Driving up North

After a few more days with Grammie and Papa, Mummy and I drove up north to Traverse City, to go to Kara and Dan's wedding. It wasn't for a few days, but we were going early so that we could help Linda with all the last minute things and to run little errands here and there. Driving up north takes a long, long time, but it is very pretty along the way, which makes it quite worth it. We stopped along the way for some yummy ice cream at a pretty stop to break up our long drive through the countryside too!

The ships in Bay City

After my bridal shower, Rachel and Mary stayed with us, and we went out to Bay City, to visit the shops and down to the harbour. The harbour is really pretty. It is lovely and sunny there - and they have all these lovely sail boats lined up along the side. I love to take

photos of them, I have taken them many times, but they are always so lovely! We had a dinner, and did some shopping, for bridesmaid dresses. Rachel visited us in Florida first to try on dresses, and now she got to try on more here! So we shopped for a while, until sadly they had to go home!

Downtown Bay City

After my bridal shower, Mary and Rachel hung around We had dinner at this cute little restaurant which had just opened in Bay City - it was a vegan, dairy free kind of place, that was perfect for Shelby and Rachel. We wandered around

a bit before going shopping, exploring all the lovely little antique shops and my favourite sweet shop too, St. Lawrence Brothers, which has all those old fashioned sweets I love. We went down by the water, and took some silly photos, and even found this sign chalked onto the wall of an abandoned antique shop! Bay City is quite run down in the centre now, although it does have cute little shops here and there. We wandered down to the river below us, to see the boats, so we could then go bridesmaid dress shopping!

My Bridal Shower

A bridal shower is a decidedly American thing, but a lovely tradition, and I was fortunate enough that my Mummy and Grandma decided to host one while I was in America. Mummy had ordered cute little invites, and sent them out to all of our family in Michigan. Grandma and I were together most of the time before Mummy even came to America, so we had to go shopping for

all the stuff that Mummy wanted to use as decorations and to cook and such. It was quite a long list - so it took us several days for us to go around and collect all the things we needed! I made cute pink and white chocolate dipped pretzels wrapped in cellophane bags as a favour, with little "Thank You" hang tags. It was much harder to make than advertised! And I never go to taste them either! That was pretty much my contribution to the shower, but Mummy made lots of yummy food.

We made together maple syrup bacon on sticks, which we then made in the oven, cute little shot glasses filled with yoghurt and berries on top, some great fruit skewers, and a bunch of bacon egg muffin things. It was a lot of cooking in the kitchen in the morning, that's for sure! We had gotten yummy coffee, and iced tea and pink lemonade too. I think the cutest thing was the cake, made of mini white donuts, piled up into a cake, decorated with little flowers.

It was simply the most adorable thing, but I never got any good photos of it before it was eaten! In the morning, all the family came, Rachel and Mary came from down south, Krista and Linda came from Traverse City,and even Heidi came up from Detroit. I wore a cute little dress,

and we played fun little games, and drank orange juice out of these cute baby milk bottles with pink striped straws! It was a lovely day all around, but best of all it was nice to finally spend some time with all of my extended family who I never get to see very often!

Leaving London

After my time in Florida, and then in Japan, I had to come back to London, to sit my exams. They were out at the Excel Centre in East London - a place completely difficult to get to! But anyway, they went well, and I passed, and so the teaching portion of my degree was finally over. Next, I had to move to Austria to fulfill my thesis part of the degree. It meant I was saying goodbye to my lovely little flat in London, and my time there. It was weird to leave - I had finally become comfortable

in London, and only nine months later I was having to leave. Mummy came down to help me move out. That part was easy - we packed it all up in her car no problem - leaving some free time to sight see, do some shopping on Oxford Street, and have a lovely high tea at the Dorchester. I had to take a few cliche photos before I left, of my favourite two things in London - the classic red phone booths, and the Shard. The skyscraper I could see out my window, and right next to my university - the new symbol of London.

Jackson in the Lilacs

Grandma likes to spend a lot of time outdoors, gardening. I try and get out with her, and while I am not so much help at the gardening aspect, I was able to enjoy the sunshine and the great weather. I love Grammie's dog Jackson - and so we got down and

took some cute photos of him in the pretty lilacs. I don't think I have ever seen Lilacs before, so it was nice, that while Grammie was cutting them, I posed Jackson with them, to take the photos. I only got a few before he wandered off, but they were cute enough to put in a frame for Grandma!

Some Mid-Michigan Barns

I left London, and went home for a week or so. Just a week to unpack my London life, pack for a trip to America, and then pack to move to Austria. I also had heard that I had gotten a job in Frankfurt, so I had to pack to start that job in August. To be fair, that whole week was packing and organising, and taking stuff out of my room

I wanted to keep and what could be left. It was hard to leave nothing at my parent's house anymore! I flew over to Michigan, mainly for Kara and Dan's wedding, but I went early so that I got to spend some time with Grammie and Papa too before hand. Papa knows how much I like to take photos so on our way around on errands and such, we went looking for some great barns to take photos of. This one, which is in the process of falling down, is just down the road!