Month: November 2020

Here we go! We found the cold! 🥶 We woke up this morning to 26 degrees!!! It was very cold!

We have a very busy day today!! We are going to visit friends from college, then head to Wisconsin!! It’s only about 6 hrs but it will take all day!!

First stop Indiana and the Bowmans!

Rachelle was one of my first friends in college, and it has been 21 years since we became friends! It was great to see her and her family again.

We enjoyed talking about our kids and out lives, but soon it was time to head out to see another set of friends!

On our way we realized we were passing right by Shipshewana!!! An Amish town, I am absolutely enthralled by the Amish. I texted Rachelle about where we were going and she said the Amish in the area had a lot of COVID so instead of getting out we just drove around and found buggies and people. It was so much fun!

After that brief detour we headed put again. We enjoyed some Cheese from Frankenmuth and the sites around us as we drove.

Next Stop, Cherrye!!

Cherrye was my maid of honor in our wedding. It was so nice to see her again, it has been quite a long time since we have seen each other.

We picked up right where we left off, it is amazing the friends you have who that works with. You never miss a beat, no lull in the conversations, it was such a good visit!

I had grand plans to leave at a certain time, and get to out final destination at a reasonable hour, but it didn’t happen. We talked so much, that we left almost at dark.

We had a fee more hours of driving so we bypassed Chicago and headed straight for Wisconsin!

Alan’s 48th state! He is ticking them off one by one!

Our final destination is Kalahari resort in the Wisconsin Dells! We arrived around 8:30, grabbed dinner from Sprecher’s a place Cherrye recommended with hand crafted sodas! Then got settled in our room and off to the amusement park!! We had one hour before it closed and we were gonna make the best of it!

They were able to the tree top ropes course and ride the twisty bounce ride before it closed, then we were off to watch Elf in front of the fire!

The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear!

Here we go again! Covid has really messed with our travel plans. This summer we had originally planned to visit California for Alan’s 40th. We had a whole thing planned and were so excited, then Covid happened and everything changed. So I asked Alan what he wanted to do for his birthday, I threw out ideas and he replied I wanna just sit by a lake on a porch and whittle, that would be the perfect vacation. So I threw out the plans for heading west and started looking at lake front properties…I guess Alan should have specified a temperature range for which he wanted to whittle in because soon enough I found a resort with a porch on Lake Superior in northern Minnesota! I decided it would be so awesome to see some northern states in the winter, and Alan has never set foot in three of those states, so why not chunk some states off his list in the process!

So here we go!!!!

 

Since we were already in Cleveland we started from there! First stop, Alan’s 47th state, Michigan!

Alan’s Papa retired from Ford after 30+ years with them. Alan really wanted to see the Ford Headquarters in Michigan.

After we checked this off the list we headed to Frankenmuth! A little Bavarian town!!

We went to the world’s largest Christmas store and spent over an hour checking out all the Christmas goodies! It was such a fun store!

When we came outside it was dark enough that all the lights in the town had come on!

We made sure to visit the cheese house too!

Our next stop was the musical Christmas tree in the center of town! It plays Christmas carols and the lights dance to the music! It was so neat!

Next up, dinner. Michigan is closed down so we had to order to go from the famous Chicken place! Note to others…the chicken was nothing to write home about! 🤣

We enjoyed dinner, then headed out on a drive thru light hunt. We had a map and some clues to help us find all 26 spots. It was so fun!!!

It was a great day and we enjoyed beautiful Michigan!

Frankenmuth, a total Hallmark Christmas movie town!

What a week we have had!!!
We left Georgia on Ryanna’s 15th birthday! She was fresh off her first time driving and we headed out.

We headed north to Ohio. We are spending this week with Alan’s family. We will miss Josh and Sarah but are thankful to be with family.
Laura and Travis have just purchased their first home and we are going to help them get it ready for moving day and celebrate Thanksgiving with them!
We arrived late Saturday night and were so excited to see each other. After getting situated and ready for bed I asked Alan to put some cortisone on some bug bites on my back I had…when he lifted my shirt he said, “Woah…um it has spread and totally looks like shingles.” I couldn’t believe it. The next morning we had a doctor’s appointment and it was confirmed. Shingles…

Needless to say I was not ready to be totally out of commission while here. The pain was not fun, the itching was ridiculous, and the body aches were rough, but I’ve made it through the worst now it seems and I was very blessed in the shingles department and so thankful it didn’t take me totally out of the fun! I am also thankful that due to vaccinations and previous chicken pox I was still able to be around my whole family and not have to worry about infecting anyone.
First up was celebrating Ry’s 15th birthday! Henry had decorated, and Auntie Laura had made Brookie Ice Cream sandwiches!!!

The next few days we had some homeschooling/cousin time, we worked on the house and spent so much time together!

Thanksgiving time!! 🦃

We cooked our dinner and had lunch together, then the rest of the adults headed to the new house again and Aunt Sami got to take care of the kiddos! We took a walk and saw 15 deer it was so neat, did crafts, had dinner, read books…it was the things great memories are made of!

The week went by so quick but we enjoyed every minute of it and were so glad we were able to come and help them!

Until next time!