Have Heart in Traverse City!

Saturday, we got all loaded up and had to go to u-haul to fix the trailer lights. We all sat in the back of the trailer waiting for them to fix it and just had fun. Right before we left, we all started chanting "Tall Ships, Tall Ships, Tall Ships!" and clapping. It was amazing. We finally got on the road and it took us forever to get to Traverse City, it felt like. We finally got there and got everything unloaded into the venue in Traverse City. The venue was so amazing. I loved it. It was like an art gallery right next to it.. but it was truly an awesome atmosphere. After we were all loaded into the venue, we headed down to the beach. I got so many amazing pictures of the guys. They were swimming, while us girls laughed on the beach. It was such an awesome time. This is probably the best time I've ever had with friends and people. Ever. In my entire life. I have true friends, I have amazing girls around that actually care about you. Plus I'm married to the most wonderful person on the planet. Our group of friends.. honestly? The best thing ever. After that, we headed back up and all stuffed into the van to get some McDonalds. When we headed back, we were being so loud in the van and being hilarious. I love every single one of our friends. So much. I feel so close to all of them too. We got back into the venue and it was no re-entry, so I was in there all night. I stood on the chairs by Tall Ships merch and just watched the bands. Verse and Have Heart finally got there and they were so amazing. It was awesome. I was overwhelmed by how amazing it was. Everybody had an awesome time and we all walked out of there just feeling amazing. I was so infatuated with Pat Flynn, Haha. I even got a PICTURE with him and got a hoodie. Soo much fun. The drive home was treacherous, but it was worth it. So worth it. We got home at 3:30 in the morning and I didn't sleep until about 4 AM. I got to work by 7:31 am this morning though, so I think I did quite well. Awesome, awesome, awesome weekend. I love our friends and our lives.

(tall ships!)

(anne, me, kait)

(me and PAT FYNNN from HAVE HEART!)

(tim and i after the show!)

Neo Con Seminar - Day Four

The next day, we had another seminar in the morning. Then we had a tour at some interior design office, which was so boring. We ditched out early. Our tour guide worked there and was "higher up" and had no idea what she was even talking about. The only cool thing about it was to see how some people worked in Chicago. I wish I had a better job right now. After that, we had some more free time at the Mart, but we went out to lunch at Chili's and went shopping instead. We met up at the Kimball office, which was across the street from the Mart. We got to tour that office model and it was awesome. I really want a clean, comfortable, "zen" office. I hate it at Beacon Recycling. So loud, noisy, dirty and people are disgusting here. It's not at all like that in those offices in Chicago. After that, we wrapped up and were excused to leave. I was so excited. We walked back to the L and took it home and got all packed up and headed out. It was an enjoyable ride home and it was so great to see Brett. I loved it.

(goodbye chicago, for now!)

Neo Con Seminar - Day Three

The next day, we had classes all day long. We had a seminar in the morning at Neo-con given by Robert Kennedy Jr. He should be president. Everything he said about the world and how badly we're polluting it made so much sense to me. It was interesting. After that, we had to walk down to the Gleacher center for all day classes. It was pretty boring to say the least. The last company that came to give a speech was a recycling company for office furniture and carpet. I love learning more about how we can "green" the environment and keep items out of landfills. The whole trip inspired me to recycle more and learn how and where to recycle more items. After the classes were done, we met up with everybody to go to the Architectural boat tour. It was awesome. We went out on Lake Michigan and saw Chicago from that angle. Then we headed down the river which was fantastic. Afterwards, we had some free time to go shopping on Michigan Ave. for a while. We went to the Forever 21, which was so amazing. I got a few things but wanted to buy so much more. We met up with Jen's brother, Chris, at Bang & Olsen or wherever he works. It's a super fancy electronics store. We went downstairs and watched a clip of Spiderman on this huge screen with amazing surround sound. Chris drove us back to their apartment. He bought us Chicago style pizza and we ate it watching Jim Gaffigan performing in Chicago.. It was a Chicago moment.

(jen and i)

(i love chicago!)

(me, jen and sarah!)

Neo Con Seminar - Day Two

The next day was our first day at the Merchandise Mart for Neo-Con. It was exhausting. Each room had a different company and we went through so many different rooms. It was amazing to see the new styles of office furniture and we got so many "freebie" items. Our bags weighed at least 20 lbs by the end of the night. A friend of Sarah's said that Dwight from the Office was upstairs signing autographs so we ran upstairs and sure enough, he was there. I took a phone picture and sent it to Brett. He was soo jealous. We got pictures with Dwight. (Rainn Wilson) He said he liked my name and it was pretty amazing.

(me, sarah, jen, rainn wilson!)

Toward 4:00 pm or so, companies began serving free drinks and appetizers. We stayed in the Steelcase party for quite some time and we all got quite drunk off free drinks, which turned out to be an absolute blast. We went from room to room getting free food and free drinks. I had a green tea martini, a blue crazy gross drink and some other pink ones and what not. So many people were laughing at us and with us. After the party started to die down, we went downstairs to this living room area in the front of the Mart. Jen and I was so crazy, we were climbing on the floor trying to hide from Sarah. We were just cracking up. We left the Mart to go get some real dinner and ended up walking downtown. The street was blocked off and this guy said that it was the filming of "Public Enemies" starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. We didn't actually get to see them, but we saw a bunch of people dressed up in old clothing and old cars. It was awesome. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe which was really fun. I really had an amazing day.

(jen and i at rainforest cafe)

(jen, sarah and i)

Neo Con Seminar - Day One

Chicago was quite amazing. The first day we drove down there, we got to Chris & Pilar's apartment. We had to walk down to the "L" train to meet up at Navy Pier. We headed downtown and walked down to Navy Pier. I had never been there before. It was pretty awesome. We just walked around looking at different things and then met up for a reception for Kendall College. We had fancy hor'deovres and drinks. After that, we headed back to the apartment because we were so tired.

(at the reception)

Friday Night in Grand Rapids

Friday night, Brett and I went into Grand Rapids to go down to Festival of the Arts with some kids. First, we went over to Rush's house for a Ghetto Grill. Then we decided to go downtown to check things out. We parked and walked around Monroe Center; it was a pretty fun evening. The sky was amazing! Afterwards, we got some pizza at BC Pizza, and went home kind of early. We started moving some things into our new apartment in heritage hill. It didn't feel right right now, but that's probably just because I finally got used to living at the Wesley house. I'm sure I'll be more excited when the time comes.

(anne, peter, jeremy, brett)

(anne and me)