Greetings Friends and Family!
We’re checking in with you from Grandma and Grandpa Noel’s
cottage on the beautiful Betsy River. We’re
here for the Memorial Day weekend with Grandma Joy, Grandpa Gale, Cousin Ben
and his girlfriend Megan. We’ve had a
blast so far, just taking time to enjoy the sun. It’s wonderful when you can put life on hold
for a few days, and just relax. Until I
opened my computer to write this, I had no idea what time it was, and that felt
great!
We were only able to come up for two days, but we’ve packed
that full of a lot of fun and relaxation.
Early (for a Saturday anyway) yesterday, we packed up our car, grabbed
Juno and drove 3 hours North. It was an easy uneventful drive, save for the
clouds in front of us growing darker and darker. The weather forecast we checked
earlier had told of blue skies and sunshine, but the rain said otherwise. We pulled up to the cottage in the middle of
a rain storm to find the rest of the crew immersed in a lively game of
Yahtzee. After the game, we sat and
chatted and listened to the rain.
Luckily, as the afternoon came around the torrent ended and a beautiful
sunny day followed. We piled into a car
and headed to local Frankfort for some shopping and fun! There were a bunch of stores to checkout, and
we tried some new looks – see what you think!
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This morning we were awakened to French Toast and sausage,
and then Nate got a lesson on how to shoot a bow and arrow from Grandpa. Every arrow hit within a small area on the
target, but Nate claims that’s due more to the bow’s fancy features than latent
Katniss-like skills. After that, Grandpa
gave us two inner tubes, drove us down the road and abandoned us by the river
side, telling us that we needed to find our own way back! Luckily, the river wound lazily back to the
cottage, carrying us right along with various wildlife like a Merganzer duck, river
otter and a turtle sunning itself on a log. It was a beautiful ride down a
fresh, albeit brisk, Michigan river.
We also have some exciting news – we put in an offer on a
house, and it was accepted! We are now
in the no-man’s-land of paperwork that it takes to buy a foreclosed home, but
we are REALLY excited! It’s a beautiful
place, built in 2001, with a master bathroom suite, finished basement, two car
garage and 7 acres with a pond! It needs
a little work, but it’s in great condition, especially for a foreclosure. And after
years of working on an old house, we’re excited about the possibility of
maintaining and improving a house with modern amenities! While located just outside town in the
country, there is only a 10 minute drive to town. It’s the perfect place to
bring up kids, though we’re still in our ‘not ready yet’ phase. We’ll keep everyone updated as we learn more!
Love you all!
Nate & Justine
