Weddings

Phil has recently been doing homework on his laptop in the dining room, thus freeing up the desktop computer, which has all our pictures on it. Thus, I have no excuse not to blog. Thus, time to catch up.

This summer and fall, many of our family and friends tied the knot. Between the end of July and the beginning of October, we got to go to FOUR weddings. Phil was in two of them and I was in one of them. This made for a very busy summer (I think I had either a wedding, a bachelorette party, or a bridal shower all but two of the weekends during this time frame), but I heart weddings and enjoyed every minute of them.

1) First up was my cousin Andrew down in Salem, Oregon on July 31st. He married the beautiful Laura who was literally the girl next door...well across the street, but still! Their wedding was at a golf course in Salem and we had a fabulous time. Our whole family pretty much loves to dance and dance we did!

From left to right: RJ (bro-in-law), Megan (sister), Mom and Dad, me and Phil, cousin Julie, Uncle Roger

2) Next up was my dear friend Sally Jane Lymangrover who married Ryan Connors on September 4th. Sally and Ryan got married at Sanders Mansion in Auburn, WA. Phil didn't attend this wedding with me (he was touring China with his fam), thus I don't have many pictures to post. I ganked a few off facebook and one of my adorable parents dancing which I took with my phone.

From left to right: High school friends Alysha, Sally, Suzie, and me. And yes, that is the same dress I wore to Andrew and Laura's wedding. I also wore it to Sara and Ryan's (see below) rehearsal dinner. Wore the CRAP outta that dress this summer!

3) Sara Garcia and Ryan Roache, our friends we met at the lazy B (Boeing), got hitched on September 18th, and both Phil and I had the honor of being in their wedding party. The wedding was at The Plateau Club (country club/golf course) in Sammamish, WA. Though we did have some rain that day, Mother Nature, or God, or whoever, was super nice and brought the sun out for their pictures and kept the rain at bay until after their outdoor ceremony was done. It literally started raining 5 minutes later, but we were all inside drinking and dancing and being merry :)

A shot from the rehearsal, just to get one more look at that blue dress ;)

From left to right: Julie, Aimee, Sara, me, Christie, Jess

From left to right: Ryan, John, Luke, random guy in white, Jeff, Christie, Julie

Quite possibly my favorite picture of the summer because A) you can really see how much we are enjoying our dresses with the pockets and B) who am I kidding, my ladies (and yes, I mean that in two ways) look fabulous.

4) The last wedding of the summer/fall was that of John Rodriguez and Beth Engel. John is another Boeing friend and we were so happy he met and fell in love with sweet Beth. They got married October 2nd at Willows Lodge in Woodinville, WA. Their venue was gorgeous and OMG, the dessert buffet...there are no words for how fabulous the dessert buffet was. So fabulous, Phil and I have decided to have one at our wedding!

Another blue dress...what can I say, I like blue

Whew! One might think we'd be sick of weddings after all that, but I don't think I could ever get sick of weddings. What's not to love? Happy families, people in love and committing to the rest of their lives together, pretty dresses and flowers, yummy food, free booze, dancing, cake. I mean seriously, is there anything better? I love them so much, I'm making Phil crash one with me this Saturday. We're actually crashing some random couple's wedding. It's business though...we're checking out a caterer who doesn't do tastings but invites prospective clients to crash weddings she caters. Let's hope the bride and groom don't notice us going through the buffet line :)

Happy New Year!

Whoa! 2010!? Time can just go ahead and slow the heck down now!

I've been very busy since my last post...mostly with the hassle of going to court to evict my tenants who haven't paid rent since September. I won't say much more about that depressing issue, except that I won my case and I'll be looking for new tenants very soon (so if you know anyone interested in living in a beautiful 2bd/2ba condo in South Everett, let me know!!).

December also marked the end of my third to last quarter in my MBA program. One class next quarter and two spring quarter and then I AM DONE! I am so excited to see what doors open for me and also to have some free time again to have a social life and finish decorating our house. I hope to start cooking more too...Phil is probably going to double up on classes in the near future and I'll need to step it up and cook for him for a change. I hope you like casseroles honey ;)

Phil flew home to New Jersey for Christmas and I spent it in Federal Way with my parents and my uncle...the only family still in WA. Some sisters of mine need to move back to WA as soon as possible!! Though it was just the four of us this year, we had a great time. We went to see "It's Complicated" with one of my favorite actresses, Meryl Streep. It was very good, I highly recommend it. On the 26th, I treated my parents to "White Christmas" at the 5th Avenue. The show was excellent and we had a very good dinner at Palomino afterwards.

On the 30th my mom and I hosted an "Anne of Green Gables" get together for some of my dearest friends. We made Anne themed food and watched the first 4 hours of the 12 hour miniseries as we chatted and exchanged presents. It was very fun and I hope as our lives get busier, we can all continue to find the time to get together and just veg.

I spent New Years making new friends at a very fun house party in Mountlake Terrace. I had a wonderful time, but I do hope its the last New Years I spend apart from Phil. In 3 years I still haven't got to kiss him at midnight :(

Here's a picture from last night...I'll post more as more get posted to Facebook ;)


Well I think you're all up to date on my life. Here's to a new year which I hope brings many blessings to my family and yours!

Special Day

Today was a special for two reasons...

First, it's the 3rd anniversary of the day I met Phil. We met when we both volunteered on a Boeing Flight Test for this Singapore Airlines 777:


The flight test group feeds volunteers breakfast before the flight. There's where I first saw Phil. We were sitting at the same table with a few other people, all of us newer employees and very excited to be flight test volunteers. I remember thinking "hmmm....he's pretty cute, seems like a fun guy, I might want to get to know him better." Luckily, he was thinking the same thing about me and very strategically found a seat right in front of me when we finally got to board the plane. We chatted off and on for almost the whole 5 hour flight and towards the end I remember hoping he'd ask me out. While he didn't do that (yes, he has his shy moments), he did mention that he'd never been to lunch in the "Towers" cafeteria (the one in the building where the 787 employees work, the only cafeteria with edible food). I mentioned I went there for lunch on occasion and that I'd let him know next time I did so he could join me. Well that was a Sunday. Wouldn't you know it, I got a hankering to eat up in the Towers cafeteria on Monday ;) And so it began...

The second reason today is special is Suzie and Andy had their 20-week ultrasound and found out they're having a boy! I'm incredibly excited for them as I am for Joy and Dan who found out a couple weeks ago they're also having a boy. I can't wait to meet these snuggly newborns and watch my friends enjoy new parenthood :)

Road Trip

Phil's college buddy Ross visited this last week/weekend. While I was busy writing a paper for most the time he was here, I did decide to slack off on Saturday so I could join the two of them as they retraced the first couple days worth of their 2005 bicycle trip across the U.S. We went over Route 20 in the Northern Cascades and made a few stops to see the view and let the guys reminisce (which sounded like "I think the road curves left up there....yep, I was right!" and "Oh, remember we stopped to pee here?" and "Oh man, that's about where I wanted to turn around and go home!").

So here's the greenest lake you'll ever see (something to do with the minerals), Diablo Lake.


Here's me being a poser.


Here's Phil and Ross being posers.


Being a poser some more.


Here's Phil and Ross @ Washington Pass, where in 2005 they heaved a huge sigh of relief and coasted down the mountain for 12 miles until they found a lodge to sleep in at Mazama.


Shortly after we went through Winthrop, we departed from the bike route and headed towards Chelan. We took a dip in the lake and then headed to Leavenworth for dinner. Here I am with a tasty hefeweizen, and that's Ross's reflection in the mirror.


Twas a fun trip! On Sunday I finished my paper and now I have 5 weeks off until Fall Quarter starts! Yahoo!!!