Life in Michigan

Sorry for the picture overload. I wanted to just include everything in one post. Front View:
Our current home. We are very happy that we could find a place to live, that we like, and for a good price right away. (I stole these photos from a leasing company that is leasing a similar duplex across the street.) If this was ours, then our home would be on the right.





Kitchen:
I fell in love with the large kitchen. I was thinking the other day how great it was to have room for 3 junk drawers. Then I wondered why we even have enough junk to fill 3 drawers.







Master Bath:












Grand Rapids Children's Museum
We spent our first official day in GR, after we found a home, at the children's museum. Tiffany loved all the exhibits.










The Curious George Exhibit.
























Camping at Newaygo State Park.
Right before Blake started teaching classes we decided to go on a camping trip. We found a place a couple hours north of us right on a small lake. This is Tiffany roasting her hot dog for dinner the first night. She had helped dad roast them earlier and was now roasting hers. Tiffany didn't get to bed until almost midnight this first night.



Day Two:
We brought our bikes with us and went on a ride our first morning there. We came across a great slide for Tiffany.

There were free kayak lessons at the beach by our campsite. We showed up just in time to take a few kayaks out. We loved it. We then blew up our portable raft and went out onto the lake for a while after the kayaks.



Tiffany didn't get a nap that day and fell asleep eating cheetos while we were fixing dinner.










Being the cute Tiffany that we love. This is her posing for the camera.














Roasting Marsh-mellows













Tiffany enjoying hers.











Lake Michigan:
We were able to visit Lake Michigan twice while the weather was nice. Our first visit we spent our entire time in the water. These photos are from our second visit to the lake. When we arrived we learned that it was unsafe to swim in the water so we spent the day in the sand making this lovely fellow.

















Niagara Falls:
For Labor Day Weekend we went to Canada. It was only an 8 hour drive to Niagara Falls and decided it would be worth the trip. This is Tiffany experiencing her first fireworks. We also like viewing the falls at night with them all lit up. If you're ever visiting...It is best to go to the Canadian side. You can view both set of falls at the same time. On the American side you can only see the water before it goes over the falls.

Maid of the Mist:
Tiffany looked cute in her little poncho. She wasn't so fond of the hood until the water started pouring down and then we couldn't get it off of her.









Before:













During:

The American Falls.











The Canadian Falls: The larger of the two falls and the one responsible for soaking us.










Up close












American Falls again











After picture
We were soaked. I ended up drying our jackets in the Wendy's bathroom with a hand dryer.









Tiffany's Free Entertainment:
We didn't spend a dime at this arcade and Tiffany had a blast!!! Tom and Jerry











Bert and Ernie












Racing Jet Ski game.
















Free ducks! I didn't follow Tiffany out but I guess there was a lot of bird poop out there.









Art Prize:
Grand Rapids is host to the world's largest outdoor art fair in the world. We spent a day walking around downtown. This isn't really part of Art Prize, but Tiffany really enjoyed it.








The only picture of art we got. It's a man with a garden full of gnomes made out of bird seed. It was pretty awesome. Some of our favorites: Mermaid made completely out of toothpicks A large penny made out of a pennies.






Orchard Hill Farms
There is a farm 1/4 mile down the street from us. This visit to the farm included a hayride, a petting zoo and a walk through the forest.









The forest.











Trunk or Treat:
Tiffany loved to play with her basketball Halloween costume from a couple of years ago. We decided to repeat her costume and let her wear the basketball again for our ward's trunk or treat. I think she turn out pretty darn cute. Tiffany also dressed up as Dorothy again for the Preschool Halloween party and the basketball again to trick or treat on Saturday with a friend.



We have definitely had fun in Michigan these past 4 months. Blake really enjoys his job teaching at Grand Valley State University. It keeps him busy all day at work and he'll spend a couple hours every night grading homework. It's been a good change and feel very blessed to be here.

I've been keeping myself busy with Tiffany. We fill our weeks with a trip to the library most Mondays and preschool on Thursdays. We also spend a lot of time outside playing with our neighbors. We are lucky to have families on both sides of us with kids near Tiffany's age. They're mostly boys but she loves it.

We really like our ward. The first week we went to church here Blake told the Bishop that his favorite calling was teaching Gospel Doctrine. That same night the Bishop received a call informing him that the current Gospel Doctrine teacher has been called to the High Council. Blake was called to teach the following Sunday. I've been called as the RS 2nd Counselor. It's been fun planning our activities and really getting to know the sisters in the ward. We are expecting a little GIRL to join our family around March 21st. Everything is going well and I've really enjoyed this pregnancy.