October??? And Our Exciting News . . .

We have had warm, beautiful weather this past week.  Very unusual for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  And even though I'm not a fan of hot weather, it was kind of fun!  (Yes, a few days even got into the 80's!)

This past weekend we really took advantage of the great outdoors, and were reminded of what a beautiful place we get to call home.   

So, Ethan and I have been wanting to have a little "get away" just the two of us.  Overnight.  No kids.  Much needed.  We try to do it once a year, and it'd been a year and a few months . . . so it was time!  We ended up staying in Marquette because I was still a little nervous leaving Caleb . . . so I wanted to be close, just in case.  Cabers stayed with my parents, and Anna and Benjamin had a fun overnight with GramMelissa and Grampa Chuck (including the High School Homecoming football game! and staying up waaaay past their bedtime! :)  

We stayed at the Birchmont motel and LOVED the view from our porch.  It was beautiful sitting out there on Saturday morning, after sleeping in until 9am!, and being a little envious of people who get to do that every weekend.  (But we love our kiddies to pieces. . . really! hehe.) 

We had dinner at Red Lobster . . . one of our favs.  We eat there once, maybe twice a year, but have never been while they've been having their Endless Shrimp special.  Oh. My. Goodness!  So delish.  hehe. 

We enjoyed the fall colors Saturday morning, and then did some shopping.  Fun, fun!  Everything without kids seems special these days.  We picked up our kids a little before 1pm, and although we were excited to see them, we also felt like we could have used a little more time away.  hehe.  We've never left them for more than one night before, but maybe next time we'll go for two.  :)

So, thanks to our awesome parents!  We had such a great time.

The rest of Saturday, after Caleb's nap, we spent at the beach.  It was beautiful.  We don't get too many beach days in October around here, so we had to take advantage!  This was Caleb's first real beach experience - crawling around, getting wet, eating sand.  Typical.  He loved it!

Love that squishy face!  (On both of them. . . hehe.)

My parent's and Buddy came along too.  Fun, fun.  My mom even went all the way in . . . impressive!

Love the picture with the shadows, and the one below of the boys walking back to the car.  What a beautiful, simple day!

Okay, now for our exciting news!  We put an offer on a house that was ACCEPTED.  We should close in 3-4 weeks.  Ethan and I were not opposed to renting, and kind of wanted to go that route.  But, after doing a little research, we discovered there weren't many options in Marquette for the size we needed (which isn't big) unless we wanted to pay more than what we'll be paying for a mortgage payment on a house.  So, buying is what we decided was a good choice for us right now.  And although this isn't the first house we've bought, in many ways it feels like it, and is just very, very exciting! 

We LOVE the house - awesome location and close to everything (and great neighborhood, so it'll be easy to sell when needed), cute outside and so many nice features inside, perfect size for us (I've never wanted a big house, and this one is only 1750 square feet including a finished basement room, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and there's potential to finish additional space/bedroom in the basement), beautiful (big-ish) backyard with no houses behind us . . . just woods and a fit strip (that's lit til midnight! and groomed for cross-coutry skiing in the winter), some original built-ins and doors (it was built in 1940), attached garage (awesome for the winters), and more. 

The house is about a mile or less to so many things:  Medical center - .6 miles (and where Ethan works 3 days a week), Anna's elementary school - 3 blocks (so also 3 blocks to the school, a park, tennis courts and basketball courts too), the High School - .5 miles, the Hospital - 1/2 block, the beautiful library - 1.1, my parents - .5 miles, the beach - 1.0 miles, NMU - three blocks (where we occasionally attend the theater, concerts or other community events. . . or to visit Grampa Chuck :), Third Street shops and restaraunts - three blocks and only .7 miles to Border Grill!  :)

We never thought we'd find a house that we loved as much as our first one, seen HERE, but this one has the potential to do so.  (It's not as old, but there are other features about it that we love too, maybe more?).  I never thought I'd want/like a one story house, but I love this one and already think how convenient it will be!  I'll show pictures once it's all official.  We've already had the inspection and the bank is scheduling the appraisal for this week, I believe.  We are sooooo excited to get our own place.  And even though my dad threatens to keep our kids hostage at his house, I think my parents must be excited to get their house back too.  Maybe . . . hehe.  (And, for the love, we're only a few blocks away from them.   Oh, and 2.5 miles from Chuck and Melissa. :)   It was a good experience doing two years of apartment living down-state, and this year at my parents was good in many ways, and such a blessing.  But we're so ready to have our own little house again.  Yay!!!