Almost 30

Poor Brody feels like an 'old man'.  He doesn't like celebrating his birthday anymore because it just reminds him of his increasing age...I think he's a bit dramatic. He should age with grace.  But no matter his feelings on the subject, he can't slow time and another birthday came and went.  He turned 29 this year, so I told him to enjoy the last year of his youth.

Since he is bah humbug about his birthday, I didn't do a lot.  I made him waffles and bacon (his favorite) for breakfast, got him a Michigan Tshirt and some fancy food items for presents.  He had class all day and night so we didn't do much more.  I did buy him a creme brule from Whole Foods, which I somehow let melt and spill over the packaging,  (in my defense, it was 95 degrees that day) and gave it to him when he got home late that night.

We did go to dinner on Friday at his favorite and Ann Arbor's best, Zingerman's Roadhouse! They made him a fancy sundae to celebrate.  

It was a good day to remember how much we love him and how good of a dad and husband he is!  He loves Madeleine and they are so cute together! He works so hard for us so we can enjoy our lives.  Happy Birthday, Brody! (even though you don't read this!) 

Road Trip Home

Our last travels of the summer was a road trip that I had been looking forward to for months.  We have heard from many people that the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is amazing and a must see.  When Brody found out that his second internship was going to be located in Minnesota, I made the decision that we should drive through the UP on our way back to Michigan.  And that is just what we did.

We left Utah, flew back to Minneapolis to pick up our car and then started our three day trip through the UP and on home to Ann Arbor.  We were able to see so many fun things and enjoy beautiful scenery.  Madeleine complained in the car a lot (by complaining I mean screamed at the top of her lungs) but we tried to plan everything around her nap schedules and it actually worked out really well.  She slept a lot and we didn't have to listen to too much crying.  Actually she is now so used to falling asleep in the car that she falls asleep on short trips like to the doctors office, this can be seen as a plus or a minus.

Anyway, the only sad part of our trip is that our last day we had plans to go to Mackinac Island, the place I wanted to see most, but we awoke to black skies and pouring rain.  We knew there was no hope for the ferry ride and visit to an island where cars are not allowed.

I can't complain about the trip as a whole.  It was so fun and I am grateful to have a husband who loves to travel to random places just as much as I do!!

Day 1 
Duluth, Minnesota- touristy town on Lake Superior
Lots of driving through the middle of nowhere Michigan, beautiful scenery along Lake Superior

Lake Walk in Duluth

Day 2
Pictured Rocks Lake Cruise
Views of Lake Michigan
Cute touristy town of St. Ignace
Lake Michigan Beach

Brody took a ridiculous amount of pictures on this trip.  I can't even manage to sort through them all to find good ones to post! 

St. Ignace by Lake Michigan

Day 3 
Mackinaw City
Drive home- stopped in a cute town called North Branch

At the light house in old town Mackinaw--Just before the rainstorm that ruined our trip to the island! 

10 Months!

Madeleine is getting closer and closer to a year!  Pretty unbelievable!  She is developing quickly and keeping me busy.  She turned 10 months while we were in Utah.  She is quite the traveler, this baby.  She has lived in 3 different states in her short life and has been to 8 states!  She did well with the changes from Minneapolis to Utah, but the poor thing came down with a cold while visiting grandparents (no fun for anyone).

Her 10 month milestones are:

-Walking along couches or tables, anything she can reach
-Crawling and getting into EVERYTHING!
-Claps, points and mimics others all the time
-She now has 6 teeth (2 more came in recently)
-A bit of a finicky eater, but has tried some meat and has actually liked it!
-Bites people, especially me when teething, gave me a bruise on my leg!
-Started separation anxiety. She is very clingy to me recently and is not as friendly to strangers anymore.

Love the rolls on the arms--sooo big!

I LOVE these naked bath pictures! She wouldn't let go of the pen so she got a bath with it!

She has quite the personality and definitely lets her opinions be known.  I wonder who she takes after..?    lol We love our sweet girl and enjoy watching her grow and learn everyday!

Utah Trip

Brody had two weeks off this entire summer.  He is kind of a work-a-holic.  Of course he wanted to spend sometime in Utah.  What better place to be in the summer? So that is where we headed mid-August.

I flew out alone on a Tuesday and spent most of the week alone at his mom's.  He flew in on Saturday to join us and to stay for another week and a half.  Brody actually 'worked' (I put that in quotations because it wasn't real work, actually just building his resume and preparing pitches for potential clients...he's always doing something that isn't easy to explain) most of the trip except for when we went out with friends.  Even though he was busy, we still did a lot and had lots of fun.

Here is what we did in pictures!

Madeleine had fun exploring her grandparents' homes!

Brody's 10 year class reunion! We are sooo old. 

Shopped for new outfits :)

We went to the pool a couple of times in Farmington at Brody's mom's house!

Zoo- Madeleine loved it!

 (Bees Game- we only have some pretty awful pictures from the night!) 

Last but not least, we ate out A LOT and saw so many friends! It was fun to go on so many dates and to visit with tons of old friends.  Thanks so much to everyone to hung out with us!  We miss everyone and can't wait to visit again. In the meantime, we'd love to have some visitors in Michigan!!

Recap

Wow.  I can't believe that I haven't blogged for almost a whole month!  A lot has happened in the last month so I have a lot of catching up to do.  

We are back in Ann Arbor now (and will be until the beginning of May when Brody graduates).  He starts school tomorrow and I will try to get Madeleine and I back on a schedule.  I will also try to fill my time up with random things.

Also, my parents will finish serving their one year mission to Detroit tomorrow.  They lived 45 minutes away from us for the past year.  We were able to see them on almost every 'P' day and it was so nice to have them here when the baby was born.  Today they came over for their last P day and spent the day picking berries with us in Dexter (a little town close by).  We will miss them.  It has been a great experience living close to them and having grandparents here to watch Madeleine grow.