Our Second Anniversary

Nathan and I had the opportunity to take a vacation up to Holland, Michigan for our second anniversary! We stopped by my parents' house for the night on June 11, then headed up to Holland on the 12th and came home on the 16th (our actual anniversary). We set up camp Friday afternoon then immediately left to drive down to Portage for Liz's bridal shower! It was really great to see her and I got to spend a lot of time with becca. She and I even won the "how well do you know Liz" game, beating out all of Liz's family! Ha! It was a fun time. Nathan saw the movie "Up" while I was at the shower. We drove back to the camper that night and passed out.

Saturday morning we took it easy, went to Wal Mart for groceries, and made just enough of a fire with wet wood to cook two hot dogs. We also invented a new card game called "Front Lines" that we played a ton throughout the weekend. If you want a good two-player card game let us know!



Then my friend Sadie came to visit! She was my best friend the first semester of college but I haven't seen her since! We reconnected online since then and we were close to her house so she came down to see me! We ate the barbecue chicken Nathan grilled over the fire and did some catching up, then we all went for a walk to the beach. We got ice cream on the way too :) The beach was beautiful! It was a chilly evening and the water was icy, but it was fun to wander.



Nathan and I took a few sappy pictures...


Nathan and Sadie looking over the edge of the pier. This picture makes me smile :)


We said our goodbyes and Sadie left for home. It was so great to see her and I hope we can meet up again... eventually ;)

That evening Nathan wanted to get the lay of the land so we drove to downtown Holland. We ended up at this gorgeous park and went exploring.


Look! A historical marker!


Sunday we went kayaking! It was tons of fun. We paddled from just across the street from where we camped (on lake Makatawa) to Lake Michigan. We went to the beach across the bay from the one we went to with Sadie. This one was much prettier, cleaner, and less crowded. It really looked tropical! I wish I could have taken pictures, but a camera in a kayak is not the greatest idea. Silly Nathan went for a swim in the freezing water, and we eventually decided we needed ice cream and went to the shop on the other beach, ate, then paddled back to where we started. We ended up being out about 3 hours. It was hard work, but tons-o-fun. We were smart and wore lots of sun screen... but I managed to get a burn on one foot. Ha!

Us kayaking. I have Nathan's cell phone clipped to me because we needed it to keep track of time but it was getting wet in the ziplock bag we had it in. Don't worry, mom, I promise I wore a life vest until we got back to where we started.


Nathan looking all cool.


Unfortunately, as the day went on I found that the joints in my arms started to hurt. And get worse. And worse... until we had to make a run to a gas station for Tylanol at 12:30 at night. Thank you again for taking care of me, hubby! I was able to sleep and felt better the next day and perfect the day after that. It just wouldn't be vacation if I didn't injure myself.

Monday morning we went to the Dutch Village! It was nice and touristy. Apparently they teach Dutch dance at the local high school, so we got to watch some clogging. They did a great job- look at those high kicks! They danced to the music of a "street organ," which, to my understanding, works kind of like a player piano but is mostly pipes with some drums and bells. Pretty cool! We became "honorary Dutch dancers" when they invited the crowd up to learn a dance afterword. Oh yeah!


Photo op! The stork is coming!


Big baby...


We were weighed and recieved official paperwork certifying that we are not witches! ...it also said I weighed 89 lbs, so I'm not guarenteeing its accuracy ;)


Nathan looking nervous for some reason... It actually weighed him accurately!


We spent our last evening at another beach, strolling and playing with the automatic delay feature on our camera.



We packed everything we could that evening and were able to get out really quickly the next morning, making it home for dinner. Rachel and Robin even made us a giant anniversary cookie, which was delicious. Aww!


We had a great trip and a great second anniversary :)