Our Big Vacation

The beginning of the month we decided to bite the bullet and go on a vacation for a week up to northern Michigan aka the UP. Here's Rebekah all ready to go. 

We had some weather on the way up. But poor weather always comes with a rainbow of sorts. 

"There's some blue sky! Let us catch it!" 

                Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility. 

We drove up to Lansing to stay the night in an overpriced hotel. Everything was fine until we went to bed. As I pulled back the covers there was something on the top sheet. I texted Don trying not to freak out Rebekah. It didn't work of course. But Don went to get us new sheets. As we put the new sheets on a bug fell out of the sheets. Don carried the bug back to the front desk. 

They then gave us another room. Don had me check the room. The first bed was fine but the second bed there was something in the sheets - either a popcorn kernel or a corn chip - I didn't inspect too much. I went straight back to the front desk with my complaint. He asked me if a suite would be okay. I told him that I didn't care where or what just as long as it was clean. 

So I go up to the suite and the king size bed is clean. The rest of the room looks clean as well. It's now almost midnight. So I go down stairs and get Don and Rebekah, get all of our stuff, and head up to the top floor suite. So we all share a King size bed. Rebekah said she was quite comfortable. But of course she was on the side. The middle was not quite as comfortable. But we survived. Although they gave us a discount I'm definitely writing a letter to somebody.

So we get back on the road and head north to the Mackinac bridge. If you look closely it's in the following picture. 

I admit I was totally taken in with the beauty and didn't take one picture. It was amazingly beautiful! So I stole the following from the internet. Seriously it was amazing. I'd pay the toll to go over again. 

Next stop, the locks. Don went there with his parents and grandparents when he was a little kid. It was pretty amazing as well. We climbed to the top and looked over the locks. 

This big boat was in the farthest lock. We watched it get lower and lower. 

Two tour boats came from lake Superior into the closer lock. Rebekah waved and waved like her best friend was on one of the boats. When the boats came to a stop the captian came out and yelled up to Rebekah, "Were you waving at me?" Then they had this big conversation. My social little girl. It was pretty awesome. 

The captain up close:

If you scroll back up a few pictures you can see how high the water was. This was after the water was let out of the dock in preparation for entering lake Huron. Bye boats! 

After the boat left we walked down the other side of the park to lake Huron. 

And then we toured the park. Rebekah found the fountain delightful. 

Family selfie:

Apparently the UP (Michigan's upper peninsula) is known for Sasquatch sightings. Rebekah wasn't so sure about this up close encounter. 

Don found this fudge shop. Rebekah wanted to go in with him but I suggested she wait outside. She did but she just had to be involved. 

Said fudge. However, my friend Courtney's chocolate fudge and my mother in law's peanut butter fudge are much better. 

When we left Indiana the temperature was a hot humid 90. Up here in the UP it was a nice breezy 66. Loved it! 

Then we started to head west. About 2 hours later we saw Superior. Don pulled over so I could get a few moments with the lake. 

Love this girl.

And she's also helpful with the camera.

Don is too. 

Me trying to match Rebekah's personality. 

Was so infatuated with the lake that I didn't even read why this cannon was there. 

We finally made it to our hotel room. Don paid extra for a view. I checked to make sure it was clean before we opened up the window to fall in love with our view. 

So far I'm a definite UP fan. 

New House - Last Update...?

Next month we should be actually living in this house. 

But this month I'm still taking pictures of the progress. It is progressing! Rebekah says the floors are perfect for sock skating. 

The granite is much to my liking. I've recently read that wood cabinets and speckled granite are out of style. But here's me loving it. 

The back splash came next. There weren't too many options so I went basic subway. 

Rebekah's so happy that grammy will be right down the street. 

A few weeks into the month we had driveway poured. 

Then the blue plastic covering came off. 

And the other banister came in. 

But there's still much to do with paint touch up. 

Rebekah's already enjoying running around the new neighborhood.

And also the echo effect our house has right now. 

Right before our trip the appliances came in. That gas stove looks somewhat intimidating. 

Never had a side by side fridge before. And a water / ice dispenser too. 

The dishwasher is the same as the one in Columbus. Don's not happy about that. Ah well. 

A week later we have a mail box. 

And a blue front door. 

And quarter-round around the banister. It's stained the color the banister will be. 

Also, the picture frame windows finally arrived! 

This is will the late sun coming through the front door. Going to be interesting getting to know the tiny details of our new house.  

We close THIS WEEK, and hope to move in this weekend; movers coming on Friday morning to do the big stuff and friends coming on Saturday to do the boxes. Sometimes this has seemed like the move that would not end. We purchased in October, packing started in November and has continued until June. Everything has been in boxes at mom's the month of June. Will be crazy to start unpacking soon! 

New Stomping Grounds

And now we start to get to know our new little town. One thing I really like is the town is much more accessible to bikes and walking. We've been using our bikes a lot. Ironically the bike basket I asked for has turned into a place for Rebekah to put her rock collections and also the occasional dirty socks. Motherhood is an interesting thing.

 

Our new neighborhood. That's Don and the Bee riding their bikes in the distance. 

We pass a park on the trip back to mom's from our house. I had to stop and look at Fall's Creek. 

Rebekah ready to go!

The new neighborhood was a picnic area. Rebekah made her self at home on the picnic table. 

Rebekah's been excited about basketball. Don too. 

They practice together, but Rebekah has to make sure he'll be faked when she needs him to be. 

Another fun thing is to be reunited with old friends. We knew Rowan since she was a little pre-toddler. 

And of course Grayson and Hannah. So nice to be close to them again. They moved to Evansville (several hours away) then we moved to Columbus (still several hours apart) then they moved to Noblesville (about an hour away) then we moved back to Pendleton (40 minutes away). 

So grateful for these people in our life!

Rebekah use to play with Grayson exclusively but now it seems she spends more time with Hannah. 

Daddy has also wanted Rebekah to get back into driving. I'm somewhat less excited. Some of those kids can be dangerous. 

But Rebekah was loving it. 

Our new backyard. 

The park down the street. Rebekah's pretty nervous about heights but we eventually got her to go down this slide. 

Then she asked us to move away so she could make sure she could do it on her own. 

This slide we got her up the stairs but not down the slide. Don't blame her. 

The other day I went to the store with a list of items to get. On the list was "puppy." She's pretty sneaky. I thought about coming home with hotdogs, but just couldn't support actually eating hotdogs for no good reason. So I found this instead. 

Rebekah's done a few sport camps this summer. The first being basketball, the second soccer. I feel inept where this is concerned. The first day I took her to camp with her wearing regular ankle socks. The second day she was kicked in the shine. So, she asked for soccer attire. Once we got it on her she wasn't so certain. But she looked much more of the part! And she wasn't hurt when she was kicked again.  

We drew donuts for national donut day. 

Rebekah went pure / faceless. 

We closed on our Columbus house. I went in for one more look. Still love this peaceful back yard. And all the geese swam by as if to say farewell. 

Rebekah made doggies with grammy. It's a kit that you stuff, sew, and stick together. They are pretty cute. 

Rebekah's got grammy working on a few doll dresses.

Don's been extremely happy since the move. Shouldn't have ever taken him away from his roots. 

Rebekah loves to explore filters on my phone. 

She found this one. I think she is in heaven. 

Generally we try to stay out of the rooms we packed but we needed something so we sent Rebekah in. We helped her climb up on top of the mattress pile and.... 

Success! 

Mom should have her house back in about a week!