Birthday Trip

I would like to start off my saying that my husband is AMAZING!!!  He really pays attention to me and the things  that I like and want and he cannot be matched when it comes to his holiday planning and gifts, I don't know how he does is and I really hope to learn from him because I am not good at those things at all!!

I took Saturday off of work and we headed up to the upper peninsula of Michigan to go camping!! It was our first time camping together and it was everything I dreamed it would be!!

On the way there we kept seeing signs for 'The Mystery Spot' and thought it looked super silly, plus it had new zip lines so we decided we would stop by!!  They took us on a tour and gave us this story about why it was so mysterious and showed us all these things that you can do in the Mystery Spot that you can do nowhere else!! It was super funny, it was all just an optical illusion of course but we had a bunch of fun.  Then we went through a maze and raced each other through it! It was really fun!! Then we went on the zip lines!! I did great and impressed my husband by not being scared at all as I walked off the platform to start zipping down! It was awesome fun!!

The best thing happened after that!! Jon told me that our guide, a guy even, had asked him if we were newlyweds!! I could not have been more happier to hear that!! That even after almost 3 years we are so crazy in love that people who see us think we just got married!! It was so amazing!! It felt so good!!

Jon decided to start off camping really easy.  We were in a campground and the lots were all covered with grass so it was soft.  So we got there and set up our tent and our hammock (which didn't work the first time so he had to redo it) and we laid on the hammock and read 'Catching Fire' for a while.  It was so relaxing!! Our camping spot was on the edge of the campground and it led straight onto the shore of the lake (where lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet) and you could see the Mackinac Bridge and it was so beautiful!!

When we got hungry Jon got to work on the fire and I started to prepare the food! Jon had a blast, it was funny to watch him chop the wood and get the fire started and ready.  We love food and we were not going to skimp with things like hot dogs and easy food, even camping.  We had prepared what we needed to the day before and for dinner we had steak, cooked shish kabob style, roasted rosemary, garlic, and and olive potatoes and even garlic bread!! It worked out really well and it was all delicious!! We just relaxed and enjoyed each other while we finished cooking and eating and it started to get dark as we pulled out the marshmallows!! We spent the rest of the evening eating smores, playing with fire, watching the stars, playing scopa, and walking along the beach under the moon.  It was perfect!!

We slept really well that night, we had an air mattress and since there we weren't up in the mountains like we were used to it was not even cold! In the morning I cleaned up the tent while Jon started breakfast.  We had bagel breakfast sandwiches with toasted asiago cheese bagels, spinach and garlic eggs, cheese, and bacon! It was SO tasty!!! After that I got to open my presents!! Jon wrapped them in brown paper with string, which he knows I LOVE!! For my birthday I got jewelry, a Michigan t-shirt, a yellow Michigan hoodie (with 1 for Jon to match, I think it so sweet that he actually wants to match with me!! He's the best), Valentino perfume from Italy, Harry Potter 6 DVD with the Marauders Map (which he had to show me a picture of because it still hasn't come in the mail), and Photoshop!!!! I am so excited!! He is so awesome!!!

After that we cleaned up the campsite and hit the road. We took a ferry over to Mackinac Island and I was SO EXCITED!!! Mackinac Island is the place where 'Somewhere in Time' was filmed and I love that movie!! We could see the Grand Hotel from the ferry and it was beautiful!! The island is SO CUTE!! ('It's so 'cute', I wanna DIE!!' -Despicable Me, Haha)  There are no cars allowed so it was filled with horse drawn carriages, bikes, and people walking!! We brought our bikes and the first thing we did was ride our bikes around the perimeter of the island (about 8 miles).  It started to get a little hard at the end but there weren't really any hills, so it was an easy ride.

After that we wandered down the main street, which looks and feels A LOT like Main Street in Disneyland, it was beautiful!!  The whole time were were there it felt like we were in a movie.  It was so picturesque and romantic! We went to the Haunted Theatre, which is a little haunted house and I wanted to go.  The first part of it was silly, little displays of wax figures behind glass that moved slowly.  The hardest and scariest part about the whole thing was that through most of there was NO light! Other than the displays it was pitch black! There were plenty of times that I couldn't even see Jon, though I was practically clinging to him! It got scarier when  people started to jump out at you.  Yes, I screamed.  It was so fun!! Then we went up and saw the hotel! It so beautiful!! Just like in the movie!! Unfortunately is cost $10 a person to even go in front of the hotel, so we had to see it from the side only, so sad!

The rest of the time we spent getting lunch, going on more bike rides, going to the butterfly house, seeing snakes (live and dead, SO SAD), eating ice cream, buying fudge, and people watching! It was the best birthday ever!! We ended up biking 15.5 miles and by the time we got home (a 4-5 hour drive) I could barely walk.  It was so worth it though!! Jon went out and bought me carrot cake, which I had been craving all day, and we relaxed together watching Clash of the Titans!!

Thanks baby for such a great day!!

Here are some random photos I took during our trip!

Okay, so Michigan is shaped like a hand and Michiganders like to show you were things are by pointing on their hand, which I find fascinating and silly.  This is an oven mitt we found with a map of Michigan on it.  Jon is pointing to where we live!! Haha!

These kids were being so cute! They were copying the horses in front of them and stomping when the horses stomped. It was so funny!