First Day of School 2012

August 20th 2012 -

Today was the first day of school for the boys!  Jack got up surprisingly easily and was out the door at 6:30am to catch the bus to Taylor to start seventh grade, seventh grade?!?!?!  Where does the time go!

Of course Jack is to cool to let me walk with him to the bus stop - so I took a picture of him on his way :)

I went in to get Andy up and he was already up and getting dressed when I came in.  I asked if he had picked a nice outfit to wear, he said "yup!" and showed me the shirt he had picked.  As you can see below it is a picture of the Mona Lisa saying Aloha!  (A souvenir from Hawaii)  I told him it was an interesting choice, he said he wanted to say, "Aloha to 3rd Grade!"  Love him!  We headed out to catch the bus and he walked thru a spider web - perfectly combed hair destroyed in 30 seconds!

The bus stop was much more crowed this morning then it had been last year - looks like we have a lot of new Kindergartners in the neighborhood.

 
Looking forward to a great year with Mrs. Wesselhoft and the gang at Grace Miller Elementary!

Road trip to Alpena, MI - Day Twelve

August 6th, 2012

We should make it home today!   Traveled mostly back roads today and came thru a small town called Cadiz Ohio.  We found out this is the birth place of Clark Gable!  The have a museum at the site of his birth place and have rebuilt the family home there.  Unfortunately they were closed, but we were able to take a couple pictures.

We also found a bait vending machine in Cadiz!

We had an awesome road trip full or lots of fun and making a lot of memories! 

Road trip to Alpena, MI - Day Eleven

August 5th, 2012 -

Headed home!  We are headed back towards Virginia today.  We had to make one very important stop first though...

My first Tim Hortons!  It was crazy busy inside.  As expected the coffee was delicious and so where the TimBits (donut holes).  My favorite were the Raspberry and Lemon flavors.  If you ever come across a Tim Hortons - stop!

We stopped in Wooster Ohio for the night.  We headed into the Historical District for dinner and the only place open was Matsos Greek Restaurant.  What a wonderful place!  We were greeted my Spiro the owner.  He seated us at our table and immediatly made sure we had enough garlic bread to feed a family of twelve!  We ordered the antipasto salad and the Spanakopizza - imagine a spinach pie on a pizza.  Andy had ordered the kids spaghetti and had finished before our pizza arrived so they brought him another full plate!  Oh and lets not forget the Baklava for dessert...heaven!  

Matsos

Spanakopizza

Right down the street from the restaurant was the most amazing building, I had to take a picture.  I Goggled buildings in Wooster Ohio when I got home and found out the building was the town hall and courthouse.

Road trip to Alpena, MI - Day Ten

August 4th, 2012 -

Mackinac Island! 

Since we couldn't get cinnamon rolls at Connie's last night, we thought we would stop at the Three Heart Bakery on the way to Mackinac Island.  There website said the open at 8am and close at 3pm or when they have sold out.  We got there at 8:45am and guess what?? Out of cinnamon rolls!  Luckily they had some other delicious items to choose from.   I went with the doughnut muffin - it tasted like coffee cake and came on an adorable heart shape plate. 

We arrived at the Star Line ferry harbor in Mackinaw City and were on our way to Mackinac Island within in 15 minutes...

Ferry to Mackinac Island

Mackinac Bridge

Mackinac Island is amazing! There are no cars on the island (except an ambulance and a police car),everyone travels via bicycle, or horse drawn carriage. We took a guided tour of the the island that took us thru the "town", the state park and then dropped us off at the fort.  The Fort was built in 1780. The first skirmish of the War of 1812 happened at Fort Mackinac.  

View of Fort 

Andy LOVED all the cannons

Andy learning how to make animals with a Jacobs Ladder - his new favorite toy

The horse power for our carriage

Arch Rock

We had lunch at the Tea Room at the fort.  It has outdoor seating overlooking town and the park.  

View from our table at lunch

View of Mackinac Bridge from lunch

After lunch we ventured over to Jack's Livery Stable.  There you can rent your own horse drawn carriage!  We were assigned a mare named Babe and off we went!  We quickly discovered Babe had two speeds, slow and slower!  Deciding driving your own horse drawn carriage was probably a once in a lifetime experience, we just enjoyed the ride.

Mom and Dad renting our carriage

Dad driving our carriage!

Us and Babe

Andy, Dad and Babe

After our trip around the island with Babe we headed into town to explore the shops.  Mackinac Island is home to 17 different fudge shops!  Out tour guide told us that if you sampled fudge at each shop you would eat a pound of fudge!  The island is also home to the Grand Hotel which was made famous in the movie Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.  The hotel boasts the worlds largest porch with over 100 rocking chairs.  The hotel also has 385 individually decorated rooms.  We didn't go into the hotel, if you aren't a registered guest, they charge a $10 admission fee! We were on the island for the whole day and didn't see everything...it is definitely on my list of repeat vacation spots.

Lilac Hotel 

The Grand Hotel

Post Office 

Round Island Lighthouse 

Main street thru town

Fudge!!

Island trash truck

Round Island Lighthouse

Oh! Can't forget we even found a hidden Mickey on the island!

Road trip to Alpena, MI - Day Nine

August 3rd, 2012

Last day of hockey camp!  Andy had a great time at camp this year.  On the final day of camp they get to play a game.  Andy started out on the blue team and was "traded" mid game to the yellow team. The game ended in a tie and went to a shoot out with the yellow team wining - so Andy got to be on the wining and losing team :)

Andy got selected to do the shootout

Andy and his buddy Joey

Andy and the Planet Hockey Cup

Group A

After camp we headed to Tawas, MI to see a lighthouse...someone was a bit tired from a week of camp. 

On the way to Tawas we crossed the 45th Parallel, they have this handy sign letting you know. 

We made it down to the lighthouse, just before it closed.  There were a set of sisters there conducting the tours.  They told us about a program the state has that allows people to live at the lighthouse for a week and run all the tours - sounds like fun!

Tawas Lighthouse

View from the top

Earlier in the week Mom had found a restaurant online called Connie's Cafe in Ossineke.  They are famous for their dinner plate sized cinnamon rolls.  We thought we would stop there on the way home form Tawas to have dinner and pick up some cinnamon rolls for breakfast the next day.

Unfortunately by the time we got there they were sold out of cinnamon rolls, but dinner was worth the stop.  It was fish fry Friday - I ordered the combo, fired cod and fired shrimp.  It came with the biggest red potato I have ever seen! It was sitting in the cutest little bowl filled with garlic and butter.  If you mashed it up, it absorbed the butter and was sooooo delicious! 

Out back they had a beautiful garden...

Connie's Cafe is a must if you are ever in the area.  Tomorrow we are off to Mackinac Island - so excited!!