My beautiful flowers, red roses and cala lilies, aren't they gorgeous!












This is the place.....









Rehearsal practice....see, my little plate bouquet actually made it....







Hawaii here we come!!! Jesse and I are so excited that we are going to such a beautiful paradise for our HoneyMoon. We are so blessed.

Having a great time at the luau......YAY!!!!

Rebecca and Jesse at Waimea Canyon, the Kauia "Grand Canyon." My feet!!!!
Poipu Beach-gorgeous!
Look how beautiful the flowers are, no wonder why the all the beautiful Hawaiian girls are smiling.

This is after our four hour kiyak adventure then hike. We hiked to this beautiful waterfall and then we just had to pose...

Yup there it is, my favorite part of the trip (jk)......visiting the World's Westernmost Brewpub.

So....our HoneyMoon was amazing....Kauai is so beautiful, so breathtaking....We would love to go back.... We had a great time enjoying the beach, swimming, kayaking, exercising, going to Luaus and just enjoying each other and being married.

Jesse and I are so very blessed to have found each other and to be married in my/our dream wedding in Santa Barbara. It was picturesque.

The group!
Oh, Rehearsal Fun!
Practicing our lines....
Me and my Daddy
Me and my "husband" YAY

We are married! YAY!

Okay, so I am super bad about keeping everyone afloat on our blogger thing. I must do better, esp. b/c I was sent an email today that told me that we had only 175 days until we get hitched!!! That isn't all that much time, so I will get you quickly up to date.

Okay..................we have our wedding local. The Rincon Beach Club! I will be having my dream wedding on the beach-yay!

I did find my dress and it is amazing. Never really thought that I would be one of those girls who would cry over finding the perfect dress, but I did. :)

We have a DJ-the wonderful Scott Topper. We have our photographer, Ryan Toussaint, a graduate of my alma mater.....Go Westmont!!!!! I think that I have found the perfect bridesmaids dresses..................have my flowers picked out........................but don't have a florist...........
anywho, it will all come together.

Jesse and I are settling in to Michigan life where it is currently 6 degrees outside, with snow and ice galore. Hey, but at least we are together. Each day I thank God for blessing me with such a wonderful man in my life...... I know, I am getting sappy.....

Keep you better posted as we continue on........

Miss you and love you all

September 6th 2006-Happy Birthday Kamala!

Greetings from Nebraska. We were a little bit slow to get moving this morning, but we enjoyed sleeping in a bit and we had a nice breakfast at Perkins....yummy! We drove a few hundred miles (while I read my Modern Bride magazine-clap clap) and stopped at Gallagher State Recreational area in Cozad, NE. We found this little quaint campsite with an old school gravel boat ramp from the awesome book that Dana and Ruben gave us, “Off the Beaten Path, A travel guide to more than 1,000 scenic and interesting places still uncrowded and inviting”. This book by the way, is awesome and a must if you are going to be doing any kind of travel across the country-we have used it at least twice.

We didn’t do any camping, or boating, but we did have a nice picnic lunch and this Dead Horse Beer (Their tagline is something like "You can't beat a dead horse") from Moab, UT is very good.









This is our "AIR HUD," what an athlete.









Now we are on our way to Iowa...... 

New Belgium Brewing Company-
My Mothership.

It was awesome! First of all, for all of you who have not been there, you can bring in your dogs and you get to taste four beers for free. Of course after those four, you always want more, so if that is the case, you can order 6 packs, cases and big ole' jugs of beer.

The Brewery itself was awesome! There was seating available at the bar and at tables. So, you could even bring a baby into the bar (ala Sweet Home Alabama) and not even feel too badly about it....... That was a joke-ha ha. But they did let us bring in the doggies and gave them water and everything.

Anywho, this lovely sign to your left is the restaurant that we stopped at on our way out of Fort Collins. Keep in mind, this was our first real sit down dinner since we became engaged-nonetheless, we had high hopes. Let's just say that the food was really inedible. The chips had less flavor than cardboard (and that is putting it nicely). We each ordered a burrito and El Torito it was not. But if you notice, you can have them cater your event. Maybe for our wedding.......... ha ha ha ha



Here is Jesse enjoying his beer tasting. Isn't he cute?

 

Yosemite.... Where do I begin? This place is just amazing. At first I didn't understand why they gave us a seven day pass, but you really would need seven days to really experience the full beauty of this place.

The Half Dome was just massive and majestic. We took many pictures and were just in awe. Apparently everyone and their sister was there today too. It was very noisey-as Jesse would say, "I could barely hear myself think."

Mirror Lake which is supposed to rest right below the Half Dome is seasonal, so unfortunately we weren't able to see it-but the waterfalls were awesome!



I met this guy at the gift shop. 

Labor day entry

Okay, so Jesse and I were up at 6am and Jesse actually suggested that we go for a run. I clapped my hands I was so happy and off we ran. The altitude was 7200 ft and let’s just say it really burned our lungs. We ran a little over a mile and that was it.


We were staying at a really cute little place that cost us 50 bones and it was so much better than our accommodations last evening. If you are ever in Ely, Nevada-check out the White Pines Inn. We had breakfast of instant oatmeal and packed ourselves and the boys in the truck and headed to route 70. We were both astounded when we looked at our watches and saw that we were on the road by 9am. Wow! We are such good travelers.

The rest of our day was spent driving into Utah in anticipation of the Arches National Park. The beauty was intoxicating and we have many pictures to show the beauty of God’s canvas. Oh, Jesse also wanted me to post that I had to use nature’s restroom-yup, right on the side of the road. Hey, I had to go and it was just no.1……. So, Arches National Park was amazing. The different hues of reds, burnt oranges and greens were amazing. We were able to visit the North and South window, which was a amazing-so crazy how these arches were formed… An arch is defined by at least 3 feet in width and in height (a little geological lesson for ya’lll). We also saw the Delicate Arch which to me seemed quite massive, but apparently it is being eroded away and it is only a matter of years before it completely is destroyed. We didn’t do any hiking because it was 101 degrees in the park and we had our dogs with us and there was no shade to speak of. All in all, we had a wonderful day. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch and then stopped by a local gas station/market in which we bought some local Moab beer…….. The city of Moab is quite an impressive little tourist town. Apparently the town blue up when mountain bike riding became a hit. Quite the fun little town.

 

On The Road to Yosemite!!!!

We are on the road again. We checked out the 17 mile drive along Pebble Beach and the Del Monte Forest. Jesse and I found our next new house, after we move back to California- it is a affordable 7.8 million dollars-just a little drop in the old bucket…ha ha ha! We did get to see “The Lone Cypress,” which is one of California’s most enduring landmarks-it has been there for over 250 years…. . There was also a golf tournament today, so we were unable to further investigate the course. Dangit…

We are now back on the 101 heading North and it smells like garlic-infact there is a place that we just passed called The Garlic World-lovin’ it.

So we are just cruising and enjoying the ride. Thank goodness for this Sprint card that allows me to access the internet from the road.

This evening, we are going to stay at a place in Sonora, CA, which is about an 1 ½ hrs. from the park, The Gold Lodge. Not sure what we are getting into with that, but they are dog friendly. So far, our accommodations have been amazing`

So, I just looked up as we were driving through Modesto and it is 95 degrees-so when we saw a Coldstone Creamery, we just had to stop and get some ice cream. They gave Jesse and I enough ice cream to eat for days-good thing calories don’t count on vacation.

Okay-just for the record, the Sonora Gold Lodge (see above) isn't that great. The prices aren't great and the pool and hot tub were unsuitable for swimming. Just an old FYI.....

In Monteray.............yay!

Okay, so we are in Monteray.........and it is beautiful. We had a wonderful day. We had a nice leisurly breakfast and the we were off to check out the Aquarium and see some fishes.
And these guys......


Then we wandered off to lunch at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Did you know that they give you signature glasses when you buy 22 oz of brew? Killer, eh?

We had a lovely lunch-and then were off to rescue our boys in the truck. We drove a few extra miles and parked on Pacific Grove and walked along a path which I later found out was called Lover’s Point (cute, eh?). The boys were their normal selves all excited to be out and about and excited about life.

We probably walked for fifteen minutes when Jesse suggested we have a seat on a bench overlooking the ocean. I was excited to sit down b/c my feet hurt like crazy. The next few moments will forever be thought of as the best moments of my life. Jesse put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close. He kept on telling me how much he loved me and kept on asking if I loved him in return. He didn’t get down on one knee, but then again, he didn’t have to. What he said and did made me feel more loved than ever and the happiest girl in the world. He said that he loved me so much and that the best way he could show it to me was by asking me to marry him (as he pulled out a small wooden box from his pocket). Seriously, it felt like time stopped and I was just staring at the ring and kissing him. He was like, “Wait, you can’t get this until you say yes.” I couldn’t even speak, let alone think-but I can never remember being happier.


From there, we snapped some pictures and then walked back to the truck. I felt like I was walking on air. The rest of the night was just a fairytale. We drove along Carmel and admired the houses in which Thomas Kincade used as his inspiration for those magnificent paintings.

After that, it was phone calls. Lots and lots of phone calls to share our great news with all of our friends and loved ones!

First day on the road............

Jesse was up at 5am to meet Mike( the new Papa) to go play basketball one more time at Westmont College. The boys (Duke and Hudson) and I slept in (ha ha) to 6:30am and took a nice long run along the beach. It was great to be able to breathe in the fresh ocean air and have some quiet time to thank God for how very blessed we have been in our lives.

Happily, we had breakfast coupons to the Double Tree Café and got our meal to go (it would have been a $35 breakfast-can you believe it?), We met the cleaning ladies (who drove a nicer car than we do) at 9:00am.. We had some time to kill while we waited for the diesel truck to come and pick up my car at noon and then we were off.


We said goodbye to Santa Barbara at 1:03pm (and yes, that is US). As we speak, we are on the 1 heading towards Lompoc. We are en route to Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. And.............we did infact make it to Hearst Castle, but we missed the last tour and had to settle for some pictures of the signage and placards along the way. We also stopped at the William Hearst park and had a nice picnic lunch and ran around for a little bit on the beach with the dogs.

Back on the road again, we settled in for some beautiful scenery as we drove along the PCH to Monteray. Jesse had the best intentions to make it a very enjoyable time driving along the coast, however, the weather chose not to cooperate with us. It was dark and dreary and we couldn’t see our hand(s) in front of our faces. Nonetheless, the kaddywompasness of the journey, all 113 miles of it was twisty-turvey, around and around, up and down and pretty much flat out a nightmare. I got carsick bigtime-one of those kinds in which you would hope you would die. I felt really badly for Jesse who just wanted to have a nice drive along the coast to Monteray. All in all, the short 4 hour journey was a success, because we arrived at our destination-the Hilton Garden Inn.

Our last day in SB

Well hello everyone! Welcome to our travelspace-if you will.....

Our last night in Santa Barbara was spent with our friends at Leadbetter Beach for a quick BBQ and washers game. It was so very nice to see you all for the very last time. For those of you who missed it, I will post some pictures up on this site as well. Now take it easy on us b/c we are doing this all on the road. We both will be taking our own special time narrating-just to keep our story interesting for all-y'all.

A very special thank you to the Hammonds for the food preparation, for Jessie and Joe visiting us from the OC and best of all, for Kamala and Mike bringing their little angel, Sienna Grace for her first visit to the beach and to say goodbye to us. She is beautiful.
Another great thanks to Dave and Karen for the wonderful goodie basket to keep our bellys full on our trip. Yum, Yum.....

The evening was a little crisp but as always, the setting was beautiful-afterall, we all live (well lived in our case:( ) in Santa Barbara for a reason. It was also the last Nite Moves event of the summer, so we had the priviledge of sitting back with a beer and watching the dedicated runners and swimmers strut their stuff. Along with Nite Moves came a live band, so we had some nice background music as well. Nathan Schaffer was mastering the art of throwing a frisbee, while litte Ryken Hammond was dancing with me (Rebecca).

It was a short celebration (because it was a schoolnight) , but one we will remember fondly forever. The Waddel's, Julie, Jesse and myself we the last to leave. We spent our last evening in Santa Barbara "roughing it" at the Fess Parker Double Tree Resort. It was lovely......we slept like rocks, with Duke and Hudson on either side of us....

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Hi all... I finally get a chace to write as well. We have been driving so long it seems. Any who....

Our last day was sooooo sad. My heart was really feeling the pain of leaving. I have grown to love SB, and those of you in CA know that was hard for me at first. I am already missing some of the best friends I have in the whole world. I keep telling myself this move is for the best for Rebecca and I and our quality of life and that is why we are leaving. But rest assured SB will never be far from my thoughts and we will be back to visit and play often. Thanks again to all who came out for the BBQ, it meant a lot to us to have you all there. We love you guys.... and keep watching this site we will have lots to add...