The Balancing Act: Winter

On Saturday after lunch Travis, Heather, Anthony and I head back to Saugatuck to tackle some stairs...

Intimidating, right?! You see, Heather and Anthony got married at the top of these very stairs, so each time they are in the area they like to head back and climb up to the spot they got married at. They invited us to come along, and since it was a beautiful day we jumped at the chance.

We just didn't realize how much hard work it was going to be!!!

We stopped for a snack...

For pictures...

To look up and see how many more stairs were left to go...

But it was well worth it when we finally made it to the top. Check out those views!

We got some great pictures - it was such a gorgeous day out. We were all loving the sunshine!

I particularly like this picture of Trav and I... it's the best one we've taken in awhile.

The climb down was a ton easier than the climb up! We were so tired by the time we were back down that we drove back to the condo and all fell asleep! Does that mean we're old? : )

More tomorrow!

Have you ever been to an IKEA store?

We have ONE store here in Michigan, and Heather has been wanting to take me for AGES.

So yesterday we set out on my maiden voyage to IKEA! It was a mini road trip... about two hours from Grand Rapids to Canton, MI. In fact -- mile for mile it is about the same distance from Grand Rapids to the Chicago IKEA store -- but when you factor in Chicago traffic we were much better off heading to Canton.

Anyhoo... off we went, and two hours later... we arrived!

It wasn't long before our big blue bags were getting heavy, and we had to get a little granny luggage cart, thing... yup, I hung my purse on it too in true old lady style. I'm sweet like that!

We were kind of amazed by this under the kitchen sink cleaning supply organizer thingy. Isn't it sweet? It affixes to the inside of the cupboard and then pulls out, as Heather is demonstrating!

I purchased these spice racks -- since we don't have one. I loved it because you could buy each rack individually for only $3.99 and then a pack of jars for $2.99 and then you can hang them how you want them. So fun!

The kids room section was ridiculously cute. Almost made me want a kid of my own so I could decorate their room... but not quite... : )

After almost two hours on the upper floor, we stopped at the cafeteria-ish area for a snack...

You know, power shopping food -- real healthy stuff...

Revitalized, we headed down to the lower floor to embrace all things kitchen gadget-y and more!

Seriously, wow!

And then we ran into this...

FABRIC! On sale for $1.99 per yard. I almost bought some, but am trying to exercise some crafting restraint. If I'm not purchasing for a particular project - I shouldn't buy it. Right? But so cool nonetheless.

By now the granny cart was long gone and we upgraded to a real cart...

Heather looks so happy to be at IKEA!

We eventually finished up, and loaded up the back of the car...

I didn't actually buy anything big, no furniture or anything. Just going there and looking gave me TONS of ideas for our house, but because I'm a good wife I figure I should talk them over with my husband first before making any large purchases... : )

After all of that shopping there was only one thing left to do...

DINNER!

Both Heather and I's moms LOVE them some Bahama Breeze (as do we!) and they don't seem to have them on the West side of the state where we live. It's a super fun restaurant that's island themed. Feels like a little bit of a tropical vacation when you eat there.

Of course these helped with the tropical theme...

YUM! Bahamaritas! I know you're jealous.

So we sipped our fruity drinks on the heated, covered deck. We ate some delicious food and jammed to the guitar player/singer guy doing some bad, overly synthesized covers of Bob Marley tunes, and relished in a kid-free evening (okay all of my evening's are kid-free, but Heather's are not. And as much as we both love those kids, it was super fun to have an adults only, girls only evening)