Pentwater, MI

Ever since I met Kimberly Wernli (Georgia 2012) she has been begging me to come to her family's lake house/cabin in a small town called Pentwater. It is located on Lake Michigan. This past summer when I got a call from her about coming out with her and the kidlets, I found a cheap flight and went!

Kim's husband Chris used to work for the company SJ works for. Since then, they have moved to Ohio and now own Kim's family Peanut Butter business (Crazy Richard's PB. It's amazing and has ONE ingredient. PEANUTS. Yep, go to your local Publix and pick up some). 

I flew to Ohio where Kim picked me up and took me straight to their new PB facility. I somehow didn't take any pictures there but it was legit. I loved it. We had lunch with Chris and hopped in the van and headed to Michigan. 

PENTWATER, MICHIGAN HERE WE COME

They had a clubhouse called "The Casino" where the kids could go and play so the ladies had a lovely afternoon to themselves!

A lot of sunsets

(Yes that is a lake. No salt & no sharks! Heavenly)

 A lot of snuggles

 Every now and then we would go into town. It is the cutest town. It is more like a village. It reminded me of Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show. Everybody knew each other. They had local diners and shops. The waitresses knew everyone's order, it was the cutest thing!

Ice cream parlor

One night we went into town and it was a community band concert. ANYBODY could join. If you played an instrument, you pulled up a chair and they hand you the music and they would just play. It was the most unique thing. I loved every second of it!

We could take the car into town or we could canoe across a small lake. One night we went into town just the two of us and we chose the canoe. There was no way we were going to do that thing with 4 kids. We'd flipped immediately!

Best taco's I have ever had. More cilantro then there was meat ;)

All of the lake houses were connected with boardwalks. It went for a few miles. When we felt sluggish or wanted to get out of the house, we would take walks along this beautiful path.

Missed these twin boys! They have gotten so big.

I fell in love with Pentwater. Next time I hope to bring SJ back. 

I love the feeling a small town brings. I felt like I was in a story book every time I went into town.

Thing 1

Thing 2

Glorious

The other day, a friend who I served in YW's with, posted a video we made last year. I realized I didn't ever blog about it! It's been on my mind a lot this week. It was such a powerful message that I hope every individual knows and holds onto. The theme for our Evening of Excellence 2015 was "Glorious." We based it off of the song by David Archuleta. You can click here to listen to it. It is the theme song for the movie Meet The Mormons. The lyrics talk about our purpose and what we can create with that purpose. Most importantly "..each one of us, is glorious.."

We wanted the ugly  room we used to be totally transformed and have that glorious feeling when you walked in. It took us a few days to accomplish. Thankfully we have husbands and some missionaries who were always willing to serve us.

Sorry about the harsh white balance...

The girls displayed their projects that they had worked on throughout the year. My beautiful friend Jenelle Jones came and spoke on self worth. So grateful for friends who can speak so well to a crowd. Then we had our video presentation. We wanted the song to mean more so we had some of the girls participate in the singing.

Some of the clips you are seeing in this movie are the YW working on their projects. 

Thanks to SJ for helping us record the song...and for ending up singing most of it.

I'm so grateful for the youth of the church. They are my people! I hope they will always remember how glorious they are. I know how quickly that can be overshadowed by trivial things or dumb individuals. It's my hope and prayer that these girls (and myself) remember our worth and who Heavenly Father KNOWS we can become.

I loved the quote by Elder Holland at the end of this video:
Be a woman of Christ! He needs you, this church needs you, the world needs you. A woman's abiding trust in God and unfailing devotion to things of the spirit, have always been an anchor when the wind and the waves of life were fiercest. 

Johnson n Johnson

Each set of parents are pretty good about visiting us about once a year. Shaun's parents came before the summer. We are trying to get creative with the stuff we do since they have come a few times before. This trip we made it up to the Edison & Ford Estates. The property was gorgeous and Edison's workshop was cool to see. 

little bocce ball

naples pier

We headed down to our favorite place to stay in Key West. 

We rented a boat and went snorkeling at our favorite reef.

Poor KC got a little seasick

We ended our Key West trip with facials.
(My first facial ever and I LOVED IT!)