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 :)

September

Though my summer didn't really start until September because of my school schedule, Phil and I managed to pack a lot in and make lots of fun memories.

First came Phil's parents' visit Labor Day Weekend. First we took them to the most beautiful place on the planet (in my unbiased opinion), Paradise at Mt. Rainier. We hiked up to Glacier Vista (I think that's what it's called) just in time for the ginormous cloud that was hovering over the mountain all day to drift away. Our way back down was lit by twilight and it made for some gorgeous pictures. I love this place...








Other activities during their visit included dinner with my parents at Buca di Beppo's in Seattle (another place I love), a seafood smorgasbord at our house, and what visit to Seattle would be complete without a trip to the Space Needle? Phil took his folks there for lunch one day (I was working...sniff sniff) and they had a great time.


The middle of September was kind of a blur...I think mainly because my birthday was coming up and so we kind took it easy knowing that weekend would be busy. Phil, as usual, planned the whole weekend chuck-a-block full of surprises for me. On Friday the 25th (day before my birthday), I came to work to find my cubicle had been decorated with a banner and confetti...sneaky Phil. That night, he took me to dinner at the Barking Frog in Woodinville. Very nice dinner and ambiance, I highly recommend it. Here's a picture of me in the herb garden of a restaurant next door to Barking Frog (it was called the Herb Garden, go figure).


On Saturday morning, Phil woke up and bounced down stairs and out to the garage and came back upstairs wearing my birthday present -- a hiking pack, inside of which were hiking poles! That day, we went down to Tacoma to have lunch with my folks. We dined at BJ's and it was delish! Their pazookies are freakin' awesome! Here's a picture of me and my parents waiting for our table to be ready.


When we got back up to Everett we got ready for the Saturday night surprise...a Redneck Party! We'd had one in Phil's old apartment about a year ago and it was the most funnest (hehe) party I'd ever been to. So, we had another one! Here are just a couple pictures, I'll have to post more later. I think Joy took a bunch I haven't seen yet...



And yes, that's our first-born on my back there...her name is Peaches. And my second-born, Bubba, is the one with a plastic ash tray duct taped to his head. And don't worry, that's a fake cigarette (because not only would I never smoke, but I would never hold it that close to a pregnant lady!) and fake tattoos. The hair though, that's real. And the look on my face...that's a look I wore in every picture and pretty much the whole night. And if you ask anyone who was at the party, they will tell you that I was probably a redneck in previous life, because I pull it off WAY too well.

And Phil pulls it off purdy good too...


Obviously we had a blast with our friends and we may just have to make it be an annual tradition :)

On Sunday, we headed south again to hang out with my parents. We had lunch at Pick Quick drive-in in Fife. Such tasty burgers and scrumptious blackberry milk shakes! Then we went to a Bamboo farm in Spanaway...Phil's thinking about putting some bamboo in the backyard. Then we headed to The Old Cannery furniture store in Sumner as we're in the market for a new coffee table and end table. Found one I liked, but haven't sold Phil on it yet...hmmmm, maybe I'll just go pick it up while he's out of town this weekend ;) Then we went to Pt. Defiance to stroll through the rose garden. We were all more delighted by the dahlia garden they have though...go check it out if you live nearby. After that, we went to dinner at the Matador in downtown Tacoma. If only it wasn't a Sunday, I would have tried a few of the bazillion kinds of Tequila they offer! After dinner, we went home for cake and then Phil and I made the trek back to Everett. End of birthday, end of summer :(

So yeah, that's pretty much the latest. I'm back in school already and that's going okay so far. I've also decided to run the Seattle half-marathon at the end of November. I'm not an athlete, I'm not a runner, and I don't have a whole lot of endurance, but I figured if I could lose 25 lbs and keep it off for 2 years, I have enough discipline to train for a half-marathon. So I'm in week 5 of training and its getting so much easier. I think I might actually start to enjoy running!

That's it for now, bye ya'll!

Summer is finally here!

Due to my school schedule, my summer just started when Summer Quarter ended the 23rd. Phil and I really started making up for it this last weekend.

On Friday we went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant near Silver Lake, then went to see "The Time Traveler's Wife" (isn't he sweet for taking me to a chick flick!?). Very good, very sad movie. I think Phil actually liked it too, but he might be more open minded about chick flicks than your average Joe ;) Although he hated "Bride Wars". Guess he likes chick dramas but not chick comedies.

On Saturday, we ran some errands and then headed to Bothell for a fun afternoon/evening with Joy and Dan. We walked around the Kirkland waterfront and then had dinner at a yummy Thai restaurant. Then we went back to their place and watched "I Love You Man", which was hilarious!

On Sunday, we woke up fairly early and headed up to the North Cascades for a 11 to 12ish mile hike. We got tons of awesome pictures...too many beautiful ones to choose just a few to post here. So I'm posting just one and here's the link to look at the rest of them if you so choose:

Here we are in front of Doubtful Lake with the many peaks of the Cascades behind us:


Awesome hike, very challenging, and very rewarding. If you ever do it, try July. We went late enough in the summer that most of the wildflowers were gone.

So what's on the agenda for the rest of my summer? Phil's parents are flying in on Thursday for the long weekend. Puyallup fair the weekend after that. Maybe another hike the weekend after that. Then, it's my birthday!