Northwest Summer Vacation

Labor Day has come and gone, but I wanted to share a few pictures from our "summer vacation" to the Northwest back in July. We kicked off our week with wedding festivities in Seattle, including a harbor side rehearsal dinner on a gorgeous Seattle evening.

The next day, we enjoyed the beautiful wedding of Jason's best man, Kalani. Seattle pulled out all the stops weather-wise and the bride and groom's beach themed outdoor ceremony was perfect. (You'll notice my groom is the third groomsman to the right.)

Despite a late night out for the wedding, we rallied the next day to enjoy a wonderful reception hosted by my in-laws to introduce Nicholas to all of their Seattle friends. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos at the party, but we had a great time catching up with many family friends we hadn't seen since our wedding. The following day, Nicholas turned six months old, and we celebrated with a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo with Dzia Dzia and Grandmama. Nicholas loved the giraffes, monkeys, and elephants.

After squeezing in some visits with my Seattle girlfriends (hi Aja!) and Laura, Mike, and Diana, we headed south to Portland. My parents picked us up downtown, and we immediately hit the road to Cannon Beach. The weather was little overcast, but we enjoyed two relaxing nights at the beach with Gammy and Grandpa, eating fresh seafood and dipping our toes in the Pacific.

We returned to Portland for one final night, and my mom organized a family dinner with my siblings and their spouses, as well as my grandparents on my dad's side and my aunt and uncles on my mom's side.

It was whirlwind trip, and went entirely too fast! I could have spent another week in each city. But we had a great time catching up with family and friends, and enjoyed some gorgeous (cool by Texas standards) Northwest summer weather. We're already looking forward to next summer's visit.

Week 29... and a wedding

November 11, 2011

Best Moment: The highlight of the week was catching up with my best friends from college at my good friend Anne's wedding. I haven't seen one of our friends, Camille, since she visited Austin last April, so it felt like a girls weekend with an extra special finale. (But we missed you, Diana!) Thursday night after work I drove down to San Antonio and met up with Anne, Camille, and her husband J for dinner at Dough. (Good stuff if you're ever in the Alamo city.) On Friday we hosted a little shower for Anne to enjoy some pre-wedding pampering, followed by the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Then on Saturday, we attended her gorgeous wedding. It was great to get away for the weekend and enjoy some fun with old friends before the little man arrives. Here's a picture of the three of us together:

Symptoms: Back pain, hip pain, and fatigue. But I managed to fulfill my MOH duties with flying colors by standing for the full hour of Anne's orthodox wedding ceremony. Go me. (Of course, I enjoyed a good two hour nap the next day.)

Cravings/Aversions: I crave food. Pretty much all types. I think I may need to delete this category. I feel like I am beginning to sound like a broken record.

What I Miss: Not too much really. I can now definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel, so I'm just trying to enjoy the last couple months of this experience.

What I Can't Wait For: We've got an exciting few weeks coming up. We're hosting our first married Thanksgiving together, and then heading out to the gulf coast of Florida for another wedding in early December. We're going to stay a few extra days and make this our "babymoon." I'm looking forward to some R&R-- and hopefully a good prenatal massage at the resort!

Milestones: Baby is pushing 3 pounds and-- we revisit the produce aisle again this week-- about the size of a butternut squash. At this point, his brain development is kicking into high gear, which reminds me that I need to go pick up some Omega 3 supplements!

Well, hello

After an absence of nearly three months, I feel like my first post back should be really exciting and full of lots of fascinating tales about my life over the past quarter year. (Really? A quarter year?? That makes it sound much longer than it felt...) Really, I've just been busy with normal life stuff and a fair amount of travel, visitors, and summer celebrations. Between the intense heat (which ends up driving me inside for summer hibernation) and J's absence, I thought the summer would drag by But, actually, it didn't.

J and I had a second visit in July, and then I finished out the month with a weekend in Portland for my sister's wedding shower. Ah, blissful 80 degree weather... I remember taking a run at about 11:30am on a Saturday morning (a time at which no living creature ventures outside in Texas during late July), and it was just heaven. Crisp, air. Gentle sunshine. Fragrant flowers. Cue the homesickness.

August took me back to Portland two weeks later for my sister's wedding, which was fabulous-- beautiful bride and groom, touching ceremony, and fantastic party.

A week later, three of my best friends from my San Francisco days visited. We're now all spread out around the country, but there's nothing like catching up with old friends who've known you for years and remind you what your fresh-out-of-college self was like. The years have passed quickly, but we're able to pick up where left off-- as if we just met for brunch last weekend. We indulged in barbecue and swanky Mexican at La Condessa, lounged by the pool, and took stand-up paddle board lessons on Town Lake.


J finally came home from Charlotte, just in time to celebrate my birthday two days later (yay!) His second year of business school started, and then we kicked off September with separate guys and girls trips over Labor Day weekend. He went to New York and I went to Seattle, where I got to catch up with all my Seattle girls. Everything I said above about my San Francisco girls -- ditto here for my Seattle ladies. Quality girl time is something that I value very highly, and being far away from the people who have known me the longest really makes me appreciate my friendships even more. We had some exciting news that weekend--Aja announced that she is expecting and due in April. She's the first of our group, but I have a feeling a few more will be following soon!


September also brought our second anniversary, and we celebrated with a weekend trip to Dallas. I have to say... we've heard a lot of "less than enthusiastic" reviews of Dallas, but we were both pleasantly surprised. We stayed downtown in the historic Adolphus Hotel, enjoyed two fabulous dinners at Rise Souffle and Local, and lost ourselves completely at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, site of JFK's assassination. This museum is fascinating-- we're all familiar with the story of the events that transpired on November 22, 1963, but they've never come to life quite they way they did for me at this museum. It made me much more emotional than I expected, and I can see now what it must have been like to live through that gruesome day for millions of Americans across the country.

Finally, we closed out September with a visit from my sis and new brother in law, Mike. We took them on our usual visitor circuit, including a trip to the Salt Lick and copious amounts of Mexican food, threw in a Bob Schneider show at Threadgill's for good measure, and concluded the weekend with the UT vs. UCLA game. We shall not discuss the outcome of this game-- instead, we'll focus on the great time we had tailgating beforehand, and how excited Mike was to partake in what he termed "big boy college football." The game itself was a disaster, and we all sweat through our shirts in the blazing stadium heat, but I think Mike can now successfully add a check mark to his bucket list.

And here we are in early October... the fall should be not nearly as eventful, but I'm sure it will fly by nonetheless. For those of you who still check in, I promise to be a more faithful blog contributor. Stay tuned for some exciting Texas adventures (including a trip to the State Fair... fried beer, anyone?), some great recipes, and more photos.

Bachelorette Weekend

I'm back after my long hiatus and vowing to get back to posting more regularly... let's say at least twice a week. First up, my sister's bachelorette party last weekend in Vancouver, B.C. It was so much fun, and so great to spend 4 days with her after not having seen her since Christmas, but let's just say I am really happy she is getting married at 26 because if she had waited another few years, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had the stamina to host the bachelorette party and make it through the weekend!

There were a grand total of 17 girls, and between making sure everyone got to where we needed to be over the course of 48 hours (across the border, to the hotel, to all the restaurants and bars, etc.), doing head counts over and over (um, cruise director anyone?), making sure the bride to be didn't get into too much trouble, and of course partaking in the merriment and late nights to celebrate the end of her singlehood, I think it took me about 4 days to recover and return to my usual energy level. Well worth it, however, well worth it... A few snapshots of the weekend:

L & I getting ready to head out on the town Friday night. Yes, we look just a little bit alike.

Drinks out on Friday night... most of the bridesmaids pictured here.

L with her ribbon bouquet after the lingerie shower. Let's just say she is now more than equipped for the honeymoon!

All of the bride's and groom's sisters and sisters-in-law before heading out on Saturday night.

All in all, I think it was a success, and I'm feeling good that I can check off this maid of honor duty. Next up, showers and general encouragement through the final stretch. Can't wait 'til August!