San Francisco

Back in July we made a last minute trip to San Francisco. When I say last minute, that means we decided at 9:00 on Thursday night and were in the car ready to go at 1:00am ready for the 12 hour car ride. The Milwaukee Brewers were playing the SF Giants that weekend which made it that much easier to convice Rafe to go, since the Brewers are his favorite baseball team.

The journey begins, we played a lot of games to help pass the time.

We went to the Golden Gate Bridge and of course just our luck it was totally foggy. Not to mention freezing cold!

On Saturday we ate at this great place on Fisherman's Warf called Gotts. My sandwich was so yummy, the sourdough bread was amazing, I have to eat there again.

My yummy chicken sandwich


Walking through Chinatown

AT&T Park

It was July but don't let that fool you, it was so cold I could have been in a snow suit and been happy.

Rafe and Zach after the game.

Our Honeymoon

After our reception we were off on our honeymoon. Finally! After all of the planning and preparation and stress it was so good to relax and be with Rafe on a vacation. That night we didn't get to our hotel until about 1am and our flight was at 7am the next morning, so we didn't get a whole lot of sleep and I was so sick, and we were both exhausted. While on the plane we both slept, mouths wide open probably drooling, but we didn't care, we earned it. We landed in Cancun and set off for our hotel. When we checked into our hotel they didn't have the room we reserved anymore so they upgraded our room to an ocean view, which was fine with us. The catch was it was a room with two double beds, which actually worked out because I was so sick that I could be free to be as miserable as I wanted without bothering Rafe. We had dinner in the hotel and spent the night relaxing in our room, it was so nice just to be able to be lazy and spend time with Rafe doing absolutely nothing.

The next day we hit the beach, since it was January we had the place practically to ourselves. We had a blast and the water was so warm, I still felt pretty crappy but after getting pummeled by some waves and salt water running up my nose at least I could breath. We layed out, read, shooed away the locals trying to sell us necklaces, timeshares, sunglasses etc, and people watched; turns out international people watching is great.

By the end of the second day I was feeling so much better, we ventured out to the local Wal*Mart for some meds and I was set. We had a blast, we went on a boat cruise, snorkeled, ate at great restaurants hung out at the beach and went to Talum and Chichen Itza. We even got pulled over by the police...TWICE. When they realized it was the end of our trip, we were out of money and Rafe spoke Spanish they were less interested in us and let us go.

We were sad to leave but we had a blast and were ready to head back to the states. Interestingly enough, it was a lot easier to get into Mexico than to get back into the United States, go figure.

This is our rental car Clio, we were thankful we had her; until her gas pedal fell off on our way to Chichen Itza, then fell off again on the freeway on our way back. Not cool Clio, not cool.

Talum

We ate at lots of great places, this is a boiling hot cauldron of cheese, cactus, meat and some other stuff I can't remember. It was pretty good.

Chichen Itza

Reception.....finally

After our wedding ceremony and pictures we had lunch with our family, it was nice to relax for a minute and talk and have a little bit to eat. That night we had our reception.

During the week of our wedding I was feeling a little sick but tried to power through because there simply wasn't enough time to be sick. We had a lot to do and set up and there was no way I could have done it without the help of mine and Rafe's family. Thank goodness for family, they are willing to be slave labor and be exploited without recieving any recognition

I remember the majority of the night, but some things are a blur since I was just trying to survive and not be sick and lay down on the floor in front of everyone. It was great to see friends and talk and have fun.

I really like this picture of us, Rafe always says he looks like he's making an om nom nom noise. No cake was shoved or put anywhere is wasn't supposed to be.

We were going to make our own cake pops but decided that would be way to much work, so we used Krispy Kreme donut holes instead and dipped them in chocolate. They were soooo good!

Rafe's friend from his mission is a professional piano player and he graciously played the piano for us during the reception. He was wonderful, he played a few pop songs for my by request.

My niece Magei and nephews Gabe and Sam who looked so cute and were so fun to have around.

Rafe's newphew Easton.

My brother Boyd trying to keep Magei and Sam entertained.

Rafe's neice Marielle.

Rafe's parents, they were so wonderful throughout the entire process, they helped so much.

Rafe and his mom are definetly mother and son, check out the expression here; exactly the same.

Magei copied all the poses of Rafe and I during our wedding video, it was really cute.

This my favorite picture of us, it screams us.

Wedding Day

Our wedding day finally arrived, after a hectic, fun, late night filled week, and months of waiting; we were getting married. Our day started very early since we had to be at the temple at 7am. Everyone was up at very early to get ourselves and all the kids ready to go.

Our ceremony was really wonderful. We were so happy afterward to be declared husband and wife. Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Thompson!