July and August 2009

July

Our big adventure during July was traveling home down in So Cal to celebrate the Fourth of July. We had a blast hanging out with so many family members. We went swimming, had a birthday party for our nephew Papas (i.e. Stevie), and watched the fireworks while Sammy freaked out and only one nephew started crying... because of the pool noodles being sucked out of the pool, not because of the loud sound. :)

August

We had so much going on during the month of August... it was crazy! So many people decided to come visit, which we totally loved. For off, we drove down to Cambria to hang out with Brett, Becky and kids, as well as Abby and Papa. Brett's boss (or was it a co-worker?) has a cabin that they rented. We were able to play lots of Wii and chat and walk around the beach.



We have the most awesome nephews and nieces. Seriously love these guys.



On the way home we passed an Abbott Street and had to take a picture beside it!


The next excitement of the month was when our friends, Amber, Jenn and Ryan came to visit and see the area. I wish I had taken a picture of our living arrangements for the trip (did anyone get a picture of that?) because it was absolutely crazy. Amber slept on our air mattress in the front room and Jenn and Ryan slept on their air mattress basically in the kitchen. They were such good sports to put up with it. I also didn't get any pictures of our trips to Santa Cruz and took advantage of the beach, a free aerobatic show, and lots of fun rides. Great day. The one day I really did take pictures of was when we went to San Francisco... and mostly just our trip to Alcatraz. Besides that, we rode the trolleys, walked around Chinatown and ate the best Chinese food there, walked around Little Italy and tried some gelatto, and then made our way to Alcatraz. Afterwards we of course had to hit up the yummy ice cream at Ghirardelli.

On the boat ride over to Alcatraz...


The Alcatraz tour is probably one of the best I've ever been on. So cool.



And then on the boat ride back, Mark introduced a new game, something along the line of the "loosen your cheeks and shake your head back and forth like crazy while someone takes a picture of you" game. Here's each of our attempts. As you can tell, for some reason the boys were much better at it htan the girls. So hilarious to watch.






Then for our last excitement of the month, Abby and Papa came to visit us!! We loved having them here and showing them around all our digs around San Jose, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco. They are such a blast to hang out with. Despite Mark unfortunately having school all day the Saturday they were here, I was so lucky to get to hang out with Abby and Papa while we toured San Francisco. I love my parent-in-laws! We love being close enough to them that we get to visit as often as we do.

June 2009

The complete and utter highlight of the month of June was Mark's birthday!!!!!!! I am always glad to celebrate him and was even more pumped because it was one of our first birthdays being married and I got to spoil him even more than normal. I tried to make all of his favorite dinners and desserts (thanks to Abby for sending me lots of her yummy recipes!) and gave him little presents throughout his official birthday week leading up to his birthday. I even made him a sign...


And what a great year for birthdays! Disney was giving people free tickets for their birthday, so we decided to make a day of Mark's first birthday married and celebrate at the happiest place on earth. We were also able to be with family while celebrating that weekend, which was really neat. On Saturday, June 20th, we headed over to Disneyland after ending up in a weird parking lot that neither of us had ever used before and having to take ugly shuttle buses to the park rather than the cute little trolley like usual. It was definitely an adventure though.


What a cute birthday boy!! And yes, I made him wear the pin all day and loved it when all sorts of random people throughout the park, workers and guests alike, would yell out "happy birthday Mark" all over the place.


One of the awesome Toy Story rides


I hate to admit that I really did try to let Mark win at some point, but then I lost track of our scores and just went crazy at the end. In his defense, he usually beats me. I think his gun was rigged.


I love the Haunted Mansion building. The outside of the house is pretty cool looking.


On Splash Mountain we sat in the very front and became absolutely soaking wet.


My new bff, Mr. Toad. But definitely not as bff as my real bff, Mark.


Just hanging out with our pal Minnie at her house.



We love visiting Fantasy Land late at night. There's just something so magical about these simple rides, especially when it's darker outside and the lights from the park come on. So classic. Here we are in front of the Peter Pan ride.


As the park was closing and with literally hardly anyone still around except workers begin to clean up, we shared a quick birthday funnel cake. A fabulous ending to an amazing day. What more could you expect at Disneyland?

For Mark's main birthday present, I gave him a gray Saved by the Bell sweatshirt that he had mentioned once to me (i.e. I think he had even emailed me with the link). However, the package had come at the very last minute before we had left for the weekend, so instead of opening the package, I just wrapped it in wrapping paper and presented it to Mark for his birthday on Sunday. All of his family was there, so excited to see what he would get. He opened the package and pulled out... a green sweatshirt that said "Callahan Motors." Mark looked a bit confused and thanked me before I could realize what had happened. I didn't even recognize that the sweatshirt comes from Tommy Boy. Soooo, we had to wait until we got home and called the company and had them send us the correct sweatshirt. The lesson of the moment... always check strange packages before giving them to your spouse as a present. :)

One Year Down and a Look Back...

Today is our one year anniversary. It’s surprising and marvelous every time I think about it. I can’t believe that this first momentous year has come and gone, slipping by moment by moment. We had a wonderful weekend celebrating, a detailed post that will have to wait. As a brief preview though, we had the best time ever. We always have fun together and love traveling together, but everything about our weekend went so smoothly and was filled to the brim and overflowing with joy and peace. I am seriously the luckiest girl in the world. To have such a husband as Mark, it takes my breath away! Now, after the conclusion of our blissful weekend, we have the rest of our lives and forever to look forward to. Sure, not every moment will be as joyful and peaceful as the past few days have been, but we'll be together. We’ll go through all the regular ups and downs of life that no one can avoid. There will be moments of pain and stress and disappointment, but with those and through those will come the moments of happiness and relief and celebration. I can’t even tell you how stoked I am to continue on this journey with Mark. We’re working each day at being better teammates and friends. He is my bestest friend, my confidant, my listening ear, my defender, my love. Wahoo for forever!!

For any readers who made it through the mushy stuff, good work. I'll try to keep the rest of this post "mushy-less." We'll see how it goes though. As part of our anniversary celebration (and due to the fact that I am still ridiculously behind on my blogging escapades), I wanted to take a look back at the last year by month, starting right after getting married (just the stuff I haven't blogged about yet.) It's been a crazy ride! So with that said... we'll start with the month of May 2009 (with just a quick insert for the very end of April).

End of April 2009

Mark and I were married on Saturday, April 25, 2009. Two days later, we drove all of our wedding presents, wedding memorabilia (i.e. my dress), some donated furniture, and most of my storage bins that had been in my parents shed since high school graduation (I’m not even going to embarrass myself by telling how many we had… let’s just say that it was a lot, and we left at least 5 more there that we just have no room for in our small apartment). We had to rent a Budget truck to fit all of that stuff, which was really quite difficult. If you haven’t ever driven one, they’re hard to get used to at first. And since it became more pricey with each additional driver, poor Mark ended up driving the whole way (yes, that’s about 13 hours behind the steering wheel of a truck that rocks and reels with each gust of wind or large truck passing). I just remember that the sound of the truck was loud while we were driving and our seats were much farther apart than a normal car, so conversation was trickier than usual. We kept up good spirits though.

We ended up not getting home until late that evening, and since we hadn’t been sure when we would get home, we hadn’t gotten anyone to help us unload at that time of night. We live in a fairly good neighborhood, but not somewhere you want to leave a good portion of your earthly belongings outside on the street, across from a jiving 7-Eleven. So, we slowly but surely hauled in all of our loot. It took us forever and we were so stinkin’ tired. Then came the dreaded tv stand that my parents had originally given Ashley and Dave, and they had kindly given to us when they moved for the summer. We absolutely love it, but I to this day have no idea how we lifted that thing up the stairs to our apartment. It is by far the heaviest thing we own, and of course it was at the very back of the truck so we were already tired out. I just remember moving a few steps between rests and literally thinking that we were going to lose it a few times while we were going up the stairs. We had to take them one by one, lifting up the base just the few inches needed for the next step and setting it down to rest and readjust. I’m just grateful we didn’t get hurt in the process. I’m not sure what we’ll do when we eventually move, but I just know that Mark and I are not carrying it by ourselves in the middle of the night again.

May 2009

After relaxing for a day, I had to go back to work on Wednesday (dang PTO) and work for those three days. After that, we were free and clear for our official honeymoon! We drove down to So Cal and spent the weekend at Mark’s parents’ house. Then on Monday we boarded our cruise! I had never been on a cruise before and was so excited to try it out. We ended up having such a blast. Definitely to be repeated. Unfortunately, the one week we did go happened to coincide with the feared swine flu epidemic, so the original plan to set port on Mexico for a day was canceled, we just spent another day on the boat, and received some money to spend on board. For this cruise, we weren’t too sad about the change because we were more excited to just be together and to have the cruise experience. In the future though, we want to go on cruises with fabulous destinations. And answer me this, how come the same week our cruise port was canceled, my sister/brother-in-law Heidi and Seth’s cruise was moved from Mexico to Jamaica and some other fabulous destination and extended from only 5 days to 7 days? Seems like we may have gotten the short end of the swine flu stick, but we still had such a blast that it didn’t even matter.

So excited to board the boat…


Umm, what in the world am I supposed to do with this thing?


Ahh, that’s what you’re supposed to do…




All safe and sound and ready to set sail!


Bon voyage!


We did get to depart on Catalina Island and took a glass bottom boat tour.

We ate an amazing amount of food on the cruise. Each night for dinner, we would order four appetizers, three entrees, and two desserts to share between the two of us. We just wanted to try everything. I became way too used to eating constantly and when I wasn’t really hungry… I think I had hunger pains for the next few days after the cruise when I started eating like a normal person again.

Strawberry soup, one of our favorite appetizers:


Getting ready to eat again…


And this is just the entrees...


And then for our customary dessert, molten chocolate deliciousness and pineapple yogurt.


I just don’t know what to eat first…


When not eating, we chilled on the boat, playing cards sometimes. We often ended up tanning on deck while reading and one day went crazy on the water slides.


We played some mini golf.


Every night we went to the cheesy awesome shows, even though that part of the boat made me feel a bit more seasick than usual.


And we enjoyed our cramped little bedroom, complete with an ocean view and a menagerie of animal towels.



We were sad to leave the boat, but are looking forward to more cruises in the future. We had fun taking pictures after departing and before getting picked up, especially me because I was tired from waking up so early and was crazily singing songs.


We had just enough time to re-coop before our California reception on Saturday, May 9^th. We were able to hold the party at Abby and Papa’s house, which turned out gorgeously. Many many thanks for those who helped with setup and take down and made this such a great day for us! Abby had made the yummiest food, with Aunt Lynnie’s recipes and guidance. Papa had done some fabulous things around the house and yard, including retiling some of the pool tiles. I don’t have any pictures of the reception on my camera, but they are on facebook for those who want to see them. We do have a few pictures of family time that I do love.

After that, we headed back up to San Jose to start the adventures of real life and getting used to living with each other. Good times!!