Snowshoe and good friends at Elk Lake

On December 27th, our last day of vacation, we headed out to the Goetz's home on Elk Lake for some time with family and friends. My grandma's both joined as well as my parent's, the Stilwill's and the whole Goetz clan. Great fun was had by all. We enjoyed a snowshoe on the Goetz's Elk Lake property, snacks, wine and good company!

Kate, Amy, and Laura

Justin (Amy's husband) and Mike

We had a great day and can't wait to get together with our long time Elk Lake friends again soon....

Christmas 2009 in Traverse City...

Mike and Bee (Christine and Todd's dog), on Christmas Eve/Christine's B-day. We spent Christmas Eve at the Elsenheimer farm, it was great fun to get to know the whole Elsenheimer family better! Mike and I attended church at TC Presby, and it was great to see familiar faces in the congregation where we were married.

Sibs in front of the Elsenheimer Tree

Christine and I with Bee, the poodle...

Mike and Avery, coloring one of her many Christmas gifts on Christmas Day!

The following day, Dec 26th, we celebrated Christmas with the extended Nichols clan...my dad's siblings and all of their kids....

My parent's beautiful tree...

I wish we had more pictures to share, next year we must get some group shots!

Oh Christmas Tree....

Christmas 09 came upon us before we knew it...and unfortunately since Mike and I had three weeks of work without any of the same days off, we didn't make it out to cut down a tree. Instead, we headed to a tree lot that boasted trees from Northern MI, which make getting it off a lot seem a little better. It was a mere 5 degrees the night we picked our tree...freezing!

It turned out really beautiful, and despite that fact that it was hand picked in a lot, not a forrest, we love it! Not nearly as fat as previous years :)

Internal Medicine Holiday Party 2009

Our holiday party was a great success again this year! Unfortunately I was on call until 8pm, so couldn't host the usual pre-party at our place......hopefully next year!

Nina, Meaghan, Laura and Alicia

All the girls :)

Connecticut Thanksgiving

Toby was sure glad to see us when we got home to Connecticut for Thanksgiving!

We were very happy to be able to have enough time to travel out to CT to spend Thanksgiving with the Howes! We had 4 days of relaxation and enjoyed exploring the cute little towns of CT.

The whole family on our last night.

Holland, MI...heading back to my college roots...

We just returned from a great weekend visiting Steve and Lisa in Holland. They have rented a cottage on the south side of lake macatawa, while waiting to start their jobs as lawyers in Dec/January. They have had fun exploring Holland, and it was great to hit some of the highlights with them this weekend.

We started with lunch at New Holland Brewery, followed by a walk downtown with stops at some of my favorites: The Peanut Store, JB and me, Tip Toes, and Home & Company.

Next we headed out to The Bowl, a beautiful dune near Holland...

Dinner at Butch's

Laura and Lisa

Weekend in Chicago- Nov 6th-8th

We make the trip to Chicago to spend some time exploring the city and going to favorite spots from our brief time spent living in Chicago in 2006. We also were able to spend time with Steve and Lisa, as Steve was being sworn in to the Illinois Bar that weekend. We also had an early birthday celebration for Nancy, and it was great to catch up with both her and Asheesh! All in all a great weekend, with almost 70 degrees and sun on saturday...perfect!

Beautiful skyline..

At dinner, Shine, in Lincoln Park...yummy sushi!!!

Happy early birthday Nancy!!

Walk in the arb....

Mike and I spent a beautiful fall day in early November, walking in the Arb in Ann Arbor.

Wanted to share a few of the beautiful pics!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Mike and I went as reality TV stars, Spencer and Heidi Pratt. For those that don't know they are an obnoxious couple on MTV's "The Hills." A fun night was had by all. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Mom comes to visit

We had a blast with Mom when she came to visit AA for a few days. We met up with Mom and Marge and Allan for dinner at the Black Pearl Sunday the 25th. She came to stay with us from the 26th-28th, which was a lot of fun. We cooked at home one night and carved pumpkins (see below). Then tuesday night we went to a fabulous dinner at Pacific Rim. We are so glad you came to visit! We can't wait till next time, when Dad can join too!

The finished products

Mike Mom Laura

B-day Party and Orchards

October 18th: After finishing our 1/2 marathon (sorry, no pics!) we came back to AA to get together with friends to celebrate Mike's B-day at Wasem Fruit Farm, and our house...

Our perfect pumpkins :)

Jess and James

Jess and Laura

Megan and Mike

Shreya, Megan, Jess, Laura

We finished off the night with apps, grilling dinner at our place, and Apple-Carrot cake made from scratch :) Yummy! It was a great night!