perfect pair

...of frames, that is! I was at Target with Kevin a couple months ago just picking up some essentials - you know, toilet paper, toothpaste, candy ;) We were headed to the checkout (always a dangerous time, because you know you haven't possibly found everything you need, right?). So I scanned the aisles for that one thing that I was sure I had forgotten to put on the list, but was absolutely necessary at that moment in time. And, then, there they were - on the end of an aisle, just so I wouldn't miss them - perfect little 4x6 frames in the exact colors I never knew I needed!

Obviously, the first one matches my sister's outfit in her senior pic perfectly! It sits on my desk at work - look at the adorable details:

And the second matches the decor in my living room (or at least what I hope it will be eventually):

So, that's my excitement for now - I just need to find another photo to put in the one in my living room. Maybe a vacation photo? Don't worry - multiple posts about Mississippi and Jamaica coming soon :)

nicky

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our first anniversary - camping

After all the cake action on July 2nd, we got ready to go camping and floating. Late Friday morning we began the 2-hour drive down to my grandpa's 96 acres in Lesterville, Missouri (you may recognize the town as the location of many float companies servicing the Black River). He cleared a spot on his land for us to camp with two other couples, just a couple minutes down the road from his house, near the smaller pond he built himself. There is a much larger pond right next to his house, which he also built himself. Here is a photo of his house:


...and his large pond, stocked with fish, including huge catfish (notice Loki in the distance, running along the pond trying to get in while my dad shoos her away because she's scaring the fish off):


Loki didn't get in the large pond, but she sure enjoyed stirring up the little pond by our campsite:


and begging for food from J.C., just after shaking off all over him, of course:



Doesn't my puppy look like she belongs in a Land's End or an REI catalog?


After an afternoon of throwing frisbees and sticks for Loki, we made some yummy burgers and hot dogs, toasted up gooey s'mores, and snapped a group pic:


The next day we went floating with my parents and my little sister and her boyfriend. We don't have any pictures on the river because I didn't want to take my digital camera, and we forgot to pick up a waterproof disposable - oh well :( After we floated, the two other couples that joined us headed home, my sis set up camp next to us, Kevin and my dad fished, and I took a nice long HOT shower... ahhh... Loki was worn out:


When it got dark, we headed back to camp, armed with bottle rockets and sparklers. Loki didn't care much for the bottle rockets - she barked at them and tried running off into the woods multiple times, while I yelled at Kevin to stop shooting them. "She just needs to get used to them," he said. No, I don't think so.

Anyway, after that fiasco, we had some fun with sparklers. I found out that my camera is very good at capturing "sparkler art"! Here's one of my faves from my sis:


And of course, a nod to our anniversary date:

Here's to year two,
nicky

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our first anniversary - cake

So, our first year as a married couple has come and gone. When thinking about how we would spend our first anniversary, we knew it wouldn't be a big trip or fancy dinner. As some of you may know, we booked a trip to Jamaica for our honeymoon last year, but shortly after we found out that one of our good friends was going to be competing in the Beijing Olympics. So, we immediately researched plane tickets, hotels and logistics; only to find that there was no way in heck we would be able to afford it! Enter Lady Luck - through our research and brainstorming, we found that some of our friends wanted to go as well. We also found out that one of the parents of one of K's little league wrestlers does business in China several times a month (what?!?). Fast forward a couple weeks, we have discounted plane tickets through K's brother-in-law's job with American Airlines, a condo to stay in in Beijing, a driver to take us anywhere we want to go, and a translator! What the?! Yeah, exactly my thoughts...

There you have the story of how our honeymoon trip to an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica turned into a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Beijing Olympics. We couldn't get a refund on our Jamaica trip since there were no deaths or travel-prohibiting injuries (only fabulous plans for another amazing trip), but we did get it postponed for a year (actually within 15 months from the cancel date). Therefore, come August we will be lounging on the beach in Ochos Rios, Jamaica - ahhhh...

With that trip in our future, we had to come up with some fun, relatively cheap way to celebrate our first anniversary. And what better way to celebrate the Fourth of July than by camping, floating and playing with fireworks? But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Our anniversary celebration began on Thursday, July 2nd (which happens to be the date of our rehearsal dinner - perfect, no?). My mom had been telling me that she had a surprise for me, but that it wouldn't be "ready" until Thursday, so she was going to bring it to our house that evening. I love surprises, so I was beyond excited about what it could be. She said that I would probably like it more than K, but he would like it, too. Huh? So, come Thursday, my mom calls to say she's on her way down, but has to pick up my surprise and then she'll be over to our house. I was pacing back and forth, so excited, with Loki following me everywhere whining and moaning - and FINALLY my mom arrives with this:


A replica of the second tier of our wedding cake! Isn't it beautiful? Here's another look...


Now, if you've seen our wedding cake, you may say "I don't remember it looking like that." or "Something's different, but I can't put my finger on it...". Well, you'd be correct! When I arrived at the reception after taking pictures between the ceremony and reception, my wedding coordinator approached me just before we entered and said "OK, I don't want you to be upset, but the cake isn't exactly like we'd planned. Your mom's already seen it and she isn't happy." I said, "Oh? What's wrong?" and Sabrina proceeded to tell me that instead of the cake being covered in ivory icing, with chocolate brown details, it was ivory on ivory. So, while this definitely wasn't what we'd ordered, I knew in the big scheme of things, I (and my mother and wedding coordinator) were the ONLY people in the room that would have ever known. So, I said "OK, no big deal; nothing we can do about it now!" and entered my reception, cut the cake, and ate several pieces (even took some back to our wedding night suite!). It was as delicious with ivory on ivory as it would have been otherwise! Here's a picture of it at the wedding:


Pretty, huh? Well, after the wedding hoopla died down a bit, my mom called the bakery and they were sooooo sweet about the entire thing, apologizing up and down, and sending the nicest letter stating that they completely understood the importance of a mistake such as this on a wedding cake and were truly sorry. Needless to say, my mom had no qualms about returning to order an "anniversary cake" from that same bakery. And this time they got it right!

As for the real top tier of the cake? Well, we'll find out how that tastes this weekend. My sister was supposed to bring it to Lesterville on the fourth (it was still in my parents' freezer), but she forgot; so we'll eat it when we go out to Saint Charles on Saturday. I can't wait - french vanilla cake with raspberry filling! Mmmmmm...

For now we'll just deal with the pounds of red velvet cake in our freezer - I don't know how we will possibly deal with this hardship...



Now that I've spent an entire post talking about cake, I think I'll save the camping, floating and sparklers for the next post. Until then, we'll be having our cake and eating it, too!



Thanks, mom!

nicky

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