Weekend Recap | Labor Day Weekend

Why can't every weekend be a holiday weekend? I wanted to take full advantage of my four day weekend and we did just that!

Friday | T and I headed towards Grand River Brewery in Jackson, but first stopped at my work so that I could show him the town, buildings, and where I go everyday. The brewery was nice and the weather was beautiful. Our next stop was the oldest Cider Mill in Michigan, Dexter Cider Mill. We each got a spiced donut and shared some cider. Both were delicious! We headed back to our apartment, took a little nap, and then headed to the gym. Leg day was a killer so we spent a few minutes in the sauna afterwards. The rest of the evening we watched the Michigan State football game.

Fourth Wedding Anniversary

On July 6th Thomas and I celebrated our four year wedding anniversary! I can't believe that it's already been four years!! Due to the 6th falling in the middle of the week we had an extended celebration this year, a staycation if you will :)

On Wednesday Thomas had to work in the morning and when he got home he had an Edible Arrangement for me. I prefer these over flowers any day ;) The chocolate covered strawberries were delicious! Next up on our agenda was to head to the hospital for T to get an MRI on his shoulder. #reallife It ended up taking way longer than we anticipated, but once that was over we headed to Rockwell-Republic for happy hour drinks and sushi! The main event of the evening was the Tour + Tasting we did at Founders. It was awesome! We were both blown away. I'll post a full recap soon. Bottom line: if you're ever in Grand Rapids do this tour!

The rest of the celebration took place on Friday when we stayed the night at the JW Marriott. My friend Michelle gave us her F&F discount so we took advantage of it. We were even upgraded to a river view room! The hotel is impeccable and so fancy. We headed over to The BOB for dinner before going to the movie in the park. This week it was A League of Their Own.

We had the room until noon on Saturday so we took our time, grabbed breakfast, and checked out the pool before I headed next door to The Amway Grand hotel for my massage and facial. It was my first time getting a facial done and now I want to get them all the time! So relaxing and definitely needed.

It was the perfect celebration and I wouldn't want to do life with anyone else <3

Weekend Recap | 4th of July

It's been quite a week.. with the holiday on Monday, an interview over 2 hours away on Tuesday, our anniversary yesterday, and hours spent packing today. Hence, this post being a few days "overdue." So let's get right to it..

Our holiday weekend started a little early on Thursday evening with dinner at another brewery on the Ale Trail, Perrin Brewing Company, and a Whitecaps baseball game! The Whitecaps are a farm team for the Detroit Tigers and while they aren't very good the games are always fun :)

Memorial Day Weekend | Frankenmuth, Wedding, Detroit

Our holiday weekend was quite a doozy. From the time we left Grand Rapids Friday morning until the time we arrived back home Monday evening we were go go go.

We drove the two hours East to drop Duke off at my in-laws and then headed two hours North to Frankenmuth for all of the wedding festivities. We stayed at the Bavarian Inn Lodge which is one of the most iconic locations in Frankenmuth and a place I stayed at frequently growing up. It's a must if you're going to stay overnight and want the full Frankenmuth experience ;) Not to mention it was within walking distance of the festivities!

New Years Eve 2015

This year we decided to do something different for NYE. Typically we attend a house party of some sort, but this year we decided to purchase tickets to a 1920's Bootlegger themed party that was hosted at a local restaurant in downtown Grand Rapids! Thomas' cousins were visiting from the East side of the state and we thought we'd try something new ;)

             

While we had a great time it wasn't exactly what we expected it to be. There was no dance area so we were stuck sitting at our table for 4+ hours, the gift cards we received couldn't be used until the following week which made them useless to our out of town guests, and only half of the attendees had dressed up according to the theme. Not to mention there was a very important football game going on that didn't go as planned..

So I think next year we'll plan a themed house party, because we loved dressing up & I thought that was the best part! Which is shocking, because I've always scrunched my nose at any kind of dressing up. I guess the key is to find pieces that you would wear again so that you aren't feeling like you're wasting money. I loved the top I found for this party, even though it took 3 hours at the mall searching, and know it'll become a staple in my wardrobe! Times are changing ;)

2015 Recap and What's Ahead in 2016

I can't believe how fast 2015 flew by! I know they say that as you get older time goes by faster, but I feel like I blinked and it was over. 2015 was a crazy year with limited down time, but that is to be expected when you're in an accelerated Masters program. While I stayed on top of reading blogs in my downtime, I obviously slacked on posting. I want to change that in 2016. I might not post consistently, but I want to stay on top of documenting our everyday lives. That is the reason I blog after all, so before moving forward with 2016 I'd like to recap what all happened in 2015. I was pleasantly surprised while scrolling through my photo feed and selecting the pictures for this post. On the outside it didn't seem like a big year, there were no fun vacations or big purchases, but it was still filled with great memories!

Our Time in the Military

With today being Veterans day I figured it'd be the perfect time to write about our time {mostly my husband's, but it was mine too darnit!} in the military, more specifically the Army. As of now Thomas has been a Veteran for two years, but let's back track to the beginning.

For those of you who don't know, we started dating while we were in high school- T was a Junior and I was a Sophomore. Talk of joining the military didn't happen until the spring after I had graduated, 2009. One day we were hanging out and he said he thought about joining, because college wasn't working out for him and he wasn't happy spending his days at Panera. Ten minutes later we were on a different subject and I didn't think about it again... until a few days later saying that he met up with a Recruiter and was moving forward with joining. At the time our relationship was a little rocky and I went into the whole thing thinking "if we're meant to be it'll work out and if not it'll be easier to get over him". That line of thinking really saved me. It took the pressure off and it made the time leading up to his ship out date a lot more enjoyable.

Here we are at the going away party.

Halloween 2014

I know that everyone says it, but seriously where does the time go?! It seems like we moved to Grand Rapids just a couple weeks ago when it has actually been three months. I know that part of the issue is my erratic and all over the place work schedule, but the days just pass by in the blink of an eye. I'm constantly asking myself how the day is already over when I still have so much left to do. The house has suffered, this blog has suffered, and I just can't understand how people have time to do it all. Oh how I wish I could be one of them...

So lets back track to last weekend... Halloween. To be honest I've never been a fan of Halloween, more specifically the whole dressing up thing. In middle school and high school I took the easy route with football player/soccer player/ect. The last time I dressed up was in 2009 and I wore my MIL's cop costume, but this year Thomas was determined to dress up.

So Friday afternoon {yes the day of Halloween} we headed to Halloween USA in search of costumes. $100 later we walked out as Mario and Luigi {such a rip off!}....

 While the costumes were cute they 1) weren't worth the money 2) not practical for MI weather 3) a terrible idea

 It was pretty entertaining watching Thomas drink his beer through a straw, because his mustache was in the way!

Our friends drove in for the evening to "celebrate" with us and they blew our costumes out of the water! The were gnomes and their costumes were awesome! Homemade and very creative :)

Next year if we dress up again we'll be going that route- making our own costumes and that means planning in advanced, NOT waiting until the day of.

So how did we spend our evening? We started out at TGIFriday's for dinner where Karen and I had the most delicious Caramel Apple Martini! From there we headed to a local lounge that had live music and good drinks. Then it was time to pick up the rest of our group and head to a house party... and I'll never make that mistake again. I don't do well with college parties.. My poor husband thinks I'm such a party pooper. What a disaster and unfortunate way to spend our evening, but we did have fun with our friends once we made it back to our house and now we have a few funny memories!

Homemade costumes or store bought?

Weekend Recap {Duke's Birthday + Doggy Cake Recipe}

There's no question about it, fall has arrived in Western Michigan. The leaves are changing colors and have started to fall, I am currently wearing gloves while typing this post {it is extremely cold in our office!}, and we spent the entire weekend watching football...  However, we did venture out to the movie theater to see Gone Girl and we were both incredibly impressed! We're also really excited for all the new movies coming out over the next few months.

On Saturday we celebrated Duke's birthday which means I have a few fun pictures to add to this otherwise boring post ;)

Doggy Cake recipe {adapted from here}

Peanut Butter and Banana Doggie Cake 
  - 1 cup all purpose flour  
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt  
- 1/4 cup creamy all natural peanut butter
- 2 bananas, smashed  
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- approximately 3/4 cup water


Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F  
2. Spray a standard 8 inch round cake pan with non stick pan spray  
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Add the oil, egg, peanut butter and smashed banana and mix with a wooden spoon.  Add in the water as needed to make the mixture the consistency of a typical cake batter
4. Pour the batter into the round pan and bake for about 40 minutes {It only took ~25 minutes for me so just keep an eye on it}.  Remove cake from pan and allow it to completely cool before icing {I used the creamy peanut butter as frosting after the yogurt chips would not melt}.

 He was not really amused with the hat...

 I HATE our floors, but what can you do?

You could say that he loved being spoiled all day long and loved all of his presents :) He's my best bud and I loved spoiling him!

PS- I'm slowly learning how to use my camera in Manual mode, but I still have a longggg way to go so I apologize for wonky lighting.

2013 Recap

I can't believe that tomorrow starts a new year! Being completely honest, I'm more than ready to say goodbye to 2013 {I'm not a fan of odd numbers anyway}. It was a difficult year for me... a lot of personal changes, loosing my grandma, drama that ensued with my mother, and trying to find myself after graduating college. However, there were a lot of good things that happened this past year as well

- Spending our first entire year together in four years

- Graduating college

- Going on our honeymoon cruise

- Finally going to a Backstreet Boys concert {favorite day of the year by far!}
- Getting a job that I adore
- Spending so much time with our family and friends

- Watching Duke grow

Without a doubt we are extremely blessed and even though it wasn't the best year it definitely wasn't the worst. I can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for us!

Duke Turns One!

Thomas and I both worked crazy overtime the week of his birthday and that forced us to celebrate on Thursday, the night before his actual birthday, but I don't think he cared ;) I realize some people might think I've completely lost my mind {because lets be real this whole party was all me haha} but maybe I have...

Anywho, we had the party with my grandparents at their house and I'm glad they were such great sports! We started the party off with a "scavenger hunt" to find his presents aka new toys that were spread around the living room with treats.

Next we busted out the party hats and for the most part Duke didn't mind it!

 Duke and my grandma

 Love this one!

This one kills me... my grandpa is a funny guy!

And then it was time for cake! I ordered him a peanut butter cake from Three Dogs Bakery and it was a huge hit!

 Waiting so patiently..

 "OMG I'M SO EXCITED"

 His eyes kill me!

 Best picture of the night!!

"OMG SO GOOD!"

I think it's safe to say that Duke had the best birthday any dog could wish for! It's also safe to say that Papa thinks he's in charge of the rest.... not happenin' ;) Now I need to get crackin' on Duke's scrapbook!

My 23rd Birthday

Since last week was my birthday I figured I'd recap the entire week today instead of just the weekend, because it was that good! ;) It was definitely one of my favorite birthdays to date!

I have always joked with T about wanting to celebrate the entire week leading up to the actual day and even though he thought it was absurd he actually went along with it this year! To celebrate I got a small ($25 or less) present everyday August 1st through the 7th (talk about spoiled).

We also went on extra date nights, I was allowed control over the remote, ect.

On my actual birthday we worked and then met our family (in-laws, grandparents, and brother) at Bahama Breeze for dinner, which was yummy and fun as always.

 I love these two boys more than anything in the world <3

And the reason I had to work was because I needed the next day off for the Backstreet Boys concert! AKA the second best (behind our wedding) night of my life. Words cannot describe how amazing the concert was, by far the best one I've ever been to and I've been wanting to see them in concert since I was 7 years old! A dream come true :)

There is a few videos on my Instagram if you'd like to hear little snippets and my terrible singing ;)

The amazing girls who went with me! We had such a great time!

And then we wrapped up the birthday celebrations Saturday night at Bar Louie with a group of 10 of my closest friends <3

 We sat outside on the patio at this amazing bar!

A delicious drink that I got! Unfortunately I forgot to ask the waitress to take a picture off all of us :(

And that is why this past week will go down in history as one of the best weeks of my life! I am so incredibly blessed and my heart is so full :)