Seth and I just celebrated our third wedding anniversary on October 4th. That means, he's been putting up with my shenanigans for 3 blissful, married years and 9 (probably ridiculously long) years total. I did some reflecting on our anniversary and I couldn't be any more proud of the man I married and the life we have. He is my best friend and no matter what has been put in front of us, we've conquered it. So, I thought to myself, since I'm feeling all lovey-dovey squishy-wishy...why not subject you all to this ridiculousness too! I figured that it would be great for you all to get a good look at how Seth and I got here, with a Thursday edition of our blog. I'm going to take this time to chronicle our relationship from the beginning... and ya'll can laugh at how silly we look in photos. 😍
Seth and I met in November of 2008. I had just started my first year of graduate school at the University of Michigan and my good friend, Suz, was attending the nearby Michigan State. Being graduate students, we lived off of free food at departmental seminars and anything cheap. (How I miss the free bagel days and Qdoba leftovers!). Due to this, a lot of us were unable to afford to get home for Thanksgiving. So, Suz and I had our own Thanksgiving feast!
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| It was delicious. 😊 |
Later that night, we had planned to go to Potter Park Zoo in Lansing, MI that had an annual Christmas light display. Suz told me that she had invited a friend to come with us as well, because he too, couldn't get home for the Thanksgiving holiday. *Enter: Seth*
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| Suz and I really liked those giraffes! |
We all had a really great time, being silly and enjoying the festive decorations and lights! Although, I don't think it was Suz's intention to set us up, Seth and I really hit it off. 😍 Because of that, we couldn't be anymore grateful to her for introducing us! Seth and I enjoyed escaping grad school work and stress by hanging out with our friends and having game nights.
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| I'm pretty sure that he shouldn't be showing his cards to people. 😁 |
Over the course of our grad school years, Seth and I really grew up together and went on many adventures! Seth went to his first Catholic Easter service with me, and I forgot to tell him about being blessed with Holy Water during the mass. (Ooops). But, I do think that we cleaned up well!
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| This was before he got sprinkled with Holy Water. 😆 |
We even went ice skating and drove out to MA together a lot. For those of you that don't know, the drive from MI to MA is about 16 hours. We once even made a pit stop at Niagara Falls!
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| I don't really have words for this photo. Except, Seth was INSISTENT that he take a photo with the Canadian construction cone |
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| Standing in Canada with a view of the American Falls |
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| It was windy. |
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| The tulips were super pretty 💜 |
We tried our hardest to always balance our graduate school work with fun and family. Because truly, if all you did was study in school, you'd be bored. We really have never taken ourselves too seriously over the years!
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| Skinner Mountain Hiking 2009 |
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| Mother's Day Celebration with my family in 2009 |
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| Sheer ridiculousness and playing with my MacBook ... probably also in 2009 |
So, this was all very early on in our relationship. We were cute...albeit stressed and overworked (thanks, grad school). But, it made for some pretty ridiculous adventures.
Michigan was a great state to live in for 5 years. That's not even sarcasm. We miss the state. I loved that mitten! This is probably because the Fall is our favorite - and Michigan autumns were GORGEOUS!
We picked lots of apples and pumpkins... and even saw our fair share of Red Wings games.
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| This ridiculousness is how I get to the good apples at the top of the apple tree. Being 5'2" isn't easy you know. |
Beginning in 2009, we started a tradition of putting up our little pre-lit Christmas tree and getting a new ornament to share.
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| We both like penguins. |
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| I almost went to Penn State for grad school. I'm very glad that I didn't though - or I wouldn't have met Seth! ;) |
That year (2009), we celebrated our 1st anniversary too! And being the chemist-turned-bakers that we are, we made a giant cupcake to celebrate.
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| It was funfetti flavored! |
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| We went to a lot of hockey games. This was in Chicago to watch the Texas Stars play for my birthday! |
We even spent some vacation time in PA, with Seth's family. :)
In 2010, we moved to Jackson, MI. Despite being in the middle of no where in the Mitten, we always found some activity to do so that we could de-stress from the grad school life. Close to our home was a city park that had a waterfall fountain and at night on the weekends, there would be light shows set to music.
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| It was a pretty cool event! |
We were even close enough to an airfield that held air shows and hot air balloon festivals.
One of my favorite memories was during the Fall of 2010 - we went camping at Sleeping Bear Dunes in the northern part of Michigan. Now, Seth will probably tell you that we went up to explore northern Michigan...but, we really went up there and camped because: a. there was rookie training camp for hockey that was being held and was open to the public and b. camping was cheaper than getting a hotel - and being in grad school, everything is expensive. 😄 But we both really love camping, so, it was truly a win-win situation for every one.
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| Honestly, it was a beautiful sight and well worth the climb to get up there. |
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| Ok. On the count of three, 1, 2, 3...Aweeeeee |
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| That is a cliff. A sand cliff.. There were signs everywhere warning you not to climb down. |
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| As luck would have it, there was also a schooner festival that same weekend. |
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| Obligatory 'in the stands watching hockey' photo |
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| Blurry hockey action shot |
Camping and corn mazes were some of our favorite things to do up in northern Michigan. We camped a lot! We even really like camping now. We go every year; so I'm pretty sure that we can call it a tradition.
I guess I can't stress it enough. Despite all of the hard work and long hours we both put into school, Michigan was a magical place. 😍
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| Bronners. There was an entire store dedicated to Christmas for 365 days a year. MAGIC! |
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| Bronner's even had giant inflatables and statues to celebrate the winter season! |
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| 2010 - We're gingerbread people! |
A few of our other favorite places included Holland, MI and all of the tulips, as well as the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit!
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| Seth pulls off the wooden shoe much better than I do. |
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| Wooden shoes! |
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| The Oscar Mayer Wiener Car at the Henry Ford! |
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| I'm an Oscar Mayer wiener. 😆 |
Seth actually was the first person to bring me to a theme park that wasn't Six Flags. Before the summer of 2010, I had never even been to Florida. Growing up, my family loved to take summer day trips to the lake or the beach, so I, actually to this day, have never even been to Disney World! This is something we plan to do once we are matched for sure! I would love to have those happy Disney memories with a child! I honestly can't wait to see the excitement in their eyes!
So, since Seth also has some family in Florida, we also got to go to Universal Studios!
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| Harry Potter!!!!!! |
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| Me and Betty Boop! |
Fast forward a few years filled with plenty of shenanigans and school work... WE GRADUATED!! Seth and I both earned our PhDs in chemistry. (Seth, being the overachiever that he is, also earned his masters of science in forensic chemistry.)
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I'm a doctor!
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This is Seth actually giving his dissertation presentation. He doesn't like Pepsi and chips that much though! He actually got a job in Dallas at Pepsico right before graduation...so that was our next stop! TEXAS!!
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Following graduation, we moved down to Dallas, Texas. It was an interesting ride. Over the course of two days, Seth, my mom, and I caravanned down endless highways until we got to our new apartment.
While in Texas, it was the first time that we didn't have papers due or grading to finish and it was wonderful! We could really enjoy all of our together time. We took cake decorating classes and explored fun parks and sights in Texas!
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| Botanical Garden in Austin, TX |
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| Inner Space Caverns in Georgetown, TX |
We even made it all the way to the Grand Canyon!!
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| Rain does follow us. 😆 |
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| This is actually where Seth proposed! 💕 |
Seth proposed right there. Right in that spot over looking the canyon. It was beautiful. Due to the rain, there weren't any other tourists around so it was quiet and perfect. Seth didn't say much ... though, he's not a man of many words. But, he handed me a 3D printed turtle. (His job at the time, had him in charge of 3D prototyping and he had to test out the printers often and because of that, I had a pretty large 3D printed turtle army). But, this turtle was different! His shell had a hinge and inside of his shell was a ring. *AWEEEEEE* Like I said, it was simple and perfect. 😍
So, let's fast forward just a little bit (since we are getting pretty close to present day). We took lovey-dovey engagement photos (with the best Dallas Wedding Photographer and person EVER! - excuse me while I throw in a quick advertisement for the wonderful Laura Miller!)
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| These dogs literally just showed up in the field. They were pretty lovable. |
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| I mean, everyone has an engagement photo where you are chasing each other over hay bales, am I right? |
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| Did I mention yet that it was also raining during this photo shoot? Because it was...but we are just so cute. 😆 |
Then, we got married. (In the rain - it's a theme, I promise. 😀)
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| Just married! 💕 |
After the wedding, we saved up some vacation time and spending money and took a honeymoon trip to Europe! We visited The Netherlands, Austria, and Germany. If you haven't guessed it yet, it also rained a lot on our trip. 😆
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| Salzburg Zoo! (Austria) |
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| Hellbrun Palace - Salzburg, Austria |
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| Mirabell Palace Gardens - Salzburg, Austria |
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| Vienna, Austria - My birthday meal! |
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| Graz, Austria |
Texas was great! We adopted Rosalind from the SPCA and went on a ton of adventures!
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| Roz loves hiking Texas trails |
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| She's pretty good at getting her photo taken too! |
We really loved going to the State Fair of Texas too!
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| Everything is bigger in Texas...even the pinwheels! |
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| Art exhibit at the Fair - Canstruction! |
We even took our first anniversary photos at the Fair! (Thanks again, Laura!)
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| Everyone loves the swings! |
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| It's a little Big Tex! |
I don't know what would have happened if I never met Seth. But, I do know that my life wouldn't have been as fun and love filled as it is today. 💕
Thanks for dealing with all the lovey dovey and squishy wishy of this post.
But, you made it!! And I hope you learned a bit more about us!
We would love to talk with anyone who has any questions about our journey! Just let us know!
All of our love! 💕
Shana and Seth
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