St. Ignace and the Mackinac Island Great Turtle

Last year I started running because my sister was running. Then Nathan decided to join me and we trained ,ost of the year for what we thought would be the half marathon at Mackinac Island in October. But come August we both felt that it was time for us to have another child. And I was going to be doing 5 classes at UNLV so we decided to just do the 5.6 mile race instead. We planned this trip to be our 9th wedding anniversary celebration as well. About 2 weeks before the race we found out I was pregnant! Boy was it hard to train! I was so sick with nausea I could barely run. We prayed right up until the race that I would be able to run and finish.

We stayed in the UP at a lovely Bed and Breakfast that overlooked the water and was in a perfect location for the ferry, right across the street! I forgot to take pictures of the place, sorry. But we enjoyed it there. We drove up the night before and the next morning we were up early to head over to Mackinac Island to be there for the race. The ferry ride was fun and the views were beautiful. We got there pretty early and were able to walk around and enjoy some of the sights of the island.
Then it was time for the race. I had been drinking a strong ginger ale the entire day to help with my nausea, and we continued to pray. I felt gross right up until the race started and then I miraculously felt much better and I was able to run the entire way without stopping! And from that point forward in the pregnancy I felt very good. Thank you Heavenly Father! The race was really hard. We started on this horrible hill that seemed never to end, but the weather was nice and cool. We ended up running through these trails in the woods, and ended up running along the very edge of the island with the most beautiful view, which was hard to appreciate because we were so tired. Or at least I was :) We finished the race in 1 hr and 5 minutes and I couldn't walk straight for a week afterwards. But it was so worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I hope to be able to do the half marathon sometime before we move away from here.
Here are the pictures I did take while we were there:

The Country Mill apple picking excursion

Last September we heard about a great place called the Country Mill where you can go and pick apples right off of the trees! Not something you can do everywhere. So we went and it was so much fun! It was a bit chilly but we really enjoyed it. We also bought donuts and cider that were made on sight. They were very good. There were also animals to feed, and tractors to ride on. We had so much fun that we are hoping to do it again this year. Here are some of the pictures we took while we were there.