I've been a bad blogger...

...if you could even classify me as one anymore! Apparently, I started grad school and promptly forgot about updating. Anyway, I am newly motivated by my blogging friends at An Overton Park Proposal and Two Eat Philly (you should definitely check them out!) and will try my hardest to post regularly! I've realized how hard it is to be away from everyone in the last couple of months and am determined to keep in better touch in the future!

This past weekend was an exciting one for us. It kicked off with my first snow day on Friday as Nashville received a pretty good covering. Mike and I and our two kitties (update on that soon!) sat by the window most of the morning in awe of the never ending white powder. It took the cats a few hours before admitting defeat in their attack on the falling flakes.

The kitties watching the snow in the window.

In spite of the snow, we managed to make it to the airport and on board our flight on time. After waiting 2 hours for deicing (ugh!) we finally made it to Denver. We spent the weekend visiting family and enjoying the mountains. Saturday started with a great run for me and my Dad (despite the lack of air Colorado is known for) and a trip to the Denver Children's Museum. This was truly an amazing place for kids. I think Lauren and Blake had a blast (as did us "big kids" in the assembly line area!). We tubed Sunday with Ryan, Milissa and Lo at Fraser hill in Winter Park. We had had an awesome time there last year and were really looking forward to repeating the experience of trying to find the fastest way down the mountain. We were not disappointed! Monday the 4 of us (Ry, Mil, Mike and I) headed out early for skiing in Copper Mountain. After readjusting to the ominous ski lifts and actually learning to do something other than snow plow from side to side, I had a great time. This is by far my new favorite ski mountain and I can't wait to go back. I have disappointingly few pictures from our weekend as maneuvering a camera out of a pocket and actually taking decent pictures is a difficult feat in ski gloves.

Blake and Grandpa reading what might be the most difficult book ever. Darn dinosaurs!

Mike and Lo in their ski bibs ready to tube.

They're such cuties!

View from the top... kinda cloudy.

Ry, Mil & I

Me and the boy

Cause everyone wants to be on camera eating a corndog...

Scroll to the bottom to see Mike and I eating a corndog at the Spring Arts festival last spring. *sigh* :)

http://www.gvlculturalaffairs.org/website/programs_events/DFAS/downtown_art_fest.html

Thanks to Erin for pointing this out.

One of my favorite places

Mike and I spent last weekend at my grandparents lakehouse, Sandy Run. It was, as always, a fun and relaxing time. I have spent countless summers at this spot and am always happy to return- something about turning down that familiar gravel road takes you away from your everyday life and offers the perfect place to unwind. Our time was spent laughing with family, eating way too much of Grandma's delicious cooking that's always too tempting to resist, boating and fishing, and playing washers and dominos. We didn't take many pictures but I'll share a few that we managed to capture.

We had to take the ferry over the river. I was not excited by this. At all. If you look in the mirror you can see the semi behind us. We were convinced they couldn't possibly let it on the ferry with us as it was full of milk and must weigh over the limit. We were so wrong. Miles of fields on the way there.We caught a billion of these blue gill.
Baby fishies!Then he caught a monster cat fish without trying. Pretty sure it made his day :)This is the tool we wished we had remembered to take on the boat with us!

I'm happy to report...

We are officially all moved in to our new place (Apartment 1111- so lucky!) in Nashville. The move up was uneventful as our stuff fit easily into the uhaul and the drive was suprisingly quick thanks to Mike and his Dad's skilled (or perhaps kamikaze?) driving of the truck/trailer combo. We hadn't yet seen our apartment building in person and were pleasantly surprised to find that it exceeded any expectations we had from the website. The building is beautiful and our apartment is perfect. We are eleven floors up with a corner unit that looks out over the city. Our building is right in the middle of downtown and just two quick blocks from Broadway Street which is the main attraction of Nashville night life as it's home to endless bars, restaurants, shops, and live music day and night. We're also in walking distance to the main performing arts centers, museums, hockey stadium, Titans stadium, and Cumberland river. Adjusting to city life is an interesting thing- one way streets and the extremely large homeless population keep things exciting. Pouncey stares out the windows for hours and can't quite comprehend why he's unable to catch the birds that fly by. It will also take a serious effort not to gain 300 pounds by trying to eat at all the tantalizing restaurants surrounding us in every direction. Hopefully the hills (weird concept, I know) will help keep that in check since my legs haven't stopped hurting since we got here. Every day when Mike gets done working we set out to explore a new part of the city so we'll know all the best places to take you all when you come visit us :) We miss everyone already and I don't think I've even realized yet that I'm living in my new apartment and not just on vacation at a great hotel. Here are some views from our apartment windows that we get to look at all day every day. Pretty neat to us small-town folk...

Pouncey obiously wanted to be in a picture...

View of the skyline. We're by the building on the right with the two tall points.The piano building (country music hall of fame)View of our building from the outside.

City at night. Also where the fireworks are seen!

Wedding Recap 1: The Girls get Gorgeous!

The girls in my wedding are 5 of my most favorite people and I could never live without any of them. Spending the wedding morning getting ready with them is one of my favorite parts of my wedding day. We laughed and relaxed and I believe it's the reason I never got stressed out or nervous. These are some of my favorites of us getting pretty!

Hair salon with the amazing Becca who did all of our up-dos

Girls at the hair salon in the shirts I made everyone!
I loved that each girl's hair was unique to them. I thought everyone looked so fabulous!

Makeup time back at the hotel!

Reading my love note from my groom! We totally got each other the exact same card :) I guess it really was the perfect card!
Hair, check. Makeup, check. Time for strawberry mimosas!
Awesome champagne flutes made by the bridesmaids.
Cheers to us!
Beautiful Mother-of-the-Bride!
All the girls in the limo on the way to the church!


Alyssa admiring my pretty dress while we waited for the weirdo funeral people to get out of the room so I could get dressed!

Finally getting to wear the dress!


Up next: Guys get ready

We vowed, we kissed, we wed

It's taken me awhile to decide to write this post due to my inability to find the words to describe our perfect day. It was a day I'd planned for for a year and a half and dreamed about since I was a little girl with Barbies in white gowns. I expected something incredible and ended up with a day far exceeding anything I could ever have imagined. I am constantly looking back on different details of our wedding day and marveling at how well each part turned out. I am thankful for each aspect falling into place and constantly changing my mind about which was my favorite part. The planning process was fun for the most part, agonizing at times and ultimately worth every frustration. I expected to be nervous and to cry and I expected to be happy, but, in the end, there were no tears (from me) and more happiness and fun than I ever anticipated. Marrying Mike was so exciting and yet so obvious as it was a step we knew long ago we would eventually make together. We loved having the opportunity to share our love with all of our closest family and friends. We are so lucky to have found each other and I'm thankful every day that I can call him my husband.

I'm a graduate!

Graduation was Friday night and, despite the ridiculous number of speakers, it was pretty great to finally walk across the stage and shake hands with the guys that got us through it all. There were over 500 engineering kids that graduated with me and, unfortunately, the eleven nuclear students were the last to have our names called. I suppose it was worth the wait though. :) It's pretty crazy to think I'm officially an alumni. Once a gator, always a gator!

Told you my cap was cute...