Honeymooners!

Post wedding I was definitely ready for a nice vacation! Sunday afternoon after the wedding we all headed over to the parents house for a little lunch party and to see everyone off. Just a few minutes before we (and most other people) were planning to head to the airport, it decided to start snowing. This was no light dusting either, it was a downright blizzard! By the time we had finished packing and started driving to the airport, there was a good 3-4 inches on the ground and it was still coming down hard. Luckily everyone made it to the airport, unfortunately not everyone was able to make it out of the airport that night. As soon as we got there, flights were getting canceled left and right. We kept checking our flight status hoping for no change so we could make it back to Seattle in time to make our next flight to Hawaii! About half of our people at the airport were cancelled and forced to stay at least one more night in Detroit, the other half got significantly delayed and had to sit on the tarmac for several hours waiting for runways to get cleared from snow and planes to get de-iced. Somehow we managed to have the best luck out of everyone and only got delayed about an hour and hardly sat on the tarmac at all! To top it all off, I was actually offered a free upgrade to first class for the flight as well. Unfortunately there was only one seat available so I had to decline so I could sit with my new husband. We were able, however, to give the offer to the other guy in our row so we could at least have a little extra space. I hope that guy appreciated his free first class upgrade! One of these days I'll get one that I can actually accept too! We made it back to Seattle and got to play with the puppies for one night while changing out our bags from winter clothes to beach clothes!

Monday morning we were off to Hawaii! No problems at all this time. We flew on Hawaiin Airlines which I must say if I was ever going to be a flight attendant, I would be on this airline...they get to wear pretty flowers in their hair and bright colorful dresses everyday! Jealous! We touched down for a quick hour to change planes in Honolulu before making it to our final destination in Kauai in the early evening. After we got settled in, we threw on our swimmies to enjoy a little hot tubbing and the surrounding hotel facilities.

Tuesday we got a little more familiar with our surroundings. Our hotel (the Lihue Marriott Resort) was on it's own private little cove. Our views from the room were amazing. Across the cove was a beautifully green small mountain range and our side of the cove was a beautiful private beach for our resort. That's were we speant most of the day on Tuesday just enjoying the sun and beach and the fabulously expansive pool facilities while getting in a good read and making plans for the rest of the week. Turns out the island is so sparsley populated that in order to get anywhere it was pretty necessary to rent a car, so we made plans to do that for the rest of the week.

Wednesday morning we picked up our rental car and headed off to our first adventure, kayaking up a river to a waterfall hike. We kayaked about a mile up the river to a little landing where we started a super muddy hike up to a waterfall. All the info on the hike we read said you should definitely have hiking shoes and that it would be super muddy. I can't argue with the second point although I'm almost glad I wasn't wearing hiking shoes! The mud in some places came all the way up to mid calf, so it really ended up being a better idea to just go barefoot and get a nice little mud bath for your feet while you hiked. The final destination was about a mile in and it was a beautiful and huge waterfall with a great little swimming hole at the bottom of it. We stopped here for a quick snack and a little swim in the pool before heading back to continue down the river in the kayak. We made a few more stops down the river before heading back to the start just in time to miss out on the rain! While it rained, we headed down to Poipu beach at the south end of the island and grabbed some lunch on a beach front balcony. By the time we were done it was nice and sunny out so we headed down to explore the beach. We ran into a rather massice sea turtle taking a little nap. We assumed he was dead for a few minutes till he finally opened his eyes and moved his head a little bit. He later retired back into the ocean. Another interesting this about this whole island is that there are roosters and chickens EVERYWHERE! It's just a funny thing to see walking down the beach!

Thursday we explored a few more beaches on the island. We headed up to the northern part of the island making out first stop at a historic lighthouse. Apparently this point of the island is also used for bird and whale watching, of which we saw both! There were several huge humpbacks off the point of the lighthouse playing in the water. We also apparently saw an albatross flying overhead (only known because some tour group was oggling over it). From here we headed off to a nice sandy beach to relax and soak in a little sun. Again...roosters everywhere. It was perfect out and the beach was lovely, so we ate some lunch and enjoyed the views for a while. After a while we headed out to the next beach with a few stops along the way to check out some caves on the side of the road. We ended up at Ke'e beach which is the furthest beach north that you can drive to. It had a nice little swimming aread that we took advantage of before we settled in to watch the sunset. This is supposed to be one of the best places to watch the sunset on the island. While we were waiting for it to set we also got to see a few more whales playing in the distance. The sunset was really pretty and it was great weather out for a relaxing evening on the beach!

Friday we headed out for a day hike. Our destination was the Waimea Canyon. To preface this, I must reflect on my initial observations of the Grand Canyon...I was not impressed. Apparently I had a pre-concieved notion of what the Grand Canyon was supposed to look like, and I was highly disapointed at the reality. Perhaps it was because I didn't have any visions of what this canyon was like, but I was completely blown away and would like this to be my grand canyon! Our initial hike took us along the canyon with some amazing views, and ended up at a couple of waterfalls. It looked like most other people who ventured out to see this ended up at the waterfalls and turned around. We planned to continue on and I'm so glad we did! We hiked along the side of the canyon for a couple more miles and there were several places where the ridge opened up with great views of the massive expanse of canyon. I think one of the things that made this canyon beautiful was how green it was with a few waterfalls plumetting off the edges of it as well. It was amazing. We finished off the hike bath through the woods looping around to our starting point. After a day of rigorous hiking we headed back to the hotel for a nice relaxing evening of cold beverages in the hot tub :) Everything's better with a little umbrela in your drink!

Saturday was our last day in Kauai, but luckily we weren't heading out till late that night which meant we had all day to take advantage of. We started out with a cruise along the Na'Pali coast which isn't really accessible by car. Everyone kept saying how perfect the weather was for the cruise. Turns out we really lucked out by having great weather all week in February! The cruise took us up the coast pointint out several different land marks including where a few movies were shot. Apparently Harrison Ford has shot quite a few movies along this coast ;) When we reached about the end of this coastline, we headed back to a reef to do a little snorkeling. Luckily my old roomie, Sarah, had gotten us a little underwater camera to take advantage of our underwater fun! After snorkeling we also got to enjoy a nice little lunch on the boat and complimentary beverages for the ride back. On the whole cruise we also got to see quite a few whales as well as spinner dolphins off the side of our boat, and a few sea turtles on the shoreline. We may have also gotten quite a lot of sun. It was hard to tell while we had the wind in our face, but afterwards, I definitely felt a little crispier.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the hotel in the pool relaxing before heading to the airport that night. We were on the red eye back to Seattle and got in bright and early Sunday morning just in time for a nice long nap and relaxing day before having to get ready to head back into the real world of work. It was such a great week with the new husband and felt so relaxing now that we can just enjoy eachothers company without having to plan a wedding anymore :)

Wedding Maddness!

It's official...I'm a Stephenson! I realize I have not blogged in over a month (as my mother has made it very clear that people are waiting for updates) but it's been a very busy month! Lots of fun and last minute planning getting ready for the big day! Somehow I managed to not get photos of most of the pre-partying though as I was busy being the center of attention :) I flew back to Michigan on the red eye Feb11th to arrive just in time for a quick nap before heading off to a bridal shower! It was so good to see everyone and even had 3 people Skype in for it (thanks sisters and cousin)! I got all kinds of fun and exciting things to somehow try to fit into our little apartment. Aunt Shelly, as always, did such a good job putting the shower together and decorating the tables super cute. I can't wait till I have a place where I can entertain like that and have cute dinner parties!

The rest of the week was spent catching up on sleep and finished last minute details (gift bags, getting marraige certificate, ect). Lauren got in Wednesday morning to help keep me sane too :) By Friday night most everyone in the bridal party were in town for the rehearsal dinner! There was a show going on in the wedding location that night, so we had to do an impromptu rehearsal in our family church lobby. Luckily everyone is pretty good at walking and talking so the rehearsal went really quickly so we could move onto the rest of the party! We had the rehearsal dinner at Champps sports bar and after that we had several other friends come join us at the bar. It was so fun to see everyone all together! By 1am or so we figured we should probably get a little sleep before the big day!

[getting ready for the rehearsal]

Finally it was wedding day! Of course I couldn't sleep in and ended up getting up early. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had been so good about getting everything done earlier that week, that I really didn't have anything to on the wedding morning! Everyone kept telling me that I would be running around frantically in the morning doing last minute things but I was quite confident that I would not. Looks like I was correct. So I sipped my coffee and relaxed for a few hours before it was salon time! I had booked appointments for the whole bridal party and the moms at a salon right next door to the theatre. That made it super easy so we just showed up for the appointments and when we were done walked next door to get dressed and ready for the wedding!

[getting ready for the wedding!]

[our first teaser photo from the photographers...can't wait to see the rest!]

The rest of the night went perfectly! I really wasn't nervious at all, which was awesome! I had so much fun and of course like everyone says, I didn't even get a chance to eat the food or talk to everyone that I wanted to talk to! Now I just can't wait to see all the photos and the video when they're done! It feels great to be done planning now and on to living the married life with my awesome husband :) I definitely waited for the right guy and am thrilled to be able to spend the rest of my life with him!

More photos will be posted when we get them :)

Coooooooking!

I'm usually pretty good about making some sort of breakfast for us everyday on the weekends, and this past weekend I decided to make some blueberry muffins. I found a recipe online titled 'To Die For Blueberry Muffins' and I think I agree! They were soooo good! I'll definitely be making them again :)

Also last week I tried out a quick recipe with scallops. I know I love scallops to begin with, but it was FABULOUS, and I will definitely be trying it more often! It's so hard after being out of the house from 5am to nearly 7pm to then be motivated to make dinner while getting ready for bed and getting ready for my next day at work. So I've been trying to find some good recipes that will be really quick, but still really delicious. Today I took advantage of the crock pot magic again and made a version of chicken marsala. It was pretty tasty, and satisfying coming home from work to have dinner ready and waiting for me! I can't wait to get all kinds of fun new gadgets for my kitchen! Now I just need a bigger kitchen ;)

*GIRLS*GIRLS*GIRLS*

I love a good girls weekend, and this weekend was an awesome one! Since it was a long weekend with MLK day off, we took advantage of that with a little trip to the windy city. That's right, Chicago in the wintertime! I met up with Kimberly and Evelyn at the airport and we taxied it over to the Omni where Liz was already waiting for us. I guess in the back of my mind I was thinking since we had just spent all day traveling from all corners of the country that we would probably just take it easy Friday night. We started out walking over to Giordano's pizza for some famous deep dish stuffed goodness. By the time we got there, the place was already closing, so shortly after finishing our pizza and wine, we were more or less kicked out of the restaurant. By that time Jeannie and Kristen had bussed it into downtown and were ready to hang out too! We got some advice from our concierge and were directed to a little hole in the wall bar, Pippens, just a few blocks away from our hotel. It ended up being (in my opinion) a great choice! Pretty cheap and delicious drinks, a giant iPhone jukebox on the way, some BSB playing, and a great night with some of my favorite girls! I must say, despite all the time changes for everyone, I was quite impressed that we made it till almost 4am that night!

Saturday morning, we started out with breakfast at 'Yolk'. Liz did some research to find some places for breakfast and it was amazing how many ridiculous names there were for breakfast places and just in general how many places specialized in breakfast. Yolk ended up being a super modern diner with a huge breakfast menu. It definitely hit the spot. After the yolk, it was shopping time! I guess that's what happens when you stay on Michigan Ave, you have to hit up the stores! Although there were a million things I would love to have gotten, I ended up with a great pair of blue suede peep toe wedge shoes from Bloomingdales. They proved to be a great purchase later that night. After all of our shopping, we went back to the hotel to get primped up for the night!

We had early reservations at the Signature Room in the John Hancock Building, so we started there with some cocktails and appetizers. It was really awesome being up that high and getting such great views of the city at night. There's even still a lot of lights still on the trees from Christmas...that's my favorite! The girls mentioned that this was my little bachelorette weekend, so they brought me a special little sorbet dessert too :) After our little cocktail hour, we were supposed to have dinner reservations at a sushi place, but decided we weren't quite ready for more food yet so we ended up at the hotel bar which was supposed to have the best martinis in town. I'm not too keen on the martini, but I gave it a try at least. Also while we were having some more drinks, there was a little girl a couple of tables over who was staring at me the whole time. By this time of the night, I got to don the bachelorette viel and sash which this girl thought was fantastic. Halfway through her dinner she he mom came over and said that the little girl went up to her room to get a viel that she had bought for her American Girl Doll, and she wanted to show it to me. It was pretty cute, she was really excited to show her doll off to all of us and even got a picture with me showing off our viels. Before they left, we also gave the little girl an extra little tiara viel that Kimberly had brought as a backup for me. She was pretty phsyched!

After martinis at the hotel, we made our way over a few blocks to another street of bars with the intension of going to a piano bar. Turns out a lot of other people had the same intention, and we had no desire to sit in a line waiting to get in. luckily there were plenty more options right next door! After a little bar hopping we ended up at the Rockit bar for the rest of the night. Good good times!

Somehow we made it back to the hotel with a stop off at CVS for some late night snacking, after which we made quite a little mess of the hotel room with all our chex mix, pop chips, and cheetos, but mmmmm was it good!

Sunday morning we went to another great and witty little breakfast place called 'Eggsperiance' hahaha...that name just made me want to go there. And all the menu items had silly names too. I must say so far I am completely thrilled with Chicago's immense brunching selection. By this time it was time for Kimberly to head back to California, and Jeannie was driving back to Iowa, so the rest of the time was me and my Auburn Girls. Since we're nerdy architects, we walked around the city and checked out a few of the key architectural larndmarks. Every once in a while we had to pop into a building or store for a few minutes to thaw our from the snowy weather. With all the excitement from the weekend we were feeling pretty exhausted, so after all our walking, we decided to sit for a couple hours in a movie theatre and watch 'The King's Speech'. It was soooo good! I hadn't heard much about it since it was an independant film, but we did get an email last week from one of the high up Navy Officers saying that it would be a good movie to watch for anyone in a leadership/figurehead role. Perhaps it was that, but in general it was just a really good movie, so I'm really glad we stopped to rest and watch it.

Continuing on with our relaxing Sunday, we headed back to the hotel room to catch a few minutes of the golden globes red carpet footage. I always enjoy a pretty dress! We had heard that Chicago had some of the best Mexican food in the country (random, I know) so we had a huge craving for some mexican food and margheritas! Unfortunately we did not apparently end up at one of those amazing mexican places, but we did find a dirty little hole in the wall mexican place where we got our fix of food and margheritas in. We spent the rest of the night with some wine and snacks at the hotel room catching up on the golden globe highlights!

Monday morning was John Mach time!! We met up with my highschool buddy, John Mach. It was so great to see him and catch up and try out yet another fabulous breakfast eatery in Chicago. After breakfast we headed back to the hotel and packed up to head out. Liz flew out of Midway, but Evelyn and I treked it over to Ohare, and I was really glad we were both there together since we both got delayed for a couple of hours, so we grabbed some lunch and a little vino to get ready for the long flights. Finally I made it back to Seattle late Monday night, ready to get up bright and early for work the next day. I had such a great weekend, and I can't wait to see even more people and marry my best friend in less than ONE MONTH!!!!!!

Cupcakes!

So these are the cupcakes that we're planning to order for the wedding! They look super delicious! I can't wait to get there and do a little taste testing!

New Years and My Birthday!

We got back to Seattle on the 29th, just in time for the next holiday festivities. New Years Eve we went out with a group of friends to a comedy show. Although I haven't been to many I feel a little leery about comedy shows since they could so easily go poorly. Luckily this one was a huge hit (or at least I thought so!). It was 4 improve groups who took turns doing little skits taking ideas from the audience. It was hilarious! At the end they did the countdown to midnight and handed out bottles of champagne to the crowd. 

2 days later I got to celebrate my birthday! We spent it snowshoeing (thanks to Leigha and Nino's awesome wedding present of showshoes to us!) near snoqualmie pass. I love being able to drive 30 minutes and be in the mountains and be able to snowshoe up them! We took Ben with us too, and he did really well and got rid of a lot of energy running around in the snow. It ended up being a perfect day for it too with blue skies.

Christmas in the Mitten

Ahhh, life has been crazy busy lately! We were able to scoot on over to Michigan for a few days for Christmas though. We left early morning Christmas Eve. After a little layover in Houston (which was much warmer than Seattle or Detroit) we made it back to Michigan just in time to go straight to party number one at Uncle Rick's house! As always, a great time. I wish we had made it a little earlier so we could have cought some of the other family member who came early and left early. Instead we got to party into the night with all the late night crazies. We made it back to the parents house in the wee hours of the morning just in time to catch a few hours of sleep before the next party on Christmas Day! Thankfully no one was motivated enough to get up extra early to open presents.

Around noon the Dougherty Family all came over for a little Christmas Festivities. We enjoyed the traditional alaskan king crab and pizza lunch along with mimosas and some chit chats and white elephant gifting.

Later that evening when it was back to just our immediate family (which is turning out to be A LOT of people when they're all there at one time in one house!) we did our own gift exchange and stockings opening. All the gifts were awesome, but really the best part was all being their together at one time...which is getting increasingly rare! Good thing we have several wedding coming up for good excuses to get together some more!

Sunday we all headed into church. I hadn't been to the new church building that was built recently, so that was fun to see. Being the day after Christmas it was kind of a small crowd, but it was nice to see a few people I knew that I hadn't seen in a while. After a quick brunch it was time to get ready for party number 3! This time it was the extended Raetz family...which included a bunch of little kids running around! It was my first time to meet a couple of them...super cute!

As is tradition, was made sure to get our Christmas family pictures including some of the whole group. Our group keeps growing every year, and we're still missing some people! Maybe someday we'll actually have the whole family all together. It's awesome to see all the generations though!

Monday we finally got to sleep in and relax for a little bit. Then we got to start doing a few wedding related things! That afternoon we met with Pastor Thompson to go over a mairraige survey he had had us take a while back...looks like we can get married :) We also went over a lot of details for our wedding ceremony and all that good stuff. So many details to figure out and decide upon still! After a couple hours of that, we headed out to another little party. This time it was a going away party for little brother as we're stealing him about to the West Coast now! We also met up with Nick and took him with us to Mr. B's for some food and beverages.

Tuesday we had a few more wedding things to do! We started out with another meeting with the Theatre to try to finalize a few details and go over what else needs to be figured out in the next few weeks. The list is getting smaller and smaller each time we meet! After that we headed to a few stores to find a new suit for dad and a cute little dress for mom! We ended up getting two options for mom...now she just has to decide which one to wear for the wedding! I think she should keep both though...that's one hot momma!

In our down time we did quite a bit of Dexter watching and got mostly caught up on the last season. I am quite convinced I may have to get Showtime in the fall just so I can watch this show...it is addicting! Although the show itself if awesome, I just had to add this little clip from the show that kept me laughing for quite a while. The internet clip is funny, but I think in the context of the show it's extra hillarious :)

Wednesday morning Ryan and I were headed back to Seattle, and Jordan and Kristen were headed out to San Francisco, so we all drove up to the airport bright and early leaving mom and dad with an empty house once again. Now they just need to come visit all of us west coasters!