South Haven, MI

In celebration of 8 years of wedded bliss (let's be honest, it's not all bliss, but it is an amazing journey!) Brent and I packed up, dropped the kiddos of at Grandma & Grandpa's and headed north to the highly recommended location of South Haven, Michigan.  We really had no idea what to expect.  A quaint town by the water, but that's about it.  It did not disappoint!  It was so beautiful and relaxing.  We wanted to go somewhere that we didn't feel like we had to tour and do a whole bunch of stuff.  This is the place to go for that.  We ate, laid on the beach, rode bikes and watched movies.  This was the longest we had been away from the kiddos.  We missed them, BUT I can't say we didn't enjoy the time away alone. :)

Sunset at Lake Michigan

Downtown South Haven

We love the beach!

Our means of transportation most of the week.  

Breakfast at the B&B.  We chose the 10:00 slot every morning.  No waking up early for us!

Our first experience at a B&B.  Very fun.

A shout out to the grandparents.  This was a huge blessing to Brent & I to be able to get away.  It was a very long summer with him being out of town.  Time away was quite refreshing.  Looking at my last post, I am realizing how much refreshment I need. :)  I heard a quote the other day that I LOVED.  "Marriage isn't hard, life is."  Marriage would be so easy if life was too.  To all of you in the midst of life, I am praying for you, because I'm pretty sure I have felt or am feeling exactly how you are now.

One Night Refresher

Brent gave me the best birthday gift ever.  An overnighter in Cincinnati.  We pretty much slept, ate & watched movies, but it was so relaxing and just the refresher I needed to keep on keeping on!

Trainer

Three days after Deacon's 3rd birthday and totally on a whim, we started potty training.  I've finally realized that I am not a planner.  Deacon got a diaper rash on Wednesday evening & I decided to leave his diaper off & go from there.  On Thursday when he woke up, we started all over again & have been going strong.  I'm pretty proud of him.  He's doing so well.  Still working on getting the {#2} part, but he can only hold it in so long. ;)  It's been an adventure.  He's eaten more M&M's in the past week than he's had his whole life!  I don't care what anybody says, bribery works...well, at least for our son. :)

I probably wouldn't want my photo like this either :)

Nora has been a great help in the training process.

Yep, we even eat our breakfast on here too.

We do some of this too when the waiting gets long.

*3*

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Deacon's 3rd birthday.  It seems unreal to think that we have a 3 year old.  Brent & I decided this year, that we would start a new tradition on each of the kids birthday.  They get to choose dinner out and a fun thing to do and it will be a date with just Daddy & Mommy.  This is something I was very excited to share with Deacon, because I feel like he gets pushed aside too many times because Nora is at a very time consuming age of, "don't touch that," "don't do that," etc....  You mom's of 1 year olds' understand. :)  Deacon chose Fazolis for dinner & an evening at Jumpy's.  We all had so much fun celebrating with Deacon!

Horrible picture, but had to show some of the "jumpy" fun.