1st anniversary

Yesterday was our first anniversary! I can't believe how fast the last year has flown by! We got married, went to Hawaii, Mikel finished his masters, we moved to Michigan, and I finished my first year of my PhD program! It was a fun and challenging year but we survived!

At this time last year, this is what we were doing...


But this year was a lot quieter. Mikel had to work yesterday so Friday night we tried out a new restaurant that is a little out of town but it's always busy so we figured it must be good (and it was DELICIOUS)! We figured Friday was an OK day to celebrate because it was 365 days of being married!

This is the restaurant we went to...

We didn't realize it was still zoomed in from taking a picture of the sign but the picture turned out pretty good anyways!
Also, Mikel got me a very nice necklace for a wedding present and I got him something but it wasn't too exciting so this year, I got him a present. He really wanted a new golf bag and he kept talking about this one he had seen so I snuck out and got it for him. Unfortunately for him, the clubs aren't new but he was excited about the bag!

driving range

Today we tried another something new (at least for me)! Mikel played golf in high school, quite successfully, but I have never played or even really hit at the driving range. Mini golf isn't really even my game-- I'm terrible.

There are golf courses EVERYWHERE around here and we've been talking about playing a lot. Unfortunately, my left handedness makes it difficult to just go out and hit balls but the driving range had a couple clubs they let me try and it was pretty fun!!


Just in case, I dusted off Don, my knee brace (the company who makes it is Don Joy) so I didn't get in trouble with Dr. Wall but I felt good!


As for my knee, it's feeling pretty good! The biggest annoyance is that I'm now a human barometer and can tell when it's going to rain by my aching but I don't have a lot of pain or stiffness. It does pop and crack when I do a lot of things but Dr. Wall said that is expected and as long as it doesn't hurt me too bad that it's not a huge concern or surprise. Although I have to be a little more creative than I would like to sometimes, I can workout and it does feel much better now that the screws are out!

our recent adventure-- Grand Ledge

We are loving summer!! Now that Mikel isn't teaching a class at MSU he actually has been having days off and we love it.

Today we slept in, made breakfast, I went to school and dropped off some paperwork and worked out while Mikel ran some errands, and then we went on a little adventure. We wanted to find somewhere to hike/trail walk and Mikel suggested Grand Ledge. Turns out it's just a couple of minutes away and there's bunches of trails!!


All of these parks and places are beautiful- there's so much green and so much water!!

Every time we visit somewhere we talk about how pretty it would be to come back in the fall when the leaves are changing colors...
This is a fish ladder... I had no idea what it was but I guess it makes sense- the fish need some way to get around the dam.







We took so many pictures, as usual, but we thought we'd share at least some!! We are so so thankful to have such a nice digital camera to take pictures of everything!!

And yes, I know I have research to do and I'm starting to work on it tomorrow! MSU, unlike ISU, takes a week break in between spring semester and summer school which seems like such a better idea than graduation on Saturday and school starting again on Monday. Either way, I enjoyed my week of relaxation and it's time to start working again.

another adventure-- Cabela's, UM, & Hell

We went on another adventure today after I woke up from post-finals hibernation. We started off going to Cabela's (a first time experience for me), then we checked out the University of Michigan, and stopped by Hell on our way home (yes Hell... Hell, MI).


Cabela's (for those of you in my family who may not know) is a huge outdoors store that sells hunting, fishing, camping, boating stuff and everything else you can imagine.
Those bears are outside the store and inside there are a ton of both real and replica mounts of every kind of animal imaginable. It's really pretty cool!

There's also an aquarium inside!! And no, Mikel didn't buy me that big fish but it was pretty awesome.


After Cabela's we drove to Ann Arbor to check out University of Michigan.
We started out at the football stadium "The Big House". They are doing a lot of construction on the stadium but it was fun to see...



The rest of the campus was really cool to see and is completely different than MSU. UM is a very urban feeling campus because it is intertwined with the downtown of Ann Arbor. One minute you're driving by campus buildings and the next there are law and doctor's offices and restaurants. Some of the buildings we couldn't tell if they were UM campus or office buildings. Similar to MSU though there were tons of people out walking around downtown and on campus even though they are done for the spring semester. Very cool but very different!
Our last stop was in Hell, MI. We just heard that it was called Hell so we wanted to drive and see what was there...
It's a tiny little town with not much besides a couple houses and a general store that I'm sure sells trinkets from Hell.




This is a picture of the pretty back roads we took home from Hell... another fun trip!!

a random adventure-- Mount Plesant

After school ends every semester, I typically crash and spend the better part of about three days sleeping. It doesn't make me very exciting but it's definitely needed after the stress and hard work of the semester.

It's also been really nice that Mikel had yesterday, today, and tomorrow off of work. These are the first days we've both had off at the same time since the start of the semester. After I woke up from an afternoon nap, we decided to get out of the house and go to a park in town to get some fresh air and change of pace.
These are a couple of the pictures from the park-- everything is so pretty and green!!

As we were leaving, we were talking about what we wanted to do and see the next day since we had time off and mentioned that we wanted to see Central Michigan University. All the sudden, we ended up on the road to CMU taking an inadvertent road trip!


I had been to CMU before during my first year of coaching but the weather was horrible and I was just trying to survive my first road trip as a coach.

We saw their baseball stadium...

Their football stadium...

And what I thought from the outside was the gym we played in.... obviously not!

We also stopped by and checked out the Soaring Eagle Casino which is right outside of Mt Pleasant. It's a huge casino on an Indian Reservation.
Also, if people need this sign, maybe they shouldn't be gambling at the casino...
Pretty flowers outside...

All in all, it was a really fun trip and, thank goodness for the GPS so we can take random trips like this!