Sunshine Daydream

          Allison and I rode our bikes downtown the other night to see Ben Bedford play at the White Lake Area Arts Council half shell. It was a great time, we layed out a blanket and enjoyed the Summer evening. We may or may not have stopped at one of our local ice cream joints on the ride home for a delicious treat.
         We are just about all settled in now. We hung pretty much the last of our pictures and have organized most of our stuff to the point that we can find things. Our little house is slowly but surely becoming a home.
         Wednesday it was forecasted to be sweltering outside so we packed up Stella and headed to Lake Michigan. It was not as hot as we would have hoped and the water was only 59 degrees but Stella and I bit the bullet and went for a swim. I'm sure Allison would have swam with us but she stayed warm and dry for the baby. It is fun to see Stella learning to ride the waves into the shore. I love that being at Lake Michigan is like being at the Ocean except there is no salt and no tide. We can't wait for our next outing.

Lazy Summer Days

It has been great being on vacation the last couple weeks. I go back to work on Thursday this week and I am not looking forward to it. We've had some nice relaxing fun recently though. We found a really nice dog beach on Lake Michigan. It has a nice long sand bar that allows Stella to be almost completely submerged but she can walk if she wants. Its also nice for Allison and I because we can wade out a bit without getting soaked. I botched our plans of going to a free concert on Friday (it is this Tuesday) so I had to think on my feet to keep my wonderful wife happy. I thought we both may enjoy some mini golf. It reminded me of Allison's competitiveness. We had a lot of mulligans  and a lot of fun. Last night I was bored and decided to start up a fire in our new pit. The decision was quickly thwarted once we realized high air temps plus fire temps equaled to darn hot. It was fun while it lasted though. Today we had a family fun day of yard work. We had a lot of dead branches in the front yard that made me a little nervous so I grabbed my pruning saw and hacked them down. Allison gathered some of the limbs and Stella drug them right back. I think some fun was had by all.

Once A Beaver Always A Beaver

I finally manned up and registered for classes again in Oregon State University's distance learning program. I start 2 new classes on August 6th. I am a little nervous but excited. Hopefully in 3 years I'll have my degree.

Bike Rides and Weathervanes

        Allison had a check up at the doctors this morning so I thought that was the perfect time to hop on my bike and head north. I rode from our house up to Rothbury MI and then I rode around a bit looking for the Double JJ ranch where Phish has played concerts in the past. It was a really nice ride on the local bike path most of the way. It was 26.8 miles round trip. My legs weren't bad but I was a bit saddle sore.
       Once Allison got home itdidn't take us long to get bored. We decided to ride our bikes to Montague to look at some of the antique shops they have. On the way we stopped by the worlds largest weathervane. It sure is large. Needless to say after all our bike riding Allison and I should sleep well tonight.

First Day of Work and Swimming at White Lake

Monday was my first day at work. We have a really nice shop and everyone I'll be working with seem really nice. My Engineering Officer let me know we do not have a very heavy work load and if I want to go back to school now is the time. I put in a few applications last night so hopefully sometime soon I will hear back and can start school full time in the Fall.

Today Allison and I went to get our new Michigan licenses. I was able to get an encrypted license that allows me to travel to and from Canada without a passport.I thought that was pretty cool. It has been wicked hot here so tonight we walked Stella down to the beach at White Lake and let her swim for a while. She sure does like to play fetch when she can swim. I went in about knee deep. The water wasn't very cold. If I had my swim trunks on I think I would have gone in as well.

Our Neighborhood Farm

Allison and I stopped at our local farm today and got an overflowing quart of Strawberries, a jar of Strawberry jam, and a pound of asparagus all for $8.00. Boy we sure love where we live!

Lunch At Pekadills and Lake Michigan

               Allison and I had lunch at one of the local restaurants Pekadills. The food was great but the dining area was even better. You eat in this amazing little garden. Its so beautiful you have to see it for yourself. Oh and its within walking distance of our house. Could be our new stop for ice cream.

               Tonight we made a short 15min ride to a really nice Lake Michigan beach. We also saw the White Lake Light house which is now a museum. I was to late to go into the museum tonight but maybe some other time. I am still having a hard time comprehending how large Lake Michigan is. In the below pictures you can see the waves rolling in behind us, also note you can not see the land on the other side of the lake at all. Our household goods come tomorrow and Allison and I can't wait to be unpacked and settled so we can start to explore.

We Explored Whitehalls Shops

Grand Haven, Our New Toys and Our New House

                   We got to the Spring Lake/ Grand Haven Holiday Inn Sunday afternoon. The hotel was great! It was right in downtown Grand Haven and right on the water. While in Grand Haven we ate at a bunch of good Restaurants. Two restaurants really stand out in my mind though. The first was Dee-Lite ( DeeLite.com ). We ate breakfast there one morning and I had some of the best Corn Beef Hash I've ever had. The second place was Snug Harbor ( snugharbor.com ). Its a great little spot downtown, right on the water. It only has outside dining but the atmosphere is great. I had some really good sushi and Allison had a delicious Fillet.
                    Sunday evening we went to Whitehall MI ( www.whitelake.org ) to look at a home for rent. We drove around the area before looking at the house and we just fell in love with the community. We looked at the house and after a little deliberation we decided this was the place for us. As you will see the goods defiantly out weigh the bad.
The Good : We are a .3 mile (about 5min) walk or bike ride White Lake where we can swim and fish. We can bike to downtown Whitehall which is a very quaint little town with some fun shops and eateries. We have a 2 car garage so Allison will be able to park inside. It is a very safe neighborhood. Lake Michigan is only 2 miles away. There is a 22 mile bike trail in the summer that turns into a 22 mile snowshoe, xc skiing and snowmobiling trail in the winter. It will be cheap to heat due to its small size.
The Bad-ish: Its pretty small, we may have to get creative in our decorating. Its a bit further from work than I'd wanted to be (35mins).
                    Yesterday was our shopping day. We had a bunch of items we needed and somethings we wanted. We got a new lawnmower and weedwacker for the yard now that we will have to maintain it ourselves. We got a fire pit so that we can cook up some smore's and have some fun. Allison got a new bicycle. I have never seen a grown woman so excited over a bicycle before. We even got her a bell so people will know when she's coming. We look forward to riding together soon.
                    Today is our first day in our new place. We had to wait for the Internet and cable guy and for our new mattress and box spring to show up. Our movers won't be here till Friday so Allison and I will be roughing it for a couple of days. It is 61 degrees out here right now and my little Eskimo wife is bundled up in a long sleeve, hooded sweatshirt, jeans, and is under the covers inside the house. If this is a sign of things to come for her this could prove to be a long Winter.

Goose Creek SC to Pigeon Forge Tenn to Indianapolis ID

Our travels started around 9am Friday morning. I have to admit it tugged at my heart strings a little bit knowing that we would not be returning to our first place as a family. South Carolina is a really awful highway drive. Its pretty long and boring. North Carolina and Tennessee on the other hand were absolutely beautiful. I was in awe with the Roadside wild flowers along the Blue Ridge parkway in NC and with the rolling hills of the Smokey Mountains. The scenery really helped pass the time on our first leg of our trip. We spent the night in a night little roadside inn in Pigeon Forge. They even gave us a coupon for free breakfast at the local pancake house. Last night we went to the Lumberjack Feud. It was so much fun. I had the chance to be part of the show but I had stupid flip flops on so I lost my opportunity due to saftey. I was wicked bummed out. This morning we left enroute to Indy. I don't have to much to say about todays ride due to Kentucky and Indiana being 2 of the dullest states I have ever driven through. We are at a nice hotel tonight in Indy. We are exhausted and are just going to stay in and watch movies. Tomorrow we will finally be in Michigan. Hooray.

I call this masterpiece "The Divorce"

It was short lived.

This Is Awesome

Isaac's Live Lip-Dub Proposal from Isaac Lamb on Vimeo.

This makes my proposal seem a little lack luster.

Busy Busy Busy

Allison and I have been pretty busy the last few days. We are completely moved out of our house in Summerville now. We had it cleaned and the carpets done. Tonight we are turning in the keys to the realtor, then we are officially homeless. We have been staying with John and Ashley Daigle in Goose Creek SC. They are taking care of 3 little girls for some friends of theirs so its a pretty packed house. Allison and I have been lending a helping hand where we can. We took the girls outside to do some sidewalk chalk art. I think we had more fun than the girls, as pictured below. I also cooked up a couple beer can chickens over the weekend. They came out well and everyone was pleased. Alli and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary yesterday. I like to treat her like a queen so we went to the movies and Logans Roadhouse ha ha. It was fun and we didn't want to spend to much due to our trip coming up soon.  I went to the OBGYN with Allison today for the first time. I got to see the ultrasound and hear the Heart beat. It was so cool to see our baby. I am amazed at how developed baby Bean is already. We are leaving South Carolina on Thursday morning and are spending the night in Pigeon Forge Tenn and Indy before getting to Grand Haven. It should be a fun little trip, sort of the honeymoon we didn't get the chance to take. I look forward to sharing our trip with you soon.