Traverse City Trip!

Happy Tuesday Friends! I am so sorry that last week I was absent from the blog! Life has been kicking me in the butt lately and I have been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.  That being said, I am actively working to get myself more organized and will do my darnedest to get a few posts in this week!

Two weekends ago I went up to Traverse City with one of my oldest and dearest friends for a long girls weekend getaway! And let me tell you, it was exactly what I needed.  So here is a little recap of our girls weekend getaway!

Friday

On Friday, Kimmy and I made our way up to Traverse City in the morning so we could do some shopping and check out the city before the other girls go up north.  When we arrived in Traverse City they were having a street sale so we spent some time shopping around and looking at all of the items for sale! It was great to just shop around and enjoy an afternoon relaxing.

On Friday night we went to dinner at one of the local bars to see a band that one of the ladies really liked.  The food was so delicious and the music was amazing! I loved the atmosphere and the music was great! The evening ended with us spending time at the beach and watching the sunset.  

Saturday

Saturday morning we all woke up early because the AirBNB we were staying in were earlier risers.  It worked to our advantage because we got up and made our way out the door before everything got too crowded.  Our day started with a trip to Suttons Bay to do some shopping.  It was great to see this little town and spend some time looking around.  I managed to pick up a shirt for Justin and some artwork for myself before we made our way to lunch and the beach.

Before hitting the beach, we stopped at Tandem Ciders for a hard cider tasting.  It was so interesting to taste all of the different types of ciders they have available! I think my favorite was their strawberry apple cider.  Such a great taste and it is the epitome of summer and fall combined.  

After Tandem Ciders, we hit the beach to swim and relax! Jenny had brought her paddle board up, so while we were at the beach I tried my hand at paddle boarding.  It was great to just be at the beach and enjoy the water and the beautiful weather.

After the beach we went back to the house to wash up and get ready to go out for dinner.  My hair actually dried nicely from the beach so I just let it go curly (yay!).  Before going to dinner, we made our way to Chateau Chantal for a wine tasting.  I have only ever done one wine tasting before, so it was great to try some other types of wine that were locally made! 

After the wine tasting, we made our way to The Jolly Pumpkin for dinner.  We had about 20 minutes to kill before our table would be ready, so we decided to look around the grounds and enjoy the sunset.  One of the best parts of Traverse City is how beautiful the sunsets are over the water.  Obviously Michigan is filled with water, but sometimes I am in awe of how beautiful my home state is.  Dinner was filled with delicious food and great company.  

Sunday

Sunday morning was another early morning for us girls.  Our first stop was Sleeping Bear Dunes for a hike.  For this hike, we went to the Empire Bluff trail which is about a mile and a half in total without too much of an incline all at once.  As we were hiking, we started noticing these rose petals everywhere.  Of course this was extremely intriguing, so we kept asking everyone we saw on our way up the trail with no luck identifying the culprit.

Once we got to the summit, we figured where the rose petals had come from! Someone had brought at least 2 dozen beautiful roses to the top and had put them all over the place.  Our first guess is either someone either A: got married or B: got engaged.  Either way the flowers were super beautiful. 

After hiking, we ran to change into our bathing suits so we could go swim at a nearby beach.  This beach was a little bit more crowded, but there was some awesome waves.  After about four hours at the beach, we finally had enough before needing to head back and get changed for dinner. 

Late lunch on Sunday was a Stormcloud Brewing Company.  We each got a meal and an appetizer to pass and it was all super delicious! I love getting to try a bunch of different foods all at once.  After dinner we just walked around for a little bit before making our way back to the house.  

After changing and getting ready for the evening, we went back down to downtown Traverse City to enjoy another amazing sunset and dinner.  By this point I had eaten way too much food and was not too hungry so I ordered something to go and ended up eating it for breakfast on Monday.

Monday

Monday morning we got up and packed up the car for the drive home.  We had a little time to kill so we went back to Downtown Traverse City for some last minute shopping.  I ended up getting a tank top and a magnet from High Five Threads (love their stuff).  After shopping, we said our goodbyes and made our way home to get back to real life. 

Overall, the trip was amazing! I hope that Kimmy invites me back next year to join her and the girls.

Question of the Day: What is your favorite place you've traveled? 

I'd love to hear from you!

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SMASH48 2016

Happy Tuesday Friends! I hope your week has started out with bang and you are feeling great about your week so far.  

Today I wanted to share with you a bit about my past weekend (since I missed Weekend Highs and Lows yesterday).  This past weekend I went to SMASH48 for the third year in a row with Sarah and it was so much fun.  So here is a little recap of our weekend!

Friday

On Friday, a group of us girls all met at Sarah's house so we could all caravan up to the retreat together.  I had met each of these girls briefly before so it was great to get to make greater connections with them all on the drive up.  

On the drive there, we stopped at Tony's I-75 Restaurant to get lunch.  If you are ever in Michigan and shopping at Birch Run, I highly recommend checking out this restaurant.  Beware though: The food comes in giant portions so you might want to share.  

Once we got to camp, we went directly to our cabin to drop off our stuff.  For the first time ever, I was selected to sleep in the Plane! I am so happy! I have always wanted to stay in the plane and it was so much fun!

After we unpacked and got settled in, we made our way to the cafeteria for dinner.  I did not realize how hungry I was until we sat down to eat.  After dinner, we had an even to meet our cabin mates; unfortunately, our group were pretty much the only ones there so we didn't meet most of our cabin until later.  But we did play a few fun "get to know you" games until the first session.

After meeting the cabin, we went to our first session.  This year's theme was "Love Go" and it was awesome! 

After session, we went back to the cabin for small group to discuss what we had just learned and to kind of finish up with the "get to know you" stuff.  After session, we had a fun Super Hero themed dance party planned! I had no idea what in the world I was going to wear so I searched Pinterest for some ideas and came up with a simple Mrs. Incredible Costume.  If you want to make an Incredibles costume of your own, check out Fresh Mommy Blog.

The night ended with us dancing away for to some fun music and with delicious snacks.

Saturday

Saturday morning the girls and I got up early to go to Yoga.  Due to some confusion, we ended up going to the wrong location and arrived to the session late.  Since the class was so full, we decided to just do yoga somewhere else on our own.  Sarah pulled up a Beach Body yoga workout on YouTube and we did that instead.

After yoga we headed to breakfast for a quick bite to eat.  After breakfast, we scrambled back to our plane to get ready for the day.  The weather was awful so we grabbed our warmest clothing and umbrellas to head out for session.

Session Two was so fun with a funny yoga warm up and a great session from Michel.  I love when Michel speaks because she is just so brutally honest.  There is something to be said for a woman that does not hold back and she has always been my favorite speaker.

After session, we had another round of small group discussion with our cabin.  This session was fun because we got to play another fun game and talk about everything that happened between the night before and that morning.

After session, we all went to lunch before heading to our individual activities for the weekend.  One of the best parts of Saturday is you get the choice to do what you want for a good portion of the afternoon.  Sarah and I decided that we wanted to do something more relaxing so we sat and chatted for a few hours until the one Session we wanted to go to was available.

The topic for this session was: How to Change Your Man.  

I was shocked at how many ladies wanted to know how to change their men.  

Look at them all! The room was completely packed.  There were ladies sitting on the floor, sitting in all of the chairs and even standing up in the back of the room.  I loved this topic and plan to do a separate post about the insights that were given to all of us during this session.  The best part of this session is the fact that it can be applied to relationships outside of marital relationships.

After an afternoon of relaxation and learning how to change our men, we went to dinner then headed to the last session of the day.

After session, we went back to the cabin for small group before heading to the lake for a candle lighting.

The purpose of this exercise was to take all of your burdens and let them go by putting your candle into the water and watching it float away.  Ironically, we couldn't get the candles to "float" away, so they ended up lining the edge of the lake.  It was still very beautiful and a wonderful experience.

The evening ended with a delicious snack and chatting with the girls over brownies and pulled pork.  After we all hit the sack early because we were so tired.

Sunday

Sunday morning we woke up to snow on the ground... I'll give you a second to process that... SNOW. 

The weather this weekend was crazy because we had rain, hail, sleet, wind, sun and snow all in the 48 hours we were at Springhill.  I just cannot believe how crazy the weather was and I was not prepared for the snow.  Thankfully, I put a pair of boots in my suitcase to use for my costume; otherwise, I would have frozen my feet for the whole weekend.

In the morning we all got up (a little less enthusiastically than the morning before) and started getting ready for the day.  I took the time to pack up my suitcase and bed so that after session I could get my stuff quickly into the car for the drive home.  

Once everyone was ready, we made our way to the cafeteria for coffee and breakfast and they ran out of coffee.  Can you believe it?! I mean I guess it is bound to happen when 1,100 women show up for breakfast.

After breakfast we had our last session of the day and it was great! I loved this particular session.  It was amazing and so uplifting for the drive home.  For the drive home I hung out with Sarah and we caught up on life a little bit.  I feel like we both have been running around so much lately that we never get to chat.  

Sunday afternoon I spent with Justin just catching up from the weekend because I had poor service while I was out of town for the weekend.

So that's my weekend! What did yours look like?

Question of the Day: What fun things did you do this weekend?

I'd love to hear from you!

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Florida Trip

Happy Wednesday Friends!

I hope the first half of your week has been amazing! We got home from Florida on Monday and I have been spending the last two days catching up for the days I missed work.

Over the weekend we went to Florida so I could run my first ever half marathon! I am planning to do a recap post of my race tomorrow to fill you all in on how the first race went. 

Before the half marathon on Saturday, we went to Universal Studios to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and the other theme parks in the area.  I have heard so many fun things about the Harry Potter theme park and Justin is a huge fan of Harry Potter, so of course while we were in Orlando we had to make our way there.

We left on Wednesday during the day to head out to Orlando.  It was a bit chaotic getting onto the plane since we have never flown Southwest before.  Our flight was a smooth flight with little to no turbulence.  On our way in, Justin grabbed a picture of a rainbow while we were making our decent into Orlando.

Christina picked us up from the airport in the evening and we made our way to the house we rented before heading out to the store to get some groceries.  

Thursday morning, we got up early to head out to Universal Studios for the day.  Once we got there, we picked up our passes and got birthday badges for Justin and Christina.  Christina heard somewhere that if you have a birthday badge, you have a chance of getting a free wand at Ollivander's and with their birthdays close together, we thought we would get double the chance to get a free wand.

The best part of the birthday buttons was every person wishing them a happy birthday.  I swear the employees are required to with people with buttons a happy birthday, but when I asked someone about it she said that they do not have to but it is suggested they do.

The morning we spent walking around the park and checking out some of the fun areas.  The first area we went to was Jurassic Park.  We stood in line for what we thought was a ride, but ended up taking a picture with a velociraptor.  It was a silly little thing, but we got a good laugh out of the thing.

After Jurassic Park, we made our way to Hogsmeade to check out the Island of Adventure of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

I have to say I was very impressed with how like the movie it actually looked.  The buildings and everything were very realistic.  I was hoping the park would not be super busy, but by the time we got there, it had started to get busy.  

  

Thankfully, when we went to Ollivander's, it was not super busy and we only waited about fifteen minutes to get into the store.  Christina was picked to be fitted for a wand and it was fun.  I posted a video on Instagram of her getting selected for a wand if you wanted to see it.  I also took the time to pick out a wand for myself while we were there{I know I am a nerd}.

After Ollivander's we made sure to get a glass of Butterbeer.  Christina and I got a frozen butterbeer and Justin got a regular one and wow they are so delicious! I am hoping to find a recipe so I can make some at home to use with our new Butterbeer mugs we picked up there. 

After Butterbeer, we made our way to the train station to head to Diagon Alley.  I loved this because during the trip to the station, you got to watch a fun video on the train.  Plus, at this time our feet had started to ache and we desperately need to sit down for a few minutes.

Once we arrived in King's Cross station, we checked out the phone booth and made sure to dial "magic" to talk to the Ministry of Magic.  That is such a fun little thing to do - especially if you have kids.

After the phone booth, we checked out Diagon Alley and boy was that neat! I really appreciate how much detail they put into the park and how much it felt like we were actually there.  It also helped that there were tons of people dressed in their robes.  I think my favorite part of this part was the fact that the dragon breathed fire every ten minutes or so.  I was shocked at how hot it was!

After spending some time in the park, we walked around the rest of Orlando to check out the other areas and made sure to take a ride on the Men in Black ride.  This one was a lot of fun because you were given a gun and needed to shoot the aliens as you were going by.  I got the highest score on our car, thank you very much.

The afternoon ended with a train ride back to Hogsmeade and a few shopping trips before heading home for the evening.

Such a great day at Universal Studios!

Question of the Day: What is your favorite Disney park you have been to?

  

I'd love to hear from you!

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Uruguay Days 7 & 8

Happy Wednesday Friends! I hope you are having a great week so far and have a great rest of your week!

Today I am going to share a recap from days 7 & 8 from my trip to South America.

Day 7

Day 7 started with us coming back to Montevideo via the Buquebus at the terrible hour of 7:00 am.  Once we all were successfully on the Buquebus, all of us passed out for the two hour trip.  I was very glad for the nap after getting up so early. 

After arriving back to the apartment, us girls threw some clothes in the washer so we would have some clean clothes when we arrived back from our little adventure.  Essentially we were back at the apartment long enough to unpack our suitcases from Iguazu and re-pack for our next trip.  

After successfully packing for the next leg of the trip, we called a cab to take us to the car rental company at the airport.  This cab driver was particularly hilarious because he spoke almost no English, but was willing to try and ended up making some pretty funny jokes about the fact that I had left my husband back in the United States and it not being a good idea.  However, he also said I was smart for leaving him behind.  We enjoyed a good laugh with him.

After successfully picking up the rental, we attempted to leave the airport.  Both Christina and Sarah know how to drive stick, but the system in South America was a little different than what they were used to.  Up first was Christina and she was hilarious.  Right out the gate she could not figure out how to reverse the car, so we sat there laughing hysterically as she tried to get the car to move

The guy in front of us ended up having to help her by moving his car forward enough for us to just pull out of the spot instead of reversing.  Okay, that hurdle was done.

Upon exiting the airport, you have to go through a gate... that ended up being hilarious as well because we did not know if we needed money or what.  The guard ended up just telling us to go through since we were clearly very confused.  I think at one point he just laughed at how ridiculous we were. 

After successfully leaving the airport, grinding the clutch several times and getting on the highway, ants began crawling out of the vents of the car.  At this point, I was in the back seat laughing so hard I could not breathe while Sarah and Christina are freaking out about the ants all over the dashboard.  At this point in the day we had only eaten breakfast and were starving, so we stopped at a gas station to get some snacks until we could get some actual food.

Now, this part of the story is hilarious because Christina thought it would be a good idea to walk into the gas station and ask for ant killer.  So she grabbed out her phone, looked up the word for ant {hormiga} and walked into the gas station confident she could communicate enough to get what she needed.  Boy was she wrong.  

We walk into the gas station and look around for snacks - I ended up with a bottle of water and Doritos while the girls grabbed their drinks and snacks.  At this point, Christina walks up to the cashier says, "hormigas!" and makes the slitting someones throat motion across her neck.  After she says this she bursts out laughing and the clerk and allllll of the other people in the gas station also burst out laughing.  It was a pretty hilarious site if I must say. 

Eventually they figured out what we needed, but they only had heavy duty stuff that would have been way too much for what we needed. 

After a few hours of driving, we finally made it to our hostel and checked in for the night.  This place was actually pretty neat.  We were able to rent a private room for the three of us that had our own bathroom and key.  This was nice because typically in hostels you share a room with several strangers.  We had fresh linens and a warm bed.

After talking to the guy who checked us in, we went to a local bar to grab some dinner.  At this point I had eaten so much chicken and steak, I was excited to be able to have a nice juicy burger and this one was perfect.  When we talked to the clerk at the hostel, he told us that surfing would not be good and that we really should not go surfing, but the bartender told us that we could possibly get a chance to go with the help of her friend.  So she hooked us up and he came to meet us at the restaurant and made plans to go surfing the next morning with his help.

After dinner, we headed down to the beach to check everything out.  It was a bit of a chilly evening, but it was nice to walk around in the sand and smell the ocean.  We also found one of those workout parks that they have all over Uruguay and took some time to play on them.  Once we were tuckered out for the day we made our way back to the hostel for the evening.

Back at the hostel, we hung out in the common area to use the Internet and catch up on Facebook and Instagram.  We also hung out with Juan Pablo and Jose Maria.  They both work at the hostel so it was neat to talk to them about Punta del Este and the fun things to do.   The evening ended with a good night's sleep.

 Day 8

The next morning we woke up early enough to grab breakfast at the hostel before getting ready to meet Santiago for surfing lessons.  Surfing was so much fun and much harder than I was expecting it to be.  Thankfully we all were able to have a good time - and I only ended up with a few bruises on my arms and legs from the board hitting me. 

After surfing we went back to the hostel to shower and clean up before walking down to see "El Mano" or The Hand.  This is a really neat sculpture in Punta del Este that looks like a hand coming out of the sand.  After doing some research on the sculpture, it was actually made to warn the surfers and swimmers that the water can be dangerous and to use caution when in the water.  What a neat concept. 

Of course, we had to get a few pictures of us on the thumb, so we took turns pushing each other onto the thumb.  This is my absolute favorite picture from the trip and I am so glad Sarah took it of me.  

After The Hand, we grabbed a bit to eat and went back to the hostel to take a nap before heading out for the evening.  In Uruguay, the parties do not start until 2:00 am or so and go until well after the sunrises.  So taking a nap was absolutely necessary.

We ended up going out to a local club that was huge! I have never been to a place this large.  And of course, since it was the day before Halloween, everyone was dressed in costume.  I am pretty sure we were the only ones not dressed in costume.  Oh well!

It was so fun to just hang out and meet all kinds of people.  In fact, some of the people we met were from Montevideo and had come out just to party for the night and celebrate a Bachelor/Bachelorette party.  It was pretty awesome being able to talk to some people and make new friends.

The "evening" ended around 5:00 am when we left the club to go home and sleep for a few hours before heading out on another fun road trip.

  

   

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Uruguay Days 5 & 6

Happy Friday Friends! I hope your week went well and you are looking forward to some fun events this upcoming weekend! 

Today I am sharing the third of five posts from my Uruguay trip! I was hoping to be able to do this in three posts, but there is just too much to share with everyone!

Day 5

Days 5 & 6 were filled with some of the most incredible views I have ever had the opportunity to witness, and honestly, the pictures do not even begin to do the falls justice.

Tuesday started with us all getting up early and hopping in to a cab to the airport.  I was very excited when we start boarding our plane because I had never boarded a plane from the tarmac before! It really is not all the exciting but it was neat to do something for the first time.

Once we got to Iguazu, we crammed all five of us into a cab with the cabbie.  To say it was a bit cramped was an understatement.  We had a good time of it though! Our drive to the hotel was very bumpy - but not in the bumpy you would think.  I swear every twenty feet they had a speed bump... it got old very fast.  

After checking into the hotel and dropping off our stuff, we made our way down to one of the paths to get to the waterfalls.  Of course, on our way there, we stopped to put some bug spray on and any other sprays we needed.  For being in the forest, there really were not as many bugs as I assumed there would be present.  Thank you Lord! I hate being surrounded by bugs.

We spent the next several hours walking around and checking out the falls.  To say that they are beautiful really does not begin to describe them.  According to one of the tour guides about one millions gallons of water go through the falls in a minute.  Can you believe that? I wonder if they have ever considered trying to use that power for electricity.  I will have to do some research.

After touring the lower falls, we ran back to the hotel room to grab Papa Jones.  He did not go with us to tour the lower falls because he was really not feeling well.  So while we did the lower tour, he took a nap then joined us for Devil's Throat.  

For Devil's Throat, you have to ride a train to this area and then walk {for what feels like forever} to get to the top of the falls.  Again, the pictures do not begin to do this justice.  One thing I noticed while we were there was the butterflies that we saw everywhere.  There must have been thousands of them and they were all so beautiful!

At Devil's Throat, we just enjoyed the sound of the rushing water and marveled in the beauty.  It is really neat to get that close to the top of the waterfall.  Honestly, my biggest question is where in the world all of the comes from.  When we were walking to Devil's Throat, we walked over what felt like a mile of water to get to the top.  I was fascinated to see the number of birds, turtles and other animals hanging around the water as if it was not a big deal.  Oh - and it was also crazy to see the old walking paths that had collapsed under the pressure of the water.  Thankfully we did not have any issues with our pathway.  

On our way back to the hotel, we had to take the same train.  While we were waiting, Christina decided that she would try to pick up a butterfly.  I think she was successful haha! She ended up with two butterflies - one on each hand.  It was cool to see them sitting there just checking out her hand.  The evening ended with us having dinner at the hotel and going to bed. 

Day 6

The next day we woke up and made our way to the upper path of the falls.  I am so glad that we did this path as well because it had some of the more panoramic shots of the falls.  Unfortunately, my camera died at this point so I only grabbed a few pictures of this part. 

The weather was a bit more lovely this day, so we really were able to see the falls in the distance.  Actually on this part of the tour I ended up sunburning my neck and shoulders and had some rather hilarious tan lines.  It felt so good to get some sun on my skin {even if I was red} and enjoy the outdoors.

In the afternoon, we made our way back to Buenos Aires.  We stayed at the same hotel as last time and made sure to take advantage of the pool while were were here - especially since it had a bunch of water massage things built right into the pool.  Sarah, Christina and I took some time to do some shopping while we were in Buenos Aires and I am glad that we did.  I ended up purchasing a few scarves.  One of them had butterflies on it, so it was a perfect representation of our time in Iguazu.

After shopping, we enjoyed some time at the pool before getting ready to head out for the evening.  Unfortunately by this point I had started to get burned out, so I ended up just going to dinner and not going out dancing.  Honestly, it worked perfectly because I was able to FaceTime with Justin and talk to him for a while.  Plus, that was the day of our anniversary so it was nice to "spend some time" with him.

Okay! That is all for days 5 & 6 and I really abbreviated those days.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Question of the Day: What is your favorite souvenir from your travels?

  

I'd love to hear from you!

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