25th Celebration

 One would think that having an anniversary on July 31st would be an easy day to celebrate, but it's usually the day one of us is gone at a church camp. This year Jason was on that backpacking trip. So we planned, or Jason planned, a little trip for just the two of us to Mackinac Island August 11-13. It's one of my favorite places to go and we haven't been for many years. 

We left Sunday after church. We ensured the kids had started making their chili dinner so they could eat at a decent time, otherwise they wouldn't have it ready until bedtime! We ate some sandwiches in the car during the 4-hour drive to Mackinac City. That's where we stayed, which is on Lake Huron, and included a complimentary breakfast, a fitness room, a hot tub, and a pool (we didn't use the pool, though). It was all lovely! Especially the sunrise over Lake Huron!

The night before.

The next morning, before the sun came up.

It was a little cloudy, but it made for some amazing colors!

Close-up on Jason's phone.

We left Monday morning to make the ferry to the island, where there are no motorized vehicles. I brought my bike, but Jason rented one. We toured Fort Mackinac and learned about the American and British military outpost that was built during the Revolutionary War. It was used to control the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and help control the fur trade. 

Ferry ride out.

A little lighthouse.

Beautiful Mackinac Island!

From the fort.

On the right is the fort, overlooking the town.

The Grand Hotel.

Afterward, we ate lunch at The Mustang Lounge which was originally built in the 1780's as a fur trading warehouse. When it was remodeled in 2008 they used some of the original timbers, making it Michigan's Most Historic Tavern! We had some delicious sandwiches there, but I forgot to take pictures. 

We embarked on our bike ride on the island next. If you ride the perimeter, it's 9 miles, but we rode around most of it, and then through parts of it so we could explore some other areas and do a couple of mini hikes. We rode around 12 miles and hiked a few miles, plus climbed about 400 steps. The weather was perfect and the air is so clean up there!

St. Ann's Church is along the route.

The famous Arch Rock! Formed by the water cutting through the rock thousands of years ago. It's 50 feet wide and 146 feet above Lake Huron. 

The Mackinac Bridge.

The road through the island.

A little adventurous hike.

Crack in the Island: formed by water seeping through the earth and eroding away the limestone over the years.

Cave of the Woods: formed 10,000 years ago when it was on the shoreline and the waves eroded away the limestone. It is now in the middle of the island!

Sugar Loaf: also created by erosion about 11,000 years ago and used to be connected to some other cliffs that aren't as distinguishable.

We hiked up to where Sugar Loaf was connected to. It's more of a hill than the cool-looking rock formation that is Sugar Loaf.

The walk back down.

From one of the neighborhoods, near the Grand Hotel.

The Grand Hotel.

We had dinner at The Seabiscuit Cafe and got some delicious white fish chowder and a shared a very scrumptious salad. We had to eat light so we could enjoy our Ryba's Mackinac Island ice cream and fudge for the road. You can't go to Mackinac without indulging in some ice cream and fudge!

The next day we went to Michilimackinac, which is not a typo. It's a fort where the fur trading occurred along the Straits of Mackinac. First among the French, and then the Britsh. So many goods were traded there! It was abandoned in 1783, but they are still excavating and discovering little treasures to this day! They have costumed guided tours among the historic buildings. We really enjoyed the tour and learned a lot. The most interesting fact was that 50,000 pelts (beaver fur) were traded annually there. The amazing thing is that beavers are still around, they aren't even extinct! Yet, passenger pigeons, which the settlers enjoyed eating, went extinct in 1914. 

Playing cards from the 1700s they found excavating. They said the number cards didn't have numbers on them, just the suit.

We enjoyed looking at the gardens.

And the demonstration of a meal they would have made.

The excavating team.

Before leaving, we enjoyed a very delicious lunch at Scalawags WhiteFish and Chips, which is a very popular casual eatery in Mackinac City that harvests its whitefish, perch, and walleye from the Great Lakes.

We arrived home relaxed and refreshed to our house still standing- success!

BYU I Dance Alliance

 As I mentioned before, Victoria tried out for the BYU I Dance Alliance Team which is a dance team that tours each summer. They have to try out each February to make the team. There are few freshmen on the team, so it was an honor for Victoria and her roommate Kate to be on the team. They have worked hard since February to solidify their show, Victoria even overcame a shoulder injury through physical therapy to complete her acro tricks. She had pulled the shoulder muscle sometime in January and then was hit by a car in early March, causing her to catch herself with the arm of her injured shoulder. That was the biggest injury caused by the car accident. The guy wasn't going fast and turned right into her while she was in the crosswalk. Unfortunately, she thought she was fine and let him drive away, which he did, but she ended up having to do months of physical therapy, all the while attending many dance practices. She was 35% disabled, and made it back down to 0%!

Their show was entitled Now and Then 60 Years of the Beatles! They performed a few nights performances in Coeur d'Alene, ID. in early June, a whole week's performances in Rexburg itself, and toured for 5 days in the midwest! It included 2 shows in Indiana (Carmel and Bloomington), a show in Newport, Kentucky, a show in Dayton, Ohio, and a show in Bloomfield Hills, MI! Bloomfield Hills is literally where the Detroit Temple is and is only 45 minutes from our house! It was at the Berman Center for Performing Arts, which we had no idea existed and was beautiful!

Each year they tour somewhere different and this year happened to be the Midwest tour. I kind of wanted to be a groupie and follow them around, since most of the venues were only about 5 hours from our house, but we ended up being able to host them for lunch on their way from Dayton to prepare for the performance at the Berman. Dayton is only 3 hours from our home, but since that performance was at 7 the evening before and they woke up early Saturday to take their charter bus directly to our house to arrive by 11 for lunch, I didn't think I'd be able to prepare in time if I attended that one. There were 28 dancers on the team and 5 supporting personnel, so we made lunch for 40, including us and the bus driver and the program will reimburse us! We still had to keep within a budget, so Jason decided to grill his very delicious yogurt-marinated chicken, which I prepped the day before since he was coming home from the backpacking trip. We made a huge Mediterranean salad and ordered out Lebanese rice, pitas, hummus, and garlic sauce. We wanted them to have a taste of Detriot since we have a huge influence of people from that area here. Kade made lemonies and rice krispie treats for dessert. Since all of their other meals were out, they really enjoyed our mostly home-cooked meal. In fact, the most compliments were for the chicken and salad, the 2 homemade items. The desserts were a hit too. We would have made the rice, but with Jason being gone right up to the night before, we didn't want to have to do too much. They were all so gracious and surprised we'd have them all in our yard to eat. They don't visit members at their homes now like they used to, but we had hosted some dancers years ago who actually slept at our house and just loved it. They're such great young people and some of them are Victoria's best friends now. The guy she was dating is on the team as well, though they have since broken up, they are still friends. 

After they ate lunch here, they had to keep with the schedule and make it to the stake center by the temple to hold a dance workshop for kids in the surrounding stakes. Since our ward had YM camp up to the day before and Stake Girl's Camp as well, I didn't think many from our area would make it, especially if they were going all the way back up for the performance in the same area that night. Kade, Austin, and Erik attended the workshop to learn line dancing, swing, and hip hop, even though they didn't want to. Such supportive siblings!

When we attended the show that night, it was so much fun and so amazing to watch. The music was phenomenal (how can you go wrong with the Beatles??), the costumes were beautiful, the choreography was superb, and the performing capabilities and facials of the dancers were flawless. I really loved seeing how much Victoria has improved in her dancing skills in just this year, including acro tricks. We had so many friends from our ward, stake, and surrounding stakes attend. Even our boss and a co-worker from Red Bell attended! I don't have any videos of her performing, but if they're ever in your area, make an effort to attend. You won't regret it!

This was pictured last blog, but I had to post it again. 16 c of plain yogurt, tons of garlic and other delicious seasonings!

My mom and I made the salad with all 8 cucumbers from our garden!

Just before they left for the workshop. The bus had to drive through our neighborhood to get out! (They flew out from SLC and rented the charter bus the rest of the time.)

Working on the line dance!

Country swing!

I got to dance with Victoria too!

After the show

Vicky and Susie

Victoria sent me this of their Bloomington, IN venue. So cute!

Pics of her from her ballet piece that were taken in Rexburg. 

This one is Here Comes the Sun.

She was also in many jazz numbers, hip-hop, and lyrical.

This is what you see when you google their tour. Victoria is in the pink on the left. It was also the program cover!

And I had to get all of their autographs when they arrived at my house because they are all professional dancers! One day some of them will be famous!