Flashback...Sarah's Wedding!

My lame cat photos have prompted Dale to give up the goods! Also, he's on holiday and finally had some time to breathe! At any rate, I wanted to share some photos from my dear friend Sarah's wedding from a few weeks back! She was quite the beautiful and sophisticated bride! I was sitting next to my dear friend Betsy and we were just chatting casually and then when Sarah come down the aisle we both burst into tears--we laughed and looked at each other and wondered where in the hell those tears came from! Who knew we were such softies?

Sarah and her new husband Bruce looked very happy! We were very excited to be able to share the day with them.

The first kiss! It was hilarious. He just kept kissing her and she started to laugh and he just kept on smooching. Adorable.

We blew bubbles at the newlyweds as they came out of the church. Despite being a late fall day the weather was quite mild--a perfect day for a wedding!

They came out and greeted the guests before going back inside for portraits.

Of course, Betsy and I cornered Sarah for the perennial Mackinac Girls photo. We're still adorable, even after all these years! I'll have to post a pic of us back in '93 if I ever get around to scanning all those photos in!

A quick portrait of the happy couple and we were off to the dinner reception.

Here's Sarah with her cutie-pie flower girls!

A pretty, perfect cake...

ended up on the groom's face!

The food was fab, the wine was divine, and getting to spend a nice long dinner with Betsy and Bryan--not to mention sharing in Sarah and Bruce's big day!--made this a great highlight to a wonderful year!

Meghan's Visit

Our dear friend Meghan came to visit a few weeks back and we had a really nice time. We went to the Renegade Craft Fair on one day and to the Art Institute of Chicago the next. This is Meghan in front of the crazy huge Blue Marlin!

Meghan is a graphic designer but had never been to the Art Institute. She helped us have a greater appreciation for it, I think. This is a detail of the famous Nighthawks paintings, part of the permanent collection.

She particularly liked this one (and many others).

Dale took his own "artsy" shot in the new Modern Wing.

We had a really nice visit but we're now buried in work and school!

Glen's Visit

The last weekend of August our friend Glen came to visit. This is my very favorite photo of him going big disco in front of the Cloud Gate in downtown Chicago! We took him around town and then went on an architecture tour along the river.

A photo of the Merchandise Mart from the river--once the largest building in the world by square footage. Four million square feet!

River City is a wacky building!

Some of the sights along the architecture tour.

We also took Glen for Chicago-style hot dogs and we watched a hilarious British comedy is brought for us called The I.T. Crowd. It was a nice visit.

A Busy Hosting Season Begins...

Heather came to visit this past weekend and I got to have some quality time with two of my best girlfriends. Since Heather lives in northern Michigan and the Rebeccas live in the Chicago area we don't get to hang as much as we used to but I love to see her and spend some time catching up. It was a great time. This photo is from our dinner on Saturday night--we had great food and fine wine in Little Italy. Thanks for coming to visit Heather!

4th of July Weekend

Chase and his girlfriend Dawn came to visit on the 4th of July weekend. Chase had the brilliant idea of going on a sunset cruise to watch the fireworks! It was awesome.

We met up with them at Cafe Iberico downtown for tapas and then headed to the boat launch at Michigan Ave.
It was a gorgeous night. We took a quick trip up the river before heading out onto the water.

It was a gorgeous night for fireworks. We took the boat up the river and then out into the bay.

Almost as soon as the sun set the fireworks started.

There was quite a song and dance show on the boat. Dale made a friend that enjoyed singing along to Neil Diamond's "America" as much as he does.

The fireworks are meant to be seen from the water, I am convinced.

On our way back into the lock and then into the river. We had a great night! It was a ton of fun.

On the fourth itself, we had a quiet day topped off with watching the Oak Park fireworks with our friends The Praters. Dale took some pics of the fireworks and posted them to his facebook page. Check them out here.

Last Weekend

Last weekend was pretty fabulous. We had Dale's friend Matt's 40th birthday party--sorry, no pics! And on Sunday we had Margaux's baptism, which was great! You can check out Dale's photo gallery of the happening here.

The yummy cake!

Miss Margaux, getting her baptism on!

Miss Margaux's First Visit to Auntie's House!

We had an exciting Valentine's Day at our house! It was Miss Margaux's first visit to our place. She brought her own chair and DVD and several changes of clothes--she comes prepared!

She was chillin' in front of the TV watching Baby Einstein while her mom, me and Dale get ready to take some pretty Valentine's Day pictures of her.

Margaux's regular blog can be found here. And I'm sure those Valentine's photos will make an appearance very soon!

As for me and Dale, we had a lovely afternoon with Rebecca and Margaux, then went out for dinner at Cucina Paradiso (our favorite place). Today we're going to Borders to slack and drink coffee. I told you we are creatures of habit despite our best efforts to stir it up here and there!

That said, we did get some sad news last night. Dale's grandmother (his mom's mom) is in the hospital and it appears to be quite serious. We just celebrated her 90th birthday last April. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Wisconsin Road Trip

Dale and I love a good road trip. We get in the car and just drive. I got the love of road trips from my grandma Mary Ann (mom's mom) and Dale got it from his grandparents (dad's parents), too!

On Saturday Dale had a hankering to hit the open road and he decided we should go to Milwaukee (and if I had said no he would have just annoyed me around the house all day with his restlessness slowly turning to crabbiness).

Dale had hoped to meet up with his friend Gary who lives in Milwaukee (but we know him from back in the Flint days). Since this was a spur-of-the-moment trip, Gary was busy--and his mom has been ill--so we wish him (and her) well!

We took our sweet time getting to Milwaukee from Oak Park. We drove through Racine and up to Milwaukee.
And we spotted a lighthouse along the way!

We also spotted one of the stranger houses I've seen lately! There is a house just outside Milwaukee that features a strange assortment of pop culture icons and oddities, including a real Big Boy mounted on the roof of their garage--and a Hamburglar nearby! Check out the roadside curiosities blog for full coverage of the wacky house--it's craziness!

When we finally got to downtown Milwaukee it was imperative we go to the Bronze Fonz--a life-sized statue of Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzerelli himself! Needless to say I was thrilled! And it turns out The Fonz is not nearly as intimidating in real life as he was back in his heyday! And Dale could totally take the Fonz in a fight, obviously.

After visiting Fonzie, Dale suggested we visit the Third Ward--Milwaukee's burgeoning upscale arts district. Lots of adorable shops and nice restaurants. Even a fantastic, huge upscale grocery market! We went for an early dinner at a restaurant called Swig--it was really adorable and beautifully designed. And the food was good, too!

Dale took his camera, of course and even got a rare shot of me (I'm a pretty boring subject at this point for poor Dale).

We really liked the Third Ward and I practically had to drag out of that restaurant!

On the way home we got cheese. It was a trip Wisconsin!
We had to.

Once home we feasted on the cheese--it was an early dinner like I said--and watched some TV. It was a great little adventure.

Weekend in Petoskey

Last weekend, Dale and I went to Petoskey for Rebecca's baby shower. Check out the photos over at Rebecca's blog. I took the photos so it's like a big crossover event!

I got to spend the day with Heather and Maggie, which was really great! Sadly, the only good photo I got of them is on my camera phone and I don't really understand how to get that off the camera. So next time you see me, feel free to ask to see it.

UPDATE: Figured out how to email myself from my phone. Super cute photo of Heather and Mags below...

And now the rest...

The remainder of the weekend we spent staying at Doug's house in Petoskey. We got to go to Ozone, the club Doug manages--that was a hoot! Lots of loud music and a dude that was given quite a piece of performance art.

Sadly, it rained a great deal so we had to stay in most of the time. Dale got in two bike rides and a morning photography session, however. I got in one morning run (that's right, I said "run" but it was more like a slow jog but whatever).

Northern Michigan landscape.

Barn in Mist. I like barns. I like barns.

Landscape near Petoskey.

Wild turkeys! We love wild animals.

This is Doug driving us to breakfast. I liked this picture. Dale sat in the backseat all weekend.

We had breakfast in Crooked Lake. At a neat little place--the kind you only find on random roads in rural areas. We also went to an awesome estate sale clearance center in the middle of NOWHERE. And I will never promote it because it's the greatest place on earth for estate sale steals and I don't need the competition.

And we drank a lot of coffee and played a couple of games of Chinese Checkers at a coffee shop. It was very exciting, obviously.

Actually, my favorite non-friendship thing of the weekend was the concrete statuary place, which you can see by clicking here.