Preschool and Party Time

I feel like I should have a better title for this post since it includes Riley's first day of school and a friend's 10 year anniversary, but since there really isn't a single theme it's more of a this and that sort of post.

~ Riley started a new year of preschool and is now in the YBK (year before kindergarten) room. She has new teachers and some new classmates, but a handful of her friends from her last class moved with her so I think that helps. She mentioned the other day that she misses her old class and she shared that she saw her former favorite teacher, Debbie, on the playground and relayed "Debbie, loves me".

Hey mom, take a picture of me over here.

Her new class has already been preparing the kid's for moving into kindergarten by doing things like having them eat lunch in the cafeteria. She's adjusting to the change well and several days in she already received two birthday party invites.

At times this doesn't feel like such a big deal since she's still technically in pre-school, but then she says or does something and I can't help but think that this time next year she will be getting on a bus by herself. She'll have so much more responsibility and she seems impossibly young for that. I trust that she can do it - even in the last few months it seems that she had matured in leaps and bounds, but you know, she's my little girl. Anyhoo, I'm jumping ahead as we still have an entire year before kindergarten starts. 

~ My friend, Josie, and her family have been in a lot of my posts lately which is sort of weird since she and I can never get our schedules aligned to hang out, but we just had another opportunity to get together to celebrate her 10 year wedding anniversary on Saturday.

Josie and I met about 25 years ago and were really close for quite awhile. We even lived together for 9 years (strange to think that this is longer than Jesse and I have lived together). We bought our first houses within a week of each other and had our first child within 6 months of each other (which was also noteworthy since we were both in our late 30's). We hadn't been hanging out all that much when she reached out to me 10 years ago to be her maid of honor, but our friendship picked up right where it always was. Love friendships that can do that.

Josie and Rob decided to renew their vows and had a small gathering next to Nicollet Island Pavilion (where they were married), and then had a luau themed party later in the day at The Lodge (they honeymooned in Hawaii). Another one of our former roommates, Tracy, (who was her matron of honor) was also able to attend.

Tracy, Josie, me

Josie had a friend photographing the day, but so was Jesse and everyone else because... phones, you know. I felt bad for the photographer friend since I knew we were likely all looking at different cameras.

Only picture I found where it appears we were all looking in the same direction.

There were a lot of little girls there so Riley was fully entertained and surprisingly kept her white outfit clean even though they were running around in the dirt and grass.

Josie's wedding was 1920's themed and was pretty huge. I always wanted to have a small intimate wedding for myself (which I did and loved), but I did get the experience of helping to organize a big wedding. It was fun, but so glad I didn't have to do that for mine. Anyhoo, about a week before the vow renewals Josie asked that we try to find red dresses in the 1920's style, if possible. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. The morning of the renewal I was digging in my closet and found this old red and black dress, and you can't really see it here, but it totally had a 1920's style to it. Sweet. Not sure why I even still have this dress, but glad I hung on to it. 

I can't seem to find any pictures from the wedding ceremony 10 years ago, but I did find some from the after reception party at Nye's so you can see our wedding attire. Here Jennie and I are wearing the guy's hats. Fun fact: almost a year later I cropped this picture and used it as a profile picture on Match.com. Match wouldn't let me use it as my main picture since it violated some rule they had (hat, maybe?) and through that Match.com profile I met my husband.

Ok, back to the vow renewal. Josie and Rob gathered some of their friends and family and basically said a few words about each other and marriage. Josie was making a funny face in so many of the pictures we took, but it was just her trying to keep it together when Rob was talking about their relationship and when they met. It was very sweet.

These two were three or something when they were in the wedding.

Later that evening Riley and I headed to the party while Jesse stayed at home. We arrived just before food was served - shredded pork, fruit, beans, baked mac and cheese... Riley got to see her first pig's head which was pretty amazing to her. Riley and Olivia stopped to eat, but were mostly chasing each other around playing. At one point I gave Riley my point and shoot camera and she and Olivia took pictures of the party.

Important to get that food shot. (Also, she thought I was drinking lemon juice. Apparently, I don't drink around her much.)

Also, must show some of the decorations since it was luau themed.

Can't forget to get a picture of the crowd.

And babies... who doesn't love babies?

Better get a picture of mom since she takes so many of me.

And can't forget Ellie...

or Olivia... lol.

Olivia, take my picture. (Oh geez. I'm locking her away from the boys until she's 35.)

And finally, I have to get a picture of our feet like mom and dad always make me do.

I'll spare you the gazillion blurry photos. Eventually, there was some fighting over the camera so that was the end of that. Riley and Olivia went on to play something else before we ate some of the most delicious cake ever (and I'm not really a cake person). Surprisingly, we left without any issues. It was way past Riley's bedtime and she wanted more cake, but instead she asked Olivia to have a sleep over some time, told me how good she was that day, and we headed home.

8 years ago...

8 years ago today I went on my first date with Jesse. We met on match.com and I have to admit that I sighed a huge sigh of relief when I met him. I was only on there for 2 weeks, but I did some power dating (I think Jesse was my 5th date) and was exhausted. I hadn't dated like that... ever. We both removed our profiles shortly after meeting and never looked back. I'm not sure I knew he was the 'One' at that time, but I knew he was worth getting to know.

We don't celebrate our 'first date' anniversary, but I was recently perusing our wedding and honeymoon pictures and I started to reminisce. We were married in St. John, USVI about four and a half years ago. The ceremony was just Jesse, myself, the officiant, and the photographer... and a well placed video camera to film it for Jesse's mom.

The reason I was recently looking at our wedding pictures was because we plan to update the photo above our bed. I think we'll use the same picture since we love it so, but make it bigger, put it on canvas, and maybe change it to sepia from the current black and white. The way we have it now just doesn't quite fit our room.

At any rate, this post is really an excuse to show off my wedding/honeymoon photos.

Our first night we stayed on the island of St. Thomas. Once we moved to St. John the next day we still had to come back here to get our wedding license. One of the reasons we picked St John was because it is part of the United States so there wouldn't be additional obstacles to having our wedding be official. Puerto Rico was another choice, but we thought the beaches in St John were a little more pristine and since we were getting married on the beach it became the deciding factor.

We stayed in that pink building with the white curtains at the base of the hill.

Once on St John we settled on the quieter side of the island, Coral Bay. Up on a very steep hill. It was gorgeous, but I couldn't imagine having to drive up and down this steep road all the time - especially when the weather was foul. It was a bit scary for me so I always made Jesse drive.

Driving to the quieter side of the island

Where I recovered from heat exhaustion - more to come on that.

Our villa was actually a private two building space (and totally worth the treacherous ride). One building had the bedroom and a bathroom with an outdoor shower. From there you would head outside and go down some stairs to the patio (with jacuzzi tub) into another building which had a screened in room (above) that included a dining area, and a kitchen, living room, and second bathroom. It also had a porch on which we sat every morning and watched the birds and the lizards. There were these tiny little lizards that were everywhere. They were totally harmless, but I'm surprised we didn't step on any because they really were everywhere.

View from our porch

We had our wedding a couple days into our trip and then enjoyed the rest of the week as husband and wife. I loved our officiant because she was more on the earthy side than the religious side. She catered the ceremony to what we were comfortable with and helped us select a beach to be married on (Trunk Bay). Our photographer was awesome and put my husband at ease. As I've noted before, he's not a fan of having his picture taken.

I love that we got married this way - just the two of us. I love our family, but this was such a special moment between Jesse and myself. Plus, I'm not the center of attention type of person. We had a small party a few weeks after we returned home to celebrate and it all felt so right. I can't imagine having a large wedding for us.

Not sure if you can see it here, but there is a bruise right above my elbow. Two days before we left on our trip I was standing on the kitchen counter with my flip flops on (I know, I know) and fell. It was like slow motion on the way down - all I could think of was how I needed to avoid my face, and luckily did, but I got my arm and leg pretty good. Needless to say, I learned my lesson.

 

We were married in the evening so we spent the day at the beach, and then took a nap, and then leisurely prepared for the wedding. I have to say it left me a little groggy in the end. Perhaps we should have gotten married bright and early in the morning. I have no regrets though... except I wish I would have just let go and let my dress fall in the water. I can be laid back and easy going, but in some ways these two pictures capture us well - Jesse with his pants wet in the water just caught up in the moment, and me never fully able to let go - always worried about something.

With our time left on the island, we hung out at a number of beaches, went snorkeling, saw the Annaberg ruins, went hiking, and ate lots and lots of food (pictures likely not in the correct order).

Annaberg Ruins

The British Virgin Islands can be seen behind us.

Cinnamon Bay

Salt Pond Beach - husband's tattoo says "every day is a good day". That it is.

Trunk Bay - we were married down there!

Trunk Bay has a guided snorkeling area. There are signs under the water all around that island. It's pretty cool, but the water was a little rough when we were here so I only did part of the tour. 

Hiking at Ram's Head where I built these rock statues and then made Jesse take pictures of them.

Above is the picture we have above our bed, but want to redo a little. Taking this picture was a coordinated event. I suggested we do it, Jesse collected the coral, I created it, he took the pictures while I told him when a cloud would be over head so he could snap away. Sounds more complicated than it was and well worth it.

Ram's Head trail

You may not be able to tell above, but my head was about to explode. I'm really sensitive to heat (but so prefer warm to cold) so we took this trek early and brought lots of water. Didn't matter because in the end I still ended up with heat exhaustion (heat stroke?). It was bad - I didn't think I was going to make it back to the car. Usually, when I get a headache that bad it lasts for days so I was surprised that by the afternoon (after cold, wet cloths, ice packs, fans, a nap and a little throwing up - tmi?) I felt way better. Jesse now knows it's no joke when I start to overheat.

Snorkeling at Leinster was fun, but also a little scary for a poor swimmer like me. I wasn't really seeing anything but maybe a starfish or a fish here and there so I wasn't that bummed about heading back to the beach. Guess I missed out though as Jesse got to see and touch, yes touch, a turtle. I think it might have been one of the most important moments of his life (the way he tells it).

  

Oh also? It was about this time that I started having issues with dry eyes and couldn't wear my contacts very much. I was worried I wouldn't be able to go snorkeling because how do you fit goggles over glasses, but I was able to rent prescription goggles for the week and it was awesome. Everyone probably knows this is possible, but it was an amazing discovery for me.

Those sunglasses are prescription so I'm actually blindly looking at the camera.

I have to admit that while the food on the island was good it was a little spendy. There were a couple places we favored including the place we ate on our wedding night which still stands out as the best restaurant I've ever eaten at. It may have been the euphoria of just getting married, but I still loved it.

Thanks for humoring me and taking this trip back to 2009 with me. We had a such a fantastic time visiting this tropical getaway and would recommend it for someone looking for a relaxing vacation or a place to get married.