A visitor!

Ben and I have a visitor!

Our visitor arrived last Sunday and will be leaving tomorrow.

Raena came up to visit!!!

We kept her busy by various activities.

The first few days of the week were HOT!!!!!

So of course we took Raena cliff jumping!

We went to the garden and picked lots of veggies, including some HUGE zucchinis. We peeled them, shredded them and prepared to make something delicious out of all that zucchini. (see below!)

We had a surprise visitor while Raena was here. Our best friend Rich surprised us and came up to Marquette. We spent Saturday night with Rich and our friend Andy. We went to Aubree's then came back to our apartment for some fun.

Raena, Ben and Andy preparing to take part in a mystery pepper eating contest.

Andy, Raena and Rich ate a jalepeno but apparently it wasn't at all hot.

Here is what we did with ALL that zucchini. So far we've made 10 loaves and will be making more today. We have plain zucchini bread, some with blueberries and some with pineapples. YUM! It was a chilly day and the apartment was cold but after baking and cooking dinner with the oven on for six hours, it was nice and toasty!

The weather was really cold, windy and rainy for most of the week so we spent our time watching movies, playing games, taking naps, and having some wonderful conversations. We did manage to get out on a "less rainy" day for a hike and to introduce Raena to the world of geocaching.

Tomorrow we are leaving at 5:30am to meet up with the rest of the family to walk the Mackinac Bridge for Labor Day. We'll say goodbye to Raena at that time before heading back home for a night of homework.

It has been so nice to spend some time with Raena and Ben's side of the family. Life is going to getting pretty busy in the next few weeks so it was so necessary to take some time to enjoy each other's company this week while having some fun!