here's to winter

Not much is new, but here's a few pictures from the week.

Our mail box is still snowed in.  Plow man: 1, Bobkat: 0

We have icicles all around our house.  I think it looks lovely.  Little did we know, though, we were supposed to be "raking" our roof to prevent all the ice, which has caused ice dams (which I never even knew existed until now). 

Rob did a great job shoveling our entire driveway and the path up to the back door.

Poor Jetta didn't know what she was getting into when she moved to the Northeast.  She was snowed in pretty good, but since then, we have gotten her out.

The end. 

let it SNOW

This is what I have the pleasure of living with right now.  The plows just keep coming by, making that barrier between the mail man and my mail box bigger and bigger.  

And we're getting more tonight!

Kind of fun, for life in general, but very annoying for the mail box situation.

birthday boy

Someone special had a birthday last weekend.

::I made him wear this hat, and think I will do so every year from here on out::

And as part of the celebration, we finally upgraded from our pee-wee TV to a more suitable one.  It was kind of funny how happy/excited this actually made him. 

::Um, yes, that is our Christmas tree still up almost 1 month after Christmas::

Happy Birthday Robert!

pictures galore

This pretty much encompasses life from early October to last week.  

::Jax and Kat, Saugatuck, MI::

::Kat and Rob, up a huge flight of stairs that overlooks a lake::

::Where we live now::

::Halloween-central, Salem, MA::

::Walden Pond.  It's like 15 minutes from where we live, and I will be frequenting there more in the Spring.  I'll have to read the book before then::

::On Thanksgiving we made gingerbread villages with Robs family.  We had Thanksgiving at our home, but didn't have to do any of the cooking::

::Christmas decorating in the Buhler household::

::We played Mary and Joseph at the Ward Christmas Party...we got suckered into it::

::One of the cutest little towns... Rockport::

::Litle Lily got engaged and got a cool, antique ring::

::Christmas with the Lovells in Michigan::

::Downtown Boston.  If you get cold easily, I would highly recommend this North Face jacket- best investment of my life::

::The Freedom Trail.  We did this on January 1- a god way to start off the New Year.  And yes, I know I look super fashionable with my jeans tucked into my snow boots ;) ::

::And we woke up to this last Wednesday.  It is/was SO pretty.  The prettiest I have ever thought snow was::

Cheers.  Happy 2011.

if historical events had a facebook account

I thought this was too humorous to delete and never think about again, so I am saving it here. 

picnic in the park

Today was a picnic day. My favorite kind of day.

It was perfect.

Lake Huron

A few days ago, my mom, Rob, and I drove about 1 hour to get to a little, VERY little, town called Lexington.  It's on the coast of Michigan- right on Lake Huron.  There was a jetty that we walked out onto.  It was SO beautiful.  

I hope I can always live by a body of water.  Yes, please.

::Kat and Bern, my cute Mom::

Detroit

Since being home, me and my family have hung out in Detroit a few times.  Detroit gets a bad rap most of the time, but really, it is such a cool city with cool architecture, yummy restaurants, sporting events, various festivals, and lots of other fun things to do. 

One weekend we went down there for the Jazz Festival.  There were stages set up all over the city with artists performing.  It was quite entertaining- the performances and people watching down there. 

::Scott, Rob, Jax, Dad in Hart Plaza after watching one of the shows for a bit::

::a cool building down town::

Then we went down there once to do a Coney Dog taste test (basically a hot dog with chili on top).  On the Food Network they featured two Coney Island restaurants in Detroit and had a taste test battle thing. So of course, we had to go to those same Coney Islands and partake in the goodness.  Except for the fact that I did not partake.  I don't like hot dogs.  But it was still fun to be down there.

::Lily & Dad::

::Kat & Dad::

::Rob, Scott, Jax taste testing::

::The plaza we were sitting in::

3 cheers for Detroit!

bowling

My family took a recent trip to the bowling alley.  I haven't been bowling for quite some time, or at least it feels like that, so it took me some time to warm up to the game.  

Game 1- my total score was honestly like 48 or something.  I got a lot of gutter balls. A LOT.

Game 2- I picked it up and got over 100. hah, not like that's anything to brag about, but I more than doubled my score from game 1.  I also got 3 strikes.

I think bowling will become my new favorite sport for the winter. 

::Rob, Kat, Dad.  He was supposed to be looking at the camera, but obviously got distracted by the thrill of the current bowler::

::Jax.  Seriously, try this. You have to bite around the entire perimeter of the pretzel. The point at the top middle is so hard::

::Rob, Kat, Dad, Jax, Scott::

summertime

Summer has been great thus far.  

For the past few days it has been in the 60s/70s...I feel like Fall is coming.  Noooo... please don't go summer!

So this is what we've been up to:

Nauvoo and Carthage with my family

::Rob, my brother Andrew, and Papa Lovell::

::Mom and Dad, Andrew, Jax & Scott, Me & Rob.  My whole family, minus Lily, who was at school::

Then straight to Chicago.  It was my first visit there... and it was spectacular. I <3 Chicago

::Andrew, Rob, Jax, Kat, Scott on Navy Pier::

Then Rob and I prolonged the family trip and spent an extra day in Chicago to celebrate our 4 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!  

::On the glass floor look out on top of the Willis Tower, aka the Sears Tower::

My personal size deep-dish.  De-lish!

Rob surprised me with a horse and carriage ride around the city.  What a sweetheart.

We sent my brother on a mission to Chile!  It's been 2.5 weeks since he's been gone.  I can't even believe it!

::The siblings- Lily, Andrew, Jacqueline, me::
summertime

We went to the Lovell's favorite place to get ice cream... the dairy

And have done a lot of hanging out.  It has been great.  

Can't beat a Michigan summer with the family.