Another wedding

I had the opportunity to be in my friend from elementary school's wedding a few weeks ago. The wedding was on Saturday afternoon on May 21st in the brides back yard with the reception in a church. The weather turned out to be perfect and the day was so much fun to be apart of! Much time and preperation went into it over the year long engagement and yet it seemed to fly by when the big day actually came around.
Chelsea, the bride, and I met in elementary school where we had the same teacher for a few years and played together lots at each others house and with our other friends. Then we split our ways when she moved, then i moved a few years later, but both only to other sides of the valley. We then got reacquainted a year ago through her fience and the boy that I was dating at the time who were best friends. That boy and I are NOT together any more and I firmly beleive the only reason we were suppose to date at that time (or ever) was so Chelsea and I could see each other again! Anyways, Chelsea and Casey are now married and I am so happy for them!

The preperation...

Step #1 The Bachelorette Party!

Dinner at Red Robin with the ladies.

The manager asked us what we were celebrating and we told him. Next thing we knew he brought us this slice of cake...for FREE! It was delicious!

Step #2 The Dress Rehearsal...

We had a BBQ before hand

The Bridesmaids

Standing around chatting

Step #3 The Hard work (Decorating)...

Before we went to the church to decorate a few of us girls went out to lunch, then after we went and got our nails done. I have never had mine done before so I went all out and got a manicure and a pedicure. LOVED the pedicure!

This is Kristina and her daughter Ella. I just love how she's watching so closely like "what are you doing?"

Then we got to the hard stuff that took us over 7 hours to do. We were all ready to be done by the end of that night!

So the boy that I dated who is best friends with the fience was a groomsmen in the wedding. It wasn't really awkward until we were decorating and he kept asking me really stupid questions! So...this is the look that he got several times! It's my "really??" look. And funny thing is every time I did it, everyone else laughed and he was the only that didn't get it.

Step #4 Get married...(Not me duh!)

This is my favorite picture of them I took

Love her!

The best picture of the whole day...I think at least

Step #5 Party...

The reception was the funnest I have ever been too! Chelsea's dad made the food that was SOO good! I didn't get any pictures of this but we had a blast dancing to the music her DJ played for us!

We had bubbles on all the tables. We used ours up before the little kids could take them.

Like I said it was a really fun day and Chelsea and Casey are now happily married.

Oh ya...

Forgot to mention...Jared's home now! :) He'll have been home a month this week which seems like time has just flown by! He never seemed to be in the weird "awkward return missionary phase" which I'm greatful for. But he has been adjusting well and it's been fun hanging out and going on dates again and also talking to and seeing his family again.

Waiting for him to come through the airport.

That same weekend he came home his sister in law, one of my best friends, had her baby blessing. So our good friend Christina came up to Boise from Provo for it. It was good to catch up again!

Bike riding date on the green belt next to the river.

Weekend visit

My brother and his family came to here last weekend for Mandi's sister's wedding. Mandi and Aislyn came a day early and Craig came the next day cause he had to work. So we got to spend one night baby sitting Aislyn while Mandi went to the temple with her family. I think we spent 3/4 of the time on the trampoline and the rest of the time playing in the waterfall and playing games. I love my neice! I personally think she is the cutest thing ever! But I might be a little bias since I only have one neice. I think my married siblings need to get on that...

Makes me think back to the days my brothers use to "sky high" me as high as they could. Those were the good days!

Aislyn thought it was the funniest thing to run inbetween our legs. Once she did and my mom bent down and looked at her between her legs and Aislyn said "Grandma's upside down Grandpa". Haha it was pretty funny!

See, who couldn't argue she's the cutest thing ever!

Can't beleive she'll be 3 the end of this month.

Wicked

Last week my mom and I got the chance to go see the play Wicked. It was freaking awesome! We went on Wednesday night which just happened to be a night when the main lead who played Glinda (the good witch) wasn't going to be acting that night. At first I was a little disappointed, until I read a little more about the girl who was her understudy. She was a former Miss Ohio in the America system (which is the pageant I follow the most because of work and I beleive it's the best of the systems), she is also the understudy for the wicked witch of the East, Nessarose, and she was the only person who had was an understudy for two people. I thought that was pretty impressive! I know I wouldn't be able to remember two people's parts and not mess up. Well it turned out, she was amazing! All the characters in the play did SO good! Really makes me want to go see a broadway musical now. But it was definaly worth the money to see it!

The whole stage and set up and special effects were amazing! The big dragon above the stage was pretty cool looking. Didn't really have anything to do with the play, but it looked cool!

Finally!

After a long two year wait, the boy that I sent off on his mission April 15, 2009 to the Edmonton, Alberta Canada mission, is coming home TOMORROW! And no I did not wait for him. Yes I'm excited that I'm still around, but I did date others and obviously the others weren't meant to be. Right now I feel like I have every emotion running through me. I go from being super excited, to super nervous with butterflies in my stomach, to wanting to cry because it's been so long since I've seen him, to day dreaming about what might/could happen with us, back to being freaked out and nervous again and it's a never ending circle! The past two days I've had to go for runs after work because one, to pass the time and two, to get out all my energy cause sometimes I feel like squealing like a little girl and jumping up and down. I am just so excited to see him!
We actually met on a blind date that my friend (Jolene) and her then boyfriend, now husband (Jeff, Jared's brother) set up. We went to the Botanical Gardens for the winter garden-a-glow which was a great date idea and walked around for a while, then there was an ice cream place down the street that we went to. I think was a Dairy Queen, but can't remember cause it's not there any more. Then after that we went to a movie (August Rush, when it had just come out in theaters) and ended the date after out movie. Then our second date was a week? later and we went on a picture scavenger hunt around down town Boise with some friends. After that date nothing really happened. We still talked online and texted but nothing really happened until Jeff and Jolene's wedding. We got to spend all day together since I was the maid of honor and he was a groomsmen. I can't remember exactly what we did on our dates after the wedding but it wasn't to long after when we started dating exclusively. We dated for a year and became best friends.
If you ask Jared or me, neither of us wanted to go on the date because of our past blind date experiences. Who knew that 3 and 1/2 years later, I would so stinking excited to see him from returning from his mission.

This is Jared when he got his mission call. ONE MORE DAY! :D

McCall Winter Carnival

It's now February and there is usally so much that goes on. My brithday, my mom's birthing, Valentine's Day, and a big thing that I have never gotten to expreience...The McCall Winter Festival. Every year the Winter Carnival sneaks up on me, and because it has always come as a surprise I have never been before. I have always wanted to see these amazing sculptures people talk about but i've always had to work or had something going on that weekend. Well this year I made it a priority to go! My friend Ivy and I both had the day off from work so we made a girls day out of it! We drove up in the morning and were there all day and were back in Boise by 8pm. It was a really fun day BEAUTIFUL day and I plan on making this a tradition to go every year now. Maybe one year I'll get lucky enough to go to the parade and the fireworks. Until next year, I will just have to settle for looking at these pictures.