SVSU

Hi all,
A little update for you all!
The end of August, I moved up to Saginaw Valley State University! So far, I absolutely LOVE it here. Everyone is very nice and everywhere I go I see a familiar face, which is very nice. I have met a lot of awesome people so far, and I am looking forward to the rest of the school year!
Here are a couple pictures of my dorm!

Last weekend I went on a camping trip with about 20 other SVSU students. We kayaked the Platte River and hiked the Sleeping Bear Dunes. I had such an awesome time and got to meet a lot of new people! It was an awesome experience!

 We started hiking the sand dunes and it started to sprinkle, but we decided to carry on. By the time we reached the lake, we were soaked so we all decided to just swim in Lake Michigan since we were already soaked. The waves were pretty big so it was really fun. The hike back was not so fun, we got more rain and even a little bit of hail! But we all had smiles on our faces!

Moral of the story: I LOVE SVSU!
Aubrey :)

One Year Later....

It is crazy to me to think that a year ago on this day I was driving 10 hours with my dad and a van full of all of my belongings on our way to Missouri. This past year has gone faster than I ever thought possible!

I arrived back in MI on July 1^st around 11 at night! I was so glad to be home! Since then, I have been babysitting, catching up with people, working on homework, and doing a little bit of vacationing! My online classes ended last Wednesday so now I will have a lot more free time! At the end of the month, I head up to Saginaw Valley State University to begin my college career! I am pretty unsure of a major at this point, but I am pretty sure it will be something in business~ but who knows that could all change!

I have had a lot of people ask if I am glad to be home and the answer is YES! I was so excited to come home. I really enjoyed my time in MO and it truly was a wonderful experience, but I was ready to come home and be around the people I loved and missed so much! Not to say I didn’t miss home at all, but I really wasn’t as homesick as I thought I would be. There were days when I would see the pictures posted on Facebook of all the cousins carving pumpkins or decorating cookies together or see my friends hanging out and having fun without me and I would think to myself “what the heck am I doing here? I want to be there.” Then I would go to school and see my 20 preschoolers and know that I made the right decision to be there.

I don’t have a doubt in my mind that MO was where I was supposed to be for the past 11 months. And I have absolutely no regrets about leaving for a year. I think it was really good for me to get out of Fowler for a while and see what it was like to live somewhere else, even just temporarily, it made me appreciate how great Fowler is.

So many people have made the comment “you would have made way more money by taking a year off to just work rather than join AmeriCorps.” My decision to take a “gap” year was never about making a bunch of money. It was because I couldn’t make a decision and couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do with my life. So I looked for something else.  I wanted to do something different, take the path less traveled by in the words of Robert Frost. It was about the experience and being able to help those who need it. And I wouldn’t change my decision for the world. If I hadn’t joined AmeriCorps, who knows where I would have ended up.

AmeriCorps also enabled me to meet some AMAZING people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. My roommates became my best friends and I am so thankful for them or my year wouldn’t be even half as fun as it was.

This experience also made me grow up a lot. I have had many people at school tell me how mature I am for my age and that they would have never guessed I was only 19 years old. I have learned so much about myself and the world around me. I have been able to try new things, meet incredible people, and go all sorts of new places.

I don’t know where I’m going but I’m on my way! So here’s to the future and whatever it holds!

Aubrey :) 

Colleen & Aubrey Take STL Cont.

Welcome back!
St. Louis Part 2!

Saturday we checked out the city museum. I have to say, I'm not a big museum fan but Colleen really wanted to go and promised it would be fun. She kept her promise! It was a lot of fun. The city museum isn't some stuffy boring museum. It is pretty much a giant playground. Younger and smaller kids would have an absolute blast here! Being 5'9" it was very hard to crawl around and fit in a lot of things but it was still a lot of fun. It reminded me a lot of Impressions 5 in Lansing!  We ended up staying for about 3 hours. There is so much to see and do we didn't even do it all in 3 hours! 

The outside of the museum

Hall of mirrors

Hampster wheel

running in circles

It was very hot this day and the museum wasn't air conditioned. So we worked up a sweat! We went up a bunch of stairs to go down the 10 story slide, but the line was so long and it was so hot we decided to skip it and head to the roof top!

10 story slide

At the roof top, you can pretty much climb up the side of the building and end up in this bird cage like thing. We both made out way up, but it wasn't easy. I am usually not claustrophobic, but I have to say I got a little bit freaked out. Regardless, I made it!

Colleen climbing up

The bird cage!

The cage suspended from the ceiling

From the cage, you could go to the rooftop. There was lots to do and many things to climb!

There was even a ball pit!

stuck in the ball pit

I made it out alive!

After the museum, we were hot and exhausted, but we had tickets to go up in the arch at 3:10. So we headed off to get a little snack, then off to the arch!

Of course, we had to take pictures in front of the arch!

A lot of the area around the arch is under construction. It is supposed to be done by the end of next summer! They are making it wheelchair accessible and adding a museum.

Here are some pictures from the top!

Up top was very crowded and after about 5 minutes we had enough and were ready to go,
We headed off to Anehauser-Busch for a brewery tour! They offer free tours about every hour throughout the day, and we made it in time for the 5:30 tour. It was really interesting!

The famous Clydesdale horses

Beer Tanks

 After the tour, you could go to the Biergarten and have a free beer, but since we weren't 21 that wasn't an option. So we headed out! We went back to downtown and had some amazing Thai food and Sen Thai Bistro! I got Cashew Nut Noodles which was a lot like pad Thai. It made me want to go to Thailand even more!

It was a busy day with lots of walking! We walked over 8 miles!

Sunday:

We slept in then headed off to Forest Park to check out the zoo and hammock!
It was super hot Sunday more than 90! Because it was a holiday weekend the park was packed! The zoo was especially crowded and very hot. A lot of the animals were just as hot as us so they weren't very active. We only stayed at the zoo for a little bit and decided we should head out. So we found a place to set up out hammocks and relax for a bit!

Poor Hyena!

After a couple relaxing hours in our hammocks, we headed off towards "The Hill." The Hill is an Italian neighborhood in STL. We had been told we had to get toasted ravioli there, so we took the advice and man was it good! Since it was Sunday a lot of places were closed so we ended up at Mamas at the Hill. We ordered toasted ravioli and fettucini alfredo! Toasted ravioli supposedly was invented in St Louis when a chef accidently dumped ravioli in a deep fryer and discovered it was actually pretty delicious!

And you know we had to get some gelato!

And that pretty much sums out our St. Louis adventures! It was a great vacation! 
Summer school starts tomorrow and my online classes start on Sunday! And only 32 days until I am back home!
Aubrey :)