1200 Miles West

Each year for Father’s Day, I design and build a birdhouse for my Dad.  This year in conjunction with the Denver Botanic Garden’s Birdhaus Bash I designed two birdhouses and one traveled back with us to Michigan.

The above picture shows the birdhouse after it was placed in the wooded area behind my parent’s house.

Here’s a look at their absolutely beautiful backyard.  Lots of time goes into keep the backyard in tip-top shape, but it’s worth it!

For those of you who aren’t from Michigan, when Mike and I go to AA were in Ann Arbor not at a meeting with 12 steps.  Although after we leave AA we may want to attend a meeting…

Lunch was great as we were joined by ex-CareerSite friends at Grizzly Peak.  While we only spent an hour catching up, it was good to see everyone.

Later in the day, we met up with more friends at the Pub next to Grizzly Peak.  Here are my favorite pics from the night.

David snapped this picture of Mike and I early in the night.

In return, I snapped one of him and Emily.  In August, their family is moving to Indy as Emily took a teaching position at a university down there.  Indy’s not too far from Ann Arbor, so there’s a chance we may see them next time we’re in town.  Otherwise, they need to head out to CO with the kids to go hiking and camping with us.

The boys of CareerSite - Shaun, David, Mike, Eric and Chris.

I’m not sure who snapped this one, but Emily and I were chillin’ while the guys played pool at the Monkey Bar.

I’m not sure what to say about this one…other than the fact that I have a hunky husband!

On Sunday, we headed out to the cottage and enjoyed a day in the sun.  The weather was wonderful and we were able to get the boat in the water. 

It was great to see my Grandma who was happy to have everyone together.  Mike also enjoyed riding the jet skis.  It’s funny how much you miss the water living in Colorado.  Don’t get me wrong as the mountains are beautiful, but there’s something about hanging out at the lake.

Dad’s birthday is June 13th, but we celebrated it early as we were in town.  He has to be one of the best dressed guys in town as Michael gave him a new Polo and hat and Mike and I got him a short-sleeve Columbia button down and a t-shirt.

On Saturday Laurie-Anne and Dave had a deck party and while we only spent about half of the time on the deck (hot and muggy in Michigan!) it was great to catch up with some old CareerSite and PowerOne co-workers.

I traveled 1200 miles from CO to Michigan, but Kristen also gets kudos as she drove in from Chicago to hang out with us.

Towards the end of the night we broke out the Wii and I am disappointed to say that while I was able to beat Maya (Laurie-Anne’s daughter) I was no match for Kristen who knocked me out in round 2!  I guess this means that I need to stay on her good side, otherwise I may be in trouble.

After arriving home on Friday and spending some time with my parents, I headed up to Gaines to hang out with two of my best friends - Todd and Monica.

Ethan (who turns 2 on June 13th) and Addison (9 1/2 months) were excited to see me.  Ethan took his time checking me out, but after a few minutes he was on my lap and we were reading books together.   Addison is already pulling herself up and will no doubt be walking soon.  Where does the time go?

Hugs to the Ackers…can’t wait to see you again soon!

Yesterday morning we left Livonia, MI and headed back to Colorado after visiting our family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday.

When we originally drove out to CO back in early August, we took our time spending the night in Council Bluffs, IA and driving the remaining 8 or so hours the following day.

This trip was different as we were driving my Liberty, we weren’t stopping to spend the night and we also had two cats with us. We figured it would take us 18 hours to get there and we weren’t sure how long the cats would cry. Here’s some of our tweets from the trip:

mgminton Leaving livonia. Cats crying. 6:32 AM
erinmquinn One hour into the trip & Karmel is still crying. 7:12 AM
mgminton Battle Creek. Cats still crying. 7:41 AM
mgminton Getting gas in Gary IN. Cats crying less. 9:28 AM
erinmquinn We are getting close to the Iowa border. 11:25 AM
mgminton Getting gas and food in Davenport, IA. 12:30 PM
mgminton Erin is driving now. The cats are also not crying so much. 12:48 PM
mgminton Meow, meow, meow… 3:25 PM
mgminton Iowa is cold and barren. 50 miles from NE. Gas and ice cream. Fish sounds good. 4:06 PM mgminton Good thing for the kitties that their owner is smoking hot else they might be Nebraska residents. 5:19 PM
mgminton Driving at night through Nebraska is good because 80 feels like 150 mph, the kitties sleep (cept for bumps and swerves), no see the emptiness 6:00 PM
erinmquinn We’ve been on the road for 12+ hours now and Mike still hasn’t stopped to let me pee! 6:58 PM
mgminton Still in NE, fueled up on cocaine and whiskey… Er.. Taco bell and diet pepsi. 8;09 PM
mgminton The kitty calmness has broken. They are now very distraught. 266 miles to go. about 24 hours ago
mgminton Welcome to Colorado! about 23 hours ago
erinmquinn A little more than an hour left to go! about 21 hours ago
mgminton E-470! about 20 hours ago

Overall the trip was good. The cats have started to adjust to their new surroundings, however we aren’t planning on taking them on any cross country trips, at least not in the next few months.

Total miles driven - 1263.6
Total time spent driving - 16:56
Total time - 17:53
Average speed - 74.6 mph

Last night I drove out to Gaines, MI to spend the night with my friends Todd and Monica. I’ve spent many a pre-Thanksgiving night with my college friends, but before we headed out to the bar to enjoy a few cocktails I got to spend some quality time with the kids.

Ethan is now now 17 months old and he’s cruising around like a mad man. He loves to read books and will be talking soon.

Here’s a picture of him chillin’ in his sisters exersauser.

It was also my first opportunity to meet Addison, who was born on Aug 14th. I had seen pictures, but it’s never the same. She’s a beautiful baby who is extremely mild mannered, plus she doesn’t like to lay down. Instead, if she’s awake she wants to see what’s going on.

After hanging out with the kiddies, Brian and Amy showed up and then Shannon arrived shortly after. We all piled into the car and headed down to the Gaines Bar which was recently purchased by Rose and Alden - Todd’s Dad and wife. We spent a majority of the night at the bar in Gaines.

Monica wanted to head into Durand and see what was going on at the 206, so we drove over there to find the bar pack. We did a little dancing and a little more drinking. Okay it was more than just a little, but it was fun to hang out two of my favorite friends in the whole world.

Today, we spent the day working remotely from Sweetwaters Cafe in Ann Arbor. We were fortunate to get a table that allowed us to both plug in. Other than the chatty old bats that sent next to us, it was an enjoyable morning.

Here’s a few tweets from both Mike and I that were entered during our morning session:

mgminton remembering I am in Ann Arbor which explains why there are so many useless people with so much extra time.

mgminton trying to figure out why so many people have so much time to sit around in coffee shops and cackle like hens about useless topics.

erinmquinn The old ladies at the next table are talking about wearing thongs…I really need to turn up the volume on my IPod.

At lunch Mike met up with Dale at Red Hawk and I had lunch with Archie, David, Gordy and Shaun at Grizzly Peak. After lunch we spent some time with Shaun at the coffee shop discussing the world of Real Estate and the upcoming priorities for CareerSite. We finished out the work day by catching up on some outstanding emails.

After work we met up with the guys at the Grizzly Den. It’s a local brew pub that has a great happy hour.

It was great to catch up with everyone over a few beers. Here’s what we learned:

• Ryan still doesn’t have access to the internets at work
• Eric is now a fashion expert as he just finished working on a project for WetSeal
• David and his family are more than likely moving to Maryland, but St. Louis, Albany, DC and Indianapolis are still in the running.
• Archie is Archie. What else can we say?

Here’s a couple of pictures from the festivities:

These pictures were taken only about an hour apart. Which one of these
is not like the other?

Cheers to everyone who met up with us today! We miss all of you can hope to see you in Denver soon!

What did we do today? Not much!

Mike did a little bit of shopping as he wanted to pick up a few DVDs for the hunting camp and I got a manicure and did a little bit of bargain shopping at both TJ Maxx and Marshall’s.

Afterward, we watch the Lions lose to the Giants and then had a great dinner and regardless of what Mike tells you, the salad was excellent. I think he just needs to get over his blue cheese issues.

Tonight we’re thinking about heading down to Detroit to check out the new MGM casino. My brother works until 7pm, so once he gets home we’ll more than likely jump in the car and give it a whirl. None of us are big gamblers, but they just spent 800 million dollars on the new casino and hotel, so it should be worth checking out! If we hit it big, I’ll make sure that whatever exotic location I choose to run off to has internet so I can update the blog…oh and if you’re wondering, I would take Mike with me!

After arriving in Michigan late Friday night, we headed to the Quinn house and socialized for a few minutes and then headed off to bed. The next morning we were treated to a great breakfast and then headed off the Ann Arbor to watch the Michigan/Ohio State game.

After attempting to find a seat at The Arena, we headed down to the Grizzly Den and found a seat at the bar. I stayed through half-time when I headed down to Salon XL to see Angel. I originally planned on just having her dye my hair back to it’s original brown color, but since she had time I also had her cut it. Everyone that has seen it so far is shocked as to how much I cut…but I love it!

After finishing up, I met Mike at the car and we headed out of Ann Arbor with the rest of the grumpy UofM fans. After two hours, we arrived in Grand Rapids to have dinner with Mike’s Mom and Jim, his brother Scott and sister-in-law Amy, their son Jayden and Mike’s step brother Jack.

Here’s a picture of Jayden who is now 6 months old.

We stayed in GR until about 8:30 when we got back in the car and headed back to Livonia. It was a long day, but it was great to see our family on the West side of the state. I was especially tickled by the fact that Jayden smiled each time I smiled at him. What a cutie! I look forward to the next time we get to see him.