5 weeks in Michigan

Josh has been traveling a lot, and has more trips coming up, so o decided to head home.

I came home to enough packages I thought it might be Christmas!!!!

One of those packages was this beautiful fabric, designed by Minick and Simpson who Lives in Michigan!!! And this fabric line is based on Michigan.

I babysat my sisters kids and we went out to pizza and it was amazing... and we had a great time, see the shirt the older one is wearing, I handed that down to her, and my uncle handed it down to me... 

I got to see one of my best friends announce her second pregnancy!

I got to meet one of the members of the online quilt group I'm in :)

My parents took me out to an early birthday dinner since we won't be together for my real birthday and they gave me this book I have been wanting :)

And I got these two books, my first books of grad school.

I was able to see the beach and have a great day with my sister and 6 of my nieces.

I may have also gotten a slight sun burn because I missed a spot with the sunscreen... oops.

I ran a 10 mile race while I was home, I was so happy to run it, I have heard about it most of my life. It was a tough race,  but good. It was fun to run past places I knew. And the medal HUGE

And later that day my cousin got married and it rained the whole afternoon and it was cold.

Saw some good friends

And my parents went on vacation and left me in charge of the house.

And being a good daughter I mowed the lawn and picked the berries...

I also dyed my hair for the first time ever!!!

And I spent a lot of time working on my fresh quilt, but I didn't finish it sadly, mostly quilted though... I tried to get it done so I could give it to my parents for their anniversary... maybe next year.

I met a friend and we picked apples and ate donuts!!! I love cider donuts!! 

And tried to catch this snake for my parents to no avail, I think it's hibernating in the garage for the winter!!! Eek!!! I even set rat traps! They said they didn't catch anything when they got home :(

Which was a learning experience, I had never set a mouse or a rat trap before, so thankfully my brother had been over earlier and set up one of the rat traps, so I could use it as an example.

Met up with more friends and hung out

And finally, 

Headed home

Day 543

My last day in Mexico before heading home! I of course have over packed and am pacing around, looking forward to being home and shopping!

Day 542

Mr has discovered a new sleeping place, he is using the treadmill than its intended user

Although Josh said when he was running on it the other day Mr tried to hop on while he was running on it! Not good!

Days 540 and 541

I have been sewing up a storm trying to make good progress on my quilt before heading home. And Mr has been keeping me company. But mostly he has been napping on my quilt pieces...

Day 539

I finished the client quilt finally!!! And just in time to get on a plane home!

Days 537 and 538

Yesterday Josh and I hung out and relaxed, now Mr is doing the same today while I attach  the binding to the King quilt.

Days 534 - 536

I have been waking up to this furry face for a while now, but finally Josh will be coming home.

And I am finally getting my butt in gear and making the binding for my client quilt

Binding for a king sized quilt is super long!

Days 532 and 533

Josh is still out of town, but Mr and I have been doing chores

He is so helpful

 

Days 529 - 531

Josh is out of town for work, and Mr and I have just been hanging out...

 

Day 528

Mr has been following me around all day

And I sewed my first square together

Then it started to storm, and Mr needed a place to hide, I made him a quilt fort!

Day 527

A beautiful sunset!

And I laid out my first square of the quilt I'm working on

Days 523 - 526

We have been getting back into the groove, and doing chores, but Mr has a new bad habit...

Sleeping anywhere I am

And I've been craving candy, and we have a random bag of Mexican candy so I thought I would try something

This is a candy bar with marshmallow with jam on top and dipped in chocolate

Vegas and Zion

We spent a week in Vegas and Zion National Park, it was HOT. We live in a desert now, but a high elevation desert. I will not be moving to a desert any time soon, it was way to hot. And neither of us really liked Vegas, it was ok, but we will not be frequenting.

The strip

 

   

The bellagio fountain, and because we went around the 4th of July they played "proud to be an American"

We checked out the Hoover Dam, we took the long tour and it was well worth it. The ticket purchasing process is kind of silly.

we got there an hour before they opened and waited in line and then still got into the second tour.

 

Then we checked out the Las Vegas sign. There was a line for that too!!! awe skipped the line and didn't care there were other people in our picture, I guess we don't like lines.

 

We checked out Cirque, it was good!

 

Then we checked out Zion

We found the hidden petroglyphs, it was really neat!

We hiked 5 miles one way in water in the narrows

To see this, big springs... 5 miles one way for this.

I would suggest getting the water shoes you can rent... we wore our keens, and kind of regret it.

This was the deepest part.

Then we went on a backpack trip.

The views were amazing. 

This is our campsite on the trail, for all of the campsites being booked... we saw 1 other couple on the trail... it kind of made us upset that so many people didn't keep their reservations,  it was super nice that we had the entire place to ourselves!

We walked right past Angels landing but chose not to do it because it was packed and we just came down from a much higher elevation and had seen the view...

 

Then we hiked down Walter's wiggles, there was no way in hell we were hiking back up those.

 

The next day we saw the emerald pools and some of the other short hikes

Then back to Vegas

Where we got to see Sibin!

Then we had to head backs home.

 

 

Day 522

I think we are all done packing... I think, we leave early in the morning. Mr must know something is up, he is keeping an eye on everything.