Fancy Pants Wedding

In July, two of our friends from business school got married (to each other). Their wedding happened to be in the beautiful town of Leland, Michigan, which is just a three hour drive for us. The bride's family owns a cottage up there right on the lake. Well...they call it a cottage, but I've never seen a cottage that big. It was no Hansel and Gretel cottage, if you know what I mean.

Here's a group of business school friends after the wedding ceremony, mostly people from the Lead program. The ceremony and reception took place here in the backyard.

Right on the lake. No big deal.

Our buddy Lincoln flew in from Boston to drive up to the wedding with us. It was so fun and nostalgic catching up, but there was quite a hole left in my heart from the absence of his beautiful wife and one of my best friends, Carina. She stayed home with their kiddos. 

We left our boys with a sitter for many many hours that day. We stopped in Traverse City on the way and dipped our toes in the clean, clear water. If you didn't know this already, northern Michigan is GORGEOUS.

Below is the lovely couple, Alexa and Miguel. They had a beautiful ceremony that left me a little misty eyed. There's something about knowing a couple from the beginning of their relationship and seeing them make it to the altar together. We are so happy for them. 

And yes, I had major wedding dress envy. Lex was absolute perfection that night!

This was definitely the fanciest wedding I have ever been to. My pictures can't do the party justice, but I didn't want to steal the nice professional ones, so maybe you can use your imagination. Just picture everything more vibrant and glowing and crisp and magic pixie dusty, k?

Visualize with me here....Hydrangeas everywhere. Parasols to shade the ladies before the ceremony. Escorts to our seats. Cucumber water in fancy glasses. Servers with drinks and hors d'oeuvres everywhere. Lots of silverware and glasses for every guest. A fancy menu at each assigned place setting, making sure everyone knew what was "saffron-infused". The menu also explained dessert, which was good because never before had I considered blue cheese, crackers, honeycomb, dark liquor, and a single truffle to be dessert. 

They had an open bar. I repeat, an open bar, for more than two hundred guests. There was a white GRAND PIANO with pretty much Micheal Buble himself entertaining throughout dinner. (Okay it wasn't really him, but he sounded amazing.) An absolutely awesome Black-Eyed-Peas-esque band was flown in from New York that morning to get everyone dancing. There were four different kinds of yummy gourmet cupcakes, and gift baskets for guests that easily cost $100 each. And seriously, you should have seen the bathrooms!

Did you notice the size of that TENT? And all the draping of fancy beautiful fabric everywhere?? I can't imagine the cost. I felt like a princess just for being invited. It was like what you'd see in J-Lo's movie The Wedding Planner. 

UNBELIEVABLE.

 Oh yeah, and did I mention there were actual fireworks at the end? We had to leave at midnight to drive all the way home and relieve our sitter (at which point the band was only taking their first break), so we missed out on that.

Anyway, it was so much fun catching up with Matt's old classmates. I've never had such a good time with them. Maybe it had something to do with having no kids around, so I wasn't interrupted or slimed or getting my dress pulled to an awkward position every two minutes. We danced and sang and laughed and ate, and I'm pretty sure we even had as much fun as the people who were drinking! Can you imagine?!

I want to go to there again.

Ludington

A few weeks ago we made a day trip to Ludington. It's this little beautiful beach town two hours away on the west coast of Michigan. This trip once again confirmed our beliefs that Lake Michigan is actually an ocean. Pristine sand, waves, nothing in sight on the horizon, definitely an ocean. Way to go, Maps, for mislabeling this one.

After playing on the beach for a couple hours, we headed a few blocks into town for dinner. I had heard of House of Flavors from a friend so we stopped in to put our name on the list. The wait was 30-40 minutes! I hadn't experienced a wait at a restaurant in over a year (Thank you, Midland), so this felt weird. We walked around the town a bit while we waited and Josh found a cool sticker on a bike shop that said his name. We also later saw the huge ferry leaving the harbor, and heard it honk its loud horn a few times. The boys loved it.

We made sure to get an enormous sampler of ice cream before we left the restaurant. We took it to a picnic table outside and stuffed our faces with six flavors of seriously amazing ice cream. I wish I could remember their names for next time... Eskimo Kisses, carrot cake, chocolate raspberry something... See, this is why I should write stuff down sooner! Bad blogger, Mimi!

Josh is allergic to milk and was excited that they had a dairy-free lemon option. Jude is not allergic to milk, so he dove right into the adult dish and helped himself. Please note Josh's tree-hugger side laying down on the bench to watch the "beautiful sky". 

My only Ludington requirement was that we stay to see the famous sunset. The clouds made the sky and the water look absolutely amazing. I didn't enhance these pictures at all, and they're just from my cell phone, so try to imagine how beautiful it was in person.

In sum: Ludington is worth the drive, even if you don't leave until 1:00 in the afternoon like we did.  And the overtired non-stop stream of consciousness conversation that Josh provides on the way home is priceless. I might keep him up really late next time Matt's out of town and I'm bored, because he's ridiculous.

Next time we're seeing the lighthouses, and hopefully showing this place off to visitors. So come visit!

Something New: Weeks 36 and 37

September 2 -- Met a bunch of new people at a barbecue with work friends. Love those Bassetts. Such a great family. Brought a tomato salad (new recipe) made from our garden.

September 3 -- Started listening to The Psychopath Test while mowing the lawn. It's an interesting book, and exactly what it sounds like -- a story about the test that determines who is/isn't a psychopath. We also tried four new recipes that night, because that's what Matt likes to do on his day off. Homemade soft pretzels, cauliflower mash, brownie mix cookies, and balsamic green bean salad. Big time WINNERS, all of them!

September 4 -- Downloaded the Super Mario Bros sheet music for the piano. One of my students wanted to learn the song, and then another. And once I played through it, I was hooked too! Such a nostalgic melody for me, and it's so fun on the piano. I dare you to play these first two lines and not get all giddy!

September 5 -- Accidentally found a bunch of nerdy videos on YouTube, in which teenage boys make their own silly versions to popular songs by youngins like Justin Bieber and One Direction. Yeah...I can't remember why I was bored enough to watch those, but when Matt goes out of town I get desperate!

September 6 -- Learned how to sew a fitted bodice on a shirt I made that day. Also started piano lessons with three new students, my cute neighbor girls.

September 7 -- Went to a new campground for a church women's retreat. It was an amazing place on beautiful Sanford Lake and I'm definitely taking my family back there. (Well...as soon as the kids are old enough to camp without making life miserable for the grown-ups.)

September 8 -- Went to a NMTA (National Music Teachers Association) meeting with my friend Jedda. I'm not a member of this group, and I'm probably way under-qualified compared to the musical geniuses I met there, but it was interesting to hear the speaker and learn about what's going on in Midland's music community.

September 9 -- Played a bunch of new piano songs today. I just ran through a classical book to see which songs would be good for my students. I didn't really mean for the theme of this week to be piano, but I guess I've been on a roll!

September 10 -- Met a few new preschool parents on the first day of Josh's preschool. I'm on the board this year, so I was in charge of getting donuts and drinks for parents the first day. Parents could come hang out just to meet other parents and to stay on site for a while in case their kids freaked out from the separation. I kind of messed it all up, though, because I didn't have coffee ready for them. I guess that's what they get for putting a Mormon in charge of food/drinks at Presbyterian church.

September 11 -- I got to co-op in Josh's classroom for the first time! (Co-op just means volunteer to be the adult helper for the teacher.) I loved it. I really enjoy being in the classroom with him and watching his interactions and play choices. He's a good boy. He did get really sad the next day when I couldn't stay with him at school. After he came home, I found him writing this note to himself out on the grass.

"Josh wus sad at scool." See the tears in his frowny faces? But we talked about it, and the next day he came home and wrote this. All better.

September 12 -- I took dinner to two families. This was a major coincidence that they fell on the same day, because I'm pretty sure I haven't taken dinner to anyone since we lived in Chicago. It's not a regular thing. Anyway, I got to meet my neighbor Gretchen's mom, see Kathy's house, and hold her brand new beautiful baby boy. Holy heart pains, people. That's what newborn babies do to me. They make me think I physically NEED a fuzzy, football-sized, heavenly-smelling, cuddly little tiny sleepy person. I'm feeling all heavy just thinking about it!

September 13 -- Went to my neighbor's Bible study group for the first time. This is a great group of ladies from different Christian churches, who get together every week to chat and watch a Beth Moore series, then discuss religious-type things. As a bonus, we get to stick our babies with a sitter the whole time. It's going to be really fun.

September 14 -- Bought a play kitchen off Craigslist for my boys! I've been looking for one for months, and finally found this one that actually looks like the exact model I had in my house growing up. It makes me want to sit on the floor with them and cook some plastic food. We love it.

September 15 -- Went to a garage sale for my friend Jamie who is raising money for adoption. She and her husband have four kids already, but they're trying to adopt a baby from Russia who has Down Syndrome. You wouldn't believe how difficult Russia's government makes it to adopt, but in a nutshell, it takes a LOT of time and money. They are good people, and we came home with a lot of old stuff. A kid basketball hoop, a kid picnic table, a little barn, a few small bags of action figure toys, baby snow boots, purple charger plates, a Costa Rican salad bowl set, a Bob Marley shirt, and a baby doll for Jude (finally)! See...this is why we can't go to garage sales. We like other people's cheap stuff too much.

August Potpourri

I've been bad at blogging lately. When pictures pile up, I shut down and pretend I just don't have a blog for a while. Then one day I get the energy to catch up all at once and life goes on.

Here is the miscellany of August in one random post.

We spent a good amount of time with those cute kids shown above and their sweet mama Sarah. (Remember the tofu mint chocolate pie? That was Sarah.) They were only here for the summer and recently went back to Chicago to finish business school. I'm really hoping they'll come back for good next year!

Both boys discovered microscopes at the Chippewa Nature Center. It seems like we only go out there when friends invite us, but it's so cool! I forget how much fun we have there.

August brought a few business trips for Matt, so we weren't all together enough. Two of the boys' favorite things to do with their dad:  play computer games and make smoothies. And just look at that picture in the top right -- I posted a somewhat modest bath picture! Can you even believe it?!

Speaking of modesty...we had some really hot days here that called for partial to complete nudity. In the driveway, of course. Nothing like a good hose shower after getting sweaty and grassy in the back yard.

Remember the bulbs I planted in the spring? A bunch of them have been blooming! It's magic, I tell you. I'm in awe. Lilies, Dahlias, and Canna Picassos came up this year. Next season I'll know what I'm doing a little better, hopefully.

Matt found some scrumptious-looking snacks on the top shelf at Meijer.

We made s'mores at our neighbor's house with some old intern friends who were visiting. Please note Josh's Syndrome hair-do, and Jude's terror at being pulled in the wagon by a baby with super-strength.

Spent a lot of time building with Legos. Josh is getting pretty good at it, too, and he doesn't even ask for my help much anymore. He built this one below all by himself. I only made one correction somewhere in the middle there. He gets so proud of himself when he finishes all the instructions. It makes me want to spend a fortune on Legos (which wouldn't be hard because they're so stinking expensive)!

We also went out on the lake in our neighbor's boat, but I need to get those pictures from Elise. Both boys rode on the tube with us, which was a big brave step for them and really cute.

Instead, please enjoy this little video of the boys dancing to the musical cards their Grandma Cheri sent in the mail.

And now that school has started and the nights are getting colder, we shall begin mourning the end of summer. 

Utah Trip

Last month, Jude and I took a quick trip to Utah so we could visit extended family and attend my cousin Jordan's wedding. As nervous as I was about leaving Josh with Matt and friends for five days, everyone did amazingly well with the arrangement. Matt was happy to have some company at home, Jude was happy to get so much attention, Josh was happy to see so much of his friends and his Daddy, and I was happy to hug and kiss relatives for the first time in years.

First stop after arriving at the SLC airport was my sister Melissa's apartment. Second stop, of course, was Costa Vida! I've been missing my Mexican food. Now don't go telling me that Costa Vida isn't Mexican, because I won't listen! It's just a different kind of Mexican and I appreciate it in a different kind of way. I made sure to get some so-so dirty Mexican while I was there too. The sibs and cousins and I went out late for Alberto's one night. (Baby free! Can you believe it?!) I got a huge cup of horchata. Mmmm.

That little Star Wars label up there is from a breakfast place we went to in Melissa's neighborhood. She lives on the Univ. of Utah campus, so she has to put up with crap like that even though she bleeds blue.

After breakfast that first morning, we stopped at Kay Cummings chocolate shop and stocked up for the weekend. Jude did his best to draw in customers from the window, but apparently nobody thought he was cute enough.

We also walked around the park a bit so Jude could yell at the ducks and dogs passing by. When we went to the store for baby supplies, Jude stuck to Uncle Mike like glue. Those two are buddies. 

We visited Grandpa John's grave and got to see his beautiful new headstone. Aunt Beverly gave us a tour of some of our ancestors in the cemetery, as well. 

That night, we went to Oakley's house for a barbecue and some volleyball. Jude loved meeting Baby Scarlett. His enthusiasm was a little overpowering for her, especially when he tried to squeeze her, and point out all her pretty facial features, and feed her romantically from his plastic cup.

I just had such a great time being with my cousins. I miss Oakley all the time. We grew up together, and I kind of wanted to just snuggle up with her every night and talk about girl things and boy bands til we fell asleep. When we were little, Oakley and Melissa would always make Christiana and me be the boys when we played pretend. So there we are, in the bottom right, holding our princesses like old times.

But I didn't get to stay with Oakley this time. Instead, we had a great hotel room next to the Ludlows and my grandma. Jude slept amazingly well, and we had a nice hot breakfast every morning. Have you ever seen a hotel cafe with a separate TV in every booth? Crazy! 

Practicing his eensy weensy spider with Aunt Stephanie.

Friday was the day to make Stephanie do my hair, and then get lost on the way to Brickerhaven for a huge family dinner. I got to see so much family that I hadn't seen in years. Cousins, cousins of cousins, kids of cousins, aunts, uncles, Grandma. It was lovely. We also got to see a video of Jordan and Fan's Chinese wedding, which took place a month before. It was not official, but it was very colorful, Chinese traditional, and really important to Fan's parents, since she is their only child. I love Fan already. She is an amazing woman, and a babe. Good job, Jordan.

Saturday was the wedding in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a beautiful ceremony. Jordan literally had tears dripping off his face the whole time. There was just so much happiness in that room. 

I ended up running around quite a bit helping with the luncheon and such, and I'm glad I only had one kid to pawn off so I could be useful. That night there was a beautiful reception in Alpine.

After the reception, we stopped for a few minutes to visit some old friends, the Loudens. They are amazing people who used to live in Redding. They are great friends to my parents, and my old seminary teachers. 

The next day after church, we all went to lunch at Uncle David's house in Provo to celebrate Grandma's birthday. We ate amazing brisket, then shared stories and one-liners about Grandma. It was a really full house!

The trip was too short to do all the catching up I wanted to do. I wanted to do a session in the Salt Lake Temple, to revisit BYU for chocolate covered cinnamon bears, to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform, to shop through the new City Creek Mall, and to eat frozen yogurt. Not enough time, but I was definitely starting to miss this little guy.

I told him I'd bring him back something special from Utah. I'm so lucky he was satisfied with extra airplane cookies and Fruit-by-the-Foots from Grandma Sara. Easy to please.

Something New: Weeks 34 and 35

So much to catch up on! I'll start with this.

August 19 -- Ate at a yummy pizza place in Salt Lake City with my fam. Its style was true Italian. They had amazing gelato, the first I've had since Italy. I think it was called Settebello, but I'm not sure.

August 20 -- Had an unpleasant experience waiting for my flight home from a layover in Detroit. Ended up renting a car after hours of waiting in the airport with an upset toddler. The new part: Jude and I sat and watched the airport's amazing fountain for a long time. Matt had told me about this, but you can't know how cool it is until you see it. Its patterns and timing and thick streams will keep you watching, like a mini Bellagio in Michigan!

August 21 -- Attended my first preschool board meeting at the school/church. I guess I had gone to one before in May, but this is the first one I was involved in. I received responsibilities, I presented my case for something important, it feels real now.

August 22 -- Started a sewing project for a friend of my cousin. Before I went to Utah, I made two snake toys for my cousins' new baby boys. They loved them! Now I'm making one for my cousin's friend, and a couple more for my boys because they were sad when I packed them in my suitcase.

Here's one that went to my cousin. It's a great project because it uses mostly fabric scraps, and it's great for kids because it  helps them learn four different fasteners: velcro, buttons, snaps, and ties.

August 23 -- Triple chip blondies. Have you had them? They are AMAZING. Anything with butterscotch and chocolate is addicting for me. These babies were so delicious that instead of giving half of them away like I had planned, we ended up keeping them all for ourselves. Actually, we did share a couple with the missionaries when they came over for dinner. One of them liked these so much that he took the recipe home. Seriously, a 21-year-old guy wanting to make an effort for dessert? They're THAT good, people!

August 24 -- Tried to make soy vanilla pudding in the Blendtec. Big FAIL! I was excited to give Josh milk-free pudding so he wouldn't barf it up, but it didn't set right. But then again, besides smoothies, no recipes we've tried in that blender have actually turned out well without adjustment and extra effort. I think something's wrong.

August 25 -- Took some fabric from my stash and whipped up a Zebra skirt! This is the first time I've successfully made a skirt just by eyeballing the pieces with no pattern. And since this was clearance fabric, I think it cost me a total of $4. Score!

Also, I tried dried wasabi peas for the first time today. Previously I was too scared to try them. They're not as hot as I expected, and actually quite good.

August 26 --  Met a new Elder when he and his companion came over for dinner. This one plays the piano and was overjoyed to go through all my sheet music and play a real non-electric keyboard for the first time in months.

August 27 --  Met with a new piano student. She's older than my other students (high school),  more advanced, and wants to pursue music through college. This is so exciting for me! Seeing her music brings back so many memories. I can't wait to start working with her.

August 28 -- Ordered the Turkey Bravo sandwich at Panera. It was scrumptious. But then, my opinion might have been affected by the overall good feelings of having lunch with fun friends and no kids. That situation could probably make dirt taste good, too.

August 29 -- Visited Shannon, my new visiting teachee. I had never spoken with her before and it was great to get to know a new friend. This woman is amazing.

August 30 -- Improvised tomato sauce from my own homegrown tomatoes! Even though I really like to cook, I rarely just take random ingredients and throw them together without a recipe. It wasn't bad. I used fresh basil, balsalmic, olive oil, onion, garlic, salt, pepper. You can't really go wrong with that combination.

August 31 -- Played in a softball game with a bunch of friend couples. This was so much fun! I hadn't played softball in years. I mean, not to brag or anything, but I was the back up pitcher for my elementary school team, soooo....I'm kind of a big deal.

September 1 -- Ludington! We drove our little family to Ludington after lunch to see the beach and the famous sunset. It was more than worth the trip! That beach is absolutely perfect. It reminded me of San Diego, and the sunset was out of this world. More pictures to come later.

Also, on the drive, I started reading "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother". I can't tell yet if it will be helpful, but it's interesting.