Christmas in Connecticut

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from the Howe's

A month of Holiday Parties...

This is a picture from one of the many fun holiday parties this year, the Internal Medicine Holiday Party.

Dexter Holiday Hustle 5K

Mike and I really enjoyed running a local 5K in Dexter, MI called the "Holiday Hustle". It was a cold afternoon but a fun run, and we are both hoping to sign up for a few more runs in the next few months, including the Dexter-Ann Arbor Half Marathon!

Thanksgiving 2010

We spent Thanksgiving with the Nichols side this year. We went up to Hessel (in the Upper Peninsula) to my Aunt Julie and Uncle Steve's beautiful new home. It was great to see family and spend time with Christine, Todd and the kiddos.

We also were blessed to spend lots of quality time with friends...some of the most memorable moments were: Trivial Persuit at Mike and Lindsay's, Watching "Jason (Todd's brother's band) and Nick" play at Crystal Mountain, drinks at Minerva's (seeing Jenna and Ben for the first time since Elyse was born!!) and cozy fires at the Annelin's.

We were also thrilled to spend a few hours with adorable Quinn...she is growing up so fast!!

Fall in Ann Arbor

Fall brought a lot of exciting changes for us. We became home owners in Ann Arbor. It was a long but exciting process. After a few dissapointing inspections, we ended up switching our focus to a different area of town, and I think we ended up in the perfect place for us. I think it really was meant to be....in fact the house we ended up buying was the very first house we looked at when we started the house hunting process!



In late September, we spent a long weekend in Kiawah Island with the Howe's and Steve's girlfriend Lisa. The 6 of us had a great time...perfect weather, great walks/runs/bike rides daily, and lots of relaxation.

We were blessed to have visits from both sets of parents, and they were very willing to help us do work around the house and teach us a thing or two about being home owners. We are SO appreciative of their time and help! We also enjoyed football games with both sets of parents.

We had a great time at the MSU/U of M football game as well. We were so lucky to have so many great friends in town to visit. The TC crew came down in the RV and we all had a blast.

In November, we went to Chicago to visit Steve and Lisa. We also had the chance to see Nancy for dinner too...and ran into a few other TC/AA friends while we were there. We had a great time and are so happy Steve and Lisa will be in Chicago for the time being. We love visiting them!!

Elk Lake Part 2...the end of a wonderful vacation!

We spent the remainder of our vacation enjoying GREAT weather and relaxing doing some pretty great things....

Experiencing beautiful views

loving living in the "middle cottage" (right)

Learning to sail the butterfly

Enjoying beautiful sunsets

Reading and drinking cherry wine out of Dixie Cups-- (Maas Family tradition, wine made each year by my grandparents/aunts and uncles and parents)

Playing with Belle the dog

More golf with beautiful views of Elk Lake

Spending quality time with the Elsenheimer Crew (mike and avery below)

Fishing

And enjoying the water :)

It was an amazing 2 week vacation. I can't believe we are back to work....but we are looking forward to the upcoming big move in about 1 week!

TC Microbrew and Music Festival

This year we were able to join in for the 2nd Annual Microbrew and Music Festival. Porterhouse Productions (my dear friend Lindsay's sister and brother in law's company), put on such a great event. Thanks Abby and Sam.

Here are the girls on Saturday night (it was a 2 night even with lots of concerts each night, it was great!)

Mike and Mike :)

Laura, Linds, Katie and Kate.

We have been pretty inseparable since 8th grade, and for some of us friends even longer than that :)

Even the Walton's were cheering on Ozomatli (great band!!)

Meeting Griffin Campbell Dunn!!

It was so great meeting Griffin last friday. I can't believe he is almost 2 months old. Here is an adorable Griff face with his beautiful mama Anna.

Mike meets Griffin!

Trip to Tahquamenon Falls and Pictured Rocks

The UP is beautiful, if you haven't spent time there, you are really missing out. We spent a few days there after our anniversary, camping and enjoying the Tahquamenon falls and Pictured Rocks.

The beautiful falls. The brown color of the water is from the tannins of the surrounding forests.

Upper Falls

Lower Falls- We took a row boat out to an island for close up views :)

Our campsite-- Rivermouth (just south of Paradise, Mi--> yes this is a real city name)

We made the most of a rainy night with a campfire in the rain!

Wednesday started off a bit cool with a little rain, but it warmed up later.

Munising Falls.....we also saw Chapel Falls

Miner's Rock

Miner's Falls

View of some of the Pictured Rocks-- next time we go back we will

take the boat trip. Unfortunately we couldn't go this time due to 8-10 foot waves!

The sun came out and it was a beautiful afternoon

Sunset at our second campsite near Grand Marais (12 mile beach)