Remembering 2010

I just asked Dave, "Can you believe this is the last day of the year we got married?"  Our mutual response, "No!"  Until recently I wasn't sure my brain could think beyond 2010...I guess it's good I'm catching up!

So much happened this year (in no particular order):

1. We got hitched! (See some of my favorite wedding photos: ready for the wedding, you may kiss the bride, a moment to celebrate, exhausted and in love - I swear I didn't mean to pick almost all us kissing!)
2. Several friends had cute babies, including Kaylee, Ethan, Haly, and Kimbre (and Morgan on the way)
3. Ryan graduated from high school and started at UW
4. My cousin Karla got engaged to Brian (can't wait for June)
5. We relaxed on a wonderful honeymoon in Oregon
6. We enjoyed our bachelor and bachelorette parties, and my shower (thanks to Jonathan, Dana, all of our bridal party, and our other supportive family and friends)
7. Dave completed his allergy shots and is now immune to bee stings (phew)
8. I returned to teaching, though I had already started back to school
9. I reviewed hundreds of admissions files and helped select the 2010 freshman class
10. I day-of coordinated a wedding, great practice for our own
11. Dave participated in several triathlons, and discovered he is a true triathlete (see photos from the Kirkland Triathlon)
12. We managed several fun trips and events, despite our crazy schedules (see January trip to Portland, Sounders game, Wooden Boat Festival, Brinnon, and more)

We're looking forward to a great year in 2011, which will include:

1. My graduation from UW (again) with an M.Ed.
2. Our 3rd dating anniversary and 1st wedding anniversary
3. Matthew graduating from high school, and my other cousin Karla getting married
4. Me finding a job?!
5. A weekend trip to Victoria, and hopefully a week-long trip in April (TBD)
6. Triathlons and biking
7. Gardening
8. Several plays, ballets, and symphonies (thank you friends and family)
9. Time with friends and family, including lots of adorable kiddos, trips to Brinnon, time at the cabin up north
10. Cooking, crafting, reading, and generally taking more time for ourselves

I think I speak for both of us when I say that we feel truly blessed with all we have.  Thank you, and Happy New Year!

Blast from the past

 

Yup, that's me.  And that's my dad.  Being little was awesome.

Saying goodbye to Christmas

Dave and I have had a wonderful Christmas...

it started the weekend after Thanksgiving when we made our gingerbread house and decorated the condo,

I enjoyed a festive book club with friends (and received a book about knitting),

we celebrated Danielle's birthday on the Santa Train,

I went to the traditional Women's Christmas Dessert,

I exchanged gifts with some of my closest friends,

we celebrated my mom's birthday with dinner and The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever,

family Christmas festivities began in Brinnon, continued in Covington and Newcastle, and came to a close in Seattle,

Dave and I exchanged stockings for each other (including awesome items such as a zombie t-shirt, Yaktrax, ghost chile chocolates, and the Twilight movies),

and somewhere in there I finished a paper, graded finals, taught a camp I wrote, and bought and wrapped many gifts for family and friends. :)

Christmas while in school is always a little stressful and overwhelming, but we enjoyed taking some time to visit with everyone we love!  Thank you for being a part of our lives.

Christmas decorations

Yesterday Dave and I got our tree, and decorated our house for Christmas...

 Table runner from Carol, mugs from Grandma

 Plates from Dana, napkins and napkin rings from Danielle

 Nativity set from Grandma

Our tree!

 I had a hard time getting a shot of our "honeymoon" ornament, but you get the idea...

 My mom has had a copy of this "Night Before Christmas" book since she was little.  I tracked down a copy last year.  No one else seems to like my little Santa, but I love him anyway.

 Our gingerbread house

 Cookies for Santa plate from my Grandma

 We discovered the gel gems will stick to our fridge

 And our wreath, made by Brianne

Happy Holidays!

Snow!

After an epic journey home from school yesterday, I'm happy to say that Dave and I are snug and warm at home today.

Yesterday morning I decided to head in for school since there wasn't much snow yet and the buses were running.  I made it in easily, went to lecture, had a good teaching team meeting for the class I TA, went to the gym, generally did just fine hanging around campus.  The weather was supposed to get bad late afternoon/early evening, but since I was there I decided to stick it out and see if I had my usual 4:30-6:30 class.  You see, my professor doesn't use e-mail.  I find this ridiculous (though I also know that she won't read this because she doesn't like electronics).  We did indeed have about half our class show, along with our professor.  A group was presenting, so that went on despite one member taking from 2-6pm to make it to school from Puyallup.  Then things proceeded to run OVER.  A little after 6:30 I checked my phone and saw that Dave was trying to reach me.  He said traffic was horrendous and I should leave ASAP.  Finally at 6:45 when class showed no signs of ending, I walked out - let's all appreciate that this is a big deal for a nerd like me. :)  I called Dave and found out the UW had officially canceled night classes and shut down at 5pm - too bad for half of my class!

It was insanely cold and windy (for what this Washingtonian is used to), but I made it to the bus stop.  Luckily I managed to get a bus at 7:15, which really wasn't bad considering.  The bus had chains, and there were only 6 of us at the fullest point, so I was comfortable.  Things moved slowly getting to the bridge, but once we hit the high rise on 520 it got crazy. It took 50 minutes to cross the bridge, and coming up on the east side we weaved through a maze of disabled vehicles.  Just past Evergreen Point we stopped entirely for 10-15 minutes.  Once we started moving again I saw about 5 vehicles to the side of the road, which they must have been clearing.  Then our exit was freshly blocked by another disabled vehicle, and we had to take a detour through Bellevue.  I finally made it to my stop and the fresh snow made it not at all slippery walking the final 1/4 mile or so home.  Lucky for me, Dave was already safe at home and ready to feed me!  It's times like this that I'm really glad my husband is good at driving in the snow.  I don't have to worry as much about him getting back safely (though I worry about the others on the road), and I know if we have to get anywhere we can.

Today we're staying in.  Dave is working from home, and I fortunately didn't have to be anywhere today anyway.  A couple hours ago we took a walk down to the waterfront, and then got coffee (I love that we can walk to things!).  Dave snapped a couple of pictures of me on his phone:

Tehehe.

Hope everyone in the snow is enjoying it and staying safe today!

A festive fall

I've been busy - and therefore we've been busy.  I suppose that's technically an understatement, but I'm mostly busy with good things.  Things like school (which I do enjoy), TA responsibilities (which I also enjoy, though challenging), other teaching responsibilities, family and friends (and cute babies!), and some fun (mostly Harry Potter-related).

I thought I'd take a minute before Thanksgiving and the switch to Christmas excitement to show off some of our fall decorations - especially since I get to show off the house as MOSTLY clean...a far too rare occurrence lately.

You see, back in June my friends and family helped me celebrated mine and Dave's upcoming wedding with a shower.  And it was a holiday-themed shower, so I was honored to receive amazing decorations and treats for throughout the year. I couldn't let fall slip by entirely without showing my appreciation!

 Technically this isn't a new wreath, but I just love this fall wreath - the first of 3 I've commissioned Brianne to make for me (thanks, friend!). :)

 Carol gave us the adorable fall pumpkin signs, and these 4 pumpkins were grown in our garden!

Dave and I have collected quite the array of decorative squashes this fall.  We bought some when we returned to Craven Farm for pumpkin patch fun in October, and received more in our new CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box.

Carol gave us this gorgeous soup tureen.

Aunt Jean C (my side) gave us this darling  turkey, filled with napkins from Grandma Nancy and on top of a table runner from Carol.

 We've moved our containers to our "balconette" as I lovingly call it.  We're hoping if they are closer to home we can cover them as needed and get them through the winter.

While not specifically "fall," we just love the hand-carved plate Uncle David B gave us.  It looks wonderful on the mantle next to Danielle's felt trees (technically a Christmas decoration, but I love them too much to put them away).

And I had to show off the stemless wine glasses Kaity etched for us!  We've been using them to sip wine by the far lately...delightful.

Fall has truly flown by, but we enjoyed it - our first season of marriage!

Wedding Photos Part 18: Take 2

This is the last of the professional wedding pictures...our Take 2 photos from the day after the wedding.  For us it felt like "Wedding Continued."  We got up and dressed in our wedding attire.  It wasn't until we drove away on Monday that it really felt like the wedding was over, and it was time to think of the honeymoon.

The first stop was Volunteer Park.  It was actually a location we selected for Plan B (rain), which we thought would be falling from the sky.  As evidenced by the gorgeous blue sky you see in the photos, there was a change in weather plans!  When I worked at SAM, I spent a month working out of the Seattle Asian Art Museum, based in this park.

 (I took this photo for the other girls in my bridal bootcamp!)

 People were walking by complimenting my shoes. :)

Then we walked over to the Volunteer Park Conservatory, also in the park.  Dave and I visited on the morning of the day we got engaged (before he asked).  It's an amazing place, especially in winter when it's nice and warm inside...

Next we went back to Plan A, which meant hopping over the Bellevue to visit the Mercer Slough Nature Park (where I work part-time).

 This is one of the many vans I drove this summer.  Hehe.

Finally we drove on to Kirkland, making our first stop at Heritage Hall, where Dave popped the question.

(We were staging our actual engagement.)

We took a photo here right after we became engaged, so it was only fitting to take another!

To end the day, we decided to walk around Kirkland a little...

 Kirkland has these very silly walking flags, so we had to "work" them.

And that's it!  At least until I sort through the many great pictures friends and family took... :)

All photos by Brett Szemple of Our Wedding Photographer.