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Monday, August 20, 2007

Wedding Pix, Wedding Pix and More Wedding Pix

As promised on Friday, when I posted my "wedding story," I'm including 2 links to more wedding/honeymoon pictures. This time, I have another set from one of my bridesmaids plus a set of formal shots and a set from Stuart's and my honeymoon as well as our drive home. This last set also includes our visit to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs.

Now, in keeping with the tradition of my Monday updates, I'll share what we've been doing since the wedding. That way, you're all caught up on our lives. :) Who knows how often I'll continue this. All depends on how "interesting" our lives get and if anything worthy of announcing occurs in any given week.

For now, though:

* Got married on July 28th and left for the honeymoon immediately following the ceremony.

* Honeymooned in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia at a timeshare my family owns. It only rained once where it affected us, and we were able to get out to take a 2-hour hike, plus spend about 5 hours down at the brand new Water Park that was completed last Fall. This was its first official season, and you'll see pictures from that time. There are a few from our hike as well. Those would be the scenic shots. One day we spent in "downtown" Harrisonburg, doing a little shopping, going to a movie, enjoying a meal at Hank's Smokehouse and touring the town. Every year, it grows and expands more and more. I don't know when I'll get back there, but I can't help but wonder if I'll even recognize it then. :)

* Honeymoon ended on August 4th and we drove up to Harper's Ferry to meet my family for lunch and a few hours of saying "goodbye." None of us wanted to do that at the reception, so we planned this time together instead. We walked through the historical town, peeked into the bookstore, walked down where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet and flow together toward the Chesapeake Bay, and even put our toes in the somewhat warm water. Levels were too shallow to avoid the hot sun.

* Our drive home began around 5pm that night and we headed in the direction of Nashville. Made it as far as Bristol, VA (and TN) and crashed for the night, then completed our drive the next day.

* Sunday, after gaining an hour moving from the Eastern to the Central time zone and arriving around 11:30am, we spent the day in Nashville, met one of our bridesmaids after lunch for about 30 minutes at the mall, then headed to another friend's where we would be staying that night. Chatted with her for a couple of hours before heading to dinner to meet fellow ACFW friends. I don't remember what we did after dinner, but I know we went to bed early because we wanted to get an early start the next day.

* Monday, the 6th, we were up at 7 and out the door by 7:45am. After a nice, filling breakfast, we hit the road toward St. Louis. Stuart and I changed drivers every time we filled up for gas so neither of us got overly tired. Unfortunately, we didn't get too many pictures during the drive that were "marked" but we did cross the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers, so you'll see those in the pictures. We also drove right by the St. Louis Arch and made our way through Kansas City, which brought back memories of the very first ACFW conference in 2002. The day ended about 3/4 of the way across Kansas, which you'll see from the pictures as being very flat! :)

* Tuesday morning, we were up early again and on the road by 8:30 with just a 5-hour drive ahead of us. However, just before we crossed into Colorado, we hit the Mountain Time Zone, so gained another hour and got home around noon. Took us about 30 minutes to unpack the car and get everything upstairs, where my new home greeted me, complete with the gorgeous new kitchen floor--that I saw for the first time--and some flowers, small gifts, and starter food in the refrigerator, courtesy of my new sister-in-law and Stuart's cousin who recently moved from Dallas. Funny thing was that while we were unloading, UPS delivered my first "official" package at my new home. Shame I couldn't save the label off the box. Ha! Just kidding. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and recovering from the past 2 weeks with some much-needed rest.

* Wednesday, we awaited the arrival of the moving truck. He had called just about the time we passed into Colorado on Tuesday to say he'd deliver on Wednesday. It took about 2 hours for everything to get into the condo, and we sat at the kitchen table with a checklist, checking off items as the movers brought them into the house. We ended up with 2-3 missing boxes, which I now know were found and will be arriving this week. After the movers left, we began the task of unpacking and reorganizing as we sought to blend our two separate lives into one. Thankfully, we had 5 days in which to do this. By the end of the day, we had gotten the living room pretty much done, but we also made sure to get the bedroom furniture set up as well.

* Thursday, we worked on the kitchen and bedroom, with a break mid-day to go spend a few hours with Stuart's sister and my new niece and nephew (who were the ringbearer and flowergirl in our wedding). They had invited us to the community pool to get away from the heat of the August sun in a home with no air-conditioning on the 3rd floor. What a welcome relief! By the end of the day, we had the bedroom and kitchen finished, with just a few minor touches needing to be added.

* Friday, we had plans to work on the office, but ended up running a few errands and taking care of other business. And since it was date night for Stuart and me, we went out to eat and caught a showing of Stardust at the movie theatre. Fantastic movie, if you love fantasy tales, humor, and great characters. It's a lot like Princess Bride with a few more plot twists. Great movie for the entire family.

* Saturday, we finished a few more errands and headed down to visit with Stuart's parents and family, where we enjoyed a nice dinner and opened the gifts that had been shipped out to Colorado before the wedding. We also brought down a car load of items from our reorganization for them, if anyone wanted anything. At least it was out of our house.

* Sunday was church and a trip to the zoo, of which you'll see a lot of pictures in the 3rd set. Looking forward to next summer when they open a new Rocky Mountain section for some new animals.

* Monday, it was back to work for Stuart, and I spent the day organizing my desk and waiting for UPS to deliver my computer. They had come Friday when we were out, again Saturday while we were down in Canon City, and I missed them again today. Also shipped back a package of items to my parents that had been loaned to us for the honeymoon and drive to Colorado.

* Tuesday, my computer finally arrived, so I was able to get it all hooked up and almost working. Met Stuart at work for dinner, then we headed to our weekly critique group for writing and arrived amidst a downpour of rain, so after dashing across soggy and puddle-filled grass, we made quite an entrance. :) Everyone was so happy to see us and to meet me, and I look forward to working with them as I strive toward my book deadline in October. On the way home, we picked up an ethernet cable and got my computer connected online.

* Wednesday, I was back at work at the local Christian bookstore with an introduction to the store and orientation. I made a lateral transfer from Delaware, but will be 100% on the sales floor and overseeing the Sunday School curriculum orders. I'll be there part-time so I can get out of the house a bit and stay connected with the book market and what's selling. Met Stuart for lunch where a handful of his coworkers expressed their delight at meeting me (some again after meeting in May), and I got a quick tour of his work space.

* Thursday and Friday passed quickly, with another day of work and receiving my schedule from that point out. It'll be nice during the week to be there while Stuart's at work and break up the day a bit. I'll still have my nights and weekends free, which is a bonus. For date night this past week, we stayed in and watched 2 movies, one on DVD and one on TV, with the premiere of High School Musical 2 on the Disney Channel. Just as good as the first one from last summer, and another round of fantastic songs. I can see another album going "platinum."

* This past weekend, we went out shopping and used up a few gift cards to get some additional small items from our registries then saw the Bourne Ultimatum at the theatre. We also started going through pictures to make selections on what we'll be keeping and what needs enlargements for our wedding album. Unfortunately, it won't be ready for display at the Colorado reception this coming weekend, but we'll have a slideshow to share. Sunday, we also took a drive around town and did a little sightseeing then finished clearing out boxes in the office, plus hung our pictures. Jazzed up our home quite a lot and solidified things for me even more.

That brings us up to date, where I'm writing this post. Hope I haven't bored you too much. :) I tried to only hit the highlights. And now for the rest of the pictures that I have. There might be more next week, but we'll see what happens.

Photo Gallery 1 -- formal shots
Photo Gallery 2 -- honeymoon & after

Happy viewing!

2 comments:

Cherie J said...

Wonderful pictures! Thanks for sharing!

Rhonda Gibson said...

Congratulations! The pictures are wonderful.