A Weekend with Aunt Katie (K-Key)

Morgan and I spent this last weekend with my sister while her boyfriend was out of town visiting family. We visited a lot of parks and playsets and did a bunch of walking-mostly so Morgan could ride her bike on pavement (only dirt roads around here) and partially to take Katie's dogs for a walk. When we weren't visiting parks we were doing all of this:

Morgan taking an afternoon break on Aunt Katie's bed and watching a movie.

Helping Aunt Katie bake the most delicious brownies ever! (Zingerman's Magic Brownies)

Playing at the mall play area.

Getting Morgan's hair cut for the very first time (in nearly 4 years).

Making a Brown Sugar Puppy, named Fluffy, at the Build-A-Bear Workshop. (We don't have one of those within an hour or more of our home, so it was a fun one-time experience.)

Giving her new puppy a bath.

Morgan with her new puppy all dressed up!

It was a nice little weekend getaway. Thank you Katie, for letting us come visit! :-)

My Week in Lansing

I'm back! I've actually been back since around 9:00 pm Friday night. I've been busy trying to catch up with everyone. (I'm sorry if I haven't made it to visit your blog yet-I promise I'll be by soon!) Plus we've had a couple places to go and then a boatload of laundry to do and unpacking, etc.

The week was great! Rich and I left early and stayed Monday night in Lansing. We originally planned on going Tuesday morning, but with the snow storm and a few other factors, leaving Monday was a much better way to go!

I was able to meet up with an old friend, Michelle, on Tuesday. I went over to her house and we just talked to whole time! I think I was there for 7 hours and we never even stopped for lunch! LOL! Catching up was wonderful and I hope it isn't another 4 years before I see her again. (I do plan to make it to see her and her new baby this summer, though! Yay!) Plus Rich and I ate out Tuesday night at one of my favorite places when I lived over there, the Texas Roadhouse. Yum!

Wednesday I was hooked on HGTV ALL day! I seriously only left the room to workout in the morning and get online for about 20 minutes. I even kept sending Rich away, so he wouldn't bug me during my shows! LOL! He wanted time with the guys anyway, so it seemed to work out fairly well. I think I had enough HGTV in me to last until my next opportunity to have cable TV. I got a little cross-stitching in as well, but not nearly as much as I would have liked.

Thursday was my day to meet up with Alexia from The Mommy Rambles and I had a wonderful time! We went to see 'When in Rome' and then ate at another place that I remember liking when I lived that way, The Claddagh. It's kinda like an Irish Pub and the food was delicious! We did a little shopping for the kiddos afterwards and I probably talked Alexia's ear off. (Sorry if I did!) It was awesome to finally meet, though, and I totally wish we lived closer so we could get together more often!

Thursday night was the conference banquet, so I had to get all dressed up and mingle. There were a lot more women there than I thought there would be, but most had only come for that night to see their husband get the certificate that Rich was receiving as well. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I actually enjoyed myself after a glass of wine! LOL!

Friday was check out and go home day. I caught a little more HGTV before having to leave the room. I waited the last 3 hours in the lounge before Rich got done with the conference. I sat there watching the snow come down thinking we were going to have to check back in, but we made it out and back home safely. (We couldn't make it up our driveway though and carrying a sleeping Morgan through snowdrifts to get in the house was quite the workout!) The kids didn't miss us at all, but were happy to see us. I, of course, couldn't stop hugging and kissing them....I definitely missed them!

And that was the extent of last week! Oh! I'm still doing awesome with lent. I have yet to have an ounce of pop and my water intake is much much more than it used to be! I'll admit that I'm realizing that I can drink more than water though! I've had a strawberry lemonade, wine, and a few Smirnoff Ice's that I probably wouldn't have had if pop was still okay to have, but water is definitely still number one on my drink menu! :-)

Yet Another Getaway

I'm foregoing my Make Something Monday post to let you know that I'll be away for the rest of the week! I'll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning to attend a surveying conference with Rich in Lansing. Actually he'll be attending the conference and I'll be doing fun stuff! I plan to meet up with an old friend that I used to work with when I went to college over there. I haven't seen her since my baby shower almost 4 years ago and now she is expecting her first after trying for over 4 years and going through 2 IVFs. I can't wait to see her again and talk baby stuff! :-) I'll also be meeting Alexia from The Mommy Rambles for the first time! We e-mail all the time and have talked about meeting up before, but it hasn't worked out. I hope it does this time! :-)

So, while I'm away, I have few posts scheduled if you still feel like stopping by. I don't know what kind of access to the Internet I'll have, but I'll be sure to come by everyone's blogs and catch up with you when I'm back!

Also, if you haven't had a chance yet, please be sure to check out my giveaway for a wonderful children's book! My kids really enjoyed it, so I'm sure yours will as well! :-)

Have a great week everyone! :-)

Our Girls Weekend Getaway!

I have to start off by saying that I had a great time last weekend with my mom, sister and Morgan. We went down to where my sister lives to see some of the sites on Saturday and Sunday and it was better than I imagined it would be!

After a 2 hour drive and picking my sister up, we traveled another 45 minutes to a place called The Chelsea Treehouse. It was an indoor play area where Morgan could be a little monkey while the 3 of us adults sat around a table and chatted. They served some delicious food there as well! I had a shaved ham and provolone cheese sandwich on a pretzel bun with a spicey honey mustard sauce-YUM! Plus the side of black bean and corn salad was just plain delicious! Morgan had a hard time realizing that we were there for her and kept coming up to us thinking it was time to leave. I'd tell her she could still play for as long as she wanted and she'd take off, a little confused, and continue to play :-)

We then walked over to The Chelsea Teddy Bear Company, where we not only learned a bunch about their company, but also a lot about the history of teddy bears. I had no idea there was so much history! It was very interesting and well worth the trip!

The big bear when you first walked in the door.

The World's Largest Teddy Bear! It took all the workers a whole week to make it and the visiting kids love playing on it. The girl who gave us the tour said she even takes breaks laying on the one leg-LOL!

This was the largest display of teddy bears in 2005. It has since been beat, but I thought it was pretty neat :-)

Another really neat thing is that all the teddy bears that are for sale are either made there or designed there and contracted out. Morgan picked out this frog and I had them design the little shirt. I also got a chick for Blake and I got myself a giraffe-they were just way too cute! :-)

After that we walked around the little town and checked out some their shops. We ended up finding some beer that Rich has never been able to find in our area, so I grabbed a 6 pack...then my mom grabbed the other 6 pack for my brother! Yes-there were only two 6 packs, so we wiped them out! LOL!

My mom wanted to check out a bakery in Ann Arbor, called Zingerman's Bakehouse. She was hoping to find bread like what they serve in Germany. I guess she found something that was very similar, but I have to admit it wasn't my favorite. My sister also grabbed an assortment of 4 HUGE brownies that we had later that night for dessert. YUMMY! :-)

The next stop was the Whole Foods Market. I had never been to one before and was able to find all sorts of stuff that I see online and have wanted to try. The only thing is the stores in our area don't carry those products. Needless to say, I picked up a few healthier snacks to try.

We did a little more site seeing. My sister drove us through Ypsilanti, so I could get pictures of the Michigan Firehouse Museum...mostly for Rich, but I thought it was neat too. By that time it had already closed for the day, but just the outside was a neat site to see! :-)

By the time we finished thinking of places to see, it was time for dinner. We had decided on a German restaurant called Metzgers. I ordered Jagerschnitzel with a side of German potato pancakes (w/ applesauce-yum!) The restaurant had a true German feel yet it was still Americanized. Our waitor was even German! I think my mom really enjoyed that she could experience a little bit of Germany again. (She misses being over there!)

We ended the day at my sister's place. I set up Morgan's little princess tent. She thought it was so exciting to be able to camp in Aunt Katie's house! She made a candy necklace, we tasted the brownies and wrapped up the night snuggled up in chairs, drinking wine and watching Julie & Julia. Morgan even stayed up until 11:30 so she could be with us. :-)

Morgan with her candy necklace.

Mom snuggling with Morgan ready to watch the movie.

We took things easy on Sunday. We took our showers when we felt like it. My sister trimmed the split ends off my hair and we had a nice little brunch before heading off to the local mall. Being that Katie lives in a much more populated area, the mall was much bigger than any Morgan had seen before. She was able to experience escalators and thought they were a ride. I don't know how many times we rode those things just because Morgan thought it was fun! LOL! Plus she got to play in the mall's play area, but kept having melt downs...at least 4 of them and a final big one as I made her leave. She was just way too tired! We headed towards my sisters' with one little stop to give the car a 'bubble bath' (what Morgan was told it was-she liked that!), dropped Katie off then headed home.

The weekend was truly great! I wish we could do weekends like that more often, but once a year is enough to keep it exciting when the time comes. Until next year! :-)

Another Girls Getaway!

I am really looking forward to the upcoming weekend! I can't believe that I'm getting more time with the girls this weekend, but with different girls! I'll be leaving Saturday morning with my mom and Morgan to go down to where my sister lives. We were hoping that my nieces would be able to join us, so we'd have all the girls in the family but, when their parents are divorced, not everything works as you hope.

This is going to be our 2nd annual girl weekend. My mom started it when Morgan was 9 months old as a way for me to get away for my birthday. The last couple years we were not able to go with my parents being away in Germany, but they're back now and it's starting up again! We have all sorts of plans including going to an indoor play are for Morgan, then a toy museum, maybe see a movie at the theater and going to an ice festival! We'll be staying at my sister's place this year and I can imagine that it's just going to be a laid back good time. I can't wait! :-)

These are a couple pictures from our 1st girls weekend. We went to Frankenmuth that time and did some wine tasting at St. Julian's. Since I was 3 months pregnant with Blake, and Morgan was a baby, she and I did some sparkling juice tasting! Yum! :-)

Morgan has always been a little goofy. This was while we were waiting to eat at the Black Forest Brew Haus & Grill.

This last pic is of Morgan's first time in a pool! She was able to swim in the pool at the hotel and it was so neat seeing how she went from scared to being silly and having fun. :-)

I'll be sure to post pics of this weekend sometime next week! :-)

Frankenmuth

Rich and I had a wonderful time in Frankenmuth this past weekend. Friday was beautiful! We were able to walk around town without our coats on and enjoy the sunshine and warmer weather. We went to the River Place first and got some popcorn at the Popcorn Wagon. Rich picked up some Spicy BBQ popcorn and I went for the milder Sour Cream and Chive popcorn. Both of them were delicious! We also went to a fudge shop and got this huge cashew turtle type thing. I think it was around 6 inches in diameter, an inch tall and it weighed a half a pound! We also picked up some German Almonds while there. Both were very yummy! :-)

After the River Place, we went wine tasting at St. Julian Winery. We each tried 6 wines and then bought a Passionate Peach Spumante and a wine called "Sholom". Both are very delicious and sweet wines. I could have bought every wine we tasted, though! They have some really good ones there :-)

We then checked into the hotel and did a little meandering down the main street. We stopped in all sorts of little shops and then, since the Frankenmuth Brewery was closed (so no soft pretzels and horseradish mustard butter), we went to the Black Forest Brewery for dinner. (In a German inspired town-you have to have wine and beer-it's a must! LOL!) I am really happy with our restaurant choice for that night. We had a really fun waitress and wonderful food! (I had a chicken club sandwich on a pretzel bun that was very good!)

Saturday morning Rich woke up way too early! He woke up at 5:00 am and since there was no way I was getting up that early when I didn't have to, I went back to sleep. Rich went and worked out for an hour, came back and showered. I still wasn't up, so then he went for a 45 minute walk through Frankenmuth. I still wasn't up, so then he went to breakfast. I finally woke up around 8:00 am and we just hung out and watched movies until we had to check out. We had seen most of what we wanted to in Frankenmuth and just wanted to take it easy.

When we checked out of the hotel around 11:00 am, we went to the Cheese Haus and got some Dill cheese curds and a little container of horseradish cheese spread-delicious! Then, since Rich had finished his popcorn, we went back to the Popcorn Wagon to get some more Spicy BBQ, so he could have some to bring home. We also checked out a few more shops before meeting up with my sister and her boyfriend for lunch at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant. We each got the all-you-can-eat family style chicken dinners. Rich didn't realize that it was 'all-you-can-eat' at first, but when he did, we ended up ordering more food like crazy! We got thirds of both the noodles and the potatoes, plus seconds of the chicken. Rich was determined to eat until it hurt, since it cost us $19.99 per person! LOL!

After lunch, we tried walking off all the food we ate until it started raining us, so we headed for home. Rich and I really had a great time on our little getaway! We were able to do almost everything that we planned while there. We came back feeling closer as a couple and very relaxed (plus a little bloated-lol!) We can't wait to do it again, even if it is another 3-1/2 years. :-)

A Little Getaway

So today Rich and I are headed out for a little getaway. We just need to finish packing then drop the kids off at their grandparents and we'll be on our way to the little German inspired town of Frankenmuth, MI. I'm excited to do some wine tasting at St. Julian's, get some yummy cheese spread at the Cheese Haus and pick up a couple sample size bags of flavored popcorn at the Popcorn Wagon.

The whole trip isn't just about the snack food, though. I'm also excited to eat at the Frankenmuth Brewery (if it's open) and the Bavarian Inn, too! The Frankenmuth Brewery has a tasty appetizer of soft pretzels and horseradish mustard butter that I have been craving since we planned this getaway! (It may sound gross, but it's really good!) And the Bavarian Inn has some wonderful chicken dinners that, apparently are not really German at all. (Thank you to the German guys sitting next to me on the plane ride home from Germany for that bit of info.) Though not truly 'Bavarian', the dinners are still quite good and are a big draw to Frankenmuth.

Really, the trip isn't about food at all, though it is an added bonus! Rich and I really just need a little getaway for the two of us. We haven't gotten away together since before the kids came, so this is a much needed break! I'm looking forward to just going and having a good time without worrying about the house, the kids, work (in Rich's case), etc. (I'll probably still worry about how much we spend, but that's just me, so I can't help that one! LOL! ) So, we'll be back tomorrow afternoon/evening hopefully rejuvenated and most likely with a couple of very full tummies! :-)

Have a great weekend everyone!