The New Year Begins with A Look Back...

What a whirlwind! It has felt like non-stop travel since the week before Thanksgiving. We had some wonderful times with our families and friends, but it is nice to know that we will stay home this weekend!

It started with a trip to Seattle for a bachelorette party, then to Bainbridge Island for Thanksgiving, then we had Blake's mom and step dad over for the weekend, then we headed to Portland for a holiday party, then to Boise for the weekend, then to Kelso for Christmas, then to Seattle for Whitney and Jason's wedding on New Years Eve, and then back to Idaho for Jed's 30th Birthday. Whew!

Here are some pictures from our visits:
(Warning.. there are a lot of them!)

November 21st, a surprise Bachelorette Party for Whitney:

Whit and Me


The girls~

Somehow I didn't get any pictures of Thanksgiving... very strange!

I also didn't get pictures of Blake's mom and step-dad visiting...

Portland Dec. 11th, Holiday Bar Crawl

Blake's Uncle David.. or "cousin" as we call him when the ladies are around ;)

Off to Boise December 18-20th. Friday night we went to Pair with Macey

and Saturday night we made 'gingerbread' houses with everyone.

This is our gingerbread townhouse:

Christmas was CRAZY.. here are a few pictures at only a few of the houses we stopped at:

First it was Blake's parents' house for Christmas morning,

then to Blake's grandparents house where I was initiated into the family with this stocking :)

Then waiting waiting for Jared to get home from work to have Christmas at my parent's house.. which brought us to Dec. 26th

Our new AeroGarden salad kit :)

Next we're back to Seattle for Whitney and Jason's Wedding. It was beautiful!! We had so much fun! New Years Eve 2009:

The happy couple :)

The dress that barely fit!

Happy New Year 2010!

And last but not least... back to Idaho for Jed's Birthday Jan. 9th! The first of us to turn 30!

Such a cute family!

Aunt and niece, a special bond!

The party girls :)

The person I want at every party :)

We've had so much fun celebrating with our friends and family!

Our First Christmas

Well, it wasn't looking much like Christmas around here... until today. After much thought, we decided to get a Christmas tree. I pulled out the Christmas box and realized that the only decorations I had were a few candles and tree decorations. If we were going to feel any Christmas spirit it would take a tree, with the glow of the lights and the smell of the needles. Now we're in business.

Our "Peace" artwork from PB, it was a lot bigger than we thought it would be!

The tree adds some nice warmth to the room :)

I guess it's my year to put on the topper. When we were kids we really argued over it. Mostly because it meant that we got lifted up by dad and that was cool (cooler than a step ladder!).

Okay, so these are in reverse order...

Aww :)

Bridal Pictures

My cousin Macey, photographer extraordinaire, offered to take some bridal portraits for me. She also wanted to practice a few photography things like sun flares and some aloof shots. 

So I put that fantastic dress back on, did my hair and makeup and out we went. I thought I'd love having my dress on again, and it was fun to wear it, but really I felt kind of silly. All-in-all it was fantastically fun and we got some great shots. Here are a few:

It got to be so windy that we had to call it a day.. but yes, I really got in that river with my dress on. So COLD!

Married!

Our honeymoon was just wonderful and was a great way to start off our marriage. We were totally relaxed and had a wonderful time. Blake has been an amazing husband!

*sigh*

Well, we made it through the wedding, which means we made it through two moves and quite a bit of stress! Blake moved into our place in June and I moved my stuff over in July. However, I stayed with my parents during until the wedding, so the unpacking really only started when we got back from our honeymoon. It was a lot of work combining our lives and all those fabulous wedding gifts (Thanks everyone!) but here we are, the place is starting to feel like home and I'm just about ready to go back to work!

"God's Country"

It is no small secret that I am not thrilled about my future move to Tri-Cities. I love the West-side and all that is rainy and green. I don't really enjoy the blistering heat and prefer cloudy skies over skin cancer causing sun. Vitamin D-vitamin schmee.

Jared, my older brother, so kindly helped me move out of my old apartment and caravaned with me to Kennewick. He was there with me while I sadly packed up and lamented, pouted shamefully and constantly really, about having to move to the Tri-Cities. He would say over and over how he just didn't understand why I was sad. After all, I was moving to 'God's country', they grow things there, the earth is fertile, they have more sunny days and wide-open skies! Seriously, he reminded me of this hourly and tried to impress upon me just how lucky I was, after all, it was God's country!
I maintained that it was the desert and nothing good was in the desert (except Blake, but I'd rather him not be there either).

So Jared stayed for a week to hang out with Blake and to use our super high speed Internet. He had helped me unload my stuff into 'our' apartment. Blake had been 'living' there for a month now with his bedroom furniture, scant dishes, his TV and two camping chairs. I was providing most of the furniture and really didn't want any of his bachelor furniture to make it over the threshold! I went to live at my parents' until the wedding.

Apparently, during Jared's stay there was a pretty major wind storm because after Jared came home from his week in 'God's country' he gave me a hug and expressed deep sympathies that I had to move to such an awful deserted land. He said that the wind blew so hard dirt seeped into every crack around every door and every window. The wind/dirt sandblasted the writing off of an unopened case of soda in his truck bed and destroyed our barbecue. He reported with quite a bit of enthusiasm how horrible it was and that this place indeed was not 'God's country' but a dry, nasty, sand blower, of a desert.

Now if only this 'win' would somehow make it better to live there! At least he tried to be positive.. I guess ;)

Farewell Old Friend

It's time to move. It's silly I know, but I will miss this place. I know I'm moving on to better things: marriage, my first home with Blake, etc., but it's the end of this chapter and that still makes me sad. I just want to capture all that this place really meant for me. 

This was the first place I lived alone, and I have loved living alone! I've lived here longer than any of the other 11 places I've lived since I moved away to college. I moved in with a bed, dresser, desk and hand-me-down couch. I painted, decorated and furnished this place from top to bottom. This place represents my successful independence. This is where I really grew into my own life and style. This is where I really started cooking. The joy of every type of food and ingredient within minutes. Selection and variety at my fingertips.This place is what I'll think of when I remember my 20's. The convenience of Bellevue and Seattle in 20 minutes or less (when the M's weren't playing). Meeting friends for coffee, happy hour, dinner or drinks. Walking to the grocery store. Tuesday night dinners with Whitney. Ups and downs shared over food. Learning what it really means to be an SLP. This place is where I come at the end of a long day and melt into bed. This is where I cried with friends and laughed with friends. But more importantly:

This is where I lived while falling in love with Blake. I was painting the accent wall in the living room when he called to check on me late one night and for the first time I had expected him to call. I was putting together my bedroom when I realized he'd called every night that week...he must either be bored or there's something serious going on here. It was the weekend I felt helpless because a heavy piece of furniture had been delivered to the concierge and I had no way to get it into my apartment.. there he came to the rescue, visiting in his big truck.

This is where Blake proposed.

This is where he first said 'I love you'.
(Yes in that order)

I'm sure I'll look back and see that what I'm leaving behind is nothing compared to what I'm moving towards. But for now, it still stings to see this place be packed up and painted over.. all that hard work. That classic, old hardwood floor.. open and empty. My cousin was kind enough to photograph it before I started packing and moving. This is how I'll chose to remember it. Warm and full of life.

 

Here's a little preview!

In only 51 days and a few hours...

I was able to pick up my wedding band today from the jewlery designer... YEAH!! And the answer to your next question is.. yes, I wore it :) What!? I couldn't just leave it in my car.. or in my purse... what if something happened to it! If it helps, I wore it on my right hand, I only had it on my left hand to make sure it fits and take a picture :) I love it! Still have to get Blake's though....

Work Weekend

This weekend Blake and I met down in Kelso to help get my parents' house ready for the wedding. My mom and dad have been working really hard all spring and even last fall to get things caught up and spruced up. We were glad that we could finally help out, even just a little. The weather wasn't great, but it felt better to have a sweatshirt on than melt in the sun! Even though it was work, it was nice to be home and spend time with family. Jared even came up to help. It was really great to see him!

Blake was great with the pressure washer all morning and finished the lower levels of the house and front porch. It made such a difference! I didn't think to get before and after pictures, but I did get some pictures of Jared and Blake working very hard to scrape stuff off the windows and Dad up on a ladder spraying the wasp’s nests. That was so gross! You can see the mud streaking down the eave!

Mom and I did a ton of weeding, mostly with the ferns in the lawn area below our house. It was pretty gross but looked a lot better once we got the dead stuff and unwanted plants out of there. Blake and Jared worked hard edging around all of the tree areas. There is still a lot of work to be done; next week the plan is to paint all of the newly washed trim.

Blake will do the painting, while I do some other bride duties. I have arranged a play date for my flower girls. We're a little worried about the youngest one, Blake's niece Emily. We're hoping that if she warms up to Ada, then she will really make it down the isle. Then that afternoon I am going bridesmaid dress shopping with my friend Alicia. It should be fun, despite her aversion to shopping!

We also knocked out all of the invitations this weekend. I got Blake to help finally and my mom pitched in too. You can expect to see them in the mail this week! I can't tell you how good it feels to cross some things off the list!!

On the last leg of the weekend, Blake came up to Seattle and took a load of my stuff over. It was the beginning of a long process. It was mostly the stuff from my closets but it made me realize how much stuff I have! I hope to purge a lot of it (yeah for Goodwill!) it's hard to think about moving to a new life. Things that I very rarely use but consider it worth the space to keep, craft supplies and research articles.. now I have to question if it's worth our space. Not only do I question if I think it's worth it, but is it worth taking up our limited combined space. Hopefully it will help me get rid of things I don't need (and make room for all those great wedding gifts!).