everyone celebrates it, fireworks, and there is always something to do.  My birthday started with Jason making a yummy breakfast for me.  I really wanted to go to a movie because we never do.  We went and saw "The Heat" with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.  The story-line was not the best but it definitely made me laugh quite a bit.  The rest of the day was spent on our back patio grilling and having a few cocktails.  Since this was our first 4th of July in our house, we didn't know that our neighborhood LOVES to light off fireworks.  We had our own fireworks display from our back yard.  It was perfect!

Friday Jason went with his dad to pick up our 1/2 a cow we were getting butchered. Beside bringing home a ton of meat, he also brought home beef bones for the dogs. They are some very happy pup dogs now! That night we went to the Royals game for Buck Night and Friday Fireworks. Jason got tickets from his work so we had pretty good seats. Even though the Royals lost, it was a fun night.

On Saturday we went to our friend's house to help celebrate their son's 1st birthday and then spent the rest of the day with Jason's family.  Today is our recovery day from a fun, filled weekend.  

I love my birthday but it also marks the unofficial 1/2 point of summer.  Only 5 more weeks of summer vacation....

June: Loves of the Month

Books: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.  In college I was hooked on Dan Brown books (Da Vinci Code, Angles and Demons).  On the plane to California last month, I saw his new book, Inferno, everywhere so I decided to read the last book he came out with which was The Lost Symbol.  It was a typical Dan Brown novel with suspense, mystery, and controversial topics.  I especially enjoyed that it took place in Washington DC and talked a lot about all the historical places there.  I love reading about American history and enjoy a good historical fiction book.





Movie: Promised Land and Side Effects  Both great movies on two totally different topics.  Promised Land stars Matt Damon and Frances McDormond as salespeople for a large natural gas company who want to lease and drill on farmland in a small town.  It discusses the effects of this clean, burning fuel on farmland.  Side Effects is a psychological thriller about the effects of taking anti-depressants.  Great movie with so many twists.



TV Most shows have ended for the summer so I don't really watch much during these months. My guilty pleasure, Pretty Little Liars, did start their summer episodes but that is about it.  Jason and I did start watching the series Under the Dome mostly because there is not much else on.  We are both patiently waiting for the August premier of the last season of Breaking Bad.

Eating One of my favorite parts of summer is grilling and one of my favorite foods is a yummy, grilled hamburger.  Jason and I like to experiment with our hamburgers and stuff them with different cheeses or make fun toppings for them.  Yum!!

Music Don't Ya  by Brett Eldredge.  This song just makes me happy when I hear it.  Watch the video here
ViewPure.com is also one of my favorite websites.  I like to show YouTube videos in my classroom but the ads are not always appropriate for 4th graders. ViewPure allows you to create a different link without all the ads. I then store them in my portaportal.com account but that is a whole different topic for another time.

Best Thing About June Definitely my bachelorette party in California!!! Thank you all who made it!

Wedding Update

I can't believe our wedding is 3 1/2 months away! Some thought I was crazy to wait a whole year to get married but I have to say all this time has made the planning process pretty stress-free.  I am hoping I remain this calm as the date gets closer.

This summer off from school has given me some extra time to finish up the planning process.  I finally registered for gifts.  I registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and a few items at Target. We would love to do some remodeling to our house, so we are hoping for Home Depot cards as well.  Jason did not want anything to do with the registering process.  In his words, "Our stuff is just fine. Why do we need more junk?"  If you know Jason at all, this sounds like something he would say. The funny part is that Jason does most of the cooking in our house so you would think he would want new kitchen things.  I just think the idea of spending an hour or more in a store scared him away.  While I was registering at Bed, Bath and Beyond, there were two other couples there registering as well.  The look on each of the grooms' faces told me I should be happy (and Jason should love me even more) that he was not there with me.  Registering was a little overwhelming but we I picked out some great items.

Besides registering, I also bought my wedding shoes! I love shoes but can I just say that shoe designers need to make more wedding appropriate shoes that are not 4" or higher heels.  What is up with that!  I am not opposed to wearing high heals but I also don't want to be 6 feet tall when wearing shoes either.  I also want to wear my shoes all night long and not break my ankle either.  I did eventually find some cute shoes in an acceptable height.  I thought I would wear red shoes but I just couldn't find anything I liked.  I ended up going with gold, sparkly shoes.  I could still end up changing them but right now I am happy with what I got.

I have also ordered my tables, linens, and other items that we needed to rent for our event.  I designed and printed our wedding invites.  Now I just need to start assembling everything.  Lastly we finally booked our plane tickets to Cancun!  We have had our resort booked for awhile but hadn't bought our tickets.  111 days until we are relaxing on the beach!

Bachelorette Party

Last weekend I flew to Southern California for my bachelorette party.  I was so excited to see my Cali friends but having three of my Kansas City friends there made it even better.  The weekend was amazing and   they did such an amazing job planning it.

We started on Friday with breakfast at my favorite little restaurant, The Beachcomber.  It is right on the beach, has great food, and great Bloody Marys.  We then spent the rest of the day at the Glen Ivy Day Spa. We lounged by the pool, had a few cocktails, took a hot/cold plunge, soaked in the mineral bath, and even got covered in mud.  We ended with a moisturizing treatment in an underground grotto. It was such a relaxing day.

After we left the spa, we went back to the house we were staying at to get ready for the night.  We went to dinner at RA sushi.  It was a fun night with lots of sushi and good fun.

On Saturday we went wine tasting in the Temecula Valley.  We visited 4 wineries, had a picnic lunch, and even got serenaded by our limo driver.  We also discovered the best Pandora station, Hip Hop Road Trip and enjoyed our little dance parties in the limo.

This was such an amazing weekend and I couldn't have asked for anything more.  I am so thankful to have such an amazing group of friends.

Minnesota Trip

The last week in May, Jason had to take a trip to Minnesota for work.  Since I didn't have to start summer school until the following week, I decided to go with him.  It was a long 11 hour drive there but it was fun to go on a road trip with Jason.  We survived and didn't kill each other so I think that is a good sign for our marriage:)

I have never been to Minnesota and I really enjoyed it.  It is such a beautiful place and I would love to go back sometime. We stayed in Bemidji which is pretty much where the Mississippi River begins.  We stayed right on Bemidji Lake and I enjoyed my beautiful walks in the morning.  I hope to go back again when Jason doesn't have to work so much so we can enjoy it more together.

Top: view from our room; more lake views
Bottom: walk around the lake; enjoying the sun on the beach

May: Loves of the Month

Books: I read a few good books this month.  Ice Cream Girls by Dorthy Koomson, Orphan Train: A Novel by Christina Baker Kline, and The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain.  They were all really good but my favorite was Orphan Train.

Movie: We didn't watch many movie's this month.  I must have been too busy reading:)  We did watch Django Unchained.  Like usual I feel asleep before it ended.  What I saw was pretty good.  I apparently just missed the very violent, bloody ending.

TV The Voice

Eating: Since the weather has warmed up, we have started buying popsicles again. My favorite right now are the Lemonade Bomb Pops.  They are frozen lemonade on a stick.  Yummy!

Music: Mama's Broken Heart by Miranda Lambert.  I LOVE her!

Best Thing About May There are so many great things about May but it definitely has to be the end of the school year and the beginning of summer break!