The North Pull

What a glorious weekend it was!!

We enjoyed our first road trip as a family and headed towards the North!

North Ho!

To Petoskey.

Not only do we have friends there, but we've been feeling a little tuggy tug tug at the ol' pitter patter stings to just... check it out. We call it, the North Pull.

It was Celia's first extended car ride and we are happy to say, she performed swimmingly. (With a little help from Mommy going back to hang out with her every so often and read some Dr. Suess.)

The weekend was GORGEOUS -- did I already say that?

On our way up, we needed to pull over to feed Celia. The first turn off of the two-laned 131 outside of Cadillac happened to be a camp ground. We drove in and decided to keep following the dirt road -- and look what we came too!!!

It was so quiet and serene staring at the double sky image that only water can create. We stopped for a feeding and a visit to water the woods and off we went deciding to come back next year and actually camp there.

We landed in Petoskey right at the foot of their co-op, The Grain Train, and we sauntered in to enjoy something that we so wish we had in the Grand Rapids area. After basking in organic and fair trade goodness, we walked around in and out of local shops and ended up buying Celia a new winter hat!

J bought her bookclub book, Eat Pray Love, and Steve found a Rudolf Steiner book he has had a eye out for called, What is Biodynamics? He was so so so SUPER excited, exclaiming "a little place like this has a Steiner book?!?" Yeah, we know -- a couple of farm nerds.

That evening we enjoyed dinner at Ann and John's, but negelected to get any photos since Celia was inching towards bedtime -- something we have learned NOT to mess with. And she let us know, again, that she is a very flexible lady, pleasant, and exceptionally funny, but this is NOT negotiable.

It was also Celia's first hotel stay! She seemed to really like the room. Those faux paintings and 1980's color scheme ARE fascinating! She slept like a champ in her own big bed, and Steve and I got a bed to ourselves! No baby, no dog! We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves! ' )

The next day we enjoyed our complimentary Econolodge waffles and coffee (seriously, I think I love the Econolodge! -- Side note: we stayed at the Grand Traverse Resort back in May and didn't get HALF of what we got with our $50 Econo room) and we were off to meet Jen and Matt for a tour of Petoskey farm land. What a beautiful sight it was! We drove for 3 hours enjoying fall colors, "seasonal" dirt side roads winding through the hills and the multitude of possibilities. We even took Celia out of her carseat to scope the array of beauty.








It's quite interesting, Petoskey. I have always said that I wish I could live on 10 acres so that I can have my homestead, but that the 10 acres would be RIGHT at the edge of town so I could still bike into town, support local business, walk to the bookstore, be a part of the community. That doesn't exsist anymore, right? On the edge of every town is suburb after suburb after suburb. If you're in the country anymore, you are OUT there, and really, who knows when your back yard view of red maples will become the next cracker jack subdivision?

Well, I can not tell you how exciting it was to roll out of Petoskey proper and BAM! Farms! Farmhouses! Land! Hills! Trees a' plenty! Here I was, in a dream local! We could have the homestead, participate in community and be within a proper distance to market one of my ideas: to be the local fall/winter harvest CSA. (stands for Community Supported Agriculture -- in a nutshell, in the spring you pay a farmer an upfront cost, and all spring, summer, early fall you get a cut of the harvest each week of what is in season. ) And as a bonus, super plinko-esque, no whammy's plus?? Lake Michigan at your fingertips no less!

Now, don't get any crazy ideas -- we are staying where we are. But I'm always interested in possiblities. And Petoskey holds many!

Reflections in the Fall

Is there any place better than Michigan in the fall, I ask you? Really, is there?

I hear resounding no's.

The mornings are crisp as your feet crunch the fallen leaves and the frosty crystals clinging to the grasses. The skys are SO blue in the fall! Real Blue. Not the sort of white sky you can some times have here in Michigan because of the summer humidity and the dark clouds of the winter chill. BLUE! This sky against the splashes of colorful tree leaf goodness it's truly gorgeous! It's time for fleece zip-ups to come out, for knitted hats to be donned, for red cheeks to enjoy the bliss of a hot cup of coco after a misty breathed visit to the outdoors. Ahhhh, FALL!! My favorite season!



I'm so glad we gave birth to a little lady who thinks fall is just as fun. We go for a walk every morning still. This morning it was 39 degrees! Celia was still in her jam jams. I zipped her in her snowsuit, slung her in the Moby Wrap and covered her with her favorite blanket from Camille. We were off with Elle running ahead, black tail whipping the leaves as they scurried out from her path. Celia just stares at everything! She can't get over all the stuff to see! Until she just falls asleep. A nice start to a morning, I would say.

Here is fall at our home here in Rockford. Yes, we're still needing to sell the ol' house. Yes, we're still trying to move closer to Steve's place of employement. Yes, we're still always looking for land in the back of our eyes (yep, it's possible... trust me :) ). But it is LOVELY right now. I feel very lucky to be here.






Although it is a year ago this weekend that I visited Steve down in North Carolina and we found out that Celia was 4 weeks old in my belly. In 2 more weeks it will be a year from the time we made the decision that Steve would come home. Leave a dream job. Leave a 60 degree November sunshine state. Leave his brother from another mother Jeff. And he did this to be with me during the pregnancy so he wouldn't miss it. He did this to ease our financial situation we had since I quit my jobs to move and then couldn't get rehired from being pregnant. And we couldn't sell our house.

We still look back and sometimes wonder if we did the right thing. But here we are. And these pictures some how just make me smile dispite all the hardships of the past year. All I need is Steve, my little Celia, and our Elle Girl. That is MY location, location, location.