My thoughts exactly...

I couldn't just pick one...

After looking through all the images from the wedding, I thought it would be fun to put together a slideshow of a "few" of my favorites...Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Leftovers....

Ty has full-blown pink-eye.

I thought I did...but nothing like poor Ty:(

Instead, I threw out my back....BAD.

How?

Lifting an oddly shaped microwave that weighs about 60 pounds while trying to talk on the phone.

Darn my obsessive need to double-task!!!!

We're a pathetic couple over here today.

Thanksgiving, Pink-Eye, and the Rhino

This year, Ty and I made the trek (along with Ty's mom, Lynette, who flew in from Oregon) to New Mexico to visit Ty's brother and family in New Mexico for Thanksgiving. Despite the long drive-time back and forth, the trip was great! It was the traditional Thanksgiving: Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, a Peach/Raspberry pie...and a side-dish of Pink-Eye. It's like I always say - Can't be a holiday without some Pink-Eye:) Just kidding! Our nephew, Carson, woke up with it one morning and then proceeded to pass it along to Lynette...so far the rest of us have managed to walk away without being infected, and hopefully it stays that way!

Anyhow - I am bad and didn't take as many pictures as I would have hoped, but did manage to capture a few...

Lynette (before the attack of Pink-Eye) as we hit the road, trying to get a pic with Sir Dubs...you can tell he was so interested in having his picture taken:


That's more like it...all ready to go!


I thought the next two pics were funny, cause Ty and Raleigh almost have the same facial expression...like father, like son...except in this case, I guess it's like owner, like pug??


See what I mean...hahaha...


And now for the Rhino...meet the newest addition to the Jelinek family, Troy and Tracy's family pet bulldog, Quincy...I swear he walks like a rhinoceros cause he's so big and cumbersome, and he's only 5 months old! I can't imagine what he'll be like full-grown!


Our night out in Sante Fe, we went to the acclaimed Tomasita's...where we had to wait for an HOUR to be seated...the food was so-so, but they had a great deal on drinks, particularly their Sangria, which was amazing! Ty and Troy opted for Corona's instead:


Tracy and I knew better...note the full carafe of Sangria in the background:


The whole gang...I can't believe this is the only group-type photo I manage to get the whole weekend? *Sigh* Better than nothing, I guess!


And last, but definitely not least, here are my hands trying to push the dog "cousins" in for a picture together, they were not feeling it...


Haha...this was the best I could do! Aren't they cute?


And that does it...like I said, I wasn't on the photo-taking train this time around...I'll do better next time, I promise:) Can't wait to see pictures and posts from everyone else of their Thanksgivings! Hope you all had a wonderful day...can you believe we're only 24 days away from Christmas now? Sometimes it's hard for me to get in the spirit when it's still over 75 degrees outside... but I've been watching Elf and White Christmas, lighting Spruce-scented candles, and listening to 99.9 (the "holiday" station) non-stop, so I think I'm almost there!!!

Yeah, it's kind of like that...

After the long-ride back from spending Thanksgiving in New Mexico, I went out to check the mail, knowing it would be over-flowing with ads for Black Friday and such...and much to my surprise there was a package from our wedding photographer, Ben Quillinan, inside. Excitedly, I tore open the package to find a pretty little red box, inside the pretty box was an even prettier red leather case with a picture of Ty and I from our wedding day on the front...and the gift inside was even better...Can you guess what it was???

Our wedding DVD! All the digital files are officially ours and I can hardly contain my excitement:) It's funny how even though our wedding was over 1.5 years ago the pictures still manage to get me so excited! As I looked through some of the digital files, I saw this picture, and I couldn't help but think I must look something like this as I look at our photos...

Yeah, it's definitely kind of like that...

A few of my favorite things...

So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd give a little shout-out to a few of my favorite things as of late and offer up some thanks for their recent influence on my life...

Meet my drill, she's a beauty, huh? Let me just tell you...with the projects underway around here as of late (big post on that one in the future!) she's been my right-hand gal. I am telling all of you out there - there's nothing like a drill on a sad day to lift your spirits:)


Now for my drill's distant cousin, the hand-saw...This has been Ty's friend lately. And we're thankful because without this bad boy we would still have a gaping hole above our fridge where we had a huge water fiasco about two months after moving into this condo...and yes, we are just fixing it now. We're classy that way.


And I'm super thankful for this beauty - our new microwave. That's right...Christmas came early this year and this is what it looks like! Look at how shiny, clean and slick it is...for those of you who never got to meet this microwave's predecessor won't really appreciate how wonderful this is...Our last microwave was a hand-me down from Ty's brother that Ty's dad rigged to sit up above our stove without the proper pieces to do so. It did the job, but let me just say, that a microwave sitting on some shelf like apparatus wasn't all that appealing to the eye:) Like I said, we're classy over here and it's been a work in progress!


Meet our second Christmas present...A matching new dishwasher to match our microwave! We now officially have the same colored appliances throughout our kitchen...do you know how much I love this? SO MUCH. I sometimes just want to sit my little galley kitchen gazing longingly at our matching appliances, it makes me smile inside. (It doesn't take much for me folks.) PS - ignore the filthy tile in the pic below, if you can't tell from the post so far, we're in the middle of some major renovations...which equals for some nasty tile in the meantime:(


Now we move to my two other loves (haha, I guess three since Raleigh decided to come join the picture) our new shovel and rake...Long story here, but our patio is also undergoing some major changes. We used to have brick all over, which sounds lovely in theory, right? Right - but not when it was laid all uneven and lifted out from the ground and would cause you to trip every time you walked into our patio...so the brick had to go. We're in the process of some landscaping, planting, and general shoveling and raking...so the shovel and rake have been real treasures!


And last but not least...a sneak peek at the landscaping efforts underway - meet our oleanders...they're on my list of favorite things too!


And our potted palms, jade, and weird spindly plant that Ty wanted...


We've been so incredibly busy with home projects lately that I haven't had the time to post many blog updates, but I thought a little shout-out was in order since as you can see above, I'm so thankful for our new tools & appliances. Where would I be without them?? Stay tuned for updates, we're nearing the finish line and will have lots more pictures of the finished project to share as well as Turkey Day re-cap:)

Hope you all have a most wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

I'm not much of a Halloween fan, but we went pumpkin-picking last night and I just couldn't resist this cute fat ol'pumpkin of a pug:)



See how nice and round our pumpkin is??


Hahaha...his hat was a little big:)


His ear kept getting lost in his hat! He's sporting a Van Gogh look here:)


I promise he only looks pathetic here, he really loved his costume:) It was a like a giant blanket!


Happy Halloween, Everyone ~ Hope you all have a very lovely and fun weekend!

Introducing...Megan & John McDonald!

This has taken me far much longer than I thought to post, so before more time passes I thought I better make good on my promise to post wedding photos from Megan and John's wedding in Chicago! So without any further delay, here's the beautiful couple and some details from the big day...

The ceremony was held in a gorgeous, historic building in the heart of Chicago:


Sealing it with a kiss:


Being introduced for the first time as husband and wife:


The beautiful bride:


The first dance:


The gals from Saguaro...hard to believe it's been over ten years since we've all been friends:


Last but not least, we managed to grab a photo with the Father of the Bride, Brad, who's been a close family friend all these years and was a gracious and wonderful host to everyone that weekend:


Congratulations again to Megan & John! We all had so much fun and can't wait to see what the years ahead hold for you both:) As a side note, this has been wedding season for us this month, so guess what??? More wedding posts are on their way! This last weekend marked the THIRD wedding we've been to in THREE weeks! WOW! What else will I blog about now that these weddings are over? My material is dwindling to say the least:) I have some fun ideas cooking...so stay tuned!

Chicago

A little over a week ago, Ty and I met up with Becky and my mom in Chicago for Megan and John's wedding. Since the wedding wasn't till Sunday, that gave us the weekend to pal around Chicago and have a mini-vacation of sorts. Though it was a packed weekend with wedding festivities and the time went by quickly, we all had a ton of fun!

Becky and I on the Riverwalk in Downtown Chicago:


Mom, Becky and Ty - You can see how bright the sun was here, not a single cloud in they sky the whole time we were there! AND it was over 80 degrees!


Me, Becky and Ty:


More of the same, but from a different view...I had to post this one because my Mom was so proud of herself for getting a boat on the river passing by while taking the pic! Way to go, Mom;)


Now it was Mom's turn for a pic with us...


Then finally, my favorite picture from that weekend...Ty was feeling the whole Chicago/Sinatra feel and decided the lamp-post made for a beautiful dance partner!


Stay-tuned for wedding pictures, they'll be up shortly!

A little shout-out to the Cooper's...

I can't believe I forgot to post this earlier! While we were walking around Old Town Monterey, we saw this little spot and had to snap a picture for Kelley and Patrick! You never told us you have your own museum and store ?!?!?! Clearly you're a big thing in Monterey:)

Montery, Pacific Grove, and Carmel...Part IV

Yikes! I did NOT realize how many blog posts this was translating into, but I guess I'm really making up for lost time here:) I promise we're almost done! On our last full day of our mini-vacation, Ty surprised me with a wine tour of the area we were staying. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun this was! They let you drink on the trolley and it's such a beautiful way to get another view of the beautiful countryside that area is home to.

BUT before I get too ahead of myself...after we got home from Carmel, we shared a glass of wine on our patio and that got Ty thinking..."Hmm...isn't the 51st Annual Montery Jazz Festival going on right now?" We looked and it was!!! So by the time we finished the bottle of wine, it was decided...we were going to the Jazz Festival! Who cares if it's 2.5 miles away! We'll walk and it will be fun:) (Note to all...walking back from a night at the Jazz Festival was not fun.)

Ty "thinking" about the Festival...


Once we decided to walk the 2.5 miles to the Jazz Festival, Ty and I realized we'd need a hearty dinner...so Taco Bell it was! I didn't want to take my purse, so Ty attached our camera like a holster to his jeans, so the rest of the night it was his pretend gun...here he is in Taco Bell showing me his moves:)


Another...we weren't satisfied with the first pic, cause his hand was blocking the "holster." Haha...yes, this is what we do when we're on vacation!


I was hungry...


Yay! We made it!


Waiting for one of the concerts to begin - and this was the last picture before our camera died! We were so bummed...guess we shouldn't have wasted so much time in Taco Bell taking dumb pictures:)


The next day, ready for our wine country tour:


One of the wineries we visited:


Proudly displaying our new purchases among MORE flowers!


Heading off for more wineries:


Yummy grapes:


At another winery:


Showing off the grapes...wow my hair was bad! It got super windy on the ride so what can you do?


Haha...Ty proudly showing off more of the vineyard, like he grew it or something:)


So apparently we took a lot of grape pictures...


After the trolley brought us back to Monterey, we went back to the Wharf to capture some final pictures right after the sunset...so pretty!


I love the clouds here:


And here...then it was time to say goodbye!


That's it!!! I think we're finally done with our trip pictures! It was such a great time and a beautiful place to check out, I can't recommend this area more, lots to do and see and very relaxing at the same time:) Hope you all enjoyed the pictures...we're heading to Chicago next week so stay tuned for another trip soon!