The second day...rehearsal, sort of.

August 18, 2011. Another day where it was almost the wedding but not quite. So enough to make us feel like oh, I don't know, HOLY SHIT, HOW IS IT ALREADY HERE ? but not enough to really be in the calm of "Ok, it's here now."

It started off as any other normal day. Justin worked early in the morning from 6am to 11am or so. For me? Wasn't such a normal day. Well, it was at first I guess... I got up, went to the gym, ran for a bit and then went to get a manicure and pedicure. Awesome. Not so awesome? The girl running late. Like really late. A half an hour late. And when I was sort of on a timeline? Not cool. After that, I literally busted my ass to get to costco to get some last minute items for the BBQ we were having that night at Justin's grandma's house for our sort of but not really rehearsal as well as some items for the wedding reception (turns out, we had so much crap leftover in the end that this trip wasn't necessary at all for those reception related things... oh well).

After running to costco, I ran home to dump it all in the refrigerator, which was interesting to say the least since we already had so much stuff in there from our costco run the weekend before. And then, Justin and I had plans to meet at hot yoga. It seemed like a good idea to go to yoga the day before our wedding to kind of relax... and it was after my heart rate slowed down from running to costco to home to yoga and HOLY HELL, breathe now? Are you kidding me? Eventually the yoga breathing kicked in and I settled down from the chaos.... until we started getting phone calls about 2.5 seconds after we finished. Eh, it was the day before the wedding, guess it was pretty much assumed to be chaotic.We got home, showered, got ready, and headed out the door. Me, to pick up my dress, Justin and Oliver to get a couple of things ready to take to his grandma's for the BBQ there that night. The reason we decided to have a BBQ that night? Not because it was the typical rehearsal dinner, our wedding ceremony was too small to warrant that. No, instead it was just an excuse for us to layout the ceremony site and to get our close group of family together before the next two days really engulfed us.

After I picked up my dress, I headed to Justin's grandma's house where I stumbled upon the pink flamingos in the front yard. And then I died... from laughing. Justin's mom was in charge of dinner/appetizers the night of the wedding for the 20ish people that planned to be at the ceremony (in Justin's grandma's backyard). Ever since I asked her to help with this, the running joke was that she would also have pink flamingos to adorn the yard. Of course, I blew it off thinking she was joking. Which she was. Clearly. (and also? HILARIOUS).

We hung around a while with family before eating... above- Justin's mom, brother Jordan, Oliver, baby Isla, and Stephanie.

A picture of us! We may or may not have been pretty tired at this point... you be the judge.

A picture of Justin and his boy Oliver. (Sidenote- hello gorgeous Seattle weather! Where have you been all summer?!)

And a picture of all of us sitting around enjoying the beautiful summer evening and BBQ including my girlfriend Ashley from Dallas and her boyfriend Dave as well as my parents (not in this picture) and my brother Jon. So excited to have the out of town guests here!

And another candid of people hanging out at the BBQ. (Or perhaps this was taken to display Bailey and Oliver boxing?)

GORGEOUS sunset. Literally this was the best weekend weather wise we could have asked for... completely sunny, about 75-80 degrees. Unbelievable. You never do know with Seattle weather. After leaving Justin's grandparents, Justin went to his brother's house for the night and I went home to our house with my parents and brother. We lined up a couple of things for the next day (the Big Day) and then hit the hay....

The first day.

August 17th marked the first "official" day of the wedding festivities. Granted, the weekend(S), (oh, maybe months?) before were consumed with wedding related activities, but, this was the first day where it was actually an "OH MY GOD, it's here!" type of day. Meaning, all the planning was essentially done and if there was something else to do? Well, kind of too bad at that point. Or, HELLO, firedrill. And really, we get enough of those as it is in our daily work lives so we pretty much were at the, "Oh, well, too bad" point if something wasn't done.

So, the first of our official planned activities for this sunny Wednesday before our wedding? Drive east of the mountains to Leavenworth? Remember Leavenworth? I've mentioned it several times on this blog (like here)- it's the little town nestled east of the mountains where Justin called home for many years of his life. Coincidentally, it's also where his good friend now owns a chocolate shop (S'Chocolat). And thank god we don't live closer because I'd weigh 500 pounds... meaning, I'd be there every day. Maybe even begging.  It is hands down the most amazing chocolates ever. We love them so much we ordered 350 of them for our wedding reception. And chocolates don't ship easy. SO, not only did we love them so much we ordered 350 of them, we loved them so much we drove 3 hours (1.5 each way) two days before our wedding to pick them up. THAT, my friends, is belief in a product.

We also had an ulterior motive of picking up Oliver as well. He stayed at his grandparents house in Leavenworth so that we could pick him up bright and early that morning. Kind of important that he was a part of the whole wedding weekend, don't you think? Son of the groom, future step-son, and a groomsman... not to mention we really sort of like having him around.

Above- a shot of Justin driving to Leavenworth. We left at about 7am to get there a little before 9am, as he had to work that afternoon. It was a beautiful drive.

A shot of me... clearly I had the easy job this day.

And a shot of the mountains. There's something so calming and serene about driving through the mountains, even if it's a quick pass through and we don't get to stay in them for very long. After picking up Oliver, we headed straight to the chocolate shop to pick up our goodies, and then to a quick breakfast at Sleeping Lady (One of our favorites and a place where Justin used to work...YUM, by the way) before heading back to Seattle with our stash of chocolates. After we got back- Justin went to work that afternoon, I got a few more things ready for the upcoming events, Oliver went to get a haircut and pick up his suit with Justin, then I went in to work out for a bit, brought Oliver home, we made dinner (an old standby, tacos), and we called it a night. All in all, a successful day.

Our 350 chocolates for the wedding reception.

And of course, our own personal box from Damian for the drive back to Seattle... it looks pretty here but don't be fooled. OF COURSE, we broke into it right away.

We made it back from paradise.

We made it back from Hawaii, barely. Basically meaning, we didn't want to come back. At all. We contemplated our lives as beach bums, possibly living in boxes on the beach. It really didn't seem like that bad of a plan. Especially since undoubtedly the next few days in reality is inevitably going to be challenging. Who doesn't hate digging out of the vacation hole at work? If you love it, you have some issues. Anyway, Hawaii is glorious.

Lots to post on the wedding and our trip once we sort through pictures. For now, if you missed the link through facebook or a separate email, check out Tara's blog for a full recap of our wedding day. Click here. One word: amazing.

Sneak peek

It's been a busy (understatement) and incredible (also understatement- it couldn't have been better) couple of weeks but our lovely photographer Tara is one the ball and has a sneak peek of our wedding photos up. Click here to check them out... I know, makes you die to see the rest, right? (Us, too). We are sorting through many on our camera too with full blogs to come sometime but in the meantime we are off to relax, drink mai tai's and enjoy our first week as a married couple. Aloha!

Walking the bridge.

Did I mention a week or so ago when I went to Seattle for a friends' baby shower and forgot that the 520 bridge was closed for about a half hour due to SeaFair festivities? Yeah. Whoops. So I got there about 5 minutes too late and ended up having a party (or something) with other Seattle-ites on the 520 bridge. At least it was a nice day.

We waited while all of the big boats went through as the bridge was raised. Oh, and then at the end, we watched as a lady DOVE (seriously, not joking) off of the bridge into Lake Washington. She was fine, she was swimming around in the Lake (perhaps she got too hot? Or the bridge party was too much for her?) But WOW. It was a little freaky at first. People are crazy.

Joining in on the fun... and by fun I mean sweat.

Yesterday I dragged Justin to hot yoga. And by dragged I pretty much mean dragged. Look, I had great intentions. I really just wanted to show him how much I sweat... it really is incredible and I'm sort of grossly proud of it. Ok, that's not really the reason. I actually knew it would be good for him. Kind of how he tries to get me to ride bikes because it is WAAAY better for me than running (but ssssh don't tell him I admitted that). His body is extremely tight and I knew yoga is a way to relieve a lot of that tension, especially if you do it right.

And sweating out toxins? An added benefit.

So, I've been talking to him about it for a while and finally he agreed to go...not without complaining about it so I think perhaps he just wanted me to shut up and stop bugging him about it but regardless, he agreed. I'll take it.

And the result? He actually loved it (but I'm not supposed to tell anyone). Oops. I just posted that on the internet. Sorry, honey! I think it's ok though because he's already talking to a lot of his clients about it and how good it felt and how he can't wait to go again so I'm pretty sure that since he's talking about how much he enjoyed it, I can too. I'm so glad. Oh, and he was BLOWN away by the amount of sweat... I think he sweats even more than me. It's pretty incredible.

We spent the rest of the day running around doing various wedding related things which was great (and productive). See here for all of the wedding related happenings.

Legal celebration.

On Friday afternoon, Justin and I took off for Seattle to get our marriage license. Since we only have 2 (!!!) weeks until the day, we are had to really look at our schedules to figure out when we could get to Seattle to get this very important little piece of paper. Friday worked. Only problem? It's SeaFair weekend in Seattle, meaning that the blue angels fly from about 12-3 so one of the bridges over the water to Seattle is closed for that time on Thursday-Sunday. Well, luckily enough, we were able to get out of the eastside early so we missed the traffic.

And, after a short wait, we got our little license. Good for 60 days, after a 3 day waiting period. Not really sure what the 3 day waiting period is for... maybe just so you're sure? Ah, it's probably for recording.

After that, we wandered into Pike place and walked around for a little while. Actually, first we went to get gas by the space needle where some big old guy gave Justin a sample of his BBQ (weird) and then proceeded to give him marriage advice (also weird... although he basically told Justin to do whatever I wanted at which point I gave him a high five in my head). Ah, the bizarre experiences that happen when out in Seattle. Anyway, once we got back into Pike, we quickly realized it was INSANE down there. Like, literally, I have never in my life seen it so busy. I don't know if it was because it was  Friday in August (vacationing people in Seattle?) or the fact that it wasSeaFair weekend or what but it was just crazy. We escaped the madness of the market about as quickly as we went in.

We also stopped at our favorite coffee joint, the Seattle version. Cafe Ladro. We needed some beans and picked up a latte too. In fact, we love Ladro so much, we took several pictures of our favorite coffee spot in our engagement photos.

See? Kirkland ladro + engagement photos. Love.

So, with latte in hand (which, by the way, was good... it was a tad bit chilly) we headed straight to chocolates. And ended up with $20 worth of chocolates. Mmmmm. 

A picture of us as we were walking around. Not the best, but eh, we tried.

And Justin looking at the Seattle man. I have no idea who the hell this guy was (didn't get him in the picture) other than he was painted all silver and clucking. What. in. the. hell. You seem some interesting things sometimes in downtown Seattle.

After we wandered for a while, my feet started to hurt. Apparently walking on cobblestones for a long time around the streets of Seattle is not smart in 3 or 4" heels. And I'm fairly tolerant as far as wearing heels goes, meaning, I do it well. My this day I had worn some really tall red heels that don't get worn much meaning, basically, OW. Was not the best planning on my part. So, plan b? Go drink champagne and eat sushi at another of our favorites- Japonessa- to continue the celebration!

And a picture of Justin at Japonessa. All in all? A successful day and a successful celebration of the day. Good times all around.

Continuing to play in the sun...

So, last Saturday, we continued this rather odd trend of being outside because the weather is actually holding. (And, fingers crossed, let's hope it stays that way). We had tickets to the mariners game so we started off there and ended the evening with fruity drinks outside right by the water. It was glorious! Pictures:

A view of the Port of Seattle from the mariners deck... and a seagull.

A shot looking the other direction, towards downtown Seattle. Not a cloud in the sky. Incredible.

And us at the game... oooh, and the new brown sunglasses on me.

At the game. To be quite honest, I find baseball to be incredibly boring. I don't know that I watched a minute of this game.

One more... I think I heard that the mariners were in almost a record of a losing streak. I couldn't tell you if they won or lost this game. I got bored in the 6th inning and we left.

We were going to have sushi in downtown Seattle but remembered that there was a parade that night that would have kept us gridlocked for maybe years down there. So, we headed back to the eastside where we tried out OliveYou...  mainly due to their location on the water in downtown Kirkland. The drinks were pretty good actually and the appetizers we had (caprese, hummus/spreads, and dolmas) weren't that bad either. Mostly, it was just nice to sit outside and soak up the sun. (Sorry about the line in the picture above- not sure what that's all about... stupid iphone photos).