The week in review...

Thursday: I didn't work and ended up playing with my family and not getting much done. at all. We met Keiths family for dinner at Azteca and it was SO fun to meet Kristina (hi sista!) and her daughter Miranda and see his parents! Kristina is a pretty girl version of Keith (I know that sounds bad) but the family resemblance is SO fun to see. She's a blast. I'm glad I get to keep her. Her daughter Miranda had a terrible time on her first flight, her ears were bothering her a ton and she wasn't her normal self and we were WORRIED about her. After dinner we went to the mall and did build a bear with her (her first one!) it was a great day! Oh yeah, thursday night due to strange sleeping arrangements, I ended up on Mikaylas bunk bed, Keith in the bed and Forrest on the couch. anyone ever slept on a top bunk? it was a sight.



Friday: we all woke up and went to Denny's for breakfast, then met Kristina and went and got the rental car. I then met Niki and Cori for manicures at Gene Juarez and my eyebrows got all fixed up and beautiful. At just before 1pm we made it to the church to start decorating for the big festivities! we had trouble with lights (who knew that I had that many duds!) we ended up getting the manor and the upper annex and the fireside room all decorated and ready for rehearsal at 5pm. Keith and I had a minor blow up at each other (hey we're not perfect!) about the music not working for rehearsal but Saturday it worked perfect and the timing actually looked like we had meant for it to be that way. it was amazing. We had a ton of help decorating, the Epps, the Bodgers, Cori of course, my family, Keiths family, all were VERY needed as I once again had bit off more than I could chew. We had rehearsal at 5pm, very low key, fun to see people starting to arrive for dinner (I love me some Kirkhams!) then at 6pm we headed down to rehearsal dinner and had hotdogs, cracker jacks, potato salad, chips, drinks, all good baseball food. Bonnie and Heather had spent the afternoon getting all the food ready! What troopers! we had a blast eating junk food, giving our attendants their gifts and thanking Bill for doing the couselling and the day of fun. We then took everyone over to the elementary school for a wiffleball extravaganza. It was the highlight of my entire day. We had kids batting for the fences, women who wouldn't touch a bat for a hundred dollars swinging for the fences and the boys, well the boys were dizzy. I'll tell you more about that later. I left the wiffleball night with my girls (Heather, Lorenna, Cori, Tracy and Kristina) and went to check into my hotel for the evening. We stayed at the Embassy Suites and let me tell ya, I felt spoiled. Great bed! we loaded everyone up in Cori's van and took all the girls for late night Dicks. yep cheeseburgers at 10pm! Lorenna was a hoot (more on that later too!) We got back to the hotel and talked and I hit the pillow at about modnight?

Saturday: where do I start! I'll give you the quick bits. We got to the church just before 8:30am to get everything finished up and get us started. Bernadette and Melissa came and did my hair and makeup and my cousins came in and helped and got all of us done and gorgeous! I was late, my stupid eyelashes wouldn't go on. Reine finally pushed us and we finished. we took about 5 million pictures, seriously my face still hurts. and then it was time for Keith to see me for the first time. They sent me back in the back room and I started to lose it. I fought it off though because the thought of Bernadette having to fix my eyemakeup was enough to scare me into forcing back the misty eyes! I walked in the room and he had his eyes closed and when he opened them he just stood there for a bit. it was great. They let me smooch him a bit and then we started taking the 5 million more pictures. we took pictures all the way up until the wedding. It all went SO fast! I remember watching everyone leave the room, I remember the song changing and then it was time for Dad and I to go up the aisle. I seriously was so excited to see EVERYONE! Dad walks too fast but that's ok. we got up there, did the quickest ceremony on record and then got to kiss and were sent off! We then came out and escorted everyone out one by one, it was so nice to get to see everyone, get hugs, laugh like crazy, it was great. Then the reception, great slide show, fantastic food, everything was perfect! we left and everyone jingled their ringers (which Keith couldn't hear!) and off we went, and then came back for some more pics. seriously, we had a staged departure! We came back and took tons of family pictures, a few more of just us and finally headed out after kissing Mikayla and our families goodbye for the evening.

We stopped by the condo real quick for a couple things and then drove up to LaConner. We checked in to the bed and breakfast and saw the christmas ship parade (beautiful and unexpected and quite magical!) and then headed to dinner at the La Conner Seafood and Prime Rib(more on dinner later) we then went back to the bed and breakfast, had a lovely time and went to BED! we were exhausted!

Sunday: we woke up at 6:45, did our devotion (thanks Bill and Leah! We love the book!) and then realized it was SNOWING! I got my snowy wedding weekend after all! we warmed up our breakfast and sat and talked and ate and just had a great time. We checked out and came down and stopped at the condo real quick to see that My sister and bro in law (and their elves) had cleaned, organized and made our condo BEAUTIFUL! I cried, Keith cried, I'll show you more of what they did later... we then went and met everyone for lunch at Marco's in Lynnwood (my parents and their friends and a BUNCH of my family and Keiths family) and then Keith and Mikayla ran his mom down to the airport and met me back at the condo in time to get over to my parents for our Christmas! since my sister and bro in law and baby girl are all here we did Christmas! it was a blast. we are spoiled!

Monday: I woke Mikayla up and we went up to Sedrow Woolley and took her to school! Her teacher was so excited to see her! we took a centerpiece up to her and she was gushing to her class when I left her! I then drove out to LaConner to take back the key we had forgotten and taken with us for the bed and breakfast (DANG!), dealt with some work stuff on the phone off and on all morning and then came down to Marysville to take Keith to lunch, then came home and slept on the couch for an hour, then to mom and dads to meet Keith and open all of the WONDERFUL wedding presents (have I mentioned how blessed we are to have such generous friends and family!) then played the dvd price is right with my sister then hurried home with Greg and Dad in tow to unload all the presents (my once clean house is now full of presents!) and they took back the rental for us too!

I'm back at work today (Tuesday) and dealing with a mess. welcome back Mrs. Johnson!