Memorial Day Weekend

It was a packed filled Memorial Day weekend for me! Festivities started Saturday with the arrival of my friend Lora and her husband Nevin. We enjoyed the sunny weather with a picnic and the best pizza ever... MARCOS! We also played games and just enjoyed catching up with each other. Sunday evening Laura and her guys came over for supper, games, and walk down to the carnival and fireworks. The fireworks were pretty good but what was even better was hearing Peyton and Tristyn's comments. Peyton loved them and exclaimed in delight for each one, while Tristyn sat on Grandma's lap and covered his ears with her hands. He did comment though, "Wow, that one looked like Papa's butt!" After the fireworks we arrived home to an extremely terrified dog. He locked himself into my parents bedroom and pooped EVERYWHERE! It was a mess. My parents are in the process of trying to figure out how to get dog pee out of a mattress! Monday, Laura and her gang were back, and I said goodbye to Lora and Nevin. :( It's always sad when we have to say goodbye again. But, I didn't have time to dwell on it too much, cuz we were off to the parade, where again, the highlight was watching my nephews. They lined up with the other boys and held their hats out for candy. It was quite funny watching little Peyton yell "CANDY!!!!!!" the whole parade. For some reason though, most people would give candy to the other boys, then totally miss Peyton. The poor guy! In the end though, both boys got so much candy. After that we went home and had Laura and Jason's birthday party. We played games, got some crazy pictures, and ended the day with a trip to the playground and a "shmarshmellow " roast over the grill. Whew, it was a whirlwind weekend and the rest of the week has been as busy. I'm covering for a lady who got in an accident, so it is a 4 day week filled with 10 hours days. I need another vacation!

My Trip

Wow, I've been busy since I got back! I'm just now able to get on here to give you all an update of my trip. Oh where to begin? I'll just give you a summary day by day:

Day 1: We flew out of Lansing to Chicago to Dulles. Flights went well, just a little turbulence on the first one. It was poring in Chicago and we had to run thru the rain from our plane to the airport. Not fun! I think we brought the weather with us to DC, since when we touched down it was cold and rainy. As we got nearer to my friend Audrey's house in Hopewell, VA, there was even a tornado warning in the county to the south of them.

Day 2: We needed a day to be lazy so after lounging in bed for awhile, we got dressed and went out to lunch at Chipoltes. Very good! I think we need to get one of those in MI. Then we did some shopping and went home for dinner and movie.

Day 3: D.C. day!!!!! We decided to check out Capitol Hill. First stop Library of Congress. Amazing building. So ornate and beautiful! Then we went next door to Supreme Court Building. We didn't go in, but it was still amazing to just stand outside and take pictures. After that, we walked around the Capitol Building. There is a little park area and nice walkways around it. I just loved being able to be so up close to it! Next time hopefully I can go in! After walking all the way around it (quite lengthy!) we walked all the way to Union Station to catch the Metro home. After a quick stop at TGIFridays for brownie icecream dessert we made the drive home!

Day 4: Well, our intentions at the beginning of the day was to get some beach time in and explore Chincoteaque Island. Well, to sum it all up, the few hour drive we thought it would be actually turned out to be 4 hours one way. So when we finally arrived it was cold, cloudy and late afternoon. So we spent about an hour walking around looking at the statue Misty horse and made our way home. So it was everything we thought it was going to be, but I got to see the Ocean, and you know... you live and you learn.

Day 5: We all needed a break. So, my friend Meredith and I babysat Levi (sweet sweet boy) while Audrey and her husband went out. Then later that night Will watched the baby while us girls had a girls night out. It was fun getting dressed up!

Day 6: Historic Williamsburg. I love this area! We took the Jamestown Ferry across the James River and then just spent time walking around Williamsburg. I think everyone should go visit Williamsburg and just walk around. College of William and Mary is beautiful and there are so many cute shops.

Day 7: Back to D.C.! We had quite the adventure on the drive there. We were close to DC when all of a sudden we realized we had a flat tire. So we pulled over on a 5 lane highway and our tire was shredded! So a state trooper ended up helping us out, told us where to go to get a new tire and we were back on the road in no time! God bless Trooper Smith! So once we reached DC, we made our way to Arlington. Honestly, there is no way to describe this experience. It was amazing and overwhelming at the same time. After that, we went to Georgetown. Oh my word! Traffic and people everywhere! It was still very cool to experience though.

Day 8: It was back to the airports. From the beginning it seemed we were running to catch flights. We went DC to Rochester to Chicago to Lansing. It felt nice to be home after that day of travel!

So know it's back to the real world. I've decided I wanted to become a professional vacationer. I love vacation mode! All in all, the trip was wonderful and I took tons of pictures. Since I can't even begin to pick some out to put on here, I will just say go check them out on facebook!

Bella

So I watch a movie tonight called "Bella". Very good! I would recommend it. It played in only select theaters I think, so I didn't hear anything about it until a friend recommended it to me. It is very different from your typical Hollywood movie. Very real and thought provoking. It deals with life, emotions, stereotypes. Anyways, just thought I would pass along this recommendation!

Crazy week... Crazy May!

Wow, May hit and things started moving fast! This is one full month for me! All last week I was busy majorly cleaning my room (not usually noteworthy, but this was BIG TIME cleaning!) Two huge garbage bags later, and it was good! I really had some motivation to get it clean since my friend Val and her husband Kevin were coming for the weekend. We had such a great time! The weather was beautiful Sat. morning and we spent the time downtown Grand Haven. This week is filled with eye appointment, birthday party (happy birthday Philip!), mother and daughter banquet w/my Gram, and packing for my trip (oh, and hopefully a much needed haircut)! I cannot wait for my trip! Me and my friend Meredith are heading to Lansing Saturday night and our plane leaves Sunday morning! So Sunday, right before noon, I'll be in D.C.!!!! I'm praying for wonderful weather and a chance to use my new bathing suit! What a great week it will be, I'm sure! When I get back, I'll have 5 days before my friend Lora is coming for the weekend. Add to that 1 more birthday party, and May will be done! Crazy time, but I'm looking forward to so much of it! I better enjoy it all, cuz June will bring 3 months of workaholic hours... but I'm not going to think about that now.