Frankenmuth Fun

My mom and dad are here visiting from Utah. They flew in late Wednesday night and Thursday our big exciting things to do were: dentist appointments (that were made over a month ago and I didn't want to reschedule), Ikea (always fun), and driving by the Detroit temple. Then we met Doug at his office and went to dinner at a yummy Mexican place close to his work.

Yesterday was fun. We went to Frankenmuth. The weather stunk...rainy and cold, and we got a late start just because we...well, because we were lazy. But once we got there we had a blast. We definitely need to go back when the weather is better and we have more time.

First, we went to Bronner's, the world's largest Christmas store. And yes, it is large. Almost overwhelming large. But truly fun. Beautiful things, fun things, religious things...it's all good. I don't think I've ever kept the kids entertained while shopping for so long. We were there for hours and had a really good time.

In this picture, no my kids aren't having spasms of some sort. They are dancing with this Santa:
After the big shopping day! We picked up a new Christmas tree (a very small, on $15 clearance one) for our living room, and a few decorations for it. I'm going to do a green and reddish/salmon color on it. We got a few fun ormanents and bulbs for it.

After the Christmas store, we stopped to get some fudge before heading home. We've heard the fudge there is good, and it didn't disappoint. Morgan and Elise waiting for their fudge:

Grandpa thinks the fudge is great. Look! He already ate most of it! (Just kidding, we all shared!)

It gets a thumbs up from one:

Two:

and three Gardner girls!

After the fudge, we decided to walk down the street a bit while mom looked for books about Indian legends (it's my mom's thing....). Ashlyn decided she was cold so Doug took her back to the car to get her jacket, and she came walking down the street with not only her jacket, but her sunglasses (on a rainy, very cloudy day). I thought it was cute:

In front of the Maypole fountain:

Frankenmuth was fun! Such a charming little town. We didn't get nearly enough time there, but will definitely be back to explore more. We didn't even touch the factory outlets, so it's definitely a return trip!