Silver Lake, Michigan

This past Friday, very early in the morning, we packed up and headed to Silver Lake, Michigan with our friends Kate and Josh. It took us about 7.5 hours to drive there. The boys had a great time tearing around the dunes on their toys, and Kate and I had fun shopping.

I found a GREAT bottle of wine at a local winery. Literally, the BEST wine I've ever tasted. And no, I don't think it was the best due to the "ambiance," as my aunt seems to think! It REALLY IS the best. ;-) YUM!

This was the first trip Chris and I have taken together. We definately want to go back!
Early in the morning on Sunday, the day we left, just the two of us went and grabbed some coffees down by the lake + dunes. (I set the timer for the pic). Such a nice, relaxing way to spend the morning. I'm glad we got to spend a little time alone on our trip.

On Saturday (yes, I realize I'm back tracking and not doing this in order like a normal person would), the boys took their toys to the dunes and rode there all day. Kate and I climbed up the dunes (OMG - sore legs the next day) so we could sit at the top and watch the boys ride around for awhile. Glad we were able to get them to see us so we would take a few pics of them.

Here's Chris in his gear:

I love this photo of Chris with the dunes + Lake Michigan. So pretty!

Chris on the last day right before we left. Can't wait to have a photo kind of like this in just 21 days when we are in Mexico!

Another pretty view of the lake:

The photo below is of Little Sabel Lighthouse.

Ummm... if you are employed by Michigan's DNR, please stop reading. :-)

So, for our centerpieces for the wedding ... we're having glass hurricane vases with a tall, fat orange candle inside and then sand around the bottom. After coming to the Lake/Dunes, I realized I didn't like the 250+ pounds sand I'd already bought for the centerpieces. I decided I liked the sand here better. Because, you know, we planned to get our Sand Ceremony sand from the Dunes. So, I wanted it all to match. (I think it's spelled like this: b-r-i-d-e-z-i-l-l-a!?)

So, I dragged Chris to the lighthouse with me and we packed up 15 gallon sized Ziplock bags full of the "prettier" sand. My trunk wasn't so pretty after we got all that sand back to WI, but hey, my centerpieces will be prettier, right!? And my fiance wasn't so happy with me during the bagging process .... BUT, when all was said and done, we walked by the beach and the memories of the lighthouse turned happy again. LOL. I hope it's all worth it in the end!

So the question is ... is stealing sand from a State Park really stealing? With all the dunes, I'm *pretty sure* nobody will notice ;-)

Chicago as we drove by on the way home:

So ... with our Michigan Trip behind us ... the next event we have on our agenda is a Kenny Chesney concert at Summerfest on Friday! Woo hooo! My 4th Kenny concert and our 1st Kenny concert together!

In other news ...

Which seems CRAZY to me ...

There are only {18 days} until our wedding!

18 til July 18!

We applied for our marriage license today ... It felt so great to sign our names on that piece of paper together. This is it. We really ARE getting married! It's not that it hasn't ever really set in, but now, its REALLY SINKING IN DEEP!

After the courthouse, we went to the coffee shop (thats our "thing" ... mochas, to be exact). He got an iced mocha and I got a hot turtle mocha. There I was, sipping on one of the most delicious coffees ever, with my guy right next to me, and I was feeling the happiest I've ever been able to recall. Totally high on life. Blissfully happy. Total cloud 9.

Life.

Is.

Good!