birthday boy!!

These pictures have been sitting on my computer since last Sunday... whoops!

 Our wallets aren't exactly bursting at the seams for extravagant birthday celebrations but we did make it out to a DELICIOUS dinner for Mikel's birthday last Sunday night. We went one of our favorite restaurants here, Tomato Bros, for some amazing Italian food. We were excited to take a couple of our friends with us to introduce them to a wonderful meal and they loved it as much as we do!

Mikel's pasta seafood deliciousness (I obviously don't remember the name)...

 And my chicken picatta...

Other than that, Mikel is just hunting, fly tying and working and I've been doing school, teaching, and volleyball. It's been a fun semester but it has definitely been one of our busiest!

happy birthday Mikel!!!

So yesterday was Mikel's 27th birthday so we had to do something fun! He had to work until 3:30 but after that, we headed out for some fun.

I had to take a picture at the gas station we stopped out because they had this huge sign in their window. Not being able to sell alcohol on Homecoming probably hurt some profits!Then, we got a little bit down the road and we saw this 'New Driver' sign. Underneath the 'Driver' sign it says 'sorry for any inconvenience'-- awesome! We survived that and headed towards Lansing. In Lansing, we got Mikel's fishing pole fixed (a couple inches broke off the end of it on his way home from his last trip). They were able to fix it for about $2.50 so that was exciting and then headed to Gander Mountain to get him a fishing pole for his birthday. He definitely had a fishing-filled birthday... he got waders, a new pole and a new reel for his birthday and is super excited!
Then we headed to Fitzgerald Park in Grand Ledge to check out the trees changing colors and the fishing...








After Grand Ledge, we headed to watch Penn State play MSU in volleyball. Penn State is #1 in the nation and beat MSU in an hour and fifteen minutes but it is fun to see such good volleyball; there were over 3,400 people at the volleyball game! The scores were 25-11,25-18, 25-12.

After the game we finished the night at the movies-- good times!

On another note, I got to work my first big event at the Breslin Center-- Midnight Madness and it was MADNESS! It was the first time the Breslin Center has ever been completely filled; they've had sell-outs before but literally every seat was filled and we had to lock the doors and not let anyone else in because there were so many people. The event started at 9:30 and there were lines of people by 7:00. The basketball teams signed autographs, Coach Izzo drove onto the court in a racecar, there were fireworks, and the raised the banners from last year. Luckily, I worked at the gate where the family and friends of staff and players were let in as 'VIP' guests so it was fairly calm!

We have another busy week ahead- I have lots of school and Mikel has work and hopefully some fishing plans!

more birthday....

We have already posted some pictures of our little trip for Mikel's birthday but here are some more. We didn't have much of an agenda when we left but found a beautiful "beach" on the coast of Lake Michigan, a wooden shoe factory, a lighthouse, Chuck-E-Cheese (we had to get in a couple games of skeeball for his birthday), a farmers market, beautiful colors with the leaves changing colors, and downtown Holland with cute shops and restaurants. All in all, it was a great little trip!


These were pumpkin peppers at a farmer's market in downtown Holland, MI. We're not sure what they're used for besides Halloween decorations but they were so cute!

A windmill at Windmill Island.... we want to go back when it's open during the summer. They have a mini little Dutch town and tons of tulip fields that look beautiful!

Yes, we were the only people in Chuck-E-Cheese in their 20s but it was still fun. Mikel won more tickets than I did thought, I don't like losing!

These giant shoes were at a wooden shoe making factory. They also had Delftware, bison and tulip fields (which weren't blooming) and a shop where you could by tulip bulbs for every imaginable type of tulip. Pretty amazing!

happy birthday Mikel!!

For Mikel's birthday we decided to take a short trip. We went to Saugatuck and Holland for an overnight. The leaves are turning colors and everything is so pretty. Here are a couple of
pictures... we'll upload some more when we get home!Big Red the lighthouse


After walking up 282 stairs, the view from the top was soooo beautiful!


We didn't understand this sign. It was resting against a lamp in a dreary old antique shop but we were scared to ask the lady working there.... any guesses?