September 30th, 2017

White Lake "Free Weekend" Vacation: Day 2

We ended up sleeping in a lot later than planned. But I mean hey, we're on vacation after all! ;) After a yummy breakfast of eggs, toast, and bacon, we asked around to see who wanted to go with to visit that museum! The place is called The House On The Rock and it was actually a decent drive from the resort—about an hour and forty minutes. Surprisingly, almost everyone wanted to go, despite the drive! Only mom, Zack, and Jake stayed back. The car trip was a lot more fun than I imaged. We blasted music and sang along, while also laughing about the crazy route the GPS had us take through all kinds of cornfields and winding roads.

We finally arrived and it's safe to say I was beyond excited. We got our tickets and got straight to it, first checking out the house itself. It was seriously one of the coolest buildings I had ever been in. It was crammed full of all these rooms and passageways; the architecture was just outstanding. The guy who built it did an outstanding job. In the house we saw the "Infinity Room", which is a room that extends out off the rock over the cliffside. It seemingly goes on forever, though that's just part of the illusion.

After the house, we headed into the many different rooms of the museum. They were all so random but just so unique and interesting! There was a little old school street of yesterday, a boat room with a gigantic whale battling a squid, a music room full of hundreds of instruments that played themselves, and just so much more.

The best part came last: the carousel room. This carousel is the world's largest, featuring 269 animals and 20,000 lights. And boy, was it beautiful. I was in absolute heaven. All of my dreams came true as soon as I walked through the tunnel leading into the room and saw that gorgeous thing. It was definitely the highlight of my trip!

After I had gotten my fill of the carousel, we exited the museum. We stopped in the gift shop on the way out, where I bought a mug featuring the world's largest carousel and Mike got a bunch of fudge which he shared with everyone. We piled back into the car and all chattered happily for the drive as we reminisced on all the amazing sights and fun that was had at The House On The Rock.

September 29th, 2017

White Lake "Free Weekend" Vacation: Day 1

Today we left for our weekend getaway up to Montello, Wisconsin. Why? Well, because it's the free weekend at White Lake resort! Unfortunately, not everyone could come up this time. None of the Fredrickson's or their friends made it up. And in our cabin, Rory, Andrew, and Kevin couldn't come. Instead, Mitch invited his two friends Josh and Dom. Zack brought Jake like usual. And then there was obviously me, Mike, mom, and Jax. It was a small group this time around, but we were all excited and glad to go nonetheless!

We made good time on the drive up. I was happy to see the lake again, even if it was too chilly to swim. The sunset was beautiful to see, as per usual. :) It ended up being such a fun night. We all played an endless amount of games, sang a bunch of songs, and just shared in so many laughs. Josh and Dom really seem to be enjoying themselves, too! I was worried they might think it was lame since we couldn't swim or have fun at the beach. I'm looking forward to another fun, full day tomorrow! We talked about possibly going to go visit a museum nearby, which is home to the world's largest carousel!! I really hope it all works out and we can go. :) Stay tuned!!

September 28th, 2017

I made some crescent rolls while at my mom's this evening and I stupidly left them in too long so they burned. Charlie was happy about this though, because it meant she got a snack! The little beggar sat beneath the burnt rolls until I fed practically all of them to her, lol.

September 27th, 2017

Richard has been bugging Mike and I to come over and see his new apartment for weeks now. I had work in the afternoon, but after that we were both free for a change. So we told him that this evening would work if he was free. He happily told us he would make dinner if we wanted to come around 7PM. We showed up to The Ponds and made it up to his place...after getting a little lost trying to find his door, lol. The apartment was, well, very Richard. If you've ever been to his previous house in Woodridge you'd know exactly what I'm talking about. He had decorated every inch of the place in his favorite shades of blues and grays. He had all of his Halloween décor all set up (which I thought was very cute).

Ron was there as well, so I finally got to meet him. Mary showed up just as dinner was being served; it was nice to see her! Richard made yummy pulled pork along with beans and coleslaw. For dessert we had strawberry shortcake—the strawberries were just to die for! After dinner we sat around chitchatting for a long while. Mary and Richard's neighbor Teresa came over and swapped stories with us as well. Mike and Ron helped fix the wifi and set up their Comcast account. Overall, it was a very lovely evening! It was real nice to see Richard and Mary and catch up on things.

Also, enjoy this picture of a squirrel I took today...which is completely unrelated to everything I mentioned above, lol.

September 26th, 2017

"An empty nest does not mean an empty heart."

September 25th, 2017

This evening while I was dying of boredom in my Website Design class (Does anyone see a trend with this? lol), I stumbled across a very old Illustrator file from back in 2015. It was a graphic I had started to create of a sketch from an assignment in my Graphic Design III class. I was pretty excited to see this silly alligator, because I had really loved my sketch and the way the graphic had been turning out. I thought I had lost him!! I tweeked a few things to finish him up and, ta-da!, he was finally complete!

Below I included the original sketch from way back one. I love seeing the before and after pictures for a graphic designer's work! It's so cool to see how the logo or graphic turned out, as compared to the original design. :)

September 24th, 2017

This is my boring poster for my boring Typography class. I'm doing mine on the Baskerville typeface. It's still in the works, but it's coming along. We don't get much freedom to be fun and creative with this project...hence my lack of enthusiasm. ;P

September 23rd, 2017

September 22nd, 2017

I prepared a lovely spread of food for dinner today that hit all the food groups (well, minus fruit I suppose ;P). Mike came home from work super grateful to see such a yummy variety! It makes me so happy to do things like this for him. :)

After we had eaten we decided to make use of the nice weather (95 degrees on the first day of fall?!) and go mini golfing! We've been to several of the places in the area many times...and honestly, we really wanted to try something new. I looked up some places and noticed one name on the list that I actually already knew: PGN Jumping Fun! I hadn't been there since I was in first grade, so the thought of heading back sounded fun! Plus, the place looked cool in general. So we set out!

The course was better than we could've ever imagined. Huge! Two different courses. Very challenging! And so much fun. :) Mike beat me the first game and I beat him the second. It wasn't crowded at all so we got to take our time and never had to wait. We loved the place so much we promised one another we'd come back real soon. I was so glad we decided to venture out and try someplace new!

September 21st, 2017

If I ever do get a tattoo, there's a 99% chance that it'll be Disney-related.

September 20th, 2017

It's not even October yet but I bought these two cuties some Halloween hoodies! 😍🎃👻💀

September 19th, 2017

Dew on the Subi this morning. 💦🚘

September 18th, 2017

One of the things I love most about Mike and I is how we still always try to do sweet, romantic things for one another on a daily basis. He snuck these cute, little notes into my backpack last night for me to find this morning. :)

September 17th, 2017

Today was the last day for the Dinos & Dragons exhibit at Brookfield Zoo! Not wanting to miss it, Mike and I planned a fun day at the zoo today! The exhibit wasn't anything fancy, but it was still really cool. You know me—I love anything to do with dinosaurs. :) We had fun taking photos and checking out all the animatronic dinosaurs and dragons.

It turned out to be a perfect day to go to the zoo in general! The weather was gorgeous...though, Mike complained it was too hot. ;) For it being the last day of the exhibit and a weekend, it was not crowded at all. And a ton of animals were out and about, even despite the heat! It turned out to be a really wonderful day.