Andy & Nikki

I just realized that we haven’t talked at all about our time in Wisconsin this year.  I’ll post a few things over the next couple of days as a back-log of that. May as well start with the reason for the trip:

We came into town this summer to see Andy & Nikki’s get married:

Andy was in our wedding party, and jon was Andy’s best man. If boys ever talked about BFFs, I’m pretty sure that Andy and Jon would be right up there on each other’s lists. So you know, it’s really cool to see him happy. Nikki’s such a fantastic person, I’m really excited that we’ll get to be friends for lots of years.

We’re at this age where lots of people we know are starting to pair off and buy houses together, and it’s kind of a wake up call that we’re all growing up. I think one of the coolest things that is happening is that you grow your friendship circle by a bit. You know? Andy marries Nikki and now we can count nikki as friend that will be around until we’re all in walkers and the boys throw their backs out, trying to throw a disc golf. Isaiah marrying Corey – and, corey’s a fantastic chick that I would have never met otherwise. Chris married sarah, and now I have a sister-in-law that I like quite a bit and well, you get the picture. It’s exciting.

This picture was from their rehearsal dinner on Saturday night. Andy’s gramma hosted a picnic in her (incredible) back yard. This picture is so “milwaukee” to me.

Adulthood.

Feeling wistful. Between the wedding, San Diego, and Japan, the past year feels like a blur. And time seems to be going faster and faster – I hear that happens as you age.  Sucks. Remember when the summers lasted for lifetimes?  Now I can blink away entire weeks if I don’t concentrate on being “present in the moment”.

I miss having grass. I’m trying to talk jon into moving to a townhouse when we get back to Seattle. He’s trying to talk me into buying a condo.

Also, this summed up my day yesterday.  I love that everything I’ll ever feel has already been described in a web cartoon:

things.

So today is our last day at work before the move, which means I’ll probably be staying late to tidy up lose ends.  Going to the symphony tonight. So much to clean/do/pack tomorrow.  Should be a really busy weekend. (though call me if you’re in seattle and would like to get together before we leave.)

Oh! I nearly forgot – I hung out with Corey last night.

She indulged my post-marital need to talk about weddings, and I passed my wedding books on to another new-bride which seems karmically sound. I’m SO excited about their wedding. (Just because it’s their wedding, you know? It’s *Isaiah’s* wedding. That’s so happy to me.)

I took her to Smith where we had the craziest meal ever: molly moon ice cream, ice cream floats (with rogue hazelnut brown), marrow bones, the gruyere sandwich, sweet potato fries and olives. Very random but also very tasty. It ended up being a great sampling of what Smith has.

Random question: can you mail photos as post cards? Would rain be the only deterrent?

j-minus-three.

Showers.

I’m pretty fortunate to not only have found an incredible person to marry, but also a second family that’s pretty great.

Thanks to my mom and Ann for organizing a great bridal shower last night.   Chris and Sarah–your food was awesome.   And of course, thanks to everyone that came – I had a really great time.

Reinforcing the ring.

Even though we’ve been engaged now for a little over a month, it feels so much more… real now that we’ve shared it with our families.  This is weird, coming from me, because I’m usually not very family-oriented at all. (Mine is very small) It’s really cool to be celebrated and whatnot.

It’s also really interesting to see how the rest of the world interprets engagement.  I know my views on just about everything are fairly non-traditional, but Jon and I have always assumed that we know why we’re together and that’s all that matters. In reality though, people start seeing your relationship differently.  I’m a branded woman now, and for some reason that matters.

So, we’re back from our winter vacation and stocked with engagement gifts. We wanted to thank everyone that took the time to think of us, and we certainly look forward to using all of them.