Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Our Little Home

I've been meaning to put up some pictures of our new place, and here they are! We're still putting some finishing touches on the place, but you'll get the idea.


Here's the kitchen. We are loving how big and open it is! That's the entryway to the right, and there is a giant closet next to it that houses our washer and dryer and a lot of storage.


We bought this new dining table with extendable leaves. It works great for the space and gives us quite a bit of seating.


The kitchen/dining area is open to the living room. I am still trying to figure out what to put on the mantel above the "fireplace." I say "fireplace" because it's electric and doesn't really do the idea of a real fireplace justice. But it's still nice to look at :)

We also purchased a new couch for the space. It's very comfortable and we really like it. I'm in the process of finding/making some new throw pillow covers to give it some color.


We've also remedied the lighting situation a bit and got a new lamp for the far side of the couch that arcs and hangs over the corner a bit. The couch literally takes up almost that entire wall area, so we don't have much room for lamps on either side. But it works for us!

I'll try to get some more photos up as we finish projects...

V-Day Recap

So, I know I already posted on Valentines Day, but I just wanted to share a few pictures from our evening out. First, we exchanged homemade cards with each other to kick of the celebration. Can you tell who made each one?


Luke is VERY resourceful, as you can see from his highlighter masterpiece.
I loved it :)


And, I received some beautiful flowers!


And then we went to a yummy dinner across the street at an Italian cafe we've been meaning to try. Luke had fresh snapper and I had asparagus ravioli. It was delicious! (Judging by the photo, Luke agrees.) We hope you all had a great time celebrating the day of love, too!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Must Be Love

Happy Valentines Day, everyone!

Tonight, Luke and I are celebrating with dinner at the Italian restaurant across the street. But, I thought I'd take a trip back down memory lane with my one and only valentine :)


Our first road trip together...


I can never keep a straight face... especially compared to Luke.


Then we got married :)


And here we are, more than five years since we first met and I love him even more!

Happy Valentines Day Luke!!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Road Trip: Part II

Now, for the second part of our epic road trip!

After leaving Chicago, we headed to the homeland where we stayed a night with my parents in the cities and a night with Luke's parents in Wells. It was great to say one last goodbye, and load up on snacks, of course :) We hit the road early on Tuesday morning for our riveting ride through South Dakota. The one funny thing about South Dakota is that our friend Patrick's family owns Wall Drug. So, we made it a destination! 


I mean really, how many Wall Drug signs are there?



That night we made it all the way to Billings. The next day we took to the road again and made it to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho by early afternoon. 


Gotta love those mountains!


We spent some time exploring the town and treated ourselves to a nice dinner. It was funny because that was our first stop where we could really tell we were back in the Pacific Northwest by looking at all the people... and all the vegetarian restaurants!


A view of the lake...


Somebody's happy to be out of the car :)


Luke riding a moose!


Me and a very dirty Jeep! 


On Thursday, we headed for Seattle! 


 Even Eastern Washington can be pretty...


And there is nothing like coming through the Snoqualmie Mountain pass after hours of Eastern Washington. 


All in all, our trip was fabulous. We had great weather and made really good time. 
We are getting better at the whole road trip thing, I would say :)

After getting here, catching up with friends and apartment hunting like it was our job, we signed a lease and moved in to our place five (yes, FIVE) days later. And thanks to our amazing friends (Elise, Travis, Chris, and Nick) we had the whole truck unloaded and everything moved into our new apartment in an hour. It was awesome!!


The boys figuring out how to unload the motorcycle...


All of our stuff on the sidewalk in front of our building.

Now, we are pretty much all settled in and have even hosted a Superbowl Party! We still have some final decorating touches to do, but we are LOVING our new apartment and the location. We always talk about how our new neighborhood feels a lot like our old neighborhood in Chicago--with possibly even MORE restaurants within walking distance. Is that possible?!?

I'll get some apartment pictures up here soon!