look what we got!!!

SO I pulled in the driveway after work and noticed a big box sitting outside our door. That's strange, I thought. I didn't order anything. Maybe Josh has ordered me a surprise and I can open it while he's at work, I thought next. The box was addressed to me so I called Josh and made sure I could open it...drum roll please...and open it I did. And look what I found!!! FIESTAWARE!! In my top 3 colors! From our buddies who just came and stayed with us, Sarah & Steve. It is a wedding/anniversary gift and I absolutely love it! Thank you guys! You rock! Now who can guess what the next color I recieve will be....

childhood memories

Some of my greatest childhood memories are from this place right here:Can you see it? It is the Cabin on Sugar Island. My family vacationed here every summer for probably 6-8 years. This place has a huge spot in my heart. Now that I live in Colorado I don't get to go to Northern Michigan very often well I haven't been to Sugar since I moved here. When we do go to Michigan it is to visit my family and they all live in the lower peninsula. Josh and I had hoped to go there this summer/fall but it just isn't going to work out so my parents went a few weeks ago and here are some of the pictures my mom sent. I am now craving a visit to Sugar more than the Milka that sits in my bottom left drawer here. A great fishing spot...or a great place to watch the freighters come into the Soo Locks!

That's my dad walking from the boat up to the cabin. The water looks a little low this year!

I remember the first time we went and I had never seen anything like this. We drove over the Mackinac Bridge and into Sault Ste. Marie to board a ferry that took us over to Sugar Island. There was a greasy hamburger joint on the Sault side of the ferry and we would sometimes stop and get a milkshake and fries. I remember watching fireworks on July 1 from Canada and on July 4 from the US. I remember playing horseshoes on the beach and cooking meals over the campfire. I remember riding in the boat in calm waters and stormy too. I remember my "surprise" birthday party there but I can't remember which age it was...maybe 16! I remember my dad and brothers playing guitar around the fire until it was too dark to see the words.

Do you have a favorite vacation spot that just brings a smile to your face? This would be mine!

I think this thing is a first...catching a fish!

My mom and dad trolling along.

Ugh.

So…trying to post pictures to blogger is proving to be difficult these days. As soon as I can we have a ton of pictures to put up.

Thank you for your patience. Thank you to blogger for making our lives difficult. J

We just had our first house guests and it was quite fun. Josh & I could really see ourselves opening a B&B someday. We both just love hosting and being hospitable to people.

readers

hello all, we have been tracking who is checking us out and there are quite a few of you. we are quite surprised!
Thank you for caring about us and what we are doing.
I'll be posting a ton of photos later tonight because we have been doing some major decorating at our house! And we are doing it frugally too! I don't want to say cheap for what that could convey but I will say we have been quite frugal. Do you know why we are being frugal? Because we want to save our money and pay down some debt that we have! Do you know why we want to do that? Because we don't want to be tied down and enslaved to debt. It is almost 1 year since we signed the mortgage on our house and in that time we have not created any new debt! We have simply made payments on things to pay them off. God has blessed us through this time! With each month that goes by we are closer to being debt free and we feel a little less pinching by those payments.
So hopefully the decorations we have made will be inspiring to you or at least impressive. :)

bye for now, see you later.

ae

a cute photo

Here are my nephews. Not sure what they are doing but it looks like they could be reaching for the stars. Keep it going boys, you'll get there someday!

My aunt in Michigan is their babysitter so we randomly get pictures this way. Jackson (in blue) looks a lot like my brother, moreso his uncle instead of his dad. And Tucker (in orange) looks a lot like his mom's family but I can also see a little bit of our genes in him. They are such cute little guys and are growing up so quickly! I don't know when we'll get to see them again but I hope it is soon!

Well, have a good weekend! Josh is off the whole weekend so we are planning lots of NOTHING! :) On Saturday we hope to go watch our friends who are running the Pikes Peak Ascent. And that is really all we have planned!