You're my favorite mistake

Source: pinkserendipity.tumblr.com via Amanda on Pinterest

A funny kind of way, A funny kind of day

 As per usual, there's been lots of great things coming out of Jimmy's daughter lately...

• Can you make me dessert, cause I used my legs a lot?
• If you go too fast, you'll pass the law!
• I didn't want to do a yawn. I just had to do a yawn for my brain!
• I'm getting sea sick of rain.
• Before you get old, and I'm only nine, will you teach me how to cook so that when you're old, you don't have to cook and I can cook for you?

We've also been treated to a never ending stream of jokes lately - some of them make sense like...

What do you get when you step on banana peels?

Slippers!

or

What did one glue say to the other glue?

We've got to stick together!

But some of them... not so much (they're still funny though!)

What do you get when there is a dog that's hot?

A hot dog!

or

What do you get when there is a tree on Christmas?

A Christmas tree!

One thing is for sure, life is never dull when she's around!

(This was on Halloween, she doesn't usually walk around with 15 pounds of yarn on her head haha)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

The best part of growing up on a hill was by far the sledding. We lived on a quiet side street, so for most of the winter we would be outside, sliding down, often ending up in the middle of the road, before trudging back up the hill and starting the whole process over again. We'd usually break for some hot chocolate and then be out again until dark.

We used to get feet of snow...It wasn't that uncommon to wake up one morning and see 12-24 inches outside your window. We rarely had Snow Days though, because in Michigan, snow is just part of the deal.

It's been a few years since it's snowed like that, though. In fact, last year, it only snowed once and by noon the next day, it had all melted. It made for a nice winter to drive in, but I was starting to miss a Michigan Winter - complete with snow, ice, hot chocolate and some sledding.

Since Jimmy's daughter is only 5, she's never really been able to experience a winter like he and I remember them. In fact, she'd never been sledding! So when we had a few feet come down last week, we took the opportunity to take her out.

I just love the photo of them carrying the sled together

She had such a blast - and we did, too! We sledded for about two hours and she was not happy about having to go haha

Jimmy tried to be cool and go down on the sled standing up...

... it didn't really work out too well

I also just happened to catch this on camera when I was filming her - it gets little shaky at the end because I was literally doubled over laughing... you'll see why!

It was pretty much just like I remember is being... lots of fun and a little cold! But I think this picture pretty much sums up the day...

Love those rosy cheeks!

Camping next to water...

We had pretty decent weather while we were up north - it got a little chilly at nights, but that just made for lots of snuggling with lots of blankets. We thought we were going to be able escape without any rain, but we got hit one day - Jimmy jinxed us by saying he had never been up north when it didn't rain at least once haha

I will admit, that it was nice sleeping "outside" in the rain. I don't think I've ever slept that well! Unfortunately, even I can only sleep so much so once we were up and about we had to find something to do since the fire was out and the chairs were all wet.

The nearest town was about 30 minutes away, so we got dressed, grabbed some breakfast at a coney island (so Michigan haha) and headed even farther west.

We were actually planning on going to the beach that day anyway, so we went...and looked at it. haha Still pretty, even though it was rainy and foggy.

You can only look at an empty beach for so long, so after that we walked around the town a little bit - we explored some antique shops, a few pawn shops and stopped to have lunch at the Jamesport Brewery. We also stopped by the farmers market but there wasn't really much going on because of the weather.

We went back to the town we were staying in and found the bowling alley so we decided to play a few games. They also had a pool table to we occupied ourselves with that for a little while as well, before decided to go get some dinner (we had been making most of our meals over the fire, but since it was raining and wet, we couldn't really do that)

We found a restaurant right on a little lake so we stopped in and ate before heading back to our camper for the night.

Can't really complain about a view like that...

Today's the day I'm going camping

When I first scheduled my vacation, I was honestly a little worried about how I would feel when the time came to have over a week off. To that point, the longest I'd ever really been away from work was a four day weekend.

But, I think we scheduled our vacation perfectly. We started off with Chicago and ended with...

camping.

That was our campsite - our camper, firepit and some trees. (there was also a port-a-potty, but I was pretty sure ya'll didn't need a picture lol)

 We spend the first couple days exploring the town we were staying in - we made lots of trips to the grocery store and to get firewood!

This was pretty much my view for the first few days - to be honest, I didn't really need anything else!

First day of school and I'm prepared

We were only able to spend the weekend in Chicago because we had to be back in town for the first day of school!

I found a printable and had a little photo shoot with her before we left for the morning

she sure loves her silly faces lol

Her good friend is in the same class so we met up with her and her sister to walk into the school. We had a few minutes to wait and then we had to wait some more while the teacher checked in all of the kids - I forgot how hectic the first day of school is! But by the time we left, she was all situated and ready to go!

She is loving her new school so far and I'm so glad I was able to go with her on her first day. It was so fun to see all the kids!

Go to Mr. Jelly Bean

My one request while we were in Chicago, was a Chicago-style hot dog, so on Sunday morning we got up and went to get lunch...

before heading off on our next adventure...

 to the Jelly Belly Factory! 

None of knew what to expect, but we got to learn all about the history of Jelly Bellys, how they are made, saw art made of Jelly Bellys and even learned all about Regan's love of them. And of course, we got free samples and all sorts of treats to take home with us (we still have a bunch in our pantry, actually!)

While we were driving to the factory, we saw a sign for a cheese shop near by so after we finished up, we went to check it out - it ended up being an antique/cheese shop so we looked around for a while before buying some stuff to bring home with us - including honey sticks, which I had searched every where for to get Jimmy for his birthday. I guess I should've just gone to Wisconsin to begin with haha

We made one more stop before heading home for the night - to see a elk preserve right outside of the town Jimmy's dad lives in. It was a nice relaxing, way to end the day and our time in Chicagoland!