Thursday, August 12, 2010

Anniversary Weekend Recap

On August 6th, Nick and I celebrated our 5-year anniversary with a weekend trip to Traverse City, Michigan. All I can say is that I can't believe I lived in West Michigan for over 3 years and NEVER made it up that way. It was truly beautiful, relaxing, and had plenty of fun things to do. I can't wait to go back, and I know that Nick didn't even want to leave, but those darn work commitments get the best of us sometimes. These are the flowers he brought home Thursday night, before we left. So pretty! I just love Star-Gazer lilies, and there is also a Gerber daisy in there, amongst the others. Nick claims he doesn't know Star-Gazers are my favorite, but this is the second time he has gotten them for me...so I think he secretly does.

Nick and I left bright and early Friday morning and headed up north. We stopped at one of his favorite chicken places for lunch...Ya-Ya's. It was my first time there, and it was okay for a chain place. The chicken was pretty tasty and was grilled right there behind the counter on huge grills.
When we got to Traverse City we checked into our hotel room then went out and cruised the sites. It was the Summer Street Sale downtown, so all the local shops brought tables and goodies outside. I loved the shops, and Nick and I bought lots of cherry goodness from the cherry place. We also hit up the warehouse district and stopped at the Right Brain Brewery for Nick to try a beer. We also ate at an AWESOME restaurant for dinner: Firefly. It was so delish! It was kinda tapas, but also had sushi and cuisine from all over the world...and a yummy Pineapple Upside Down Mojito for me. Mmm. Luckily we had a mini-fridge in our room because we had PLENTY of leftovers.

On Saturday, we got up early and headed up the Old Mission Peninsula. It is about 18 miles from town, and was one of the prettiest drives! I can't even imagine it in the fall when the leaves are changing. I WILL FIND OUT THOUGH! There were vineyards, and hops growing, beautiful houses, the lake surrounding us, fresh air, hills and clear skies. We drove all the way to the point and the Old Mission Lighthouse. And, I even climbed the steep/crazy steps to get into the top of that baby! Nick was shocked, but I still did it...and hit my head too! :)

From there we stopped at a general store, another brewery for lunch and brews, and my fave winery: Black Star Farms! Then, we headed back to town to check out some of the other shops and the wooden boat show, and to walk along the water and check out the pier. After that we had dinner at a Greek/Polish place (fitting for us since Nick is Greek and I am Polish) and we headed back to the lakefront to enjoy the sunset and such.

It was such a great getaway, and I am sure I am forgetting some parts of the trip, but this is getting a bit lengthy.
Now, the excitement for this weekend is that Nick is MOVING HOME from Cleveland! Hooray!
The only sad part is that means only 2 more weeks of summer for me, then it is back to the grind. *sadness*


SOME BARGAINS!!
An awesome coupon I found, and used 3 of at Target, is the $1/1 Post-It found here. I got 3 post-it note pads for FREE!!

Go here to request a FREE Smart Food Storage sample from Tomorrow's Harvest.


Click here and subscribe to one of the Organic Valley newsletters so that you can request a FREE Farm Friends Welcome Kit! The kit includes a Rootstock Magazine, kid's activity booklet, a bumper sticker and COUPONS!

More later,
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Monday, August 2, 2010

August already!?!?!

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It is so hard to believe that we are in the month of August already! That means it's almost time to go back-to-school, that summer will be ending, and most importantly, that Nick will be coming home! Hooray! It's hard not having your best friend/boyfriend around all summer. Not that I don't mind "me" time, but I love "us" time too. We will be celebrating our 5-year anniversary this weekend in Traverse City, Michigan. I am pretty pumped, except for the long car ride, since I just did the travel thing this past weekend too.

This past weekend my friend Shelley from Grand Rapids, Nick's youngest sister, Kyra and I went to my parent's house in SE Ohio. It was Shelley's first time down there so we took her to see the sights. Those "sights" include the statue of Mothman, the Point Pleasant River Front, Tycoon Lake, and the Bob Evans Homestead Farms. Truly exciting, I know. It's a whole different world down there. We also visited some of the local stores, and the best Amish country shoppe around.
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Overall, it was a fun, but fast, trip to see my parents and my lovely dog siblings. We got to enjoy some home-cooked food, bon-fires, laughs, and celebrate my dad's birthday.

If you may recall I was starting a "crafty" project of sorts for Nick. One of the gifts my sister and Delver got him for his birthday (7/4) was a Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. bottle opener for the bar. From there, Nick decided he needed a cap catcher too, so I bought him one and it was pretty plain-jane, stainless steel...so I began to mentally create:
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Some modge podge, random beer labels and stickers, and drying time later gave us this finished project:
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So, I am pretty pleased and hope Nick will like it too!!

Thanks for reading,
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