Well the World Didn't end...

But we did get one heck of a snow storm last night! We got the end of that major snow storm that dumped all over the middle of the country and got a good 6 inches of snow. I am pretty happy because I was really wanting a white Christmas since we didn't have one last year, and with this being our last Christmas in Rochester, and I have never had a white Christmas, I just wanted to have one. And while it is not the most fun to drive in or be out in, it sure is pretty to look at from inside our cozy apartment with the lights of our Christmas tree reflecting in the window :) I will now count this as our first OFFICIAL snow of the season!

Tonight Bobby and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary (a day early) by going to dinner at the same place we stumbled across last year and had our anniversary dinner at. The Gabel's asked me to babysit tomorrow night for a couple of hours so they could go to dinner with some family so I of course said yes because I love those girls and I wanted to see them to give them their Christmas gifts as well, so we just decided to go to dinner tonight :) It was yummy as usual. No plans yet for the day tomorrow, maybe we just do absolutely nothing. I asked Bobby at dinner tonight if we will be celebrating this anniversary next year, because we will be married...he didn't have an answer and said it was up to me lol I say of course we will. Maybe it won't be as big of a celebration as our wedding anniversary but no doubt we will be celebrating in some way. 11 years is a LONG time and I am so happy to have spent them all with my best friend. It's crazy that next year I will be Mrs. Graham, but I can not wait! Talk about a LONG time coming!

Tomorrow also marks the 8 month mark till our wedding! I still love the fact that our Wedding DAY will be the same as our dating day anniversary, I am glad it ended up that way without even trying I know it was meant to be. Time has flown, and I realized yesterday that I better get our save the date's ordered...so I did! I had ordered a bunch of free sample invitations from Wedding Paper Divas and with those they sent me a 20% off code that was good until 12/31. We had finally narrowed our designs down and picked one so we ordered them officially yesterday! I can not wait to get them I am so excited! They are scheduled to arrive around January 7th. I want to get them out sometime in February, slightly before the 6 month mark.

In some other VERY exciting news, Bobby has made it to the final round of interviews for our number 1 job prospect and I couldn't be more proud of him. It seems like the most perfect fit for him and us and I am just praying he makes it! He was 1 of 12 in the whole USA to make it to the final round, that in itself is a HUGE accomplishment. They are an international company and recruit out of 5 countries. 12 candidates got chosen for each country...so he is one of 60 finalists out of the over 3,000 applicants...just amazing! They pick 15 people out of the 60, about 3 from each place. I have such a good feeling about it so I will be praying. They are flying him out to Houston for a two day intensive interview session in February, so we should know soon after that! He also has a very good shot at another company, that is based in Houston so we have a very solid back up plan as well. Things have been working out the best possible way they could have so far and I am so excited for our future and SO proud of Bobby for all of the hard work he has put in to getting this far!

So much exciting news to come in the next few months! :) Glad the world didn't end, because I am so ready for our amazing year of 2013! <3

Laziest of all Weekends

Oh my was I lazy this weekend. I think I left the apartment one time to go grocery shopping and run some other errands with Bobby and that was it...oops! I have been in a really weird downer mood the last few days so I know that has a lot to do with it, I just didn't want to do anything...so I didn't. I am in a bit of a better mood today, but it's very up and down...the joys of being a female I guess ugh! I am glad Bobby can laugh it off haha

I had been wanting to get out and do something to enjoy the last of our "nice" weather, but we are pretty broke right now and basically everything requires some kind of money, at least what would be worth doing does so that was also a reason I just stayed home. Bobby has a new game that he has been glued to, which left me to trying to entertain myself so I started researching honeymoon spots and I am pretty sure we have it narrowed down! woohoo!

I am now back to being clueless about bridesmaids dresses, only because I have Mackenzie who will be 11 as a Jr. Bridesmaid and it has proven to be very difficult to find cute bridesmaids dresses in the right color that is also made in a Jr. Bridesmaid style...oh my gosh this is probably the MOST frustrating part of this whole planning process to date no joke! I hadn't even really thought about it until recently and since then it has just been draining me of my sanity...which there isn't much left at this point!

In other news, we are all still on baby watch for those Gabel girls! Megan is now 36 going on 37 weeks (I believe) and she is growing by the day! I honestly don't know how she is still going around town doing errands, granted it's beneficial to her, if I was her it would be hard to get me to do anything, but she's still trucking along! We are all getting excited and anxious to meet the sisters! :)

Goodbye Summer 2012

Happy 1st day of September! I am pretty sure I have been saying this all year, for every season, but I can't believe summer is about to be over! I already feel like it's over, just because we are back from California and back to work, Bobby starts school a week from Monday and then things will probably get super crazy because the Gabel girls will be here literally any day!

Summer couldn't have been any better, the only thing I would change is that it would have lasted longer...but isn't that usually the case? I knew that it was going to go by too fast, and sure enough it did. A lot happened this summer though:

1. Baby brother got MARRIED!
2. Ordered my wedding dress!
3. Changed our venue/location and booked our dream venue! :)
4. Met my little miss H and saw my bestie <3
5. Spent time with my Etters
6. Food tasted/decided on a caterer
7. Picked multiple vendors
8. BEACH
9. settled on wedding colors
10. girl time with my lovely Laura Matistic
11. Picked out BM dresses
12. drove across the country for the SECOND time in a year
13. Saw amazing Chapman friends :)

Another summer has come and gone, but I am excited for FALL! That is one good thing about Rochester, fall is super pretty here! The only bad thing that means is that winter is coming....AH! Considering that last winter was "mild" everyone keeps telling us winter this year is going to SUCK...so not excited to say the least...actually a little scared lol We will round off 2012 by celebrating our 11 year anniversary then bring on 2013...OUR year I can't wait! I am hoping we will be able to go home around Christmas time so we can do some more wedding stuff and also see family for the holidays for once, since we were here for ALL of them last year. It's crazy that there are only 3 months till the Holiday season this whole 2012 year went by SO fast but it was a great year and I am very much looking forward to the rest of it :)

Back to the Grind

We finally made it back to Rochester at 4am this morning after a long 5 day journey (for the second time) from California. This time wasn't as bad because we were able to ride together and had no REAL rush to get back. We were able to stop and take our time for the most part. We stopped in Wyoming for a day so Bobby could get some business done, and it was a nice break after driving 15 hours straight. The middle of the country (Wyoming, Nebsraska, Iowa) is pretty much all exactly the same...a whole lot of nothing so we couldn't wait to get through there.

Our only other major stop was in Chicago yesterday! We stopped and got a hotel Saturday night about 45 minutes outside of Chicago and then went into the city for about 5 hours and explore as much as we could. We roamed the magnificent mile (their version of 5th ave in NYC) and ate some delicious, authentic Chicago style pizza (which blows NYC pizza out of the water in my opinion). We walked all the way to Lake Michigan where there was some sort of air show going on, we aren't exactly sure what it was about but it pretty cool! On our walk back to the car we decided to stop into a couple store we are thinking about registering at for our wedding and browse to see what caught our eye. The Crate & Barrel there was amazing and 5 stories!

We left around 5pm and had a 650 mile drive ahead of us. With all of our stops it made it a little longer, plus we lost an hour. We slept in late today which felt amazing in our own bed! It was so nice to finally walk through the door of our apartment and not be driving anymore. It feels great to be back and I am ready to get back into a normal routine. I go back to work tomorrow and Wednesday so I am excited for that :) No baby Gabels YET! I am also SO ready to get back to the gym and eating right, we bought a juicer which should be here Wednesday and we are going to do some sort of juice detox/cleanse because it is BEYOND needed! I gained back all of my weight that I had lost before going out there and I am so ready to get in wedding shape! Bobby starts classes in a few weeks as well so soon enough we will back to the regular grind!

So as much as the driving for days and days isn't ideal, and it kind of sucks at times. There are good things that come from it. I get to spend quality, uninterrupted (for the most part) time with Bobby, which during school is hard to get. We never get sick of each other and it just proves more and more that he is my BEST friend and how lucky I am to have him. It made me fall in love with him even more than I already am. We discussed the most random topics. We still learn more about each other (yes even after 10+ years). We figured out a lot about what we want for our wedding. Made some decisions. Talk about our future. And more. On top of ALL of that, I got to see parts of the country I have never seen before with my best friend and those are memories that we will have forever and for all of that I am happy. :)

Some pictures I took along the way:

Wyoming roads

Corn. Nebraska

ridiculous gift shop with no exit to get to it in NE.

Omaha

Casey,Iowa. Bored much?

Iowa. 

Inside the truck stop. There were 2 others! It lived up to world's biggest!

Chicago.

Old house amidst modern buildings, coolest thing we saw I think.

Air Show.

Lake Michigan

Hancock Tower

Entering Notre Dame

On the Road

We are officially on the road back to Rochester as of yesterday. We had planned on leaving yesterday morning, but we had some friends over the night before and were hanging out drinking late so that definitely didn't happen. Packing always ends up taking way longer than we anticipate too so we didn't get on the road until 5pm! lol Bobby had to be in Wyoming today because there was a chance that he was going to have a meeting today, but it ended up being tomorrow. We drove basically all through the night, stopping once at 6:45am about 3 hours outside of Lander, WY (our destination) so Bobby could sleep and then I drove the rest of the way. We got to Lander around 11:30 am, straight up exhausted! But, this way we get to relax a day and get a good nights sleep. Then tomorrow Bobby has a meeting at 10 am and 1pm and then we will head out right after his last meeting. Our next stop is going to be Omaha,Nebraska. At least that is only about an 8 hour drive, vs the 16 hour drive we did yesterday/today. The rest of our trip won't be rushed so it will be a lot better. I just have to be back for work by Monday (for work Tuesday) which is easily doable with the time that we have left. Our planned stops are Omaha and Chicago next and then just straight to Rochester. Since we have some extra time maybe we will find another place to stop between Chicago and Rochester, although I don't know that there is anywhere worth stopping at, but we will see!

It will be nice to be back in our own space finally and get back to a normal routine. Megan (Julia's mom) should be having her babies anytime, unless she makes it to her due date. She has a scheduled C-section September 15 so we will see! I am excited to meet those little ones! :)

24 Carrots

Today we had our food tasting with RLL's preferred catering company, 24 Carrots Catering. They are the premiere catering company in Orange County, and the tasting definitely proved that. As I mentioned before we picked out a variety of appetizers, salads, entrees, and sides to try and then they added some other ones they thought we might like as well. We ended up liking more of the ones they through in than the ones we had picked, but really all of their food was delicious and their presentation is great as well! They had a slide show running on the tv mounted on the wall during the tasting and we got to see pictures from the numerous weddings they have done at RLL, and they are all stunning. We had no doubts that their food would be wonderful and the girl Nicole who we would be working with is great as well, we all really clicked which was great!

I am really wanting to use 24 Carrots, but there is another option that we have as well with another event company that has put together a wonderfully priced all-inclusive deal and it's making it really hard to decide. We save a substantial amount of money going with the not-24 Carrots company, but we risk the wedding reception running not as smooth. We have 110% confidence in 24 Carrots, but are still lacking some in the other. We are going to really weigh out our options over the next week or two and try to make some negotiations to see what one will fit within our budget the best and see what/if we will have to cut anything from our wedding list. This is the hard, not fun part of wedding planning, but definitely necessary.

Tomorrow we officially book our venue Rancho Las Lomas and have an appointment at 10am! I can't wait just to see the venue again, I absolutely love it there! I am going to take more pictures (because I missed quite a few spots) and really think about how to use the space as far as set up goes and make some notes. I don't know the next time I will be back out here so I definitely need to think harder about it tomorrow. I will be very happy to have that taken care of though before we take off Wednesday morning. I am sad to leave California of course, but very much looking forward to getting back into a normal routine. I am also ready for the school year to start so we are that much closer to it being over! haha

Catering is TBC....

Bridesmaid Dress Success!

I am 99% sure we have found THE dress for the bridesmaids! I had been having the hardest time finding the perfect color dress and dress combo but I believe we have found a winner! The dress that I originally loved, but they didn't have the right color, just came out with new colors and one of them is the perfect color for our wedding and I am SO excited about it! Laura happened to be visiting her family down here this weekend so we met up for coffee and then went to a bridal store in Orange (which is amazing btw) and found the dress in their store so she could try it on. We loved it! I have sent pictures to the other girls and they agree its totally perfect so as long as the color is spot on that will be the one they order! I thought I wanted to have them in different dresses at the beginning but I changed my mind, they all love the same one anyway so it makes it easy! Since the color is so new the bridal store didn't have the swatch there yet, but they are going to order it from the designer and mail it to me so I will have it in a few weeks. I am actually glad I am able to do that because then I will have the swatch to be able to match it to other things like Mackenzie's Jr. Bridesmaid dress and probably a million other things too.

I am so glad we almost have the BM dresses checked off the list, one less thing to worry about later on down the road! Monday we have another tasting with our venue's preferred catering company. We picked out a bunch of stuff to try and we are very excited for that! Then tuesday we sign our lives away (again LOL) and officially book our venue! Our new wedding date is August 23, 2013! And I just now thought about this while I was sitting here talking to Laura today and I thought it was so cool! Our dating anniversary is December 23 and now our wedding anniversary is going to be August 23....BOTH the 23rd! Bobby didn't think it was as cool as I did but I just think it's meant to be because I didn't even think about that when we picked the day....I just thought well it's the day before Bobby's birthday so he can never forget our anniversary LOL ;)

Life's a Beach

We are coming down to our last few days in SoCal, and it's really sad! Today was a super hot 102 degree day so we decided to take advantage and hit the beach! The saying "you don't know what you have until it's gone" is SO true. We definitely took for granted all of the amazing things SoCal has to offer (like the beach) while we were living here, but now that we are living in Rochester we definitely do everything we didn't do while we lived here when we come back to visit. This trip has not been as relaxing as I thought it would be, it has actually been ridiculously jam packed full of things but I wouldn't have it any other way. We have a super busy last couple of days next week so we wanted to use today to go relax in the sand at our favorite beach at the Montage in Laguna. There were some crazy big waves when we got there that were literally wiping out people's chairs and towels, it was pretty funny and I was glad we were far enough back. After laying out we decided to take a walk down the beach a ways and I decided I wanted to snap some pictures to capture our happiness at one of our favorite places to be :)

Our new Wedding date! save it ;) 

love my best friend <3

I really am sad we have to leave next week, I am going to miss it SO much! Especially because I don't know the next time we will be back down here before he graduates, or if we even will! I am hoping and crossing my fingers we will be able to come home for Christmas this year since last year we war in Rochester and it was quite miserable to be honest so hopefully we can make it happen, it would definitely help me out with wedding stuff too! Guess we will see!

7 months is TOO long!

I will never ever go 7 months without getting my hair cut/colored again! Oh my goodness haha! Up until today I hadn't had my hair touched since the end of January, can you say ROOTS?! Luckily my natural hair isn't TOO TOO far off from what I dye it, but I definitely had that "trendy" ombre going on....not a fan especially since you could see the strawberry color in my hair...Bobby wasn't liking that too much lol My normal girl out here is gone for the summer so I asked her if she knew anyone who could do it and she gave me over to a girl at her salon who is taking over her clients while she is gone. My first thought was man now I have to pay full price, but NO I still got my friend discount that I normally get SCORE! $80 for a cut and full high lights you just can't beat that! :) So was able to get in today (the same day I called) for an appointment and now I am one happy girl!!!

fresh blonde locks=one happy girl!:) 

Also! The girl who did my hair does bridal hair all the time so I am thinking about using her for my wedding and for the wedding party. She also has connections to other vendors that we still need so she is going to email me their information! Always good to know people who know people when you're planning a wedding! :)

Etter Boys

I finally got to see my Calvin and Austin Etter on Saturday! Bobby and I drove to Pleasanton Saturday morning to spend the day with the Etter family and it was SO good seeing them! They weren't home when we got there, but got there like 5 minutes after and they jumped out of the car and right into our arms...Austin to me and Calvin to Bobby how it usually is haha. I love so much that they love Bobby so much, and I know he loves it too! He loves those boys ALMOST as much as me;) Right away Aus grabs my hand and has to "show me something"...his new big boy bunk bed that him and his brother share. He was connected to my hip the whole day, and when Austin was napping Calvin was. I miss them so much, they are the cutest, sweeties, craziest boys in the world and so so so lovable! They have both gotten SO big, most noticeably Austin! He is almost as tall as Calvin and is talking SO much more than last time I saw him, and so much better! It's amazing that jump from 2-3 years old they grow SO much and learn so much I feel like I missed out on a ton but I am just so happy that they were as excited to see us as we were to see them.

Around 5 we had plans to meet up with Laura and Kyle for dinner nearby since they live in Fremont which is about 20 minutes away. It worked out really well I miss them too! It sucks not living by your best friends, not only not living by them, but living SO far away! You really learn to cherish the time you do have with them. I never have enough time with my friends, Laura is going to be in SoCal this weekend though so we are going to meet up again for some girl time and really catch up and talk. It's better with out the boys :P.

Bobby had to fly to Denver for business last minute EARLY this morning, so I took them to the Sacramento airport at 4am today, and I went and visited the Etters again! :) I was so glad I got to spend a whole extra day with them that I didn't expect. I miss them already! Bobby was supposed to fly back to so cal Thursday, but ended up getting on a flight tonight! So his cousin is going to pick him up...I already had told my mom I would meet her for a mani/pedi over here in Stockton where I am staying so I will still meet her for that tomorrow morning then just drive down right after. I will more than likely get stuck in LA traffic but oh well...I am not driving by myself at night so I will just deal with it. I am glad Bobby got to come home a couple days early though so we can enjoy our final days in California together and take care of some major wedding things as well.

The time here has gone by WAY too fast, I knew it would go by fast but not THIS fast! We will probably head out (driving) back to NY next Wednesday or Thursday so I can get back to work by the following Tuesday. I am not really looking forward to that drive, but hopefully it won't be so bad. I fully intend on enjoying our final week in CA though it has been a GREAT, but chaotic and jam packed visit thus far and probably won't let up!

Meeting Miss H

Yesterday I finally got to meet my bestie's beautiful baby girl Harlow Adriana! Our trips ended up overlapping by one day thank goodness, so I was able to drive over to Concord and spend their last day in NorCal with them. I hadn't seen Laura since her baby shower in February, and had only "met" Harlow via facetime, she is such a doll! She was napping when I got there, but woke up soon after. It's truly amazing seeing my best friend be a mom, she's such a good mommy! Laura, Adam, Harlow, and I went to lunch at Tomatina in Walnut Creek for lunch (which took FOREVER) and by that time it was time to head back to her mom's because they had some family pictures set up and H needed a nap. I was just so happy to be able to spend some time with Laura I hate living so far away from each other, especially now that she has a little one that I just want to see everyday! We came to the realization that we probably won't see each other until my bridal shower, and by that time H will be a year old (slightly over) and walking! So crazy, and so sad! :( I can't wait until the day that we are living in the same state again at least!!! She took some pictures on her camera of H and me and all 3 of us and once she posts those I will put them up :) I miss them already!!!

The Dress is Ordered!

Yesterday morning I flew into Sacramento, had some lunch with my mom, and then went and finally ordered my wedding dress!!! None of the bridal stores in the area carried my specific gown in their stores so I had to have one of them ship the sample to them so I could try it on again with my mom there and order it. It was the trunk show sample, so it was a little bit beat up, the one I had tried on in NY was brand spankin new and my size so it fit perfectly, this one was a whole size too big and a bit dingey.Despite that, it was still the beautiful perfect-for-me dress I remembered and I again didn't want to take it off! I am so glad my mom was able to see it in person because up until then she had only seen it in pictures, and pictures really never do anything justice. She loved it! She agreed it was totally "me" and that made me even more confident in my choice! I seriously can't even believe that I just ordered my WEDDING dress! I have seriously waited YEARS to be able to plan our wedding and now I am finally at the point of being able to! I didn't really ask when it would come in; 1) because its still over a year till our wedding and 2) because it will probably come in while I am still in NY. It is typical for a gown to take 6-8 months to come in so that would put it at February at the earliest and April at the latest which really would be perfect because I am planning on having my bridal shower in April or May, so it will work out whichever way it happens they said they can hang on to it for however long, they know I live out of state right now. Anyway, thats a huge check off the list...and still many, many more to go but I am so excited about marking that one off! :) YAY!

A Big Change

I haven't told many people, but now that its officially happening I can "announce" it...Bobby and I decided that we want to switch our wedding venue from the one in Northern CA to my dream venue in Orange County! I had always WANTED to have my wedding in Southern CA at this particular wedding venue, but it was out of my parents budget, however after much discussion Bobby and I decided that we will be covering any extra costs ourselves so that we are able to have our dream wedding! We couldn't be more excited about it, I have wanted to have my wedding at the new venue since before we even got engaged. The lady I used to work for told me about it and I fell in love instantly, but knowing it was out of my set budget I didn't even look at it as an option. I feel SO blessed to have such awesome parents to be paying for ANY amount of my wedding, nowadays I know a lot of couples pay for their wedding in its entirety so I am very very lucky to have them be paying for as much as they are. Bobby is seriously amazing too, he is willing to do whatever it takes so I can have my dream day and he knows me so well he knew that I would have always "regretted" not having our wedding here when there was a way to make it happen...and we are!

We had an appointment to get all of the basic information the Wednesday after I got here and we also took a tour of the grounds which is absolutely amazing! I was so excited to finally see it in person and it DEFINITELY did not disappoint. It feels RIGHT this time because we are going through the process together. With MVI I went alone, Bobby never saw it in person and it just didn't feel right (even though I really did like the venue and booked it obviously which looking back was REALLY stupid...but live and learn right?). Now we are doing this together, went to the venue and we both love it. I have been emailing some catering companies and other vendors and we have come across some really wonderful vendors and the venue is working with us and our budget and have been very helpful! Tomorrow we actually have a food tasting with one of the catering companies so hopefully that goes well! We found an awesome event company who has a package built specifically for the venue and we can get an awesome deal on a vendor package (dj, flowers, cake, food, valet, etc) so our fingers are crossed this tasting goes well! There is also their preferred catering company that we are also hoping to have a tasting with so that we can compare and see which would be the better option.

We should be booking the date SOON since the dates are filling up quick. We are doing a friday wedding so that we can bring in an outside catering company (on Saturday & Sunday you have to use their preferred vendor) so it cuts down the cost a little bit. We are looking at Friday August 23, 2013 as a potential wedding date. They hold your date for two weeks, which will expire on Wednesday so I am hoping that it doesn't get booked between Wednesday and when we get back from Northern CA and can get an appointment to book the date officially! We are flexible though and can really have it whenever, but we liked that date so are hoping we can make it ours! :) Otherwise all of September was open as well! Fingers crossed!

Next on the agenda (after tomorrow's tasting) is on Tuesday...I ORDER MY WEDDING DRESS!!! I have waited for what feels like FOREVER to finally order my wedding dress and I am SO excited! I can't wait to put in on again and have my mom see it in person and put the order in! That will be another huge check off the to do list. I am also going to take a look at bridesmaid dresses while I am at it to get a head start on that. I don't want to have to be worrying about that when its crunch time so the sooner we can get those types of things done/decided the better.

It is pretty crazy, changing the venue, BUT we are still over a year away from our wedding date so it's not like we don't have the time. We both should LOVE where we are getting married...we only get ONE day and we just want to look back and have no regrets and I know this decision will leave us completely happy and with none! Let the wedding planning officially begin! (again!)

Rancho Las Lomas (our new amazing venue eek!):

indoor reception space aka our after party room

cocktail hour space

aisle #1 before THE aisle

outdoor ceremony location

grand entrance

where guest enter

yes you can tour the zoo part during cocktail hour/before the wedding

Alaska

The first 48 hours in Alaska were exhausting and stressful to say the least. My dad arrived a little later than schedule, so I hung out in the airport with my bags for about an hour and a half before he arrived. Then we called the hotel shuttle and got there around 2am. That all went fairly smooth, then it was friday, the day everyone else arrived. Well, the hotel wouldn't let us hang out in the room until noon like we needed to because that was when Drew and Brit were going to be there to pick us up so we hung out in McDonalds because that was the closest place we could go with all our suitcases what a fun start! Everyone arrived throughout out the day, my mom at 4pm, Drew's friends at 10pm then our cousins didn't get in until after midnight. It was such a long day, we went to the movies and to two different meals. We didn't get back to Soldotna until 4:30am, I can't remember the last time I was that tired haha Then the next day of course everyone is exhausted and it was such a stressful day. Things were not as smooth or planned out as they could have been which caused a LOT of tension. We were supposed to go to Homer, but that didn't end up happening and we pretty much were just running a bunch of errands all day and trying to figure everything out...Sunday my brother, mom, dad, and I went to Homer which ended up being so much better than if everyone would have gone. We didn't have all that much time since Brit's bridal shower was at 7 but its a very small town so there isn't a lot to do anyway, my mom just wanted to go so we were able to do that. Then we basically went straight to Brit's bridal shower up at her mom's house. In the midst of all of the craziness one of Brit's bridesmaids who is very prego was admitted to the hospital because she was having some major issues so she couldn't be in the wedding anymore, so I was called upon to fill her spot haha I am glad that I was able to be a part of the wedding though, it was a bummer how it happened, but I am really happy that I was able to share the day with them, that all actually worked out well! Monday was the big day and that was probably the LEAST stressful day out of all of the days we were there to be honest, which is funny now that I think about it. It was absolutely FREEZING cold at the wedding, but it was beautiful. I instantly started crying when I walked down and saw my brother standing up at the alter. They both wrote their own vows, which again made me cry. It was quick and to the point and I have never seen my brother so happy. And it just made all of the other crap that happened in the first couple of days disappear. My mom had to leave that night after the wedding, we all went back to the bed and breakfast we were staying at and sat out by the campfire and roasted s'mores, my brother and brit joined us a little later. The next day everyone went fishing and I basically sat at the house and relaxed until they got back and then we all went out for our last night there. On our drive back up to the airport in Anchorage on Wednesday we drove out to a huge glacier in Kenjai Fjords National park which was pretty cool. Wednesday ended up being a beautiful warm day (of course on our last day there) which worked out well for our little hike and for us to see the beautiful scenery on the Seward Highway on our way up to Anchorage. Overall it was a great trip, and I am really glad I was able to be there. Seeing my brother so happy is so great. They are both so very much in love and I wish them nothing but the best in their new lives together! I can't wait to see their wedding pictures too, their photographer is so awesome!

Some pictures from the wedding:

writing her vows down

the guys

the girls

Mr. & Mrs. Rainwater! 

My MARRIED baby brother and me!

bridal party photo fun! 

cupcakes so yummy!

so sweet first dance!

some pretty scenery:

Turnigan Arm 

Homer,AK

Exit Glacier

Seward Hwy