For Memorial Day Weekend our family decided to go on a mini vacation.
I guess you could call it a "stay-cation."

We opted to go to a hotel called Cherry Valley Lodge.
Aside from having beautiful courtyards and yummy food it also houses an indoor waterpark.
Needless to say, our kids were thrilled.





As an added bonus, the lodge is close to Utica - the home of Velvet Ice Cream.
Even more exciting than that, it was the same weekend of the ice cream festival.






So let's recap -
Beautiful hotel
Indoor waterpark
Festival devoted to ice cream located at an ice cream factory.
This all added up to a happy and relaxed family over Memorial weekend.

Last November we bought the property directly beside our house.
At one point the two houses had been on the same lot.
However, the previous owners separated the houses hoping that they would be easier to sell.
What does all this mean?
The two houses are once again owned by one singular family.
Also we own two acres in the middle of our city!

It has been doing nothing but raining for over a month, so with the little bit of sunshine we were finally able to explore.
Simply put, our yard is amazing!
It is nearly all wooded, and has quite a few little treasures in it.
We stumbled across wild grape vines, way more maples than we can ever tap, and possible paw paw and pear trees.
There are also hickory nut and black walnut trees.

All of this exciting!
In addition to watching these gems, I am undertaking a more sustainable lifestyle by nurturing my own seedlings.
I tried a few years ago and failed epicly,
However, when turning my compost today I discovered a bounty of veggie plants.
They are my new project.
Wish me luck!

My husband and I are turning into Disney-philes.
We took the first week of May off to celebrate our anniversary.
We thought about going to the beach.
Instead, John decided on Disney.
Who would say "No" to Disney?

Here are a few pictures of Goofy, Mickey, and Minnie greeting us