TORCH!

Eighteen miles long and 2.5 miles wide of beautiful deep blue, turquoise, and green crystal clear water. Yes. Please. Plus an unusually warm summer = unusually warm water. This was a bomb awesome year at Torch Lake. The weather was unbelievable. Usually being that far north in Michigan we get a few days of clouds and possibly some rain and in general chillier weather at night. Not this year. It was fantastic!

 I hadn't been to Torch Lake since summer of 2009, right after Chase and I got engaged. He came along too. Stephanie also brought Spencer (then boyfriend, now husband). Along with Tim and Patrick plus of course my parents, it was a great time, particularly watching Spencer flip his wakeboard over a skiier. Confused? See pic below:

Patrick being super chill

Flash forward to Torch Lake 2012. While it was just me and Patrick that could make the trip this year, it was worth it. Let's talk about how different it was for this second child in the line-up (out of 5) to have a week of individualized time just with my parents (plus one brother). Patrick is super easy going, so whenever my parents asked us what we wanted to do for the day, he said he'd do whatever I wanted to do. At first, I just played that back on him, saying I'll do whatever he wants to do. But then I made a suggestion...and (omg) that's what we ended up doing! What is this? I am used to 5 kids haggling and attempting to compromise, and then either majority rules or my parents have to step in and mediate. This is weird. Not in a bad way, just different. So I soaked up as much special time with my mom and dad and even just Patrick and me (soccer tennis, scrabble, boardwalks, tubing, swimming) as I could!

Hanging in the bow of our boat

The view from our porch

Yea...my mom can still slalom ski extremely well. 

My dad can still ski...well, he can just still ski.

Patrick being a skiing fiend

Gorgeous lake. Gorgeous sky.

The view from the kitchen, through the living room, over the porch. 

At the sandbar

At the dockside with mom and dad

From AZ to CA

We have arrived! Actually, we arrived 2 weeks ago. But I am just now getting around to posting. Why? Because I was at Torch Lake for a week! (more on that later)

Chase and I made the drive from Phoenix to San Jose at the end of June. It was absolutely exhausting to pack up our entire apartment, partly because we underestimated the time it would take, and partly because, ahem, my husband, whom I love dearly, decided to work a FULL work week. I told him he was crazy, but didn't push it. Well, when the week of the move came around and it was just me, who just happened to schedule my last day of work a week before the move, I was packing like crazy by myself. I have to give Chase way more credit though. He worked full days and then came home and packed until 11-midnight almost every night. Which was probably way harder than what I did.

Chase and his long lost friend

Luckily we were 97% packed when the movers arrived at noon on Friday. These young men did all the heavy lifting for us! And you know it wasn't easy carrying all those boxes and furniture down 3 flights of stairs in 110 degree heat.

Our empty apt at the Desert Club

Chase drove the U-Haul with the attached car carrier and I drove chase's car. I definitely got the better end of the deal. We drove separately because he had to drive much slower. He gave himself a 2.5 hour head start as we left Palm Springs. Also, I stopped way more than him - I was drinking lots of fluids, ok!?

Here we go!

Last gorgeous Arizona sunset

Welcome to California farmland?

We arrived at the U-Haul in San Jose at the exact same time. Actually, I won. I was behind Chase the entire time until I saw him attempting to make a left turn into U-Haul and I was coming from the opposite direction and swooped in with a right hand turn for the win. Literally a photo finish. He was NOT happy that he lost so unexpectedly at the last second.

Look at the clouds overtaking the mountains! They hang so low, it was gorgeous. 

One thing we love, although we have yet to take advantage of, is the herbs that grow in the courtyard of our building. There is rosemary, oregano, basil, mint, parsley, thyme, and cilantro. You can see the rosemary is dominating the picture...I think I see some rosemary and garlic chicken in our future!

The courtyard at the Elements

Our apartment is great. We were a wee bit nervous because this was the first time we were seeing the place if you remember here. And we were not disappointed. Huge windows from floor to ceiling that let in an incredible amount of light, tons of space with an enormous living room and bathroom (like the bathroom is a little too big). Yes, we are paying double what we were in Phoenix (really it was Scottsdale), BUT the typical apartment for what we are paying in a 20 mile radius is about 200 sq. ft smaller, not near as new appliances, worse apt. layouts, less convenient location, and in general, just way way less nice. The staff at the Elements Apartments enjoys reiterating to us just how fantastic of a deal we got. Like when we moved in. He just kept telling us. OK...we get it. Thank you Jesus.

A special shot of our lovely new (HUGE) couch!