Wedding Bells & Christmas Bells

So, Jolie and Rob got married. It was a hectic few days but everything turned out great! We went down to DC the night before where I spent some time riding up and down in the elevator with Alli and Madison. Fun times. We woke up to a rainy wedding day, but the photographer managed to get some good pictures of the two love birds despite the inclement conditions. Jolie had her wedding reception in a big converted barn with a huge fireplace and wood floors. It was very pretty. The little girls, Nate and I went exploring and found Santa's sleigh on the top floor. Madison didn't understand why we couldn't open the presents that were in the sleigh. How do you explain to a three-year-old that someone would wrap up empty boxes and put them in Santa's sleigh? All in all the night went off with a bang. Jolie looked very beautiful and Rob looked okay too.

The craziness of the wedding was followed by Christmas. On Christmas Eve Bruce took everyone to the Wilmington club for a very fancy lunch. The lemonade was delicious. The food was pretty good too. Everyone got to get all dressed up and it was a lot of fun. That night we spent at the Slaughs house. The food was great and the kids put on a cut Christmas pagent. It was great to see everyone.
On Christmas morning we all slept in because there were no small children waiting to see what Santa had brought them. Around 10 we all went downstairs to open presents. Nate had already opened his big present from me. He got a Tom Tom so he could find his way around Richmond. I opened my present from Nate and was confused to find a stuffed panda bear. I thought maybe he meant to give it to Madison, but then I noticed a jewelry box on the back. Inside was a very beautiful necklace. It was a very nice surprise. Presents were followed by breakfast consisting of lots of foods I couldn't eat because I'm pregnant and the food smelled bad. Not fun. Nate says the breakfast was delicious.
Most of the vacation was just spent hanging out. We spent a lot of time with Skiffington and got to see two really great movies, Valkyrie & Marley and Me. Now we are back in Harrisonburg not-so-frantically-as-we-should-be trying to pack up before the movers come tomorrow. Hopefully we get everything done!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Gradaversimas

We are celebrating a newly founded holiday in our lives. Because graduation, our anniversary, and Christmas were all blended together this year, Kenzie and I decided that we would celebrate gradaversimas instead of all three smaller events. I got 2 presents for gradaversimas – a new BYU jacket and a Tom Tom for finding our way around Richmond. Kenzie’s present was a trip to see stomp, although the weather was really bad and snowy on the day we were supposed to go to New York but they are coming to Richmond in February so we are just going to go see them down there.
Graduation was a blast! We managed to finish all of our finals and pass our classes just in time for Kenzie’s parents to fly in from Utah. They were joined by uncle hillbilly willy from up in Pittsburg. My parents arrived the night before with Loni, Jessie, and babies. Skiff and Kyle came down for the actual ceremony and later Matt, Brandon, Liz, and Tyler came for lunch to celebrate. It was a packed house and a really fun day.
In trying to describe what a graduation was to the 3 year old Madison, I told her that she was coming to a dress up party in which I would be wearing a giant purple dress. She was very excited upon hearing that and asked if she could dress up too. They got a little less excited when they had to sit through a 2 and a half hour ceremony where they called 700 names. Ali saw us afterwards and she explained to grandma that the graduation was “really really really really really long”. I agree.

We had a fantastic time hanging out with Kenzie’s parents and it was good to have them on the east coast. They left on Sunday just in time for us to pack up our house and get things ready to move to Richmond. We went to the doctors on Monday morning and got to hear a tiny little heartbeat for the first time. Until now, I was not totally convinced that Kenzie was actually pregnant. I thought maybe she was faking it to get attention. However, a fast heart beat proved that she is in fact 3 months pregnant. It was fantastic to hear the little thing go. It was a fantastic way to mark our 3 years of marriage. An anniversery marked by an ultrasound and moving - how romantic I am!
We got on the road to Richmond on Monday afternoon and got all checked in to our storage unit and went to find our apartment. About a half mile from our apartment we discovered a mall bigger than the king of Prussia mall, a chipotle, red robin, and most importantly, a cheesecake factory. We are very excited to be out of Harrisonburg and near civilization again. We moved a few bags into our brand new apartment and set up shop. It is really nice and has all new furnishings and looks like a great place to crash for a few months. My company is putting us in a furnished apartment for 3 months and giving us that time to find a place to live. It is a great transition! So after getting settled in Richmond we headed up to Delawhat for Jolie’s wedding. She gets hitched tomorrow so we are headed down to DC tonight to stay for a night before the wedding. Life is really fun right now for both of us and we are really excited to be headed to Richmond in January to start real life.

Turkey Turkey

This is where Caleb, Nate and Squatting Bear were mot of our visit (Nate took the picture)

For Thanksgiving this year we went to visit my family in the holy land (Utah). I sat between Nate and a 300 lb lady on the flight out, so needless to say I was miserable, but once we got there we had a lot of fun. Our experience upon arriving at the SLC airport was very different from our usually experience in Philly. We got off the plane, went to the bathroom and stopped to get a drink. When we got to the baggage claim...no bags. We finally figured out that in the less than 30 minutes our little detour had taken us, our bags had been collected and sent to the unclaimed baggage area. This is very different from Philly where you can wait for an hour and half before they even begin to unload your bags.

My dad picked us up and our very first stop was at Cafe Rio, per Nate's request. I think we must have eaten there about 10 times while in Utah. I don't particularly care for the place, so mostly Nate ate and I sat. My family also took us to Rodizio Grill several times. It is another of Nate's favorites.

Mostly we just hung out. Caleb did not skip any school this time (last Christmas he was "sick" for an entire week so he could play the Wii with Nate all day), Anna, however, did. We went to see that vampire movie. Nate hated it. Anna hated it. I have no opinion of the movie, it was just something to do. Although thinking about it, it is a very weird concept for a book/movie. I mean seriously, why would you date someone who wanted to eat you. I don't understand but I'm sure it has something to do with a bad childhood and can all be blamed on her parents. If you ask me, what she needs is some counseling, not a date with a vampire...weird. Anyway, after that we ate at...Cafe Rio. Anna ate, Nate ate, I sat in the car. Okay, so they got it to go and I waited in the car while they ordered. They were nice enough to take me to Jamba juice on our way home.

We did go to Provo where we got to see Sommer and her very cute baby. It's weird to me that she has a baby. I still feel like we should be laying out in her pool blasting country music while her parent are at work and making late night stops at Dairy Queen for a cookie dough blizzard. But, I guess we all have to grow up at some point. It was very good to see her. John is considering UVA Law in the fall and that is where I'm hoping they come. We would only be an hour away and we could see each other more often. We also took a trip to Red Lobster with Sommer's parents. It was good to see them, too.

We took Fa to lunch at CPK where he didn't understand why his chicken alfredo was in a bowl not on a pizza. This was after Nate said to him, while he was ordering, "Did you want that on the pizza or do you want noodles." I think he enjoyed it though. We couldn't leave Provo without a stop at the BYU bookstore where I bought Nate his graduversamas present (graduation-anniversary-Christmas rolled into one). It is a very nice underarmer jacket with BYU stuff on it.

Thanksgiving was great. My mom cooks great food. She even made Nate a banana cream pie which he picked in the night before then covered up with whipped cream. I'm not sure if she realizes that or not. Anna's boyfriend from Columbia ate with us and there was lots of talk of drug/gun running thanks to Nate and my two brothers. He was a good sport and he's a pretty nice kid. Overall, it was a great trip. My mom wants to move back to the east coast and is trying to somehow talk my dad into it. We'll see what happens there.

The trip was topped of with lots of competitive games of Bomber Man on the Wii. Once my dad figured out how to play, we played every day. It's a four person game so we played in rounds. The loser (usually Anna, me, or my dad) had to give up the control. There was one game that my dad won. That means he won four total games. We're still trying to figure out how that happened because most of the time he just blew himself up.

Now we're back in VA. At this point I have 1 class left in my entire college career. Nate has 2. I need to start studying for finals. My grades have been kind of low this semester because I have checked out and don't care anymore. But now it's time to buckle down and make sure I pass. Then it's off to Richmond where it looks like I will be working in an elementary school.