Vickie's Visit

A couple of weeks ago my good friend Vickie came and stayed with us for nine days. Lucky for Vickie she is a teacher and has the summer off so she can take extended vacations like that. I can't say I am not jealous of that. Having summers off? Heck yeah, that would be awesome! Anyways, we had a lovely time together and it was so nice to catch up with each other other than over the phone.

Vickie, you are such a good friend to me and I truly thank God for our friendship. I am so glad that no matter how many miles come between us, we still call, text and visit each other. We hope you had a great time in Indiana and come back soon!! :)

Okay, so one day we drove to Michigan (St. Joe) and spent some time popping in and out of antique shops and exploring the beautiful  Michigan coast line. Lake Michigan is BEAUTIFUL!

Coming home we stopped in Amish country and did a little more exploring. Oh, and stopping at random garage sales that were still going on late in the afternoon. What fun! Vickie was very into take pictures of the Amish as we passed them on the road. Thankfully, no one was injured in the taking of these photos!

One night after dinner we stopped at The Sunken Garden Park (I had never been there). It was so beautiful! Flowers were covering walkways and fountains were flowing, I really loved it and would like to go back there and take photos one day. For now, this lovely black eyed Susan will have to do. Why oh why can't mine at home look this full and pretty?!

Louie was pretty good while Vickie was visiting. At first I think he wasn't fond of having another person in the house, but then when he realized that he didn't have to stay in his room all day since she was there, he warmed up to her. He jumped up and sat on her lap during a thunderstorm once! That's awesome for him, he is pretty selective about who he likes and doesn't like!

For some reason (I can't remember why) we thought it would be cute to out Stephen's ball cap on Louie. Well, it sure was cute but he was not a fan:

Oh, and today is my birthday-the big 2-6. You know what? I don't feel old at all. I feel blessed and very loved! Hope you have a great Friday and weekend, friends!

Vacation {part 3}

Wednesday morning we surprised Gram by showing up at her house. Her face was priceless, I loved it! After explaining our concerns about Louie and watching him gobble up his food it was clear that he was comfortable at her house. We left him there while we ran a couple errands around town since we had the time and opportunity to do so. Our first stop was Zaxby's which was on our list of places we wanted to eat while in FL...or just south of KY in this case. Lunch was delicious and just a good as I remembered...Zaxby's should really bottle and sell their Zax sauce!

After filling our bellies we hit Discount Tire for a balance and rotation before getting a car wash. We started this trip with a clean car but you wouldn't believe the bugs you hit on a 16 hour drive, ha!

We grabbed an early dinner at Texas Roadhouse with Gram and Aunt Barb before heading to the cemetery. We chose to eat dinner earlier because it was raining and we wanted to try and not be at the cemetery while it was raining. Gram and Barb needed to change the flowers on both my Great-Grandma's graves and my Grandfather's too.

Being there was incredibly sad and made me miss being able to just stop by whenever I wanted to as I would if I lived in Florida...in the end though, I am so glad this was something we were able to do because it slipped my mind the last time we were in Florida and this time is precious to me.

We were able to beat the rain for a period of time but it did start to sprinkle on us...

but the rain made way for this beautiful rainbow and sunset. God's beauty and love were very evident!

Later in the evening we made a stop at Home Depot for Gram to pick out a paint color for her kitchen. She is so excited to be painting and updating some things and it is so cute!

After Home Depot, Stephen and I met an old friend of mine for yogurt at TCBY. While Matt and I stay in touch via email almost weekly, it was so nice to catch up face to face for a change! 

It was a great day of vacation...

Stay tuned for part 4 tomorrow! 

Much needed update! :)

Hello, hello blog world! Please note that this post is incredibly picture heavy and make take some time to load if you have a poor Internet connection. Consider yourself warned! :)

My childhood best friend, Keri flew to Indiana on Wednesday of last week. After picking her up at the airport, we promptly started our shopping adventure. After an hour and knocking over one display at Charming Charlie (fingers pointed at me for that one) we headed home to the apartment. Of course, I did drive her by the house on the way home! Thank goodness I have a wonderful husband who had cooked and had dinner ready for us when we got home...because we were hungry! Hubby made yummy meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and succotash. Of course a chick flick was in order after dinner and we had planned ahead by stopping at RedBox on our way home. We picked up "Just Go With It" and I LOVED it. It made us all laugh and was perfect...hubs even liked the movie!

Thursday morning we work up to dreary weather. There were gray skies and misting rain, but we did not let that ruin our plans of going to the zoo! My MIL and FIL picked us up and had my nieces with them. We grabbed some lunch and had a blast at the zoo. I had never been to the Fort Wayne Zoo, but I was impressed! I will let these pictures do the talking:

After the zoo, we headed to dinner at Cerulean's. It is a little pricey, but so good. The hubs and I actually prefer it at lunch because the menu has more options and it is more affordable, but it is good at dinner too. Keri had been there before when visiting so she wanted to go again. This meal was actually a breakthrough meal...we found a sushi that I liked! WOW! I never thought that day would come!

The excitement that day just kept growing. We came home from dinner to find and see that our tomato plant has a tomato growing. I am so excited about this and cannot wait to have home grown tomatoes! I also envision some fried green tomatoes in our future very soon!

Saturday morning Keri left to help our friend Tina prepare for her wedding reception. Tina and Kyle were married in December at a small, intimate ceremony and had planned a large reception for June when the weather is nicer! The Mr. and I slept in Saturday morning (always nice) and made plans to tour a chocolate factory. We had read about the factory and that they give tours when we were in Indianapolis a few weekends ago. We drove the hour to the factory and found out that we missed the last tour by an hour. Apparently the last tour on weekdays is 4pm, but they failed to mention that the last tour on weekends is 2pm. Sad day. We did buy some chocolate and find a furniture store to kill some time in before heading to Kyle and Tina's reception.

The day was not a total waste because we did buy a rug for in our dining room and at a great price. I am excited to open it up and see it rolled out! Also, we got ideas for sofas since we will be needing a new one pretty soon. Side note: I had no idea how expensive sleeper couches are!?! Wow! We were and still may be thinking we want one for a room downstairs that will essentially be a library or craft room but also double as an extra guest room if needed.

Oh, and the dreary weather from Thursday and Friday was gone. Thank the Lord for beautiful weather!

Now, onto Camp Camana-Wana-Marrya! Kyle and Tina had a camped themed reception and it was oh.so.cute! They had a camp "schedule" that included things like a talent show and river wading. They also had a mess hall that served dinner and a sweet treats table with cookies and cupcakes.

Umm hello chocolate-chip bacon cookies, nice to meet you!

(they were so good, I promise!)

The reception was held at Kyle's parents beautiful house which is riverfront. We had a wonderful time at camp!

Sunday we were a few minutes late to church, totally my closets fault. After church we were invited to lunch with a sweet family from church and we had some yummy hamburgers and baked beans. After lunch we headed back to our normal Sunday hangout spot to do laundry. I was able to paint the last end table for our living room too!

We went by the house to take some pictures and here is what we got:

LOVE this one!

Anyone know what these plants are?

Hello backyard!! :)

YAY!!

We ended the evening in the cornfields with two of our nieces (Ainsley was at church camp) catching fireflies or lightening bugs...whichever you prefer. We had so much fun with the girls and I loved Hadley's excitement when she caught one. These girls are so precious and close to me. It was a great way to end the weekend! 

And that folks, is the end of my story. Well, minus a couple side notes...like me getting my eyebrows threaded instead of waxed (what was I thinking!?), but that could easily be another blog post entirely! Hope you had a great weekend and nice weather to enjoy!