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...