. : MiChiGaN : .

Our Michigan trip started out like every vacation, you know, the vacation when you are about an hour out of town & you realize that you FORGOT something important... well yeah, that happened... (who knew I would leave the most important part of my wardrobe in the dryer?) but we got to VEGAS nice and early & had time to hunt some new warm jeans down (basketball shorts are good on an airplane... not in Michigan weather.)

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We made it to the air port and left for Grand Rapids MI:) We flew in at about 11 o'clock PM and thought that we would have a little welcoming party right there waiting for us... but we picked up our luggage... and were still waiting for Kacens friends to meet us... finally they came around the corner... supposedly we took the wrong turn somewhere and completely passed right by them. haha they had been waiting there for 2 hours!!! What awesome friends. I could tell immediatly that Kacen played a big roll in their family for awhile.

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The Mcginnis Family was so cute. Their three kids made posters for our arrival and everything. They were awesome. So we figured everything out with our rental car and headed out. ( Mr Mcginnis co-signed or something so we could take the rental... i guess you have to be 25, we aren't, but it all worked out great:) They went home to Grand Haven and we headed to Oscoda... that's a LONG drive after a plane ride:( we drove 4 hours that night and got to the Zamoronos house at 3 in the morning! They were expecting us and had a bed and everything made up so we could go straight to sleep.

Our car only had 2,746 miles on it!!!

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The next morning we had breakfast and hung out with the Zamoronos and then took off to go see where he lived and to visit some people he baptised. We stopped in front of MAX's house and went and knocked on his door, he had NO idea we were coming... Max is a kid that Kacen baptised. He just turned 20 and he has an awesome spirit. When he answered it took him a second to register that it was Kacen and it also took Kacen a minute to register that it was Max. You see, Max is growing out his hair to donate it to locks of Love. Kacen told me about teaching him and about how his parents didn't want the missionaries in their home so they taught him on his front porch... in the Freezing Michigan weather. When Max came outside he was in so much shock Kacen was there. He told me how awesome Kacen was and how he wouldn't be a member of the church if it wasn't for him and he kept going on. It was an awesome moment. We ended up taking him to Brunch and talking about life. He has so many awesome goals to be a psychyatrist for the deaf and many more things. He lives about 50 yards from Lake Huron so he walked us down there and we chilled for a bit. it was a good time:)

After we dropped max back off at home we drove around sight seeing a little bit, he told me stories and we took pictures of where he lived while he was there. We went back to the Zamoronos and hung out with the family. Esmeralda got home from school and Kacen got to see her for the first time since 3 years ago. They were best buds when he served there. Her dad Walter does photography and while we were there they had friends from Florida visiting to do a photo shoot... Coolest photo shoot i've ever seen. haha she had crazy peacock feathers in her hair and they did it right in their Kitchen!

Paul Bunion was said to roam the woods near Oscoda

Where Kacen Lived

The Haunted Park House

Our Beautiful Rental Car

Esmeralda

We lucked out in Oscoda because "of all nights" they had a ward party! It was a murder mystery dinner... Super fun. I got to meet all of the members, They were all so excited to see Kacen again:) We were there for a few hours, then we left to visit one last person Kacen was Dying to see. Her name is Mary, we knocked on her door and she was SO shocked to see Kacen, we stayed with Mary and her funny husband for a couple hours and just talked. they were awesome. We went back to the Zamoronos, I met their son javier, he was crazy... super funny kid. Kacen loved him too, haha they bonded pretty well while Kacen was here. We stayed there the rest of the night and actually did a quick little photo shoot for Walters portfolio. . . it was fun.

Sunrise on Lake Huron

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We got up at 7, got ready, said goodbyes, and left to East Lansing. This is where Kacen lived on Michigan States campus. We visited all the students he became friends with and went to Buffalo Wildwings for lunch. Everyone was so friendly. Kate & Amy & Jake were awesome...

Where Kacen lived in East Lansing

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We drove to Kalamazoo... There is huge Insane Asylum in Kalamazoo and the story about it says that in the 1900's all of the crazy people broke out of it and to this day in downtown Kalamazoo if you look at the people thatroam the streets you can see their ancestors still roaming the streets... and we did. downtown K-Zoo was scary... The church there was awesome, it was way pretty and that is where Paul and Kayla met up with us to go to dinner. We went and ate and then drove around where kacen served on the the WMU campus. It was a nice school. We then went with Paul and Kayla bowling, where we met up with another friend of kacens while he was there. we stayed the night at Paul and Kaylas and headed to Grand Haven the next morning.

Where Kacen lived in Kalamazoo

The Church in Kalamazoo

We got to Grand Haven pretty early in the morning and went and ran out on the peir to the Lighthouse... IT WAS FREEZING COLD! we were out on Lake Michigan so the wind was blowing on either side of us. There were a bunch of fishermen that had huge parkas and all this gear to keep them warm and we were in our sunday clothes!!! haha it was funny. We got back in our car and took off to pick up grandma Helen for church.

Where Kacen lived in Grand Haven

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Grandma Helen was one of the main reasons we decided we needed to come to Michigan so soon. Kacen and his companion were involved in her baptism. I had talked to her on the phone a bunch but I was super excited to meet her in person. She was exactly as i pictured. She is hilarious. We went took her to church and i was able to meet a bunch of people. It was so fun that noone knew he was coming. Suprises are the best! The meeting was awesome, two of the best talks I have heard in a long time... it was a pretty spiritual few days for us. we went home and helped grandma prepare dinner and we ate and talked and grandma Helen sang Karaoke for us. It was so so funny.. Kacen got up and sang with her. haha it was awesome. We were there for a few hours, it was so hard to say goodbye... I am very happy to have met her.

We then went and Played with the Mcginnis Family, who only live up thje road from Grandma Helen. We went skating with them and their kids and we had some dang yummy pizza. I am so greatful to all these people who took us in and fed us... haha it was a very good vacation. We will definatley go back to Michigan sometime soon :)