Honeymoon Plans

Garrett and I booked our honeymoon last weekend! We are so very excited to be going to Aruba! We are planning on going snorkeling, relaxing on the beach, and exploring this lovely little island off the northern coast of Venezuela!

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There's some great snorkeling over a sunken World War 2 ship. (On our last visit, the ship sliced open my leg, and the deckhand poured vodka down it. Good trip!) There is also lots of fun cuisine to try. Lots of nature to explore! Garrett and I are extremely pumped!

Here's the family (mom taking the picture from the boat) in Aruba in 2008. Best.Family.Vacation.Ever.

This is the California Lighthouse. We have a family picture in front of it somewhere, but I can't seem to find it!!!

I didn't want to post too many pictures from our family trip to Aruba, because I don't want to overshadow the fact that Garrett and I will be spending our honeymoon there. I know you will all be jealous when on Christmas, I'm the beach in Aruba while the rest of you will probably be stuck with snow! Love you all!!! :)

In other news, Garrett and I have everything crossed off the checklist that the priest gave us back in February. We went on the Engaged Encounter this weekend. We went into it with a not-so-great attitude. We talked about previous retreats, like high school retreats, and decided that those were always so much fun because all our friends were there. In high school, we really wanted to go. This was not the case for the weekend. Happily, we were pleasantly surprised by the whole weekend. We got to talk about a lot of things that are important, even though we had actually covered all these topics before. The entire weekend was dedicated just to us spending time with each other, which was glorious. No out side distractions or nothing. Just one-on-one time with Garrett. We ended the weekend stronger as a couple, which we are incredibly thankful for.

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With the weekend done, all we have left to do for the church is plan the ceremony. What readings to use and what songs to use and who will do what. I'm very excited. Planning our wedding has been delightful so far and I'm pumped to continue to do just that.

Oh, one more thought. My lovely sister, Lara, is graduating from Indiana University this weekend. She' graduating with Bachelor of Science in Business Technologies (I think) as well as her Bachelor of Arts in German Language. At least, I'm pretty sure that those are the degrees she's getting. So I had to put a lovely picture of Lara and I on here. This is Lara and I in Aruba in 2008. I couldn't help myself, I'm still way pumped about Aruba! In this picture, I had gotten a gash in my leg from snorkeling over the sunken ship. Note to self, very strong current, pay attention to what's going on. Anyway, so we had decided to not go in the water at the next place, and stayed on board and enjoyed delicious Caribbean drinks.

Congrats Lara!!!

Until Next Time!

Lots of Love!!

~A

The Great Search for the MOB dress...

Wedding preparations are coming along smoothly. I am waiting on the proposal from the florist. (which I would really be excited if she would hurry up!) Anyway, now about the mother of the bride dress. My mom, grandma, and I set off a few Saturdays ago in search of the MOB dress. My mom has previously been looking at a number of dresses, but couldn't decide what one to go with. She found one that she really liked at the bridal salon, but couldn't bring herself to pay the outrageous price. She looked at borrowing one from one of her many friends who have daughters that have already had their weddings. None of the those were quite going to cut it. So on this Saturday, we were off to find the dress at maybe Macy's or somewhere else.

There were a number of dresses to try on at Macy's. Again, many of them were very pretty, but none of them were quite right. When then decided to head to Dillards. No luck there either. We thought it might be time to change malls. So we headed across town to West County mall where they have a Nordstrom. There were many fabulous dresses there. I even got myself a fabulous rehearsal dinner dress. Its not this exact dress, but it is this cut.

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Then it was Mom's turn. She tried on a few dresses that just weren't working for her. My mom is not so much the traditional mother of the bride dress-type mom. She's way too young to dress in something like this!

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So after several dresses like the one above, she finally started trying on dresses that were way more fun! And here's what she ended up with!!! Its fabulous!!!

Its a blue with a shimmer to it. I love the one shoulder!! I need to find another dress for myself and I'm thinking that I really could use a sassy dress with one shoulder. What do you think?

Until Next Time!

Lots of Love!!

~A

Last Couple of Weekends

I have been so busy in the last couple of weeks, so I have to cram lots into this post! For starters, I'm so proud of my wonderful finacee for his mad running skills! Yesterday, he ran the St. Louis Relay Marathon with some of his med school buddies. He ran the second longest leg of the relay and I'm very proud of him!

Here they are after the marathon was over! So proud guys!

Okay so two weeks ago, we went to Wild Country in Illinois. We had a great time! There was a live cover band called Whiskey Dixon that played all night long.

Neil looks a bit silly here.

Garrett and I at Wild Country. Live bands are so much fun to dance to! Line dancing!

This past weekend, we went to a party with a theme! You know you love parties with themes!!! I sure do! I miss all the Mizzou theme parties!!! This one was, "I'm Glad I'm Not..." and then you dress up as someone/something that you are glad you aren't. I went as Garrett and Garrett went as me. We thought it was clever. The doctor and the nurse going as the nurse and the doctor. Our buddy was glad he wasn't a toliet seat, complete with fake poop (don't worry, just brownie) Ryan was glad he isn't a Charter employee. It was a really good party complete with dancing!!! Love the dancing!

I have also been growing some lovely flowers. They are all well on their way. I didn't take any pictures in the first couple of weeks, but I'll try and document the rest of the growth.

Well things are about to get super crazy busy as I am approaching the last couple weeks of the semester. I've got two tests, a presentation, and the oh so wonderful comprehensive final to go! I'll try to do more posts but I can't make any promises!!

Until Next Time!!

Lots of Love!

~A