LoveStruck: August 2011

|{ I LOVE The Zoo }|

Once my sister left Jon decided that we really needed a nice day all to ourselves, so he took me to the zoo!!! I LOVE the zoo so much and I was so excited to go to the Detroit Zoo since it would be our first time there!!

We started off the day SUPER early since Ember's flight left at something like 6:00 a.m. So we dropped her off and then went to get breakfast. It took a while but we finally found a diner that was open 24-7 and we ate there. Then we had to wait for the zoo to open, so we drove through Detroit until we hit the lake and then we finally headed to the zoo.

It was nice to be there in the morning because before we left it was getting crowded and hot. I was super excited when I found out that they had a red panda! I LOVE red pandas!! AND it was right across the way from the tigers, which was AWESOME! We also particularly enjoyed the reptile house (as always), the kangaroo path (where you get to walk on a path with kangaroos around you (no fences)), and the polar exhibit where we saw a little gray arctic fox playing around and they have a tunnel (like at aquariums) where the seals and the polar bears swim above you!! It was great fun!! I'm so glad we got to go!!

It was just what we needed!

He looked like he was having a really bad morning.

Lazy otters

Look at those crazy teeth!!

I just wanna cuddle him!!!

|{ Niagara Falls And Camping }|

While my sister was here we decided to take her to Niagara Falls! We stopped for lunch on the way there and then we hit the falls! The first time we went to Niagara Falls it was on the Canada side and in the winter. Since Ember didn't have a passport we went on the US side and it was cool to see the falls unfrozen!! I just love how close you can get to the water, it's really neat! It was kind of hard to take pictures because I was afraid of getting the mist from the falls on my lens, but I got some good shots!! It was so hot that day, we were all very uncomfortable, but we had a good time anyway!

These cute little birdies were rolling around in the dirt. I think they were trying to get cool. It was so cute!

That night we went camping! Camping is Michigan is....weird. We've been twice now and both times were at camp grounds that had a ton of lots and the large majority of people (99% of them) all use campers instead of tents. It's weird not to be up in the mountains where there is no one else around, or at least a lot less people and since it's not in the mountains it also doesn't cool down at night. I'm used to freezing at night even in the summer when I go camping, but even bringing a sleeping bag here is practically pointless as it's too warm to get inside of it!

We definitely miss camping. We did have a lot of fun though. Our camp ground was on a little lake and they had some floating slides in the lake. It took some courage but I eventually joined Jon and Ember on the slides (I'm afraid of swimming in dark water like in lakes and the ocean, scares me to death). It was REALLY fun! I'm glad I went out there! :) We played with our slingshot for a while when we got back to our campsite. I sucked, as I usually do with things like that, but both Jon and Ember were pretty darn good at it!

This looked like a dragon, which I thought was appropriate!

For dinner we roasted hot dogs on the fire and some marshmallows too!! Sleeping was a lot less fun. My poor husband hardly got any sleep at all as he could not get comfortable and then we got a HUGE scary thunderstorm in the middle night with thunder and lightening every few seconds and really loud and then it started pouring!! We were worried enough that we almost considered getting into the car. It was nuts!

All in all though, it was a really great trip! We had a blast!!

|{ Our First Visitor }|

My lovely sister Emberlee came to visit us this summer!! She was here for about 3 weeks and we were just thrilled to finally have a guest. It meant a lot that she made the effort to come and spend time with me!

I felt bad because I had to work while she was here so we didn't do near as much as we did last summer. However, we did get to drive up and see Niagara Falls and then go camping! We also went and saw a movie (Crazy, Stupid, Love- it was awesome), watched all of the past episodes of Modern Family, did a photo shoot for her senior photos, moved to a new house, played games, made lots of desserts, and went to the botanical gardens!

So I guess it wasn't a total waste of a trip. Poor girl had a bad start though when the airport lost her luggage on the way here. But they had it delivered by the end of the day, so it wasn't too bad. It was super hot and humid while she was here and then a few days after she left it started to cool down and feel more like fall, I wish she could have had better weather! :)

We had a lot of fun having her here and I hope she enjoyed herself enough to want to come back.

Here are some pictures of her time here. I'll post the senior photos in another post (I just finished editing them, took me way longer than it should have). I'll also post Niagara Falls and camping in another post since I don't want to overload this one with pictures, and I don't want to skimp on photos of those either.