San Francisco

I have been procrastinating this blog because I have SO many pictures from our trip to SF, well, I am really good at procrastinating in general, but this is a good reason. I have way more pictures than are shown here, but this is a good start. We stayed for 3 nights at my old hotel, the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, then one night at the Hyatt at Fisherman's Wharf. It was really fun to show Derek and Lexi the city that I lived in for 2 years. We did quite a bit of sight seeing and went to Brenda & Chris' wedding. The trip was awesome! Here are some highlights

Of course....a trolley ride

Lombard Street - the crookedest street in the world...you can see Coit tower in the back ground. The weather was awesome the entire weekend.
Derek and Lexi getting ready for the trolley ride....Grandma Cass had got her this cute flower sweat shirt, the first time Lexi wore it, we laughed because the hood was huge. Well, the huge hood came in handy, in one day we did a ton of sight seeing and it was breezy, so we would just put her huge hood on when it got cold.

The stinky sea lions at Pier 39. They are so fun to sit and watch, but dang to they smell bad!!

Derek steering the ship with Alcatraz in the background.

Lexi in the Bjorn, we got an umbrella stroller for the trip, and it proved worthless....it was too short for both of us to push. The bjorn on the other hand worked well, we just took turns. :)

Fisherman's Wharf

Lexi and I at the Wharf

Below is the "Death Star", my old stomping grounds at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco.

Derek and Lexi on the balcony of our suite

Congratulations Brenda & Chris!!

Saturday October 3rd was the day my good friend Brenda got married to Chris, in Walnut Creek California. Derek, Lexi and I trekked (well...flew) down for a long weekend. We survived the plane ride, Lexi was good and didn't really cry at all! Phew! I was worried, but as always, she did awesome. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, the hotel I started my career at. My friend Allison works there now and took great care of us and put us in a beautiful suite. More about the trip in the next blog...this is all about the wedding!

Me and the beautiful bride, she looked fantastic!

Below is Lexi all dolled up and ready for the ceremony. Brenda picked out the outfit for Lexi, it was the shower gift she gave me before she was born. Doesn't she look cute?? :)

Lexi was really "chatty" during the ceremony, so Derek took her off to the side, I thought this was a great picture of them talking to each other.

Lexi and I waiting for the bride! I think she is talking...hence the crazy smile.

Daddy and Lexi waiting for the ceremony to start.

Here comes the bride.....

With the outdoor ceremony, it was really hard to hear...I actually don't think I heard any of it, but you don't have to hear to know that they are in love and Brennie is going in for a kiss here!

You can see in the picture above, the red head is Brenda's good friend Pamela, she married them! I thought that was really cool.

The ceremony was in a park about a block or so away from Brenda's parents house. After the ceremony, a bagpiper popped out from behind a tree and started playing! He then led the the guests down the street to Paula and Hardy's house....I thought it was a genius way to get everyone from point A to point B.

Here is the bagpipper at the bottom of Paula & Hardy's driveway.

The reception was at Brenda's parents house, they had over 100 people in their backyard for a catered dinner...it was beautiful! They had lights and lanters around the backyard, as well as heaters as it was a bit more chilly than normal. Everyone had a blast and warmed up with wine!

Hardy gave a great toast...I think my Dad had the intentions of a similar toast at our wedding....but fell short with the execution. :)

Brenda & Chris

This is "Cousin Mike"....he insisted on holding Lexi so Derek and I could dance and she promptly fell asleep on him. We were reassured that Cousin Mike was a great guy and from what we saw he was...but we still have no idea whose Cousin he is.

Mom - you would be proud, we packed her pajmas for the BART ride home, she had just started to fall asleep when we stopped near Berkley and a bunch of rowdy Cal/USC fans got on the train...she just hung out and sucked her thumb. :)

Overall, we had a great trip! I will post more about the trip later, but wanted to fill everyone in on the wedding. Congratulations Brenda, I am so excited for you and your new family! Welcome to being a stepmom as well!

Pullman Visit

For our anniversary, Derek gave me a trip to Pullman! Every year, I kept telling Derek how much I wanted to take him to Pullman for a football game....so he decided that this would be a good time! I hadn't been to Pullman in 10 years...almost to the day! :) It was so much fun to go back! Everyone kept telling me how different Pullman is....I didn't really think so. Some of the names on the doors have changed, and there are more doors, but Pullman is still Pullman. It was great to be back to in my old home town.

This was our first trip away from Lexi over night. She spent the night with Grandma Cass, they had a good time together....Lexi slept more than Grandma, but they had a good time. I thought I was very well behaved, only checked in a few times. Derek and I got some much needed time away.

Here we are before the football game on top of the library.

Good ole Martin Stadium!
Derek dressed up in his Coug gear...purchased (of course) from the Wal Mart in Moscow. By the way, we are in a BAR inside of the CUB....on campus. That is a cool new change. :)

The game was tragically boring, the Cougs are just terrible, so in true Coug form, we left after the 3rd quarter and went to the Coug to continue Beerfest '09!

Derek and I at the Coug....pardon the hair, it was a misty rain during the game which did not nice things to my hair.

I love this building on the way to Pullman....cougar country!!!

It was fun to take Derek through the rolling hills of the Palouse!