Late September/ Early October Events

Last weekend Alex and I made a trip out to Tinley Park to see our final DMB show for the season, it was a great time as always. It was nice going somewhere different as well, since our regular place is Noblesville. I think his count is now up to 26 shows and I've been to 14... I don't even want to do the math on how much money we have spent over the years. Its become a tradition for us, so I think we'll keep it up for as long as they are touring.

The day after the concert we met up with my parents, Ryan, Shannon, and Hunter for the Sox vs. Tigers game up here at US Cellular. It was a super nice day, and it was great to get to see everyone, since that doesn't happen so often anymore. We were there to cheer on the Tigers (Dad and Ryan are big Tigers fans), unfortunately the Sox came out with a "W".

We are heading home Friday night for the first time since Labor Day weekend. Mom and I are going to go wedding dress shopping again (only the 2nd time), and then Alex and I are driving down to Plainfield to visit the Standeford's in their new home! We haven't seen Jake and Rox since El's wedding in August, so a trip is long over due!

We will actually be home 2 weekends in a row because we are going to join my parents at the Purdue vs. Ohio State game. Maybe they'll start to turn things around by then... (wishful thinking).

Happy October!

Alex and I went out to dinner to a place we haven't been to before, a Brazilian steakhouse... WOW! It was quite an experience to say the least. Basically, its an all you can eat salad bar (my favorite part) and then meats and sides (Alex's favorite part). They come around and ask you if you want various types of meats: steaks, chicken, lamb, and pork. I think they had like 16 different kinds. So, you have this card and if you want the guys to stop at your table with the different meats you turn it to the green side. I promise, as soon as you turn your card over... they're there! When you are set for a bit you turn your card to red. And then you flip it back over when you are ready to grub again. haha I know Rox, it was nothing but a bunch of people over eating, a dietitian's nightmare! We were celebrating our last "dating" anniversary, which is actually on Tuesday, but he TA's on those nights. We've been discussing investing in a new camera as our gift to each other, we'll see.

Other than that, just school and school for both of us.

Below is a picture of my bulletin board outside of my room.

Catch Up

It has been a busy last few weeks! I started the new school year, officially as a 2nd grade teacher and I can say (at least so far) that I am enjoying it much better than kinder! The year has gone well so far, but its only been 4 days. Teachers started on August 17 for workshops and such. I spent a lot of time getting my room together and meeting all of my parents before the school year actually started.

Al and I just got back from a trip up to Schaumburg, my new favorite suburb. We made another trip to IKEA (love this place) and of course when you are in Schaumburg you have to go to Woodfield Mall... awesome, awesome mall! Al got a new Bears jersey.... and I got some things for my classroom (can you see where our priorities are?) haha

Last week was a pretty big football week for us. We got tickets from the Butera's to see the Bears' last pre-season game at Soldier Field and then we were back home in L-town for the first Purdue football game with my parents. We tailgated at the Purdue game and had a blast! Plus, both teams came out with a win!

Tailgating at the Purdue game.

Go Bears!

Below are a few of our engagement pictures that we took up here in Chicago in August. Hopefully we'll be sending out our "Save the Dates" sometime this fall!

Have a great weekend!

Mackinac Island

We returned today from our short vacation to Mackinac Island, Michigan. We had a blast! We got up to Mackinaw City on Wednesday and stayed the night there. We took a drive over the bridge and had dinner in the U.P. It was neat going over the bridge, I haven't done that in a long time, but this time I was the driver- I don't think I could have done that the last time.

Thursday morning we got up and took a ferry over to the island. We walked around quite a bit, looked at all of the shops, grabbed some lunch, and then decided to take a narrated carriage ride over the island. This was really fun and quite educational I must say! I haven't taken a carriage ride there since I was 8 years old, I couldn't ride my bike around because I had a bright pink cast from my fingers to just short of my shoulder on my left arm. (For those of you who know my history this was the 2nd time I broke that arm.) After the carriage ride we were able to check into our hotel. We stayed at the Chippewa, super cute hotel with a great location right on Main St. We shopped around a bit more, grabbed some dinner, and then called it a night.

Friday was a little more of an adventurous day! We rented bikes and took a LONG ride all over the island. We went all the way to the top and checked out all of the sights around it such as Arch Rock, Sugar Loaf, and Skull Cave. We took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up going down a thin and muddy trail called Juniper, needless to say, my shoes weren't as white after this little detour. We made our way down to the other side of the island and then took a ride around it. As we got to the other side, we decided to go back up. We looked at some of the neat houses, enjoyed the view, and then went back down again and rode around the other side that we didn't do the time before. I guess you could say we were a little soar after our 12 or so mile ride. We turned the bikes back in, rested up a little, and then Al treated us to a nice dinner. We ended the night with some shopping and of course getting some famous Mackinac Island fudge to bring back home and enjoy!

We got up early this morning, caught the first ferry back to "the mainland", and took the 7 hour drive back to Chicago.

We had a great time and we can't wait to go back again. Below are some pictures from the trip. Also, at the bottom is a link to the complete photo album. I'm learning how to do so many things with this new computer.

Mackinac Bridge, this connects the "mitten" of Michigan to the Upper Peninsula (U.P.).

Posing for a picture!

Arch Rock, there are some pictures of this from below in the photo album.

The 3 horses that took us around on our carriage ride.

The view of Main Street from above.

http://gallery.me.com/jslucter/100023

We also got an e-mail today to view our engagement pictures!! Yay!!!! We really like them. I will post those as soon as we get the disc in the mail, probably Wednesday or Thursday. I start my teacher work again on Monday. I can' t believe summer is over and I am beginning my 2nd year of teaching, boy how time flies!