Wordless Thursday! River Reflection!! ;)

I love the reflection of my oldest James in the Manistee River! :)

Blogger was giving me problems posting photos yesterday, so I was not able to post my usual Wordless Wednesday! So I am posting today and calling it Wordless Thursday (does not sound quite as good)! Plus, as I continue to type this I realize it really isn't wordless! lol Oh Well. Can't say I did not try. Have a great night!

Isn't she a cutie??

This is one of my new favorite photos right now!! I took this one night while planting our garden. I of course think she is adorable and she of course knows she is!!! :)

My new Pantry!!

Kyle finished my pantry yesterday! Yippee! He made me some shelves from left over cherry boards that we did not use on our floor. They look awesome, are super sturdy and match my floor. I had a blast organizing everything (it is a sickness I have!! I love organizing cupboards and closets, etc.)!

Our Weekend trip to Traverse City

Kyle and I spent last weekend in Traverse City for our 4th Anniversary! We normally plan a weekend getaway every year for our anniversary instead of big gifts. We would rather spend the money on getting away to reconnect and spend some quality couple time together! :)

We were able to find a pretty good package deal at a hotel. It was their Wine & Dine package and included 2 nights stay in a King Bed room with a whirlpool tub, 2 breakfasts, free wine tasting and bottle of wine of choice, $50 gift card to local restaurant, late check out of 1pm on Sunday and 2 free DVD rentals (we finally watched the Blind Side!! Such a great movie).

We had a great weekend. We arrived in TC around 6pm on Friday night. Thanks to my sister Julie for staying home with Emily for the weekend!! We had the best dinner ever on Saturday night at the Apache Trout Grill in TC on the bay. If you are ever in TC, I highly suggest stopping by. It is beautifully decorated in an outdoor/hunting lodge theme and overlooks the bay. We both ended up having the prime rib and crab leg meal. It seriously was the best prime rib and crab legs we have ever had! No lie!

It was nice to be able to stay up late and sleep in. We even took a nap on Saturday before dinner!

We spent most of Saturday driving up both Peninsula's, exploring and doing several wine tastings. We also checked out 2 lighthouses. The drive was beautiful.

It was one of our best weekends away and felt like a 2nd honeymoon! Thinking we might go back up next year since there is so much to do in the area.

Here are some of the pics I took while away!

We stayed for 2 nights at the Grand Beach Resort on Grand Traverse Bay!

The hotel was beautiful and very clean.

The beach was awesome!

Our Hotel Room 211

I love the nautical feel with blues and greens.

We had a King Bed with a huge Whirlpool Tub in our room!!

We went for our first Wine Tasting ever at Black Star Farms on the Leelanau Peninsula on Saturday!

Black Star Farms...So beautiful!! I love all the red barns!

The drive in was beautiful with all the grapevines on the hill.

Tasting Room! We both found a wine that we really love! We got to take home our wine glasses that we sampled our wine in.

They have a B&B on their property. So gorgeous. We would love to stay here sometime.


We visited 2 lighthouses....
Old Mission Lighthouse

Grand Traverse Lighthouse

Check out this cool miniature Grand Traverse Lighthouse made out of Lego's! Had to take a pic for my Lego loving boys!


Beautiful Grand Traverse Bay

I love rocky beaches...

Some more vineyards with the bay in the background! So beautiful

Memorial Weekend Fun!

I have not been on the computer much lately. I have a hard time sitting still long enough when it is nice out! Since it is rainy and chilly this morning I thought I would do some updating on the blog.

We went camping in Grayling over Memorial Weekend this year! We had an absolute BLAST! The weather could not have been more beautiful. It was sunny and warm every day and we spent most of our time playing in the Manistee River! We camped at a Rustic State Forest Campground right on the river. The campground only had a few other people in it so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. Normally the river is way to cold this time of the year to be in, but it was perfect and helped cool us off. Our friends Jesse and Sally, along with their daughter Lilly came along too!

Our family loves kayaking, but we only have 2 kayaks right now so that presents a problem sometimes if we don't rent extra ones! This weekend I had Kyle drop me along with 1(1 at a time) of the older kids off up river and we kayaked down to our campground. It is about an hour trip and it was great getting the one on one time with each of them over the weekend!

At night Kyle and Jesse did some fly fishing for trout on the river and the kids played in the river and we also did a scavenger hunt one night. Of course a great camping weekend would not be complete without smores and tonka pies!! Lots and lots of them! :)

Here are some of our photos from our awesome weekend!

We visited the Grayling Trout Hatchery on Saturday and fed the trout!

We Kayaked! A lot!!

We tried to stay dry when we went to the river the first night.....

but we just couldn't!! Had to go in the river in our clothes!!

We played on the sandbar and got muddy! :)

We looked for cool rocks in the river!

We ate yummy ice cream at Dairy Queen! :)

We posed for those obligatory photos for mom!! ;)

Isn't the Manistee River beautiful? It is one of our favorite places to be in Michigan!

Happy Anniversary to my hubby Kyle!

4 years ago today we became husband and wife! You are my best friend and I love being your partner. I look forward to growing old together and creating more memories! Can't wait to get away to Traverse City this weekend!! :)