A Birthday

Um I don't believe I agreed to let anybody celebrate birthday's without me, especially their 1 year birthday!  Good thing we got to skype and watch the birthday girl eat her cake though!

Lucy turned 1 on 8/11/13.  I can't believe she is already one.  I distinctly remember the day she was born.  Waiting for babies to come is so fun :)  Anyway happy birthday to our favorite Lucy girl!

Here's some pics that we have from her 1st year.

Apparently when you take pics from instagram they turn out fuzzy.  The fuzzy ones are too cute though so look past the bad quality and just focus on the cuteness.

Lucy we love you lots and lots and we loved that we got to live right next door for most of your life.  Now please don't forget how much you loved us ;)

Weekend Adventures

I love having Chase to myself on the weekends.  It's 2.25 days of bliss.

This weekend Chase gave me the duty of figuring out something fun to do for our Friday night.  Since we love movies so much I came up with a grand plan.  The last time I went to the beach with the ladies in the ward I noticed a sign that said they do movies on the beach.  It's like a movie at the park but on the beach, so it's even better! :)  So that was my grand plan.  The parks website didn't have a list of what was playing so instead of calling the number to find out which animation movie was playing, I decided it would be fun to have it a surprise.  We ordered pizza and picked it up on the way so that we could have a picnic.  I was so worried that we weren't going to get there before the movie started, but we made it with plenty of time to spare.  So we ate our yummy pizza, walked on the beach, took some pics of the stunning sunset, listened to the music and people watched.  We found out that our movie was Madagascar 3, which was fun since neither of us had seen it.  The movie started around 9 and got over at 11.  Good thing we didn't have little kids, because in my opinion that's late.  I really enjoyed our night and I'm glad we went.  Oh and I'm so happy the mosquitoes left us alone, because we couldn't find any bug spray :)

This was his I'm not going to encourage your "take pictures for the blog" habit, face.  HAHAHA

The next day aka Saturday we decided to go back up to the park, but this time we were going to swim. The water was cold but as soon as we got in it felt great.  We swam around for awhile and then we decided we wanted to go down the big blow up slide they had.  Little did we know that you have to actually pay to go down it haha.  Oh well, at least Chase got to talk in German a little bit.  While we were waiting in line a group of kids came running up behind us talking in a different language which just so happened to be German.  I always love listening to him talk in German.  When we were leaving for the day we ran into our friends from the ward, the Bruner family.  They were just getting there to play at the park :)  I'm tellin ya this place is full of fun things to do.

Uh the clouds made the afternoon a tad bit chillier than I wanted.

So now were at Sunday.  We were lucky enough to teach the Laurel's and Priest's (16-18 yr olds) sunday school class.  We had 9 kids and they were great!  I'd teach them again any day :)  They were a lot of fun to teach and it was fun getting to know them a little bit.  Unfortunately we were a little late getting to class because the guy who talked in sacrament went to BYU the same time Chase did and we wanted to say hi :)  Him and his wife are not in our ward which is why we had to catch them at the end of sacrament.  He works for Ford, so they live South of us but north of Ford, but I think we are going to try and do something with them anyway.  So that was our new adventures at church this week.  Thanks for being so kind to us during sunday school :)

To top off our weekend we got to skype with the Johnson clan :)  Where we learned that Cadence wants to be a maggot haha silly girl.  Watching things decompose is pretty cool.  Good things she's a youngin and will probably decide to be something different :)
We can't wait until we get to spend lots of time with them!

So there you have it, this weekends adventures 8/9 - 8/11!  I'm betting next weekend will be just as much fun :)

Mountain Biking

Last Saturday (8/3/13) Chase and I went mountain biking with two bachelors that Chase works with.  Chase loves mnt. biking and I really want to love it too so that it can be something that we do together.  So I am working on not worrying about slowing him and others down and getting more comfortable on the bike.  I remember mnt. biking when I was younger, but then I became afraid of it.  Now that I have a reason to go I'm really hoping I'll quickly fall in love with it.  I'd love it if we can have this as a family activity, so as our kids grow up they too enjoy riding.  Time will only tell :)

Ok so back to our adventure.  First thing first was figuring out how to fit two bikes into my car.  It would be a tad bit easier if the back seat would fold down but it doesn't.  Ugh.  It also would've been easier if we hadn't decided to leave the bike rack that my dad was letting us borrow in Utah.  However, we left it because it didn't fit my car great and every time my door's were shut I was afraid the window's were going to break.  It was nice having it while we did though.  We then drove down to Novi to meet up with the boys.  After a short detour because we missed our exit we finally made it.  Wohoo.  When we took off Chase stuck behind me while the other two floored it.  I was feeling good until Ivo (which is pronounced Eevo) told us that we needed to turn around because we missed the real trail.  This is when he also informed us that the trail is 10 miles.  Ah man was I afraid.  My heart was already beating good and my lungs were getting a workout too, so how was I ever going to make it 10 miles.  Good thing I didn't pay too much attention to my worries because I'm glad we turned around.  The trail we rode was so much fun and gorgeous!  We were under a canopy of trees for most of it and the temperature was perfect.  I kept telling Chase that he didn't have to ride behind me as long as they would stop and wait for me.  Around this time was also when one of the boys, Sam, decided that he was tired and wanted to be the caboose.  I think he just wanted an excuse to have to go slow because he was stuck behind me.  I sure there is one time that he wishes he wasn't behind me.  I couldn't make it up a hill so I had pulled off to the side to let him by.  As he was trying to pass me he was telling me that I could make it and then he tipped over, haha.  I like to say that I made him crash.  All 3 of the boys were so patient with me and didn't seem annoyed that I was slow :)  Chase was cute and was giving me pointers, which unfortunately I've already forgotten, and would make sure I would make it around the "tricky" spots :)  What a good hubby.  We ended up not riding the whole 10 miles, which I think Ivo was a little disappointed about.  At the end he told us that we missed the best part of the trail.  Maybe next time Ivo.

They even let me take a picture :)  Next to Chase is Ivo and Sam is in the Green.

So our first mountain biking adventure in Michigan was a success!  Chase and I both really enjoyed it and I'm glad I got to join in on the fun :)  Lets go again!

A Day At The Races

On Saturday, July 27th we spent a day at the race track.  I was hesitant to go at first but I'm so glad I went.  Chase and I really enjoyed our day!  The race track is called Waterford Hills Raceway and is 30 minutes north-ish from us.  It's located in the middle of all of these houses and you have to drive down a dirt road to get to it.  A big difference from Larry H. Miller Track, haha.  One thing we are also having to get used to out here is that a lot of places only take cash!  We had to go find a grocery store because we didn't have any cash on us to get in.
So one of the reason's Chase wanted to go on this particular day was because they were having a vintage race day.  It was fun to see all the different cars and to just be with my hubby.  I made sure to get video to send to our dad's since I'm sure they enjoy the rumble of an engine as well :)
For lunch we ate some bbq that was being cooked on the coolest smoker.  I immediately thought of my dad's yummy smoker and thought of how my mom would think the wagon's were cool.  I thought they were sweet myself.  I would be ok with having one of those in my backyard :)  The food was good too.  We got a combo plate so that we could try a little of all of the meat.  Yum, yum.
At the end of the day we got rained out and had to take shelter until there was a lull in the storm and we headed to the car.  Luckily it provided some awesome thunder though.

This Porsche won the race..... of course...

I tried adding the video so that you all could listen but it's not happening, so sorry. 

1 MONTH Down

Wow I can't believe that we have been out in Michigan for One month already!  It's crazy how fast the month went by.  

So here are some things that we enjoy about Michigan.

1. Not having allergies.  Ever since we've gotten here I haven't had to take a single allergy pill and I was really suffering back in Utah. 

2. We love driving around and ooing and ahhing at areas.  This mainly consists of when there are a lot of trees or lakes.

3. We've enjoyed making friends and getting to know people.

4. We LOVE the church!

5. We're enjoying the weather.  It's been lovely and we've only had one week where the temp. was miserable.  Other than that the humidity and temps. have been lovely.

6. The mountain biking trails.  Can you really call them that when they aren't in a mountain?

7. Fireflies are awesome.

8. Old downtown Birmingham.  It's so cute and lively and fun!  This is where we go when we want to see a movie.  Which when we go, we park in a parking garage and the first two hours are free.  So usually we don't pay anything or we end up paying 1 buck.  Now that's a steal :)

9. Having the Temple close by, even though they have very few sessions to go to and you have to call and schedule everything!

10. All of the car activities.  Could you really expect anything less from us? ;)

There are some things that I haven't enjoyed about Michigan as well.  

Like...........................

Grocery shopping.  I can't find anything that I want in the blasted store.  Plus let's not forget that their produce is expensive and some stores have a very small selection to choose from.

And how about that fact that in most of Michigan you can't make a left turn.  So they have designated U turn areas.  In my opinion, it's just a big pain in the rear end.

Also I swear they have all new traffic laws out here.  I feel like I need to go to drivers ed so that I can learn how to drive in Michigan. 

I haven't enjoyed doing laundry out here :( and that's saying a lot coming from me.

Michigan is very very pretty, but you just can't beat Utah's mountains!

Lastly, Michigan seems to have forgotten something important.  The people that we love.  I haven't found them in Michigan yet.  I've seen them through my computer and heard their voices over the phone, but for some odd reason I haven't spotted them in Michigan yet.  Darn it all!

Maybe in another month we'll have even more things that we enjoy about our new home, but for now we bid our first month farewell!  

Our Stuff, YAY

Our stuff came and we were so happy to get it.  It even came a few days earlier than we anticipated.  Sunday the 21st rather than the 25th, wohoo!  It's so nice have our bed, couches and clothes.  As well as everything else :)

This was our move in pile, before we got all of our stuff :)

They rolled out the "red" carpet for us.  I guess were that cool.

First thing first, put the bikes back together.  Yikes, why did they have to take them apart.

The 2nd bedroom was so full!!!

Organizing is oh so fun!  This is the only way I can organize.  I have to see it all.

Lots and lots and lots of packing paper.  Too bad we don't know anyone who is moving, or too bad we can't just save it for the next time that we move, ha. 

Apparently the guys who packed us up had an emergency and needed our 50 bucks.

The first thing we wanted to do when we got it all was watch a movie!  We are movie-a-holic's and I had been wanting to watch the Princess and the Frog, because of the fireflies out here.  That was fun trying to find the base for the tv and then our movies.  Good thing we found them both and were able to watch a movie :)