Stan and Deebs come to visit - November, 2015

I love when we have visitors! I love when the visitors are two of my very best friends. We had such a great time with my parents in town. This was the first time that I could drop ALL of the kids off at school and have alone time with them. We went to breakfast a few times and we were able to chat without interruptions, which was amazing!

Nick took work off on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so we could go up north with the family. He had signed up for a bike race in Traverse City, but the weather was rainy the day before he would have participated. He hopes to do it next year. (Well, this year now that I'm finally posting this) We stayed at Great Wolf Lodge for the first time and we loved it! The room was great -- a main floor with 2 queen beds and a sofa bed, and a loft with another queen and a half bath. We gave my parents the loft because we thought that would give them some privacy. Unfortunately, in a loft you still hear EVERYTHING and Cora was not a good sleeper on the trip, lots of screaming and restlessness for 3 nights. We survived though and still loved the accommodations. The water park was really cool. Maya and Josh were at perfect ages to go because they know how to swim and the water slides were just their size. Cora, not so much. She isn't a huge fan of water yet and she made me so nervous wherever she went. They also had an arcade, mini bowling alley, and salon. Such a neat place...many great memories were made!

The first day in Traverse, we went downtown and shopped around. We really liked the Cherry Republic store where everything is cherry flavored and sampling is encouraged. We tried cherry salsa, soda, bbq sauce, etc. Then we had lunch and a slice of pie at Grand Traverse Pie Company. We tried the cherry (of course), blueberry crumble pie, and a cinnamon roll. They were all very tasty, but we LOVED the blueberry.

My mom pretending to be at a fancy wine-tasting place with her cherry coke. Haha, love her so much!

We had a great time up north. It's so pretty there - I think Traverse City is my favorite. We got home just in time for my birthday and celebrated with Jet's pizza and game night....I have to beg people (Nick) to play Yahtzee with me!! It was so fun.