Sebring Relay for Life!

Laura and I had the oppertunity to be on teams for RFL this past Saturday. It is really quite an amazing event, actually the single largest non-profit fundraiser for cancer reaserch! We worked all morning (yes, even Laura got up to work, hehe) and then walked from 2am-4:30am!

Ian's team raised over $5,000-- silver sponsorship

Laura's team raised about $2,500 -- bronze sponsorship (pretty good for a brand new school)

Cool things to do in GR while you are there!

We are excited to be having our wedding to be held in the city that Laura grew up in, and Ian lived in before we moved to Florida. Here, are a few prized destinations and unique diversions for you to indulge in if you are visting our host city, Grand Rapids. If you have other ideas, post comments!!

• DeVos Place
• Gerald R. Ford Museum
• Van Andel Museum Center
• Grand Rapids Art Museum
• Grand Rapids Children’s Museum
• Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
• Civic Theatre
• Spectrum Theatre
• Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium
• Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts
• John Ball Zoo
• Woodland Mall
• RiverTown Crossings
• Van Andel Arena
  

There are also some beautiful and quaint cities that surround Grand Rapids, including near the Lake Michigan shoreline.

• Michigan’s West Coast
• Holland
• Grand Haven
• Saugatuck
• Douglas
• Muskegon

Announcing our wedding registry at Longaberger

Ian's Mom should be proud. After 46 days of nagging (hehe), I finally updated our site to include Longaberger.

www.ianandlaura.com click REGISTRY (or just the image above!)

Enjoy!

Going BANANAS!!!!

Laura here!!

Today, some people from Ian's work invited us to go visit "The Center for Great Apes" in Wauchula, Florida, about 1/2 hour from our house. It is a place that houses rescued apes and orangutans that have been in show business, circuses, or have been bought to have as pets when it was still legal, and then abused. RJ Gators in town is doing a fund raiser to "feed the monkeys." It costs about $15,000 to feed an ape for one year. I think I speak for both Ian and I when I say it was one of the most fascinating things we've ever done! There is a huge facility with cages, and wire walkways for them to travel all over the property but still remain in cages. We even met some celebrity apes, such as the orangutan from the Tang commercials, and the ape that starred in "Dunston Checks In." It was really interesting, the tour guide said that the apes like looking at us as much as we like looking at them, and a lot of them were doing "tricks" for us, like pushing their bowls around the cages, or clapping, etc. The orangutans on the other hand were much more shy and docile. It's awesome that we have a place so close to here that cares so much about the treatment of these animals!! My favorite pics: