Places I have been...

I am not a big traveler, and I haven't been anywhere really fancy, like Paris or Ireland or anything, but I have taken some fun vacations.

When I was growing up, we went to Illinois a couple times to see family. I don't remember a lot from waaaaay back then, but I do remember we had a big orange woody station wagon that we packed up. I had to be 5 years old or less, because my little sister wasn't born yet, and my Grandma was with us.

We also went to Niagara Falls sometime before my little sister came along. I don't remember anything about this trip, just remember seeing the pictures.

When I was in 5th grade my dance class went to some competition in Louisville, Kentucky. Things I remember about that trip are:

• We borrowed my Uncle's car since ours was pretty crappy and wouldn't make the trip.



• We got lost just about everyday we were down there



• We had a cane as part as our costume, and during our big dance, I dropped mine...and the entire class was so mad at me. (we ended up getting runner up, I started playing sports soon after this and dropped out of dance:)

When I was in Middle school, we camped a lot. My Aunt Jane lived at a campground all summer and we bought a pop-up camper and my Dad would drive from the campground to work during the week. I would say we were out there 2 or 3 weeks at a time, 3 or 4 times during the summer. these camping trips were so much fun to me, where I would leave in the morning with my friends, and only come back to the camper to eat. We made forts in the woods, took our bikes on long trails through the entire campground, swim at the beach and rented paddle boats. There were always new kids and new friends, and it was some of the best times growing up.

In High school our band went to Disney world and played a couple songs at the Magic Kingdom. This was actually with in a month of my hubby and I getting together, and some of our band mates were pretty surprised we were going out. We took 2 buses down to Florida, and spent 5 days down there. It was a ton of fun, and very busy. We went to Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM and also one of the water parks. I got so sunburned from the water park I missed 3 more days of school when we got back.

Summers after high school, we went camping with Justin's family were they/we still camp today. The tip of the thumb, in Grindstone City. I remember my first trip up there, I was 16, and we slept in a screen tent, in between Grandma's and Grandpa's camper and Aunt Marsha and Uncle Bills Camper! that's still a campfire joke today:)

Gatlinburg, Tennessee-Our Honeymoon! The mountains were amazing, and the weather was fantastic. lots of fun:)

St Paul, Minnesota- I won a trip to the Mall of America, through a work contest. This was the first time I ever flew in a plane. The Mall is humongous!

When Erica was 1-6, we went up to Grayling for a week at Justin's work company trailer. It was 2 blocks from a beautiful, small lake. We have a lot of great family memories there. Heading to Traverse City for day trips and Mackinaw Island a couple times.

Gatlinburg Tennessee-We took Erica with us this time, and had a ball. Going through the mountains she was just amazed. She thought the mountains were clouds! We did a lot of fun stuff like go carts, putt putt, and drove through and walked around the national park a lot. Finding waterfalls, and nature hunting.

Disney World-We took Erica to Disney world when she was 6 years old. She remembers so much of it, I'm surprised. We packed so much into the week were there, it was crazy. We went to Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM, Sea World, and Animal Kingdom, and also took day trips to Tampa to see a hockey game and Daytona to see the beaches. It was a fabulous time.

Vegas- We went with 3 other couples in 2006. Wow, that was such a fun time and we will probably never get the chance again, anytime soon any ways.

In 2007 we bought our camper, and the plan is to take an out of state trip every year. We stayed in the state in 2007, went on 7 or 8 camping trips, and had a blast.

Also in 2007 Justin and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary in Niagara Falls. The weather was little rainy, end of April, start of May, but we had a fun time. We stayed in a hotel that overlooked the falls since it was off season, and had a lot of fun in the Casinos.

in 2008 we went to Charleston South Carolina with the camper and had a lot of fun. We drove through the Mountains, camped about 2 miles from the Ocean, saw dolphins in the harbor and took a horse drawn carriage ride through the city. We had a lot of fun and I loved the history in the city. It was an amazing trip.

We stayed in the state again this year with our newest little camper Emma! But we have plenty of plans for more family fun and memory making vacations for years to come:)