the "we"-kend

saturday we headed over to the west side of the state to tour wedding venues (they are so so so much cheaper there).  bada bing bada boom we have now officially picked a place to get married!  i'm sure eventually the spot will reveal itself, but for now we're keeping it under wraps while we get everything finalized, and make a few more plans.

we don't want to give it all away too soon!

after a morning of touring, my parents, steve's parents, and the two of us went to one of my absolute all-time favorite restaurants, in east grand rapids for champagne and general deliciousness.  rose's restaurant is attractively situated on the shore of reed's lake.  it was such a beautiful saturday that the mom's convinced us to model for some photos (obligatory, as it was the first time we have seen family since getting engaged).

when we returned to ann arbor, steve was mr. productive, continuing to unpack and do laundry while i remained a totally guilty lazy-bones, harassing bert endlessly while emailing bands and photographers and watching the whitest kids u know on netflix.  i will convince myself this is ok because i was more productive than steve during the day i took off work to move.  sometimes there's pinterest and you drop the ball.

happy monday everyone!

word count: 21,323

more from the weekend

here are a few more photos from our excursion to grand rapids last weekend.  there is a beautiful waterfall in the middle of the sculpture park where i naturally demanded we stop for a photo shoot.  i also took a couple pictures of the sky from our drive out because those clouds were doing some lovely lovely things!

they let you hold weddings in front of this waterfall.  just sayin'.

this sculpture is normally a water feature, but it was dry when we were there. sad steve.

the two photos above were taken in the glass enclosed tropical conservatory.  in the spring there are butterflies galore in the conservatory, but we must have just missed them.

it has been madly stressful over here the past few days between steve's new job, and varying obligations.  tonight we're catching up with an old college friend at pacific rim for restaurant week and hopefully we will have time to watch another episode of our new tv show addiction shameless (the UK version).

ok but seriously consider this my endorsement for at least the first season of the show.  it's hilarious, depressing, and includes a 25 year old, frequently naked, james mcavoy.  netflix it.

happy thursday everyone!

last weekend part one

once i finally got my photos from the weekend uploaded i realized i had taken hundreds of them.  literally.  so i'll show you our excursion in spurts for now.  as i've been telling you, last weekend we went to the frederick meijer gardens and sculpture park in grand rapids and we had the best time.

both of my parents are originally from grand rapids so i have been visiting the park for my entire life.  it's amazing to see the way it has grown and what used to be just botanical gardens and a butterfly conservatory has transformed into an enormous facility with an outdoor art museum, farm garden, hiking trails, chihuly chandeliers, amphitheater, traveling exhibits and so much more.  grizzly bear is coming to play there in a few months... maybe we'll be heading back for that!  if you are ever in the area and have time for a visit i highly recommend it!

what you won't see pictured is the newest addition to the gardens' permanent collection, an enormous buddha head sculpture by artist zhang huan.  the piece is currently on display at the gardens' indoor showcase gallery along with a traveling exhibit of more of huan's work.  

here are a few more of the photos from our excursion!

hopefully this gives you a little preview of our extremely cool visit.  more pictures will be sure to come soon!

hope everybody has a great second half to the week!