Wedding Bells

A few weeks ago my best friend, Jessica, got married.  It has been such a fun spring with showers and bachelorette parties and dress shopping; the wedding and all the festivities that weekend were the perfect ending to her fairy tail.

We started the fun off with a bridesmaids luncheon on Thursday morning.  The gals in the wedding party, moms, aunts, cousins, grandma and other close family and friends joined us. Jessica even had some relatives from Sweden fly over for the wedding.

After a fun morning, we all reconvened out at Shady Wagon Farms on Thursday evening for the rehearsal. Everything was so pretty and you could really tell it was coming together for the big event the next day.

It was a fairly quick and uneventful rehearsal (my favorite kind) and off to dinner we went. The rehearsal dinner was at the Peak City Grill in Apex (aka the peak of fine living). The food and fellowship was great!

Before I knew it was the morning of the big day! I dropped the kids off at school and then made my way over to Jessica's mom's house to get my hair done and get ready and most of all, enjoy a relaxing morning with Jessica and her fellow bridesmaids. We had a lot of fun hanging out that morning.

Mid-afternoon we were whisked away (via a 15 passenger van) to Shady Wagon Farm. We got ready in the little carriage house and just had so much fun laughing and getting all prettied up. Jessica was truly one of the prettiest brides I have ever, ever seen.

The wedding ceremony itself was pretty quick. But long enough for Will to walk around with his tux shirt untucked (I swear I tucked it in right before I walked down the aisle!) and wander off almost into the pond.  As suspected, when Avery saw me she started screaming and crying for me. Will, 50 yards away and waiting patiently to walk down the aisle, starts yelling at her at the top of his lungs, "Avery, shhhhh!" Oh, the irony.

The reception was so much fun with great food and fun music. It was over way too soon though and soon we were bidding farewell to the bride and groom. I wish I could have escaped away on a tropical vacation too!

Good Times

We've had a busy month or so traveling and then all of Jessica's wedding festivities (future post) but even though we've been busy, we've managed to have a little fun!! 

A few weeks ago we celebrated Matthew's mom's (aka Mimi) birthday. Uncle Gray was quit entertaining with not only his hair styles, but he was also the whipped cream monster, chasing my kids all around the house with the can of whipped cream.

Uncle Gray gives the bow a spin

Uncle Gray showing off his handiwork with hair bows!

Will was attacked by the whipped cream monster

Happy Birthday, Mimi!

Avery admiring her gift to Mimi

Will and Mimi

We also took a trip to the coast. My parents surprised the children with a Barbie Jeep that Mom found at a yard sale. It was a lot of fun and I'm just thankful everyone survived!!!  Will liked to drive fast and Avery, well Avery liked to play with the radio while she was driving (keep all your woman driver stereotype comments to yourself!!!) which meant Will drove from the passenger seat. Oh me oh my.

Checking out their new ride

I wish I had gotten a pic of them driving over all of my Mom's bushes

Doesn't she just look like a Jeep girl??

Will was not phased at all by the girlie colors and theme. In fact, his first reaction was "Cool, a Barbie Monster Truck!!"

Driving Miss Daisy in the Barbie Monster Truck

And of course we got a nice trip to Shack in and Matt and I even got a date night at Amos Mosquito's. LOVE that place!

Everyone loves the water's edge at Shack

Looking at the minnows that Pops caught

Sand & Sea - Part 2

It is a good thing I had a relaxing vacation because my venture back into the working world has been brutal this past week and a half. Hence the blog slacking on my part. Anyway, the record of our trip continued......

Day 3 we booked a ½ day snorkeling tour. We lucked out getting a great captain, Qui, and mate, Robbins. They really entertained us all morning. We first snorkeled/dove for conch, which would later be used to make our lunch. We then went to a spot on the reef for snorkeling. I have never seen such beautiful coral in my life. Definitely made me want to redo a room in the house and use coral print fabric!!

After that snorkeling adventure, we beached the boat on an uninhabited island for some exploring and photo ops, while Qui and Robbins put together a lunch of conch salad, right there on the boat and beach, from the conch we had “caught” earlier on the trip. I can’t say I loved it, but I did like a few bites. I just couldn’t make a meal out of it. Matt was glad to finish my bowl for me! 

Robbins cracking open the conch

Qui chopping the veggies

Conch Salad

After lunch, our next stop was Iguana Island, where we spent a while walking around, trying to find iguanas. I am sure you will never guess who got into a foot race with one, while trying to catch it??!! Oh, if I just could have gotten a picture of that!

I was a bit nervous on the island…afraid one was going grab my feet or something! Also, the tracks they made in the sand were a bit creepy to me!

After spying several iguanas and walking around in the lagoon (which definitely reminded me of part of Shackleford Banks), we took a leisurely ride back down Grace Bay to the resort. Dinner that night was at Grill Bleu, which has an Indian flair. My pork chop was excellent. Matt got an Indian dish (I can’t remember the name of it) but he really enjoyed it. 

The next morning we grabbed a few bikes from the hotel and pedaled off into town. Wow, it has been a long time since I have ridden a bike. Yes, it is true you never forget how to ride, but those first few seconds were pretty wobbly!!! I think I was at a 45 degree angle with the ground those first few feet! It was a lovely ride into town. We did a little shopping and window browsing and actually just had a lot of fun stretching our legs and spending some time together doing things we normally don’t do. 

We decided to venture out for lunch that day to a little bar and grill right on the beach, a few resorts down. Well, Mother Nature played a fast one on us. It started pouring! I’m used to tropical showers…usually pretty quick. Not this one!!! Here we were, thankfully under the protection of an umbrella and staying fairly dry, but making our poor waitress get soaked. When the thunder and lightning started, we made a beeline for the indoor bar! We waited it out for a bit and then decided to make a break for it down the beach. Not probably our smartest move but we survived!

 It took a couple of hours for the rain to stop. Thankfully it cleared up by mid-afternoon so we hit the beach for some relaxation in the sand. I will never ever get tired of looking at that beautiful turquoise water.

We had booked dinner again at the Skye Lounge but because of the threat of weather, we couldn’t sit on the roof again that night. That’s okay….we found a perfectly nice table just steps away from the beach. Not a bad view either!!

Our last night on Grace Bay

Sunday morning came too quick. We slept in until almost 8 on this last day and after breakfast, we enjoyed a few hours on the beach. I had to get one more touch of the sand and the sea before we left. The skies were getting dark around us, so we decided to head on in and get showered and packed for our departure. We were just stepping into our room when the bottom fell out. Oh man, did it rain. And rain. And rain. Probably another good 2-3 hours of heavy rain. All of the employees were telling us how unusual it was. We were amazed at all the severe flooding on the roads when we were driving to the airport. Thankfully our lanes were mostly clear.

The Provo airport on a Sunday is CRAZY, to say the least. I guess all of the departure flights leave in pretty much the same 90 minute window. The security line literally wrapped all the way around the building, in every nook and cranny. It took us close to an hour to get through it. Our flight was the last one to leave for the day, so it was frustrating to see the non-existent security line that seemed to materialize (can you materialize something that is non-existent???) basically after we got through. Note to self, tell the resort you don’t have to be there quite so early next time!!!

 All in all it was an absolutely wonderful trip. The island was gorgeous, the resort was awesome but most importantly, Matt and I did get to spend some QT together where we weren't being interrupted by Capt Questions every 30 seconds or serenaded by our very own American Idol. Of course were glad to get back to our 2 characters.....we had some celebratory cupcakes on Memorial Day!