I heart Bay City!

During my vacation I spent a few days in Bay City, a place where I lived and worked during college. I love going back to visit! Every time I cross the bridge into the city I get butterflies in my stomach. Yes, I realize that's pretty cheesy but its true! My friend Erin also just moved back to Bay City after living in North Carolina for a few years. I stayed the night at her house with her and her cousin, Melissa. Melissa and I bonded a few summers ago after realizing our shared love of 80's music and Bob Seger! Both of these girls are a BLAST and I was so glad to go out to the bars with them.

Melissa, me and Erin out at the Green Hut - an awesome bar with an even better jukebox!

Yes, I realize he looks like Grizzly Adams... but this is one of my favorite Bay City people. He was my customer when I worked at the bank and we became pretty good friends. We've kept in touch even after I moved back to Ionia. He's a great guy and a hard worker. He may look a little scruffy, but I would say that owning your own snow plowing business in December in Michigan would be a little time consuming, so I think it's ok. I even kind of like the longer shaggy hair : )

Just taking some self portraits!

Cute cousins!

Ugly Sweater Christmas

This year, my family decided (because of my suggestion... ; ) )to do an ugly sweater Christmas. About a week before Christmas my cousins and I headed to Goodwill to find the ugliest sweaters we could! Bonus points if they were Christmas themed. So, we picked out sweaters for everyone in our family, even my grandpa and grandma. We had a lot of fun and got some great family pics, as you can see below. Of course, the pics don't do justice to the sweaters! If only you could see the metallic threads and sequins used... haha.

Family pic!

Linds and I with our beautiful Christmas sweaters full of bling and glitz

Although it wasnt Chrismas themed, Steph's sweater was AWFUL! But she rocked it with some blue leggings : )

This is my cousin Matt's son, Lex. He's SO adorable! Here he's enjoying the drum and noise maker set I got him.

Here he's eating one of the 49 cookies grandma fed him! I'm surprised he didnt get sick! Shortly after Christmas he got his hair cut and got all of those adorable curls taken off : (

Oakwood Lounge Pre-Christmas Party!

My uncle's band, Bailey's Comet, played at the Oakwood once again on December 20th. We had a family Christmas earlier that day, and so my aunts, uncles, cousins, dad and stepmom came out. Oh, and Lindsey, too. We had a TON of fun, as you can probably see below : )

On the way to the Oakwood - being dorks

Dirty Girl Scouts! And if you look closely, you can see the guy they tried to hook me up with in the background.... lol

Sisters!

Lecturing Lindsey about something

I have no idea what we're doing right here...

I was serenading Linds and she really wanted me to shut up

Lindsey was out on the dance floor for about 2 seconds... and this is what she did. Yikes!

Red Rooster (?) shots! Tequila, orange juice, tomato juice - not my idea!

Karen was stealing the most amazing cheesecake from the dinner buffet. On the way home, we stole a few more pieces, and most of it ended up smashed in my lap. But that's another story....

My Aunt Lori earned the nickname "The Clapper" and as a gag we got her a clapper for Christmas. She was clapping her little heart out to each and every song, even after it was over!

On the way home, I got the... experience... of sitting in the back seat of the car with my aunt and uncle. Apparently, they thought they were dating again because all I could hear for the ride home was them making out! Right NEXT to me!! Needless to say, the ride home was VERY interesting!

Here comes the Bride... finally!

I'm probably going to over-explain this blog entry in the hopes that I have some random blog follower out there who actually cares... Carrie, you're the only person I know that actually reads my blog, and I'm sure you already know allllll about last night : )

But, for my random blog follower (whoever you may be), allow me to explain: I met Carrie almost 2 years ago when I took a job with the bank back in Ionia. Quickly, I learned that Carrie's older sister was my 8th grade biology teacher (longer ago than I care to think about...) and she was engaged to a guy I went to high school with, Jim. Carrie and I became very good friends and last night I had the privilege of attending Jim and Carrie's wedding, a night 2 years in the making. I only have one picture of the couple together, but as you can see, the only thing more beautiful than Carrie's dress was the love these two have for each other (yes, that was a cheesy line, but it's so true). They are obviously meant for each other, and as Jim's brother pointed out in his toast, opposites that have been drawn together.

During the first dance as husband and wife :)

The boys attempting to do some soulja-boy moves. They were hilarious and did a great job!

Hmm... I'll let you make up your own caption for this one...

Me, sandwiched between the only single guys over the age of 21 that were at the wedding. Lucky for me, they happen to be 2 of my very good friends.

Yay for single girls! (PS: This pic is creeping me out because I think I look exactly like my mom...)

Another happily married couple! Aaron and Robyn : )

Grease is the word...

For Christmas this year, my sister and I decided to buy our dad, stepmom, and brother tickets to see Grease at the Wharton Center. We had Karen, our stepmom, help us plan and keep it a secret from my dad and Justin. For dinner, we went out to Olive Garden, one of Karen's favorite restaurants. She just made lifetime membership at Weight Watchers, so what better way to celebrate than with a huge steaming plate of chicken alfredo and endless breadsticks! haha.. Anyways, my dad and Justin thought we were just going out to dinner and then going home. But, at dinner, I pulled out the tickets and surprised them.

Here's the fam at dinner! The five of us haven't gone out to eat together in quite some time so we got a pic : )

Here's my ticket! We were in the sescond row on the balcony and the seats were amazing. We could see everything perfectly and from a higher angle so it was great. Taylor Hicks, from American Idol, was Teen Angel and sang "Beauty School Dropout." He did a great job! The stage performance is quite different than the movie, as far as the plot is concerned. They changed some things around, but all in all it was the same songs that I've been singing for years. I even danced a little bit in my seat... Hand Jive anyone?? : )

Awful pic of Lindsey and I before we went into the show.

I'm thinking of seeing Legally Blonde next year when it comes. I love the movie and I'm sure the stage performance would be just as great!

Black Friday

Over the past 3-5 years, it's become tradition for my sister, my three cousins, and myself to venture out into the madness that is Black Friday to get some good Christmas deals. Well, this year we decided to kick it up a notch and go to Birch Run for their midnight opening. We left Ionia around 9:00 to try and be the some of the first 500 people in line to receive a nice gift bag. Wellll.... I got us lost (kinda) and we ended up in the wrong line, so we didnt get a gift bag : ( Oh well, we still had a lot of fun. But we unanimously decided we will NOT return there next year.

Steph and Linds on the way up, singing Christmas songs the whole way : )

Passing the time playing cards in line
I kept walking on my pants, so I decided to tuck them into my shoes and make my own tapered windpants.... HOT!
Ali and Karlee bummed that we didnt get the gift bags... but checking out the coupon books insteadClock shot while we wait for Steph and Linds at Gap

Karlee and Ali drawing obscene stick people on my car windows on the way home

I got home around 5am and slept! I was hungry and exhausted! Then I woke up around 10am for round 2! Only 27 days til Christmas : )

Thanksgiving Eve!

It's that time of year again! The night before Thanksgiving is said to be the biggest bar night of the year, and 2008 was no exception. Unfortunately, many of my friends were unable to make it home for the holiday due to family and career obligations, so this year it was just Jenna and I. One thing about Jenna and I is that we can go for weeks without talking and pick up right where we left off. I've known her since 6th grade and we've been friends ever since. Wednesday night I went over to Jenna's house for some pre-bar Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, and then we headed to Gregory's. Gregory's was pretty packed, but nowhere NEAR as busy as last year. There, we met up with Jessica and some other friends and had a great time catching up. I only have one picture of the night, but luckily it's a good one! Although my eyes are kinda wide open... oh well!