Picnics and Birthday Parties

Jessica, Angie, Hannah, and Me

Jessica, my grandmother, and me

Faith :)

Brittany and Marideth

Me and my sisters

Emily is so photogenic it makes me sick. lol

GO EMSTER!

So, I can't pose. At all.

Well, yesterday and today have both been splendid!

Yesterday evening, Emily and I set out on an adventure. Well, we went to the park.... which was still fun! We packed a picnic and took our cameras and took TONS of pictures! We found this little grove of pine trees off to the side at the park that looked very pleasant and we thoguht that it would be the perfect location for a picnic! So, we sat down, ate dinner, and then ran around and took pictures. It wasn't until we were leaving that area of the park that we realized that the reason that area was so empty was because that was the designated doggy bathroom area..... Oh well, we survived. haha

Emily ended up spending the night with me and we woke up early this morning (okay, just 6:30) to head to the park AGAIN because we wanted the early morning light to take pictures by the barn, old building and other places there. The pictures turned out really good!... at least I think so.

Then this evening my grandmother had a surprise 70th birthday party. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but it ended up being pretty fun. I took over 400 pictures tehre so I definitely had something to keep my occupied. haha

Anyway, enjoy the pictures! :)

St. Joseph!

this grandmother and grandson were sooo cute!

I don't know these people at all.... I just liked how they were running. haha

cute old couple :)

this was one of the most adorable younger couples ever!

my feet! and skirt. haha

ahhhh. sand! :)

St. Joseph beach

Lake Michigan

My sister Hannah standing in Lake Michigan.

Bubbles!!!!!!

Okay, these are just the pictures from St. Joseph. As I get more pictures from Michigan downloaded to my computer, I'll add them. It'll probably take at least 2 or 3 more posts.

AHHHHHHH. WHY DID I HAVE TO TAKE SO MANY PICTURES?!

I think it's an illness with me.

Chicago!

if you look closely you can see the fire escape stairs going up the side of the building... for some reason I though it looked cool. haha

L station in Chicago

under the L

Church doors

Chicago!

This church in downtown Chicago was GORGEOUS

mmm. I love B&W

A Building in China Town

China Town

Random building in Chicago

"I fell in love again,

all things go, all things go,

drove to Chicago,

all things know, all things know,

we sold out clothes to the state,

I don't mind, I don't mind,

I made a lot of mistakes,

in my mind, in my mind...."

(I sang that song the whole time we were in Chicago)

Well, here are the first pictures of my trip. This is just Chicago.... I have hundreds of pictures that I'm not even going to add on here. For this I'm just picking a few of my favorites and ones that show different places I went.

Alright, I must go for now!

adios!

Day 8. The End.

After a week of traveling and relaxing, I have finally arrived home. Although I'm excited to be back I already miss Michigan. Knowing I won't be back for another year is annoying! I wish Michigan were closer to Chattanooga.

Anyway, After a 12 hour car ride including 7 bathroom stops (4 in Kentucky alone), I'm finally home. The entire trip came to 1740 miles.... that's a long time in the car, but it was worth it. Right now I'm just happy to be home! I finally get to sleep in MY bed and use a shower where the shower head is not at midget height (long story...). Our dogs were exstatic to see us and my bed was calling my name. I'm sleepy from driving for so long (I drove all but 30 miles of a 639 mile drive).

OH! And I got to talk to Micah today!!!! Only a few text messages, but, hey!, it's better than nothing. He comes home tomorrow and so does Emily! I'm sooo excited! I even got to talk to Anna today! Well, almost, we played phone tag back and forth between breaks in the road trip and her rehersals. Hopefully we'll actually get to talk tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Hopefully I'll post the first of my pics tomorrow! :)

Day 7

Today was the last full day here in Michigan. We leave tomorrow morning to head home to Chattanooga for the rest of the summer. I'm going to miss it here.... It's so different from the south. The lake, the weather, the people--- everything is so different! We only get to come here once a year unfortunately. But this trip has been great so I shouldn't' complain.

Today I spent all day by the lake-----again. I'm SOOO sunburned though. The bad part of it isn't that I'm sunburned, it's that it's a once sided sunburn. I had the genius idea of paddling the kayak to the center of the lake and let the wind float it anywhere in the lake while I propped my feet up and got a tan/burn. HA. That was a joke. Only the front of my legs are severly burned, the rest of me is just burned.

Anyway, the day finished with Captain Frosty's and a trip to Hell (yes, there is a town called Hell up here... no joke. I have pictures to prove it).

Okay, I should go for now. I reek of bug spray and I should be packing and helping clean the cottage.

Ah. I really don't want to go home. All week I've been wishing I were at home, but now that it's time to go, I'm really sad. I'm SOOOOOooooo ready to see my friends like I've said a million times before, but not ready to leave Michigan cause I know I won't be back for another year. Ugh. Maybe I can talk my family into coming up here in the Winter this year to see the snow and all. :)

Alright. I seriously must go.

Goodbye until tomorrow when I'm in Chattanooga! :)

AHHH! ALMOST HOME! :)

Day 6

Wow. Day 6. It's flown by but also drug on and on. I love Michigan so much.... it's my second home and one day I'd love to live here. But right now, I just want to see my friends.

Anyway, today it was supposed to rain like ALL day. We decided to not hangout around the cottage all day cause there isn't much to do when it's storming here. So, we headed into Ann Arbor for the day. I wish we could have had longer there cause there was an art fair going on (which I generally enjoy). There were some AWESOME photographers there and I wish I could have looked at their stuff longer but we were kind of on a time crunch. Also, there were a few authentic vintage clothing stores which Emily would have LOVED!!!! They were really cool! If I had money I would have probably spent a lot in their stores and she probably would have spent WAYYYY more than me. haha :) OH! Urban Outfitters (one of my favorite stores ever!) was kind of participating in the art show by setting up a tent on the street and having a HUGE sale inside and outside! They had dresses for five dollars but I didn't know that until later so I didn't buy anything! My sisters both bought stuff so hopefully I can borrow their stuff. :) It's probably a good thing I didn't have money with me today cause I would have spent it all.....

Anyway, after going to Ann Arbor we headed back to Brighton (passing through Ypsilanti on the way.... YAY Sufjan Stevens!) to see a movie. Jess and Hannah saw Transformers 2 while my dad and I saw UP and my mom saw The Proposal. None of us can ever decide on a movie...

After the movie we headed to Zukey Lake for pizza and then headed home.

I'm sorry I keep writing about every small detail of my day, but I have nothing else to write about and I promised Emily I would blog every day. So, THIS IS FOR YOU EMILY! I A MISS A YOU!

Tomorrow will be our last full day here so it will be spent in the lake ALL day then will probably finish with a cookout with family in the neighboring cottages and then off to Captain Frosty's (a tradition) for ice cream.

Alrighty, enough for now.

Hasta la Vista!

Day 5

Today was pretty much the same as yesterday..... swimming, laying out, canoeing, kayaking, etc.... But it was still wonderful! :)

The only change in the day is that this morning while my dad was washing the dishes (we don't have a dishwasher here so everything is hand washed), a glass cup shattered in his hand. He doesn't even know how it happened cause it didn't drop hard and he didn't squeeze it hard. Anyway, that kept him out of the lake today cause it wouldn't stop bleeding. We thought his finger was going to be okay and that it was just a bad cut that would heal in a few days, but we were wrong. This evening around dinner time he pulled the skin on his finger and hurt it again and it won't stop bleeding. My mom took him to the doctor's for stitches and they said he needed to be taken to the hospital immediately because the glass cut very close to the bone and he might need emergency surgery. We (me and my sister's) are waiting to hear from my parents to see if it'll be just stiches or surgery then stitches.

**20 minutes later**

Okay, so as I sit here writing this, my mom called and said that the doctor put 8 stitches in his finger with no surgery thankfully. :)

Anyway, this definitely qualifies as the most boring, poitless and disgusting post ever. For that I am sorry. haha

Pictures as soon as I get home, I promise. :)

P.S. I miss my friends so much it's insane. I know I keep saying that but I miss them so much.... I'm so ready to be home! Micah, Emily, Peri, Abby, Melissa, Anna----I'm coming home sooooon! :) THANK GOODNESS! :)

Day 3 and 4

Day 3

Yesterday wasn’t anything exciting…. Pretty much the same as every day at the lake is going to be.

I woke up at 7:45 to go running which was awesome. I hadn’t been running since the Peachtree a week ago so I was dying to go. The neighborhoods around the lake are all flat and are centered around small random lakes. All the roads are packed dirt/sand so it’s the perfect running surface. Since I went in the morning it was still cool (actually, it’s going to be cool all week haha) and NO humidity. The air is so much clearer up here from lack of humidity.

Anyway, the rest of the day was spent on the lake canoeing, swimming and laying out. We had to run out and grocery shop later in the day which wasn’t horrible. It didn’t take too long… After that we headed back to the lake.

Our cousins from two family cottages down came over to say hey. Donny and Len are in their 50’s and they also take care of their granddaughter, 4 year old Sophie most of the time (who is also my cousin) so we got to see her too. I would post pictures of her on here but her parents don’t want ANY pictures of her on the web at all.

**Because i'm posting this so late in the day I'm going to go ahead and post todays post too.**

Day 4

Okay, so, today was pretty much like yesterday. But i spent seriously ALL day in the sun. Canoeing and kyaking took up most of my time but I also just layed on the dock listening to my ipod and taking 2387932874 pictures. I downloaded my pictures on my computer TWICE today and the second time it wouldn't let me. It said my memory on my computer was full.... So I'll probably have to buy another hard drive tomorrow or sometime soon.

Anyway, today has been yet again a wonderful day! But I'm missing Chattanooga horribly! I don't know how I'll ever manage moving away for college.... one week is bad enough.

As I sit here I'm being eaten alive by mosquiotes. However I have mastered the art of catching them in one hand in mid flight. Impressive, I know.

Enough for tonight. Goodnight All.

P.S.
I've decided just to post all pictures when I get home.... the internet connection is too weak here and it would take forever.

Day 2

Day 2

Yesterday was definitely a busy day. It started at 7 AM Central Time right outside of Chicago. After waking and getting ready, my family and I headed to Chicago for the day where we walked and drove around the city. I had only been to Chicago once before and enjoyed it even more the second time even though we only spent a day there. The weather was a perfect 83 degrees and sunny. I was hoping to be able to take lots of good pictures there but because the visit was so rushed I was only able to take pictures from inside the car.

After Chicago, we loaded back into the car and headed to St. Josephs, Michigan. On the way there we passed a sign for Pulaski, Illinois which I freak out about! My family made fun of me and called me weird cause they didn’t understand that Casmire Pulaski is one of our (Emily and I) favorite songs by Sufjan Stevens. Anyway, once we arrived in St. Joseph, we walked around the town for a little while and then headed to the beach (the town is located on Lake Michigan). The whole town and especially the beach were crowded due to the art and music festival in town. Even though it was crowded it was still a nice town. The beach was really pretty and I took tons of pictures but most of them didn’t turn out because they sun was in a bad position for pictures. I’ll edit them to see if that helps though.

After St. Josephs we were going to head to Holland but it was already dark by then so we headed on to our lake house. I was disappointed we weren’t able to go but I’ve been there a couple times before so it was ok. We finally arrived at Cordley Lake at about 11:00 PM. As soon as I got to my room I dropped my bags and went to bed.

I’ll blog about today tomorrow.

Ah. I miss my friends. 5 more days then Chattanooga!

P.S.: Pictures later.... the internet is slow and it would take forever to upload right now.

Adios!

Day 1

Day one was not the most exciting.... It was spent in the car for about 11 hours traveling from Chattanooga to Indiana. Right now I'm about an hour outside of Chicago getting ready to head into the city. Yesterday the ride was pleasant; not horrible like some car rides. The sunset going through Kentucky was GORGEOUS! I wish I had been able to get pictures of it but my camera was in the back of the van where I couldn't reach it. I will NOT be making that same mistake today. I will have my camera by my side every step of the trip today. :)

Anyway, I must be off to Chicago. :) "I fell in love again, all things go, all things go, drove to Chicago." That song is stuck in my head... but I don't mind! It's a wonderful song! :)

Alright, I'm off! :)

Pumpkin Patch, Heritage Park, and Pizza

Emily at the playground!

Jacquelyn and I downtown! ..... fun times! :)

At the Pumpkin Patch

Me and Micah

Happy Birday Anna! hahhaa :) We love you!

Micah about to cut the pizza

YEA! we had flour on our faces. mwahaha

We quickly realized baking wasn't my calling and Micah had no desire to try, so we left that job to Emily. :)

Sidewalk chalk!

The results :)

ME=Micah/Michu Pichu

Teh Emster=Emilyyyy

Saranade=Me/Sara

This week continues to be amazing! Definitely the best week of summer so far! Although nothing epic has taken place, several small things have added to make a GREEEAAATTTT week.

The pictures (although they are by no means all of the pictures I took), help to show what I have done this week.

1.) Pizza. With Micah and Emily. YEA! They came over to my house to just hangout and play with sidewalk chalk and make pizza which we quickly learned was a chore. hahaha at least for me. Emily seemed to master the art of pizza making quickly.

2.) Yesterday I started the day by meeting Jacquelyn at Rembrandt's for breakfast and then walked the bridge downtown. While doing so, we came up with the genius idea of traveling to Signal Mtn. to play at the World's most amazing playground ever! Afterwards, we went back downtown and shopped a little. Later that day, me, Micah and Emily helped babysit (well, not babysit cause the kids were 7 and 11 I think...) his two girl cousins which was, well, exciting. ha!

3.) Then, today, Emily and I met for "coffee" at Starbucks at 8 then went to the playground where we, as usual, took wayyy too many pictures. Later today I met up with Micah whom I drug to Wal-Mart and Sam's with me to run errands for vacation tomorrow! :) He was totally fine with the grocery shopping though... bored i could tell (which I was too), but he made it a little more interesting.

Anyway, that's pretty much the extent of my day/week. Nothing exciting to read about but that's ok cause Emily's the only other person besides myself who reads this anyway. haha

So tomorrow I leave for Michigan with my family for a week. We go every summer to our family's cottage on a small lake. Although Michigan is not the most exciting vacation destination ever, I look forward to it every year. We spend every day on the lake swimming, reading, tanning, etc. This year we're also going to a few other places in Michigan including Holland, Petoskey, Harbor Springs, and Charlevoix.

This trip will hopefully be blogged about every day (with pictures).

Although I'm really excited about the trip, I'm kind of dreading it too. I'll have absolutely NO contact with Emily while I'm gone because she'll be at camp and Micah probably won't have cell coverage where's he's going in Mississippi. So, I'm definitely going to miss my friends. A lot. But it's only a week!..... hopefully we'll all survive! :)

Alrighty. This post has been wayyyy too long and about nothing of importance so I'm going to go...... plus I still need to pack. haha

Okay, until next time, hasta luego!