Our Most Recent Adventure.... Williamsburg!

Since John and I are in an entirely new environment, we figured we should do things that are associated with this area. We've done NASCAR, zip-lining, concerts, and most recently we went to Williamsburg, VA- as a day trip! With John driving we made it there in a little under four hours- I joke that it worked out great because John really enjoys driving, and I really enjoy sleeping in the car! :) We had wanted to go anyway and I was contacted to do a timeshare tour, so that was the tipping point on why we went that day. We had absolutely no intention of purchasing a timeshare, but if we listened to the spiel then we would get a three day, two night stay in Williamsburg and Orlando, a $50 Donatos Pizza gift card and a $100 Visa gift card. John and I have both taken business and marketing classes, so it was kind of a fun analysis of the salesman's tactics! The starting price was close to $25,000 and we said no enough times that the last price they offered us was $5,000- we got a kick out of that! But after our timeshare tour we spent a couple hours at Colonial Williamsburg which was a lot of fun- but definitely hot! We figured we'd use our free stay sometime this fall when it's comfortable to be outside sight-seeing!

John pretending to shoot the cannon

We walked through a Cemetary with a lot of old graves, and what was written on some of them made us laugh- like this one..."Descendant from Virginia's Best Blood"

John standing in front of the old Court House

This was a restaurant that served food that would have been served back in Colonial days. We didn't eat there but heard the menu was pretty bland.

This is a house on the main street of downtown Colonial Williamsburg that belongs to a retired judge and he will not sell it to the City of Williamsburg and is so against the city owning it that he even put it in his will that they couldn't have it!

Michigan Part Two- The Malburg's!

I was fortunate enough to have a second part to the Michigan trip but John had to head back to work first thing Monday morning. My family does their annual week in Pentwater the second week of July, so I stayed until Wednesday with them. We have rented the same cottage for the last twenty years. This year, my brother Dylan made t-shirts for everyone! On the front they had a picture that resembled the cottage that said "The Big House"- which is what the cottage is called, and on the back there was a go-kart (which is somewhat of a tradition to do while in Pentwater) that said "Malburg's in Pentwater". So, naturally we did family pictures- and I guess with no kids (until October for James and Missy!!) everybody has the energy and gets in to being a little silly!

The whole gang minus John :(

Showing off the backs of the amazing shirts- can you guess which one is my dad???

We had several good silly pictures- but I really just liked my mom in this one :) Dylan would set the timer and then jump in with us and the camera would open shutter for a few seconds- so we had hundreds of pictures!

My family minus John again, however......

Dylan photoshopped him in for one picture- even put the logo on a collared shirt for him!! We sent it to John to show him and he informed me that in the picture his wedding band was on his right hand. I asked Dylan about it and he confessed that he had to use the reverse image of John- what he is able to do on a computer continues to amaze me!

I forgot that there is just about zero humidity in Michigan and about 20 degrees cooler- so there wasn't much time on the beach for me!

One evening, my dad and my cousin Jeff decided they were going to make breakfast for everyone the following morning- we all had our doubts that it would actually happen, but when I woke up the following morning, and (I'm not lying) smoke was pouring out of the kitchen! Somehow he roped James, Uncle Marv and even Missy into making eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, blueberry and chocolate pancakes! When he sets his mind to something- he goes all out!

And of course there was lots of cards played!

Jolanda brought a new game called "Ticket To Ride" which Dylan and I both really enjoyed- so we played that quite a bit with Jolanda too. I love all of the games that Jolanda and Jim know- there's always a new one every time I see them!

A pretty typical night at the cottage- a glass of wine out of a plastic cup, dinner out front with some intense games of cornhole, followed by the difficult decision of whether or not to make a campfire, s'mores and playing games, or going to get ice cream and then playing games!

I'm so glad that I got to spend a few days in Pentwater with my family- it's the vacations and little time that John and I get to spend with our family that make us realize how lucky we are to be surrounded by such great people!!!

Michigan Part One- The Jonkers!

It's been a while since I've updated but it's been a busy few weeks, but filled with lots of fun (and therefore lots of pictures along with a long post!!). John and I were so blessed to get some fun time in Michigan for the 4^th of July! John got an entire week off of work so we flew in on the second of July and John left Sunday. Johns out of town siblings spend three weeks in Michigan every summer, so it was so fun to get to see everyone- we even had Laura Cebulski come take a family picture!! We’ve had a niece and a nephew born since the wedding, so an updated family photo was in order! Since we haven’t seen the kids as often, how much they’ve grown up was definitely more noticeable this week! The four two year olds are communicating much better now, and everyone has turned into little fish in the pool!

We were so glad that Jared and Trey got to come for the fourth- it was fun to watch the guys enjoying all of the time they got together!

Poppy and Elena- couldn't believe how happy she always was!!! Such a sweet sweet girl!

Johns beautiful sisters and mom!

We had some family photos taken by the same photographer from our wedding, Laura Cebulski, which I will have to do a separate blog post on because she did such an amazing job! But here are a few fun ones that the guys did- and believe it or not- they came up with all of the ideas by themselves, without any coaxing from their wives!

A cousins fourth of July picture!!

So fun to have cousins up from Texas to play on the lake with!

McLleyton sharing his lunch with John!

A few times, we took the older kids tubing behind the boat, these little guys tagged along waving to the ones on the tube- they had just about as much fun as the kids out on the water!

Nanny was so sweet to let Belen and I take her mercedes to go into town and get coffee (one of our guilty pleasures!). I love the time I get with her- it just seems it's always so few and far in between! Definitely something I look forward to on family vacations!

My cousin James and his wife Melissa came out to the cottage for a night for dinner and a boat ride. They're expecting their baby later this year, so having 13 little ones running around at the cottage, it was an exaggerated look into what their life is going to look like a few years from now!

We also got to go blueberry picking while we were there!! Having the ability to go an pick fresh Michigan blueberries has made me a bit of a "blueberry snob", as Belen refers to it as, when it comes to buying blueberries at the grocery store! Most of the kids came, and five adults and we picked over 32 pounds of them! One of the many things I took for granted living in Michigan!!

Lauren, Sophia and Jurrien teaching Jacob how to dive! He's barely two and loves the water! Has no problem going underwater, and comes up laughing every time! He was eager to keep up with his sisters, even if it was just a bellyflop!

John meeting Stennson- our newest nephew! Jayne and Matt had their fourth child on June 29th- just in time for us to meet him! But Jayne is one tough woman- she broke her tail bone during labor and was up and about doing family pictures on July third! We are so happy to have another Shatto boy in the family!!

A few of the uncles being silly jumping off the boat!

We were so glad that the Loftins were able to be there for so long!! We don't get to see them very often so the kids always look so much bigger every time we see them! It's always a fun time being with them!

McCleyton and John- I could probably do an entire post just on these two and the special relationship that they have! McLleyton's excitement to see John is always so fun to watch- and it's not unordinary for him to call John to tell him something as simple as "I'm wearing Nike shorts" or "Watching Rory McIlroy". He's even started asking his parents to skype with John! This trip was so fun because McLleyton can communicate so much better than when we saw him last. He helped John drive the boat, wrestled him, and even tossed a football with him! And the best part is, John is just as excited to do all of these things with McLleyton as he is to do them with John!

But now that I've gone through all of the pictures that were taken during the week, I could easily do a post for each of John's siblings families and the time we got to spend with them. We are so fortunate to be surrounded by so many people that love us and that we love to be with! This was only half of our family and we had that much fun!!