Hay Maze

Our family had a fantastic time at the Talladay Farms Hay Maze. It was our first time and we'll definitely be back. We got through the "easy" and "hard" maze in a little over an hour and had good navigators with us. It was a gorgeous, chilly night that felt just perfect for fall. After the maze, though the boys begged for DQ, we ended up with ice cream sundaes at home. Fun, fun night!

In July we are moving to...

MICHIGAN!

Are you thinking, wait...isn't that where you already live? You are correct! We have been so excited to share our big news but wanted to wait until we knew exactly where we would be going. Back in October, November and December Mike was interviewing for jobs (early, right?). We were so blessed to have 5 awesome offers in that short time of preliminary interviews. Mike has worked his tail off these past few years: school, grades, networking, connections, you name it and it was so exciting and such a relief to see that it all paid off. 

We ended up doing something we were not planning on...funny how life has a way of always ending up like that for us. We thought we would take a fellowship after school, and Mike was offered a great one (it's kind of crazy too, fellowship offers require a yes or no within 24 hours because they are so competitive). Literally 1 hour before we called to say yes,  he received a consulting offer that was too good to not consider, so we turned the fellowship down and he continued the interview process and ended up with 3 more offers over the next month.

After much prayer, fasting, thinking, late night conversations and evaluating, we chose to accept the offer with Accenture where he will be working in their Health Care Consulting Practice. After accepting the offer, we had to decide which big city we wanted our family to settle in. Our gut said, D.C. since we'd lived there before, so that is what we told them, then all of a sudden, I had a major change of heart and told Mike that I felt like Michigan should be our home and to see if they could change his first choice to the Detroit office. 

Luckily, it was not too late and we are now Michiganders for life (or as long as this part of our life lasts)! We have really grown to love so many things about the area we are in and feel it is a wonderful place to raise boys. The people, the landscape, the education, the opportunity, just the greatest. We honestly couldn't ask for better (okay, milder winters, less humidity and about 2 days closer to family would be nice). We found a house to rent in Saline, Michigan which is 10 minutes from where we are now. The boys will change schools and wards but it is a delightful community of great families, beautiful surroundings, top-notch schools, streams, wildlife, and a charming downtown. Plus, we are only 15 minutes from the University and everything it has to offer. It's the perfect suburb next to a thriving college town and we are so excited.

There is a downside...Mike's job will be heavy on travel and we will miss him being around all the time, but we are grateful to be only 20 minutes from the airport and settling in a place where hopefully he'll have the chance to be on some local clients too. I'm ready to be a tough single mom for 3-4 days a week (watch for break-down posts in the near future) and then have him all to ourselves over the weekend.  We are ready for the challenge and know we can make it work. It's not ideal but in this economy we are so grateful for a job that will provide for our family while I stay home with the kids, and we honestly feel nothing but gratitude for a great opportunity.

So, get out your address book and watch for our updated address before Christmas Card season. Hopefully we'll be back out west for a visit soon ;)

Let's Bowl!

 There are not a ton of activities that are great for old and young in the middle of winter, but bowling is one of them. After the boys joined my dad for breakfast at the hotel and some swimming, we all met up for a big game of bowling. It was such a blast! My mom and the boys were on fire with bumpers; I had my best (non bumper) game in ages (I broke 100! I know, embarrassing) and Mike was an animal...almost 200, plus the grandpas weren't too shabby either, for old men :). We all had a great time together.

I like to pack in lots of fun, so after bowling we went to pizza at our favorite spot, Aubree's, and then to a movie, The Muppets and grabbed some ice cream. Whew! What a day....that night we prepared food for Sunday and headed to bed! It had already been such a wonderful weekend. We LOVE visitors.

Slows and the Detroit Institute of Art

 My parents arrived in town on Friday afternoon, so we all planned to meet up at Slow's in downtown Detroit. We wanted to give them all a little D-town flavor...Ann Arbor is much too mild :). The food was great as always!

 After Slow's we headed to the Detroit Institute of Art. We love being only 45 minutes from a major city for many reasons, one being the awesome culture it has to offer. The DIA is in a beautiful building in the middle of downtown Detroit. They were holding a Rembrandt exhibit focused his depiction of the faces of Jesus and it was exceptional! We all thoroughly enjoyed it, even the kids. The museum is hopping on Friday nights and we loved checking out all the cool art...

 Touching the brass donkey, famously the ONLY piece of art you can touch in the museum...

 Listening to a local band play some funk (free concerts every Friday night)...

 Letting the kids take some time to develop their still life skills, with trained artists there to lend a hand....

Watched the boys in the kids' art room where they were able to draw hieroglyphics on leather...

We also saw impressive photography, mummies, an armor exhibit and tons of beautiful paintings and sculptures. What a way to spend a Friday night! We had to drag our kids out at 9:15. We loved our trip there and plan to go back often with our family pass!

Visitors

We decided to bless Pierce on January 8th, so we were lucky enough to have visitors again! We are so grateful our parents are able and willing to come out and see us, especially for big events. The kids were still out of school the week after New Year's and we were all thrilled to see Mimi and Papa.

We had a late lunch at Angelo's...an Ann Arbor favorite

 Then the kids hung with Mimi and Papa at the Hands On Museum. A great place to pass the afternoon.

 Mike and I ran a few errands and met up with them later.

 Jace was sure the picture in the old store should look like an old Western photograph. Love that kid.

 Then we brought it back to 2012.

 After the museum, the kids opened their Christmas presents from Mimi and Papa. They were thrilled to find lots of fun games we have been enjoying plus some origami, notebooks and a chocolate football.

 After a little game playing and dinner Rick and Marci took the big boys back to the hotel. It's a tradition I can't believe they are willing to do :). They had a great time watching a movie with popcorn, getting a little sleep and in the morning they ate hotel breakfast and went swimming! They joined us in the late morning so the boys could show off their archery skills and play a little basketball. We had unusually beautiful weather. We were all so happy they could join us!

The week after Christmas

We've never just stayed home for all of Christmas, so this year was a first. We did our best to make things especially fun since we had Mike all to ourselves. We packed in as much excitement as possible, including...a trip to the Detroit temple (quite the ordeal with a nursing 3 month old and living about 1 hour from the temple....6 and 1/2 hours later we were back in Ann Arbor and grateful for sweet, supportive boys that didn't mind hanging out at the church all afternoon), a few catch up errands, a cleaned out house, a sick Jace (for LOTS of days, poor boy), a trip to the outlets, a great movie, Tin Tin (which we LOVED), Chelsea Treehouse, and a few other fun moments...

Ice Skating at Yost
The boys did surprisingly well. Have to be honest, kinda glad I had to sit out with the baby on this one. All I remember about ice skating is falling down a lot and ending the day with huge water blisters. My boys are tough and willing to try anything. Love it.

 Celebrating New Years!
It's such an adult holiday, so with a sick Jace and a newborn we opted to celebrate on our own with hamburgers on the grill, fancy and delicious cupcakes, sparkling cider and a raucous game of Guesstures. It was actually SO FUN. I think we will make New Years a holiday we spend inside together playing games. Next year maybe we'll have another family over to up the excitement. Parker and James went to bed at 9 after we watched the Sydney ball drop, toasted each other and gave lots of kisses to everyone. We decided not to bang pots and pans because of Jace, but we'll get them out next time. Mike and I enjoyed watching the Rockin' New Year on TV in a quiet house. Sounds a bit ho-hum but we had a great time!

 Watching the Sugar Bowl
We are serious Michigan fans, so we loved watching them win the Sugar Bowl! The whole family gets in on the fun and we loved having friends join us for a night of good food and good football.

 Rollerskating!
Haven't done this in forever and last time Jace tried, it was a mess, but the whole family was excited for a day at the roller rink. Mike is pretty smooth out there and helped Jace get the hang of it. Parker and James cruise out there on the rink...I, am a little shaky but not too embarrassing. After all these years, I still don't know how to break.

 This outing warrants a story. The place we skate at is awesome because once every hour they do something special. At 3pm they had races. Well, Parker and James decided to enter and Jace said he didn't want to. I thought that was fine since he really just started being able to skate without falling every few minutes. Then, Jace came back and told me he was going to practice for the next 15 minutes and enter the race. I was so proud of him since he rarely likes doing things he isn't good at. Parker and James raced in the 7 and under group...James took 4th and Parker took 5th. Then they called out 8-10 year olds and Jace headed to the starting line. He took off with the pack and ended up coming in second to last, but didn't fall and had a big smile on his face. I was so happy he had decided to give it a try. We watched the rest of the races and they called the last race, "18 and over." Mike had his skates off and was holding the baby and Jace turns to me and says, "Mom, are you going to race?" I said, "No buddy. I'm not very good on rollerblades." He says, "Mom, I'm not good either, but I got out there and tried my best. I know you can do it." So, what can you say to that? I got out there for the rollerskating race. Mike was on the other side of the rink and tried to get the camera out because he couldn't believe I was racing! I came in last, but I didn't fall. Not bad for an old lady. Sometimes you just have to walk the talk :)

We had such a great week as a family and really got to explore Michigan. So glad these boys are mine!