headed to Chicago!!

We are packing the car and headed to Chicago! We are picking up my parents tonight from the airport and spending a few days in Chicago before we head up to Traverse City. After that, they are headed back to stay with us a few days.

Should be a fun trip and we are excited to see my parents and have a little mini-vacation!

cottonwood trees and swimming pools

Things around here are pretty calm... Mikel is mostly working and I am doing a lot of reading and a little bit of writing and working out.

We are looking forward to my parents visiting at the end of this week and staying for awhile! We are going to meet them in Chicago on Thursday night and then spend the next few days exploring the city before we head back towards East Lansing so they can stay with us for awhile.

The only new thing- and slightly confusing at first- is cottonwood trees. They are shedding (or, more properly, spreading seeds) and it is everywhere. I guess I've never seen cottonwood trees before, at least at this time of the year. It floats around the sky and blows into our apartment and car and everything else.

It sort of looks like fake snow...
This is the other new thing around our apartment...

It's not really new but they spent a lot of time working on it and replacing the tile and plaster and it's really nice now. Every time there's a nice day there's a ton of people around the pool, enjoying the sun!

tornado watch

Apparently, this is what the sky looks like when there's a tornado watch...
These pictures were taken about 9pm and the sky was REALLY bright! Nothing exciting actually happened (thank goodness) but we were under a tornado watch for about 4 hours.

It does look like I brought the bad weather back with me to Michigan from Riverside... when I was at home in Riverside the past week there was crazy thunder and lightening and it was beautiful here in Michigan; as soon as I get home to Michigan there is CRAZY rain, thunder, lightening, and tornado watches!!

I had a wonderful visit at home for a couple days and spent lots of time with family! Now I'm glad to be back with Mikel even if it is here in Michigan!

For the rest of this month, we will be hanging out around home- Mikel will be working, golfing, and hanging out with friends from work and I will be reading, writing, and working out. We are excited for my parents to visit and the end of next week. We will be meeting them in Chicago (somewhere none of us have ever been) and then coming back to Michigan for about a week! That is about all the excitement for June (I can't believe it's already June 9th!).

Frankenmuth

Today we went on another adventure, this time to Frankenmuth. It's about an hour from East Lansing and it's only 2.8 square miles and less than 5,000 people but it's nicknamed "Little Bavaria" and it's home to the World's Largest Christmas Store.

Frankenmuth was settled by Lutheran immigrants attempting to convert the local Chippewa tribe...

We weren't really sure what to expect but it's a tiny little touristy town of shops and trinkets and taffy and fudge and was really cute.

We were looking for something for lunch and there was a place with 'world famous chicken dinner' so we had to check it out... It was crazy, it felt like we were transported to another time! All the people were dressed in fancy costumes but the food was really good!


Had to take a picture of this shirt...

They do boat tours on this river which was really pretty through town. There were also little shops right by the river...



In Frankenmuth there is also an ENORMOUS Christmas store! It covers more than 5 football fields! There are tons of trees, ornaments, and decorations. Everything you can think of!! Of course, I loved it and Mikel got a little tired but was a good sport.


This is just a snapshot of inside, you can't even imagine!!!

Lately we've been talking a lot about "last year at this time" and we've decided that we were a lot busier then compared to now (and we are loving the slower pace).

Last year at this time, we were on our way to Maui where we had an AWESOME time! It was an amazing trip and we can't wait to go again (although, that may not be in the near future)!


Since there are no pictures on here from our trip, this seems the perfect time to share them. This is what we were doing at this time last year...

Dinner at Bubba Gump...

Snorkeling in this beautiful bay...

On our way to dinner at Kimo's...
Watching people jump off this cliff in front of a hotel close to ours...
At a luau...

Beautiful beaches and landscapes...


Sitting on the beach, listening to the luau MC on a different night...
More snorkeling....
At Cheeseburger in Paradise (need I say more?!)...
At a Cirque du Soleil like show about the history of Hawaii. We got the tickets free because we booked the trip through AAA and, although we may not have chosen to go on our own, it was well worth it... so cool!!!
At the Maui Ocean Center the day we left. An awesome aquarium!!


Sleeping in the San Francisco airport, we were tired on the way home...
We had TONS of fun in Hawaii and are so glad that we went!!