the best of midwest living

 

For our anniversary, Mike and I spent the weekend in Michigan with Charlie. We spent most of the afternoon in lovely Holland, where Mike got a new bike (because Liam outgrew his last kid-size bike and inherited Mike's bike earlier this year) and we spent some time wandering through the shops before a late lunch at the New Holland Pub. I got a sampler of six different beers, while Mike stuck with just one that he knew he would like. It's funny because I don't normally like beer all that much, but these were all very good (except for the bourbon stout, which I did not like at all). We ate outside, and the food was really good too. I had a pesto chicken pizza, and Mike had Italian sausage with a bacon onion jam and tomato bread pudding. He was really skeptical about his order but ended up loving every bite.

After lunch we headed back to our lodging for the evening, Barb and Kevin's lovely cottage, where a bottle of prosecco was chilling in the fridge for us. (Thanks, Barb and Kevin! Such a nice welcome!) Lest you think we are complete lushes, we opted to wait a while on drinking it and instead took Charlie back to the dog beach at Grand Mere State Park, where the waves were rolling in like the ocean on a very windy day. It is such a joy to watch him swimming and splashing around in the water -- seriously, it surprises me every time how much I love to watch it. We finished out our night at the Greenbush Brewery, where I again picked opted for the sample flight of beers, but reverted back to form and didn't really like any of them, leaving Mike to pick up my slack in the drinking department. We ate outside, and it was dark and quiet and peaceful (except when the train went by right next to us), and a perfect way to end a really great day. 

Meanwhile, back in Indiana, the boys had a wonderful weekend of their own. They got to go to the Apple Festival in Nappanee with Bethany and Avalon, and spend all kinds of time running through the woods between Bethany and Joe's house and my parents' house. Liam and Max even got to learn how to drive four-wheelers. Henry is a little young yet, and his feet don't reach the pedals anyway, but he got to go for a ride with Bethany where they found a cauliflower mushroom as big as his head. 

After we picked them up early this afternoon, we all came home and spent the afternoon just hanging out together. We ordered pizza for dinner and went to the park afterward. Things may have taken a turn for the cranky after that, as they often do on a Sunday night, but to me it didn't matter because the great weekend was already in the books.