Chicago here we come! :)

Hey everyone. Sorry it took so long to get all these pictures up but we had camera problems and then we had computer problems... and this is probably gonna be the longest blog you've ever seen cause we have so many pictures to post from all the days we missed.



Me and Mikky with a bear outside a gas station.. yeah, it's real

TUESDAY

on tuesday we took a ferry over to muskegon michigan, mike's hometown, for another part of the amazing race.. it was a really fun experience and a fun ride.. I'll definitely never foret it. It was about two and a half hours from wisconsin where the first dock was to michigan where we stopped.. We traveled over Lake Michigan and got to see the sunset and it was beautiful.


the whole group on top of the ferry.



Lake Michigan from the top of the ferry.

WEDNESDAY

on wednesday morning we all went and helped out at mike's sister, nina's, church. It was pretty fun and not that hard.. we just had to do a litle bit of work around the outside and clean some of the inside.. it was actually really fun helping them out. After we cleaned the church we went to eat some famous Michigan chili dogs at G & L and then went on a scavenger hunt in muskegon put together (very generously) by Mike's family. The scavenger hunt was really fun. After the scavenger hunt we met up in the park with Mike's family to have a homecooked meal (a really delicious homecooked meal I might add) then we went to the beach to go swimming and have a sand castle building contest.. it was amazing and so much fun :) I wanna live there now.

the whole group on the stairs.


the whole group and the pastor and nina in front of the church.


me and mikky in front of the G & L sign... home of the famous Michigan chili dog



the red team in front of the U.S.S. Starship.. we were excited haha


all of us with the "silver fox" in front of the lighthouse after we sang to her. It was so pretty there.



Cody filling up water bottles in Lake Michigan for one of the clues.. Him above water.
(Later he went underwater for bonus points)



Haha, he looks a little cold.


Me, Mikky and the painted man.



The red team in front of the Hackley House


The famous Hackley House. It was so pretty and huge.


Mikayla.. we buried her in the sand at the park haha.



Me and Kayballs after the scavenger hunt.. which the red team won, of course!



The sunset on Lake Michigan, it was so pretty.


We had a sandcaste building contest.. cool right?



What do you think it is? (I'll give you a hint.. it's NOT an octopus!)


Me and Mikky with our.. spider :)


Mikky kissing it.. she's such a freak haha just kidding. (btw, we lost the sand castle building contest to a whale giving birth! But that's just cause the guy who judged was blind, haha)

THURSDAY

On Thursday we helped bought Mike's mom and dad some candy, pop, and a card to thank them for all the hard work they put into the scavenger hunt and then we helped Mike's mom by doing some work around the house. It was really fun, we walked the dog, mowed the lawn, raked and swept off the patio, dumped out the coolers, and fixed the garage door.. We made helping out around the house fun and I felt good for doing it.

Me Mikky and Cody walking Sheeba (Mikey's family's dog) to glorify God.


That was a huuuge dog.


Me, Mikky and Cody with Merlin :)



Meee sweeping off the patio!

FRIDAY

On Friday we drove to Notre Dame and did a scavenger hunt around the campus.. it was really fun but a lot of running because Notre Dame is a HUGE campus, beautiful and historic yes.. but big. We all finished the scavenger hunt and then got the next clue and headed to Chicago Illinois! I love Chicago so it was so much fun for me to get to go there.. One of our challenges was to see who could make the funniest videos on the way there so you sould watch the videos (Funniest Video Challenge) and vote on whose is the funniest.. you should definitely vote red team :) We were supposed to have had a race in Chicago on Friday but plans got messed up so things kinda changed and we decided to make today kind of a sightseeing day in Chicago and tomorrow would be the race.

Me and Brittney in a snuggie at the Notre Dame bookstore



A statue of St. Mary and St. Elizabeth hugging


Me and Mikky "depicting" the statue haha


Mikayla getting friendly with a squirrel.. haha



One of the buildings on the scavenger hunt list (the Administration's building)


Top of the Administrations building.. Also on the scavenger hunt list.



Beautiful ceiling in the Administration's building

Us acting out a Mural on the side of the Library wall (don't worry we're not crazy it was on the scavenger hunt list! DUHH!)

Mike's Mom's adorable bird named Merlin..He says the funniest things like Polly wanna cracker? and makes siren noises and goodbye and bye bye and goodbyebye haha and hello merlin and i looooove you... or sometimes just i looooove. he's adorable and i want one soo bad now. when mike was in high school whenever the phone would ring the bird would go miiikey it's your giiiiiirlfriend! Everytime... haha but sorry the video's sideways we always forget to videotape it the other way.

Also, the read team just wants to say thank you to the "mini red team" so far they seem like our biggest fans and we love that you are cheering us on! Keep cheering for us!

We'd also like to thank Jennifer and Josh and Mike and Kristen and Matt and Nina and "Painted Man" and Beth and Sheri and Mike and all our parents and families and of course all of our blog readers who follow our blog and leave us comments! :) and anyone else who helped make the amazing race possible.. it has been so great and brought me so much closer to god and the youth group.. I love it. Well we're having a great time and we're glad you're enjoying our blog :) We'll let you know what's going on tomorrow along with some more pictures we took in Chicago today! Remember we loooove comments! Sorry this blog is so long but we had a lot of stuff to catch you up on!