Six Years.

Six years has come and gone with lots of ups and downs. I know having 2 young girls make our lives a little more challenging, but again they make them a little (a lot) more joyful and fun, too. We both do a horrible job at putting our relationship first because it's usually always about our girls, so we need to work on at least having a standing monthly or bi-weekly date night.  Plus, our lives are busy because we like it that way...we like to participate in activities, travel, and make short trips to visit places, friends, and family.

Through it all, we love each other and I am glad I get to spend all these little adventures in our lives with Bobby. The girls of course love him to pieces and he is a great dad who is involved and loving and fun.

Almost a year ago, Bobby somehow talked me into doing the Warrior Dash. Then, he got an email shortly after stating that they had to move the date of the race, which just happened to fall on the day of our anniversary. I still agreed and we had talked about dressing up as a bride/groom, but ended up settling for t-shirts instead. It had rained a one or two days before the race, so the course was EXTRA muddy. I literally had to crawl up several hills in mud. It was a given that you would be muddy after the race, but because of the rains, the course had TONS of mud that was unintentional. I was kind of afraid I wouldn't be able to do the obstacles since you had to climb over things and it required lots of upper body strength, but honestly, the obstacles were a piece of cake compared to the muddy trail. Bobby stayed with me, which was nice. Good thing it wasn't timed because I'm pretty sure our time was close to 1 hour and 15 minutes for a 5K. Oh well. It was fun, but I can't guarantee I'd do it again. And I'm pretty sure there were spots that the mud included pig manure because it sure smelled like it. Yuck.

Originally, the girls were going to go to the race to watch (Alison was going to watch them), but I'm glad they didn't go since it took so long to complete, and there was TONS of mud near the spectators that the girls would have had a hay day in. My parents actually came down Friday night before the race to take them for a weekend trip to my grandparents in TN. Of course they had a blast.

At the last minute, Bobby planned a quick weekend trip to Traverse City, MI. Luckily, he was able to get Monday off work, especially since he had been off since Wednesday because of pink eye, which I'm pretty sure it was the viral kind. Luckily mine wasn't too bad since he was nice enough to share it with me, but man was it annoying.

Neither of us had ever been to Traverse City, MI and I'm not really sure why because it is absolutely breathtaking up there. It feels like you are at the ocean, when in reality you are at Lake Michigan. We just went to Silver Beach in St. Joseph, MI the weekend before, but they look so incredibly different. The water is so blue and clear the farther north you go. It was nice to experience, especially since we are beach/tropical vacation people, so even though it was brisk and cold in the mornings, the weather was perfect our whole trip and we went at the end of peak tourist season so it wasn't the least bit busy.

After our race, we had a 6 hour drive...ugh. Plus, we had only been rinsed off by a fire hose after the race and changed into dry clothes, but felt absolutely disgusting, so I was very happy to be able to take a shower as soon as we got there. Our hotel was right on the beach...West Bay Beach Resort. It is newly renovated and a pretty hotel. We didn't spend a ton of time there, but it has great views of the bay. After showering, we ate at Apache Trout Grill...GREAT food.

Sunday was our only full day, so we took full advantage. We started off the morning on the small beach outside our hotel...brrr.  Bobby actually woke up early every morning and saw the sunrise...me, not so much, but I still got up early.  Bobby especially loved watching the ducks.

 Next, we headed to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We had planned to do two different trails, but Bobby's GPS took us to the Dune Climb, but because we didn't know that clear to the top had amazing views, we only did part of it to head to the trails we had picked out earlier in the day.

Next stop, Pyramid Point Trail.

Then, to Empire Bluff Trail:

After a couple different hikes, we headed back to the hotel to grab a quick bite (our leftovers) and head to Old Mission Peninsula. There are several wineries along the way...we stopped at three (only tasted at two). Then, explored the Old Mission Lighthouse area. The water area here was so strange because there were rocks everywhere, but the water was super shallow.

On our way back to downtown Traverse City, we wanted to check out The Village at Grand Traverse Commons because it is an old State Asylum that was shut down in 1989. It is now being renovated and converted into shops and restaurants. Everything was closed when we got there, but we were able to walk around for a little bit. It is so interesting because they left so much of the old style with each shop having the old cell doors. They do tours, so next time we go up, this is a must see for us. You can also live on the top two floors...creepy.

 We found a yummy pizza place to eat at for dinner...cheapest meal we had the whole time we were there. It was called The Filling Station. Neat concept with a great view. After dinner, back to the hotel we went to watch the sunset and try to avoid listening to the awful band playing at the hotel :)

Even though the drive was what seemed forever long...it was worth the trip. Thanks for planning such a beautiful road trip, Bobby. Also, on top of the trip, he got me a gift certificate to take dance classes. I have not mentioned this ever from what I recall, so it was totally his idea, but a fun one. So, this may help make us take a date night every now and again.

To many more wonderful, blessed years...

Labor Day Fun 2014

We headed up to South Bend for Labor Day weekend, which was a little strange because one, it was August still; and two, our anniversary normally falls on Labor Day weekend so we are normally doing something for that. 

This year, we brought along our friends from Cali...the Vandivers. We wanted to show them a little taste of Michiana and although the weather was gloomy and rainy some of the time, we were still able to fit in everything we had planned on doing. 

Friday, we caravanned up to North Liberty. Once we arrived, we just hung out and got adjusted. Adding TEN people plus THREE dogs (Matt and Amanda came up too), I'm sure was quite hectic for my parents, but we made it work and three of us slept in the camper the first night. The original plan was to campout in my parents yard anyway, but Bobby said that wasn't 'real' camping, but we still utilized the camper all but one night. We ate, hung out, and played card games.

Saturday, we headed to Notre Dame for tailgating, tour of campus, and Nate and Melissa were able to experience a ND home game. All four of the kids definitely had their moments throughout the day since there was a lot of walking, but overall they did good and hung in there. We were able to grab something to eat at my Dad's friends' tailgate party, followed with seeing the band play at Bond Hall, then tour of the Basillica and the Grotto, of course no tour was complete without seeing touchdown Jesus. I haven't really taken time to tour the campus ever from what I remember, so it was fun to be able to experience game day on campus with friends and family. Nate and Melissa enjoyed the game, while we took all the kids back to feed them, swim, and bathe. Luckily it only rained a little while on Nate and Melissa at the game, otherwise our weather couldn't have been any better for our plans.

poor Grandma :)

Sunday, we headed up to New Buffalo to eat at Redamaks, followed with a beach day at Silver Beach. It was crowded, but not too bad and we all got a lot of sun and had lots of fun. In fact, we spent about 5 hours at the beach and could have stayed longer. There was not a cloud in the sky. When we got back to my parents' house, Kyle and Cadence were able to go on motorcycle rides and we were able to have a campfire with s'mores. It was such a clear night with a great view of the starts. Bobby and my dad were playing with an app on Bobby's phone that would tell you the different constellations in the sky just by pointing the phone toward the sky. You could clearly see Mars (reddish tint by the moon) and Saturn, which was neat.  Nate, Kyle, Bobby and I all slept in the camper and it was a perfect night for that. 

We all headed out on Monday, but first we stopped by Bobby's parents' house for a little bit. Once we got back to Terre Haute, we had to make a trip to the Convenience Care Clinic. Surprisingly, it was for Bobby and I and not the girls this time. Bobby somehow got pink eye and gave it to me I'm sure because I wore his sunglasses at the beach for a little bit. We are both now on eye drops for 5-7 days. Yippee!!!

It was a great weekend, and we are still friends for the Vandivers...haha! I joked with Melissa on the way up that we would either hate each other or remain friends and since we are still friends, it must have been a good trip. We all very much appreciate my parents' hospitality and willingness to house so many additional people. I know we wore them out, but I think the rest of us are all wore out from all the fun we had. I know I can't wait to make another trip up in the winter to go snowmobiling with everyone. Hopefully my parents still welcome us :)