FIVE YEARS!

I have no idea where the years have flown, but we have been married for 5 years (as of Nov 6th). I think we are still as goofy, active, connected and in love as the day we got married! For our anniversary we went to dinner at Fogo De Chao. We have heard great things about the restaurant and have been wanting to try it for awhile. It isn't the most romantic restaurant... no candle light, no cozy atmosphere, no french music, just a whole lotta meat. The restaurant has a nice salad bar and tasty side dishes, but people come for the unlimited meat that is served to you at the table. Gaucho's walk around with skewers of meat (think of a 3 ft skewer)... beef(like 6 different cuts of beef), pork, chicken, lamb and sausage were our choices. It was a meat lovers paradise. I took a few photos, just because it was a nice restaurant, and I was to busy trying all of the food.

The happy couple

The meat display in the window... we think that it is real meat but probably just for show



Hello

What up hubby?!?

The huge salad bar! (I apologize for the severe angle.... )

This is a mixed berry caipirinha.... much like a mojito, but I think they use a different type of rum and sugar rather than simple syrup They had a drink cart that would come up to the table and make the drink for you right there on the spot. We were in love with this place as soon as we saw that!

Our salad... I tried not to fill up on it, but it was hard not to give everything a try. They didn't have your typical salad bar, they had more gourmet type items.

I wore the shoes that I wore at my wedding reception... :) Yes I wore red shoes at my wedding reception


Down Memory Lane

I love going back and looking at photos, so I thought I would share some of the photos from the days leading up to the wedding, the wedding and our honeymoon

Jim, Mom, Lee, Me and Dad at the Rehearsal dinner

Gilat and Keith... so glad they made the trek from NY for the wedding

Mom, John, Bunny and Fred. John and Bunny (my godmother) are my mom's friends from back east. Mom and Bunny went to nursing school together in 1879. Just kidding mom!

Kyndal, our flower girl, and Caden, our ring bearer, really hit it off that night.

Back when we were still single :)

Courtney, Angie, me and Angela. Most of the young folks went out drinking after the rehearsal dinner. It was such a fun time.

This was the day before the wedding,,,

lots of the ladies went to eat lunch and then get our nails done

Jim and his groomsmen... Chris, John, Jim, Jason and Chris

Gettin my hairs did. This was right after I told her that I wanted something totally different than what we had discussed. I decided to go with large curls... so mostly straight hair but with some curl to it. Rather than an updo
Mr and Mrs

At the bar with Fred and Jim... Chris in the background

Me and the ladies! We did this little pose for a few months at our gatherings :) I might have to bring that back for a few photos

Me and my A-Team: Ashley, April, Angie and Angela

First kiss as a married couple

Bad boy!

My grandfather LOVED the ladies at the wedding, and the ladies LOVED him!

Walking down the "isle" was a bit windy, and my veil whipped around in the wind. I thought it was totally hilarious... good think I'm not an uptight person

First dance

In Playa Del Carmen... such a relaxing time

Hello body from 5 years ago... I plan on seeing you again soon! :)

Thanks for looking at our memories and a HUGE thanks to our

family and friends that made that day and our life special!

Trip to Arizona

A few weeks ago I headed out to Arizona to spend time with family and then drive my grandfathers car back to Austin (more on that later). I haven't been back home in about 3 years, which is way to long. I got to spend time with my buddies, Angela and Angie, hung out with my brother and his girlfriend, Tracey, drove by my old house, elementary school and high school and did a little hiking. I had a really good time!

Lee and Tracey picked me up from the airport and then we headed to get some breakfast and watch a little football. It was weird to watch football at 10am on a Sunday, but due to the time differences that is when the games are on.

The house I grew up in. Doesn't look much different than when I lived there. I took this while driving... I'm sure I looked like some type of stalker.
Dinner at Mom's

Lee and his dog Cyrus

Mom is showing us her skills that she learned to fight off an attacker. I'm not sure how effective those moves really are... I just kept laughing when she was holding Lee down.

Mom, me and Cyrus... hard to get all of us to look at the camera at the same time

Lee, Mom and Pop Pop

Me, Mom and Pop Pop

I couldn't figure out how to make my damn self timer work on this camera.

Lee, Pop Pop and I

After dinner and after Lee went home, Mom and I headed to the Indian reservation casino. There are about 3 casinos around Mom's house... and here and Pop Pop are frequent visitors :) Eventually I'll probably have to enroll her in Gamblers Anonymous but I think she has it under control for now

I didn't win :(

The next night I met up with Angela and Angie for dinner, drinks and catching up. The night went by way to fast... as these type of nights always do. Angela and I met up for Happy Hour before dinner at Frashers. This place is like Cheers... everybody in there knew each other.

We had dinner at Cowboy Ciao, and it was WONDERFUL. Kuddos to Angela for finding this place, my food was awesome.

Our night wouldn't be complete without taking a few fun photos.... I didn't want to do the typical stand next to each other and take a picture, so I found "props" to use

Angie and I

Angie and Angela

Angela and I... this was a neat area with multiple water falls... we are standing on the sidewalk behind the water fall... If I had a little more wine, I might have actually gotten in for a picture :) Just kidding (or am I???)

Me and Mom's Halloween decorations

I was in Target trying on Halloween masks. I had this one on when Mom walked by... she walked slow while looking at me... I'm sure she was trying to figure out if it was me or not. Eventually she figured it out... then we took a picture

My last night in AZ was spent having dinner with the family and Tracey. This was her first time meeting the family... she is really nice and fit in. Of course Mom and I let her off of the hook and didn't grill her :)

This is mom showing us how she spies on her neighbors :)

Mom and Cyrus

Seriously great smelling candles

I was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of a gift from my friend Lisha. Her business, SWAK Notes, is a great place to purchase customized note cards, thank you cards, birth announcements, invitations, and anything else that you can think of!! There is a very good chance that if you have received a thank you card from me, it was designed by Lisha!

She recently added candles to her business, and I suggest you visit her blog (http://swaknotes.blogspot.com/) to see what she has available and purchase one! She gave me the Creme Brulee and it is wonderful! When it is lit, it fills the house with the sweet and yummy smell of Creme Brulee. It is a lead free candle and has a life of 85-95 hours. I'm going to be sad in 85-95 hours when my candle is gone!!!

Lisha, thanks for the candle and my unique name address label

*Flipping Lisha the bird is an inside joke we have... I don't normally flilp off people that have given me a gift :) **

Hiking in Arizona

I had some free time on one of the days in Arizona so I decided that I wanted to go on a hike and get some photos at Papago Park. I like this park because it is near town and only took about 30 min to get there from my mom's house. Back in the day I used to go rappelling down the side of one of the mountains, which was SO MUCH FUN. I wish I could have done it on this day... start my day off with a little adrenaline rush :) It was Monday morning, so there were only a few bikers out on the trails. I saw 4 jack rabbits running around and a few quail (at least I think they were quail.) I tried to get some pictures of the rabbits, but those guys were to quick. The hike was a lot of fun, even if it did heat up to around 75 degrees at 9am :)

Here is one of my shots of the rabbit.... He is kind of hard to see, but he is in the middle of the picture, with his back to us running away
Self portrait,,, of course

There were quite a few different types of cacti in the park.

Hello

I loved this little bush thing... so spiny

Hello, me again! To get to the top of the mountain, I had to climb up this crevice. It wasn't very hard, but it did take some time since you had to search for foot holds.

This is the opposite view from my self portrait above. I wedged my ass in the crevice to take this picture. I ended up having scratches on my ass :)

These little guys were cute with their little "hats" on their head :) I think they are quail, but not really sure. There were little packs of these guys all over the park.

In case you were wondering, I was up there (see where finger is pointing) taking pictures.