Day After Wedding

Will planned the perfect day after wedding for us!  

We spent our wedding night in a cute little bed and breakfast in Grapevine, about two blocks off main street!  It had cute little rooms, an awesome claw-foot soaker tub (which was the perfect thing for me after the wedding!), and beautiful gardens in the back. 

On Sunday, we slept in, then had breakfast with the other people at the inn. We packed up, headed home, went to mass in the afternoon (thank goodness for 4 pm mass), then headed to dinner. 

Will had made dinner reservations...on a sail boat! The boat is call the Black Watch, and we highly recommend it!  They can take up to 6 passengers, but this night, we were the only ones aboard, so we had a private dinner!  The food was great, but the whole experience is amazing!  You eat dinner while still in the marina, then head up to the deck of the boat for a 2 hour sunset cruise around Lake Grapevine!   The weather was absolutely perfect, the crew is wonderful, the sunset was beautiful, and I couldn't have asked for anything better!  I told Will this needs to be our anniversary spot!  You eat dessert on the deck and then head back to the marina at twilight.  It's definitely a unique dining experience!  

Costa Rican Honeymoon Day 5

Soo, I've been a bad blogger, I forgot to update my last day in Costa Rica!

We decided to take our last day in paradise easy.  We started with our normal breakfast buffet (with my favorite watermelon juice), then headed out into the Pacific for kayaking!  The views were breathtaking!  I love that we can go on adventures together!  We spent the rest of the morning laying by the pool sipping on colorful drinks!

After kayaking, we headed to the spa for massages and reflexology!  The spa was so nice and we went early to take advantage of the spa pools and hot tubs. It was the perfect way to end our week! 

After one final dinner, we headed back to our room for our last night in Costa Rica.  We finally were able to get reservations at the Asian Fusion restaurant on the resort!   As much as we loved our honeymoon, we were ready to come back home and back to the "real world". 

The next morning, we packed up, headed off to one more breakfast, then headed to the airport.  The airport in  Liberia,Costa Rica is a small, crowded little place.  They only have a few flights in and out each day, so it gets really crowded.  You also have to go through security when you get there, have your bags sniffed by the drug dogs, then go through another "mini-security" before boarding.  Luckily, we were in first class, so we were able to board first. 

We finally arrived home around 11:00 Saturday night, totally exhausted, but so glad to sleep in our own bed with our dogs!  One of the best things I did was change our sheets on the bed before we left.  It was so nice to crawl into clean sheets! 

We've adjusted back to real life/ married life really well.  Since we lived together before the wedding, not much has changed, which is kind of nice. 

We embark on our next adventure this week!  I am loving this marriage thing! 
More details on the adventure later (and no I'm not preggo...yet)!

Costa Rican Honeymoon- Day 4

After our excursion on day 3, we decided to just take it easy on Thursday.  We slept in, took our time going to breakfast, then headed back to our room to change into bathing suits.  We laid around by the pool for a bit, then headed to the beach to snorkel. 

Some friends of ours let us borrow their waterproof camera for our honeymoon, so we tried taking pictures of our snorkeling adventure.  Of the probably 50 pictures we took, only about 5 of them came out!  We have lots of half faces, blurry ocean pics, and one picture of just the top of my swimsuit (read- my boobs), I'm not sure if Will "accidentally" took that picture.  With the tide coming in and out, it was really hard to get clear pictures! 

As we were heading out, I felt a small sting on my finger, but figured that I just cut it on something and the salt water was bothering it.  After snorkeling for about 30 minutes, I felt a sting all over my left arm.  I swam up to the surface, pulled off my mask, and realized I had a jellyfish tentacle wrapped around my arm.  I haven't been stung by a jellyfish in probably 20 years, and I forgot how bad that sting can feel!  I unwrapped the tentacle, called out to Will, and started swimming back to shore.  Will took our gear back to the water activities desk, and I asked an employee how they treat jellyfish stings, he smiled and told me they used vinegar.  I headed to the nearest open restaurant (luckily only a few steps away) and asked for a cup of vinegar.  The waiters looked at me strangely, but brought me a cup.  He wouldn't actually give me the cup until I promised him I wouldn't drink it!  I poured the vinegar over my arm and luckily the sting started to ease.  We headed back to our room to shower and change. 

In the afternoon, we signed up for a couple's massage lesson.  Our honeymoon friends, Lauren and her husband Sunjay, were there as well!  Daniel, our favorite activities guy, lead us to a gazebo that was near one of the ponds on the resort.  A massage therapist met us there and we got lessons on how to properly give a massage!  Toward the end of our lesson, it started raining, and like any great resort, they had umbrellas for us, in case we got caught in the rain! 

After our massage, we were talking to Daniel and told him we hadn't seen monkeys since our first day on the resort, and he took us to an "employees only" area where the monkeys like to hang out.  Of course they weren't out in the rain, but when we went by later, we saw several monkeys in the trees!

We ended our day with another great dinner and watching the Spurs unfortunately lose to the Heat in a great Game 7 of the NBA finals.  I laughed throughout the commentary of the games because the commentary was in Spanish, but dubbed in English!

Costa Rican Honeymoon- Day 3

Day 3 in Costa Rica was the only day we ventured out of our resort.  We actually had to set an alarm to make sure we could get to breakfast and be in the lobby by 7:15! We boarded a bus to head to an extinct volcano!  About halfway to the volcano, it started raining, we didn't realize it was the rainy season in Costa Rica and it rained every day we were there.  This was the only day it rained more than an hour though.  Going up a volcano in a bus while it is raining is scary...I said several dozen Hail Marys going up that volcano. 

The first thing we did was get suited up for zip lining!  They had 10 cables and since it was raining, they were all super fast and you couldn't brake at all!  Luckily, the workers had done this before and rigged up a way to stop us before we hit the trees! The zip lines went so fast, I didn't get a chance to get any pictures! 

After zip lining, we headed to a slide that was made to get you down the volcano.  It was 1/4 mile long and they had three speeds, slow, medium, and fast.  When it was my turn, I told the worker that I wanted medium, he rolled his eyes!  The slide was very narrow and there were several times I thought I was either going to be flipped out of the slide or I was going to be flipped over in the slide, but I did have time to take a selfie!

After the slide, it finally stopped raining, and we had a Costa Rican lunch, which was fabulous!  They had a vegetable soup that was amazing!  We kept asking what was in the soup and no one could really give us an answer, but it tasted really fresh!

After lunch, we had to choice of either a horseback ride down a trail or a tractor ride to get down to the hot springs.  Even though I am scared of horses, I decided to try horseback.  I asked for a "remote control" horse that I wouldn't have to do anything with.  They put me on a horse, and the horse did seem really calm and just stood there without moving.  We had a large group (almost 50 people), and the more horses they brought out, the more nervous I got.  Before we left, I asked to get off the horse and ride the tractor.  I just didn't think I could relax and enjoy the ride with all the other horses and people.  I hopped off the horse, and a few other people joined me on the tractor.  Even the tractor ride was scary!  We were going downhill on a wet trail with lots of rocks...many more Hail Marys were said!   When the horses met up with the tractor, Will told me that I chose wisely, as no one had control of their horses and one horse kicked another horse in the face on the trail! 

The last (and best) part of our excursion was the hot springs!  We changed into bathing suits and headed to the sauna.  After a few moments in the sauna to open up the pores, we covered ourselves with mud.  A quick rinse off of the mud (in really cold water), and then we were allowed in the hot springs!  They had three temp. pools, a hot, warm, and cool.  Of course I didn't set foot in the cool! They had a little bar at the hot springs, so we got to enjoy a drink while sitting in the pools.  It was beautiful scenery and a perfect way to end the day! 

After the ride back to the hotel, we were tired and hungry.  We were able to get a table at one of the restaurants, then we headed back to the room to take showers and crawl in bed!

Costa Rican Honeymoon- Day 2

We awoke bright and early on Day 2, ready to explore our resort more. 
Breakfast each morning was a buffet with traditional breakfast items(omelets, bacon, pancakes, fruit, cereal, etc), but also some Costa Rican foods (gallo pinto, pumpkin with honey, plantains, and tamales).  They also had fresh juices each morning- my favorite was the watermelon juice, so refreshing!

We started our activities with a bike tour around our resort.  We met another couple on their honeymoon, and we saw them at several activities throughout the week.  We joked that the guys were on the same honeymoon, as the girl's name was also Lauren! 

Will and I headed to the pool for some relaxation in the sun!  We also decided that 11:00 was the appropriate drinking hour, and hit the bar, trying several different drinks, some from the menu, some we just pointed to what someone else was drinking.  My favorite was the Pura Vida, a mix of orange juice, pineapple juice, Costa Rican vodka, and a splash of grenadine, I had too many of those to count!  Another favorite was a Costa Rican Tropical...no clue what was in it, but it was blue, yellow, and green and tasted amazing! 

After lunch, we went for another walk on the beach, had a splash fight/sand kicking fight in the ocean, laughed as we tried not to get swept away in the waves. 

We headed back to the room for a nap, then got ready for dinner.   We had a late reservation for dinner (9:15...that's what we got for waiting so long to make reservations), so we headed to the bar to watch the Spurs game. Many other guests joined us at the bar to watch the game, while the bar tenders and resort employees paid attention to the Costa Rican soccer game that was on the second TV. We had to head to dinner before the game was over, but we were able to catch the end of it.   The resort had several different restaurants to choose from each night, and all of them were delicious! 

After dinner, there was a "Circus Show", with an acrobatic girl, and two jugglers.  While it was entertaining, it wasn't my idea of a "circus".    After the show, we headed back to our room.  The nice thing about our resort was that bars closed between 10:30 and 11, so you got to head to your room early each night! 

Wedding Video!

Our wedding day was beyond perfect!  If something went wrong, it was either too little to matter, or it was not missed anyway!  Even though my grandfather couldn't attend the wedding due to health issues, we were able to Skype him in (thank you technology!), and he got to see the whole thing! 

My day started early, with hair appointments at 7:30 am!  Thankfully, Greer and Amanda brought Chic-fil-a, fruit, and champagne/orange juice to keep our sugar levels up!

After hair, we headed to the chapel to get ready!  Will and I decided not to see each other before the wedding, so most of the group pictures had to wait until after the ceremony so we wouldn't accidentally run into each other.   

My CRHP sisters came in around 11:15 for a prayer before the ceremony.  It was so beautiful to have them all there supporting me and praying for me! 

The ceremony was perfect, Marty, our minister, totally captured our personalities, and we even made Ann cry during her reading!  The ceremony seemed to go by so quickly, I had to ask someone later how long it lasted! 

Our reception was beautiful, and everyone said the food was amazing!  We didn't get a chance to eat at the reception, but our caterers packed us a to-go bag with food, cake, cheese and crackers, and fruit!  It was perfect since we were starved when we arrived at the hotel! 

Later that evening, our friends joined us at a favorite new restaurant, Brewed, in Fort Worth.  We spent the evening laughing and drinking and just enjoying each other!  It was the perfect evening to a perfect night! 

I am continually amazed by the work our photographer, Sharon Ellman, does.  She has photographed a couple of friends weddings, so I knew she was good, but I am continually amazed each time I look at the pictures she took at our wedding!  We even went to the canals at Las Colinas to take pictures with just me and Will after the ceremony!  She has the most creative energy and even humored us with our attempt to stage our own pics!  She is simply amazing and worth 10x more than we paid her!  I am so happy she was recommended to us, and the pictures from the day were really important to me!  She even created a video of the highlights of our day!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! 


Wedding Video

Costa Rican Honeymoon- Day 1

On Monday, June 17th, Will and I woke up at 3:00 am to head to the airport and start our honeymoon!  After a delayed boarding call at DFW (how can anyone be delayed at 5:15 in the morning?!?), we boarded our plane and set for Miami, then on to Costa Rica! 

Arrival in Costa Rica was chaos, people everywhere, jostling to get in line to hand someone your passport (my first passport stamp, thank you very much), trying to find baggage claim, and going through their version of customs.  Costa Rican customs went down like this- get in line, put your bags on a conveyor belt that went through an x-ray machine, and pick them up on the other side.  I never saw anyone actually looking at the x-ray screens...

After finding our transportation, we set out for an hour ride to our resort.  Our driver was nice, but spoke very little English, and Will and I don't speak Spanish.  He did know a few words of English and tried to point things out as we drove along a very bumpy road (sugarcane was one English word he had down). 

We arrived at our hotel and found out we were upgraded to a beach front villa!  The hotel said it was because we were on our honeymoon, I think it was because several villas were getting new roofs, so those weren't being used.  Anyway, our room wasn't ready yet, so we walked around our resort and had a snack before we were given our room keys and a ride to our room.  I unpacked while Will crashed on the couch in our living room.  We called and made dinner reservations, went to a sushi making class where Will learned how to make a salmon roll, and went for a walk on the beach (my first time in the Pacific Ocean)! 

Over dinner, Will and I decided that even though our hotel was offering free Wi-Fi, we would keep our phones locked up in the safe and disconnect this week.  This was one of the best decisions of the week, and it made me laugh at all the people we saw on their phones all week.   

We went to bed early, as we had been up for almost 20 hours at this point.  We laughed as we flipped through the TV channels filled with some of our favorite shows with Spanish subtitles or dubbed over in Spanish.  The TV didn't stay on for long though, as both of our eyes were drooping within a few moments of crawling under the covers. 

Stay tuned for Day 2!

Why I'm annoyed with facebook

I will be the first to admit, I probably troll facebook more than I should, but most of the time, I just lurk, I don't post much anymore.  There are a few personal reasons for this (such as I don't feel the need to share every detail of my life with everyone on Facebook), but honestly, we are pretty boring and don't have much to share anyway, haha. 

There have been a few things happening on facebook lately that have annoyed me, in no particular order. 
- Sharing recipes on facebook.  Come one people, if you want recipes, go to Pinterest. 
- The "ads" that are coming up in my news feed.  All of these "sponsered links" need to go. 
- The buy/sell/trade groups.  There is already a spot for that people, Craigslist!
- The "share" button.  I think this may be my biggest complaint.  While I have used the "share" button, I share pictures.  People are getting a little too share happy.  People are sharing "news" stories without actually reading the full story, or without checking to see if the story is real or even current!  With all of the "news" sites floating around, anyone can be a reporter now.  People are sharing stories that are simply not true and getting others worked up.  This is ridiculous.  Get your news from whatever your prefered news source is, but make sure that the story is credible. 

What happened to the facebook where everyone shared fun statuses and fun wedding pictures/vacation pictures/baby pictures?  Can we bring that facebook back?

My Best Friend's Wedding

Since Sarah and I met in 6th grade, we have been great friends!  We've had our road bumps, but we've always made it through and been there for each other.  Even though we haven't lived in the same city for 12 years, we remain close. 

 

Like the silly high school girls we were, we promised each other that even though we were going to be hundreds of miles away, we would stay close in college and be bridesmaids in each others weddings.  Little did we know, we would be fufilling those promises within two months of each other! 

 

 

 

I am so lucky to have gotten to stand right next to Sarah on her wedding day.  Sarah's motto for the day was "there's no crying in baseball" and I managed to make it through the ceremony without tears.  I had a moment when she handed me her bouquet, but I quickly locked it up! 

 

 

Sarah and Medlock's wedding was absoutely breathtaking.  Everything went so smoothly and flawlessly!  Sarah was an absoutely beautiful bride, and Med was so handsome in his seersucker suit!  The weather was perfect (the ceremony was outdoors), everyone stuck to the schedule, the ceremony represented Sarah and Medlock very well, I honestly don't think anything could have made it any better!

 

 

 

I have been so blessed by having Sarah and her family in my life.  Her parents were like my second parents growing up; I think I was over at her house as much as I was at my own house.  We have so many memories together and inside jokes to laugh about, and I wouldn't trade that for anything!  I can't wait until we get to do it all over again in two months!

 

 

Congradulations Sarah and Medlock!  I wish you both all the happiness in the world! 

 

 



 





Cinnamon Creek Ranch

Quite awhile back (like before Christmas), I found a Groupon for a 4 hour archery session at a local archery range.  I figured this was right up Will's alley, so I purchased it for him as a birthday gift (I had already finished his Christmas shopping).  I figured he would want to call up one of his buddies and head out one day, so I was a little surprised when he wanted me to tag along! 

It was a perfect day to be outside! The temp was 65, and a little wind kept us cool while outside. 

When we arrived, they handed us bows, a few arrows and sent us to the indoor short range to practice a bit.  Then we headed to the longer indoor range (targets were further away), then finally outside to the "zoo".  Trails were carved out and they had 30-40 animal targets to shoot at.  We had a blast!

 

Even though we had 4 hours, we only lasted about 3.  Archery was much harder on our arms than we thought! 

Our Forever Home

Several people have been asking to see pictures of our forever home, especially since we moved in and changed things.  I wanted to wait until we had everything done, and that meant having everything moved out of the townhouse.  While it was on the market, the townhouse still had some furniture, so it could be staged.  Now that the townhouse offically sold, we officially moved everything out and in the forever house!  I'm finally ready to show pictures!

This is the before/after of the eat-in kitchen, the very large eat-in kitchen! We took down the awful valences (that were hung up on tree branches, literal tree branches- first thing to go), had the wallpaper taken down, textured the walls and painted the kitchen.  Really opens it up! We also moved the light fixture to the formal dining.

 

More kitchen views:

 

Family room, all we did here was put a fresh coat of paint on the walls

 

 

Formal dining, a fresh coat of paint and changed light fixture.

 

Formal living, we are using this as an "office" for the time being, as the "office" room upstairs will be the nursery when we have kids.

 

Master bedroom, new paint! I absoutely love this color!

 

 



(I promise we make the bed, but CC decides to unmake it when she wants to burrow under the covers.)

Master bath, we haven't done anything yet, but I eventually I want the wall paper to come down!

I didn't clean off the counter before I took the picture!

 

Second living room (upstairs) got a new paint color.

 

 

 

Guest bedroom #1, no change.

 

 

Guest bedroom #2, new paint.

 

Full bath #1 upstairs, the wallpaper coming down is my summer project!

 

There are two more rooms and one more full bath upstairs.  The room directly at the top of the stairs will be the nursery eventually.  The other is actually a finished attic space, that will be a playroom/craft room.  It has sloped ceilings, so it may not bed a bedroom, unless one of the kids really wants it down the road. 

There is also a half bath downstairs, just off the laundry room (but I don't like pictures with toilets in them).

 

We have an amazing backyard with lots of rooms for dogs to run and play, and plenty of squirrels for them to bark at.  I love our neighborhood and our neighbors have been great so far! 

 

I honestly don't think I could have dreamed up a better house.  While there are surface things that I want changed due to my tastes, the house is perfect.  We have tons of attic space for storage, and more than enough rooms.  I absoutely love cooking in my new kitchen and have amazing counter/prep space, and more cabinet space than I can fill up right now (but I'm working on that). 

 

We are so happy to call this our forever home! 

 

 

 



Finally!!!

I've been MIA from the blogging world for awhile, but things have been pretty stressful around here!  I'm very happy to report that one stressor has been removed...

 

My townhouse has SOLD!

 

Since we bought the forever house in December, we did a few surface renovations, and moved in.  My townhouse went on the market in mid-January, and had a contract on it in 6 days.  6. Days.  Plus, we got what we wanted for it, which was a huge relief.  The inspection asked for an AC service, but that's it, which made it very easy.  I am so blessed that we got a quick contract on it, and then even more blessed that the 10 day option period expired before the townhouse next to me went into foreclosure, that would have been dreadful if I didn't have my contract. 

 

The process of closing on the house was the most stressful part, especially when the title company calls 2 hours before I'm supposed to be signing papers to say the closing has been post-poned.  Then my realtor tells me she is going out of town, so the closing is pushed back a few more days. 

 

The closing was re-scheduled for Friday at 4:30, the last possible appointment of the week.  My stomach was in knots all day on Friday, and every time my phone went off, my heart dropped a little.  I was still on edge when we walked into the office, but relaxed when they told me they were gathering all the papers for me to sign.  It was finally done!  I never imagined that it would sell so quickly! 

 

While I am sad that I no longer own the townhouse, I am so excited to close that chapter.  I had a great life in that little house, and it was perfect for what I needed at that time.  Those walls heard many laughs, many tears, many friendly voices, and much love.  I am so thankful that I was able to be a homeowner at such a young age, and it really helped me know what I really want in my forever home!  I'm so excited about our new home and can't wait to make even more memories here in this new chapter of my life! 

I like being Catholic

 There certainly has been lots of media attention on the Catholic Church lately, with the announcement that Pope Benedict XVI stepping down as the Bishop of Rome at the end of the month. 

There has been speculation that with the election of a new Pope, the Catholic Church will be making major changes.  Not only is this grossly untrue, I find it hard to believe that the majority of Catholics around the world will want it to happen. 

As a practicing Catholic, one of my favorite things about the church is our traditions.  I like the fact that the Church doesn't change with the wind, and doesn't change her whole belief system because it's the "popular" thing to do.  I love our liturgy, and knowing that I can go to any other Catholic church in the world and hear the same mass readings and participate in the same traditions as if I were in my home parish.  I like knowing that no matter what is going on in the world, I have a church that is firm and is my rock.  I love the celebrations we have in the Holy Trinity, Advent, Christmas, Easter, and Lent.  I love recieving Christ every single week in the form of the Eucharist, not just saving it for "special occasions", every day is a reason to recieve Christ.   

I am certainly not the perfect Catholic representitive, I am VERY far from it.  I have been hurt by the Catholic church, and I have found healing in the church as well.  I know I do things that don't represent the Catholic church on an everyday basis, but I still love being Catholic.  Where there are certain aspects of the church decisions I disagree with, I don't want to leave the Catholic Church. 

I pray that whoever God chooses to lead the Catholic Church in the coming years, continues to lead the church down the same path.  There is much specuation that withthe election of a new pope, the church will make major changes (the most common speculations being lifting the ban on birth control, allowing women to be deacons, not requiring priests to be celibate), but frankly, I will be disappointed if the church changes its teachings.  One of the great things about the Catholic Church is that it doesn't change with the wind, it doesn't change its teaching because of what is popular at the time. That's not the job of a church, a church shouldn't have to "campaign for votes", that's not what true faith is.  If you don't agree with the church teachings, you are free to explore other religions.  

Many people leave the Catholic Church because the teachings don't mesh with what they believe.  I don't think this is "right or wrong", it just is, I'm not in a position to judge people because of their beliefs.  This is why we have so many factions of the Christian religion, because people didn't agree with what a church was teaching and they broke off and created a new branch.  There are some faith traditions that are very similar to Catholicism, and there are some that are very far from it.  I certainly don't believe that I am right and they are wrong, or vice versa, we just have different beliefs, and I respect that, everyone has their own faith journey.  We love the same God, and in the end, that's what is important.

My prayer is that God lead the College of Cardinals to prayerfully select the next leader of the Catholic Church.  I trust whoever is chosen will lead the church as gracefully as his predecesor in the coming years.

Red Spills

I have never been a clumsy person.  I have great balance, I don't drop things often, and I generally lead an accident free life...until this week. 

I don't know if it's stress and trying to do too many things at once, or if I'm just off balance, but this week has been crazy!  Tuesday evening, I was unpacking from a quick trip to Houston for a conference.   As I was putting away my bathroom stuff, I dropped a small (thankfully) bottle of red (and I mean RED) nail polish on the tiled bathroom floor.  RED. SPOTS. EVERYWHERE.  One trip to Walmart at 9:45 PM, two bottles of nail polish remover, and about an hour spent on our hands and knees later, my bathroom floor was cleaned.  Other than the tinges of red in the grout, you really can't tell.  Then of course I had to clean the floor since we were using acetone remover. 

This morning, I decided to actually use the Keurig coffee maker we received as a Christmas gift.  We have been using our regular coffee pot, but we are out of coffee since I didn't go to the store this weekend (let's face it, if I didn't go grocery shopping, we would starve...or at least be a little thinner).  So as I am pulling the box out of the pantry, I knock over a bottle of red wine.  RED. WINE. EVERYWHERE.  Are you seeing the red theme?!?  So I had to clean red wine off the floor at 7 AM today, BEFORE I had even had my coffee. 

I'm staying away from the color red indefinitely. 

On a positive note, my floors are incredibly clean!

St. Joseph is now buried in the front yard of the town house. It goes on the market this week! Prayers for a quick sale!!!

New Diet Plan

I have a new exercise/diet plan that seems to be working. I will let y'all in on the secret...
Step 1- the exercise portion- move every single thing in your house to another house. Bonus points if you have stairs in either house.
Step 2- the diet portion- be so stressed out about everything that you simply forget to eat.

It works, I promise!

A Year in Review

Disclaimer: I stole this idea from Kate, aka The American who lives in Canada, my amazing cousin (love her)!

January:
We started the year off celebrating with some great friends in Marble Falls, TX.  We spent NYE visiting wineries, grilling steaks, and spending quality time with our friends!

In February, we traveled to Mississippi to celebrate my dear friend Kellee's wedding! The weekend included the wedding, a painting party, a crawfish boil, and lots of great drinks!  

 

 

In March, I was a chaperone on Good Shepherd Catholic Community's youth ski retreat!  I spent a week with 60 high schoolers, and learned to ski (I use the term "learned" very loosely, more meaning I didn't die on the mountain).

 

 

 

In April, we spent Easter weekend in Lafayette, and Will proposed in the garden of one of my favorite restaurants, Cafe Vermillionville!

 

 

 

In May, we finally got away for the weekend to use Will's birthday present, a weekend in Hill Country ziplining, wine tasting, and spending a relaxing weekend together!

 

 

 June was pretty low key, and I can't find any great pictures from June, so here are our babies, they are way cute!

 

 

 

 

In July, I made my annual trip to Alabama and spent an amazing 11 days at Camp Smile-A-Mile.  We laughed until we cried, we cried until we laughed, and a piece of my heart will ALWAYS be at Camp.  They truly are my Camp FAMILY!

 

 In August, we traveled to Seattle to visit my parents in their new home!

 

 

 

In September, we celebrated our engagement!  Thank you Ann, Amanda, and Becky for a great party! We also ran the Color Me Rad color run!

 

 

In October, we sold Will's house, kept busy with work, and went to a few Halloween parties!

 

 

In November, we were apparently very boring...

 

In December, we signed the closing papers and bought a house!!!

 

 

Bring on 2013!