Home For Now

We made it to Michigan.  For awhile it seemed like this is something we would do "one day".  One day far in the future.  Then it all started to seem real as we said goodbye to family and friends.  We had a great get together with Dave's family on New Years Eve, the day before he would embark on his journey to Michigan.  The next day Dave left with Mike who was super awesome and drove our other car so that I would have the luxury of flying to Michigan with Kaia.  If you can call flying with a one year old luxury.  It still beats driving in a car for three days!  Thanks so much Mike!  It was hard to say goodbye but I was doing alright because I knew my time hadn't come yet and I still had a few days to spend with family.  On my last night we all went to dinner including my grandparents to Texas Roadhouse and then Kaia and I had to leave at five thirty the next morning for the airport.  It was a long day but we made it!  I decided it would be fitting for our first post from Michigan to be of our living arrangements so it looks like we are going to start with the bathroom.  Compared to our last bathroom (boy do we miss that) it sucks but hey we have three sinks!

The bedrooms are pretty spacious and here is ours.

 This is Kaia's room.  I think my child has enough toys to last her a lifetime!  Our apartment came furnished and we moved a bunch of stuff out but decided to keep one bed in her room for guests.  :)  Actually it has already come in handy for me as Kaia has been sick and not sleeping well at night.

 Kaia thought she needed to be in some pictures so here is one of her with her crazy bed head.

Here is our kitchen.  I love cooking but cooking in this teeny tiny kitchen has proved to be a difficult task!  I really am thankful for a good place to live but give my self a little room to complain about the kitchen.  Dave assures me one day I will have a big kitchen!

 Here is our living room and dining area.  I always love hanging pictures because it makes the place feel like home!  Dave had some tulips here when I got here so it would feel a bit more like home as well.

 Here is the lounge area for our building.  Yes we have an air hockey table and yes we have already played.  I am guessing most of you already know the outcome of the game.  Love you Dave!

 Here is the long hall on our floor where Kaia loves to push her toys.

This is our backyard.  There is a swing set, gazebo, and basketball hoop and then a trail leading off into the woods.  

The trail goes back to a fairly large river and I guess there is a canoe we can take out if we want.  I am sure this will be a lot prettier in the summer!  I am sure I will go out and pretend to be on one of my favorite hikes from home!  :)  

A ways down the trail there is a fire pit.  Since I have been having to resort to using a george forman instead of a grill in my teeny tiny kitchen I will probably welcome this fire pit in the summer!

Overall we really like our apartment and we couldn't ask for a better location to live.  We live directly across the street from campus so Dave can walk or ride his bike to class.  Who knew the church owned housing in Michigan?  Pretty sure it's the only other place they own housing besides BYU.  Also because of that the missionaries live here!  We have two sets of sister missionaries and a senior missionary couple living in our building.  Some of the sisters live right next door to us.  The elders live in the other building.  The first night we were here we looked out our back window and there were deer hanging out in the backyard.  We were warned to be careful when throwing garbage in the dumpster because squirrels and raccoons go in there and get startled when you throw your trash in and jump out.  Hasn't happened yet but we have seen both in the woods behind our place.  The squirrels here are HUGE and some of them are black which we haven't seen before.  Don't worry I will get some pictures up of these critters in the future.  We miss our families very much but it makes it easier knowing that we were led here for a reason.  We may not know what that reason is but we know we are in the right place for us at this time.  Thanks everyone for your support.  We hope to keep this blog up to date with life here in Michigan.