The Wedding!

ok these are ALL out of order but blogger is not cooperating
and i'd like to finally get these up and posted
check one more thing off the list :)


this is the day of the wedding.
saturday.


this picture cracks me up. this is dad
on the floor. of the limo.
scrunched in quite nicely.
and the funniest part is that the groomsmen
on the other end of the limo didn't even know he was in there
until about 5 minutes into the drive! LOL!
from then on in the joke was "where's rick?!"
i'm sure you had to be there
but it was hysterical.

melissa, accompanied down the aisle by her two uncles.
mom escorted by mike, dad following not far behind.

again, sorry these are out of order... but this is jeff getting ready. mom, dad, jeff and i got ready in their suite.


what a nice looking family ;)
riley looking gorgeous in her flower girl dress and pretty locket.

riley playing with pepere. trying to keep entertained before the ceremony

the groomsmen

during the ceremony, jeff and melissa gave a rose to each of their moms.
dan took these while i was off getting my picture taken with the wedding party.

nice shot of mom and dad huh?

and terri and doug

jeff and i during dinner

mom and jeff dancing to this awesome version of "over the rainbow"

uncle michael, mom and aunt karen

Kara, my cousin Mikey and me

Monique and Jeff having a ball dancing at the end of the night

what else can i say? let's see. the ceremony was beautiful. the plantation house was gorgeous. dinner was YUM! and we danced the whole night away :) lots of fun. lots of great memories.

see the Friday post for the link to the slideshow with the rest of the photos. there are lots more great ones in there :)

enjoy.

Friday in St. Louis

I'm back! Remember me?

I promised you tales from St. Louis, so here goes.

(Click on this link for a slideshow with all the pictures , but here are some of my favorite shots to go along with the stories)



Thursday night we (Mom, Dad, Grammy, Aunt Milly, and others) arrived late and chatting at the lobby bar with the "kids" aka my cousins and friends just a few years younger than me (still clinging on to just enough of their youth that they were far more energetic than their older cousin at that hour). I didn't last long. I went to bed around midnight (which felt like 1am since we were now in the central time zone).



Friday morning we met in the lobby around 9:30am to head over for a Tour of the Gateway Arch. While we waited, Riley and Lilly got to know one another! They were having so much fun playing with their toys :)

Then he headed across the street to see the arch and take the tour. It really is beautiful. Here are a couple of my favorite shots.

Then we took a "tram" up the North West side to see the view from high above the city. I was in the tram with Pat, Lisa, Aunt Milly & Mike.

The View from the Top: 630 feet above the city.

This is the St. Louis side.

In the middle is the St. Louis Courthouse where the Dred Scott case was tried.

To the right of the courthouse was our hotel- The Hyatt.

To the left of our hotel & the courthouse- the Cardinal's new stadium.

a self-portrait of Dad and I at the top...

Unfortunately our tour started late so we didn't have much time at the top. We went from the Arch back to the hotel to catch the bus to the rehearsal at the Larimore Plantation House.

This is me with my fellow groomsmen (and Mike, the most hardworking usher) on the steps of the house after we'd done our rehearsing and were trying to beat the heat.

Patrick, Jen, Josh, Kevin & Mike


From there, we headed to the Anheuser Busch Brewery Tour. Here are some of my favorite pictures from ther beautiful old brewery:

Mom & Dad

One of the original buildings. We saw the beer actually being processed here.

After the tour, we did a quick run back to the hotel to pick up those who hadn't come on the tour, did a quick change out of our sweaty clothes (did I mention it was in the 80's?! beautiful but a little hot), then we headed to Rigazzi's Restaurant for the rehearsal dinner.

Dinner was delicious and I must say the Pinot Grigio tasted lovely after all the running around we did :) I have pictures of all the tables on the slideshow, but here are the highlights.

Riley LOVING playing around with her Daddy :)

Grammy & Me {she thought the picture had already been taken when she leaned in for a kiss}

Mom & Jeff

After dinner we went to Laclede's Landing for drinks. Its an area similar to Faneuil Hall in Boston. Lots of cool little pubs and bars. Lots of people around. Definitely seemed like the place to be. We were all feeling pretty happy at this point. Can you tell?

Patrick & Me.

Lisa & Pat.

Jeff & Dan.

This was at the second bar we went to. Of course I don't know the names of any of these places, way to pay attention to my surroundings ;) but it was a great little bar. Reminded me of a college bar. Small, mostly empty actually, but there was a guy playing a keyboard and singing. He played Buffett and "Sweet Caroline" and lots of other fun ones. Take a peek at the slide show, there are some funny, drunk singing and dancing pictures!

So that completes Friday- though I guess technically by the time the last picture was taken it was well into Saturday already! Oopps!

Wedding day photos to follow.

Friday Photo Finish 05-29-09

i'm behind

can't post it all right now, but i'll tell you what's coming up.

1. post about jeff and melissa's wedding in st. louis.
2. post with more photographs of my beautiful neighbor and my walking adventure through it
3. friday photo finish from this week.

stay tuned.

better late than never

last week was a lousy week for working out.

on the upside, dan and i got a ton of other things done.

then i left on thursday for st. louis and he was not far behind me on friday.

and now we're home safe and sound

(wedding updates to follow)

i did manage to log almost 18,000 steps on my pedometer on friday

so at least i wasn't completely sedentary!

back in the swing this week and loving it.

its amazing how much i look forward to walking now.

on the positive side of things- i broke 100 miles of training already!

visiting, fundraising, scrambling...

its been an insane week.

but it started off on a great note. on sunday after my walk, i ran some errands then headed over to visit my favorite family in whitman. i hadn't seen aila in over a week and was so glad to hold her and cuddle with her for awhile.

we hung out in the kitchen while willy ate lunch.

i think she's still getting used to me ;)

love her expressions then kris wanted to take some photos for aila's birth announcement

check your mailboxes soon for those. no sneak peeks here

but here are some glimpses at the rest of the process

i was testing out the light

willy was enjoying aila's soft blanket on the ottoman

kris will probably kill me for posting pics of her in her pjs

but i don't care

i think she looks gorgeous

and i love candid shots of her with her kids

so real

so beautiful

in between getting "shots" of the kids together willy was playing around

not minding aila on the ottoman where his nascar playset (from uncle dave and aunt cheri) usually lives... he just "vrooom! vrooom!ed" around his baby sister.

monday:

i flew home right after work and put together

10 sets of my photo greeting cards to sell at the Caberet Show on tuesday.

krissy's idea to help me raise money for the Breast Cancer 3Day Walk

{have i mentioned that she's brilliant?}

it was hectic, but since terri was gracious enough to agree to let me do it,

i figured i could make the time

(really need to set aside time to invent a time machine apparently

but that didn't make the to-do list this week)

once i finished the cards, i cut the materials for jeff and melissa's wedding programs and bleary-eyed, got to bed around 10:30 (not that I could fall asleep!)

tuesday:

i worked on the wedding programs on the train to work

a make-shift workstation in my purse, gluing together the decorations

to later attatch to the cover (not a moment to waste)

went straight from work to the Cabaret Show

where i raised $100 for the walk!

thanks to everyone for that! i truly appreciate it.

plus i got to hang with my friends, see the kiddos and enjoy the show.

here's the present Cabaret Company of Terri's School Dance

along with us alumni

p.s. hearing it repeated over and over again that Kris and i were founding members,

all the while watching these 16 year olds flit around

made me feel EXTREMELY old! LOL!

wednesday:

by last night i'd lost my marbles. got half way home before i realized i was supposed to pick up the wedding favors at jeff's to bring on the plane with me today... i had to pack all my stuff and finish the programs, figure out travel plans (both to work in the morning and to the airport in the afternoon), get an update on Marilyn (who is now in rehab in Quincy after being discharged from MGH yesterday afternoon)...

it was hectic. but i got it all done. think i forgot to pack toothpaste, but i'm pretty sure i can buy that along the way!

St. Louis here we come!

its a beautiful day in the neighborhood

i took my second walk of the week this morning.
its gorgeous out
somewhere between 60-70 degrees and sunny
i figured since i enjoy my walk so much, i'd bring the camera along
and take some photos of the beautiful neighborhood

for those of you who know the area, i walk down Clapp Road until I hit the corner,
take a left onto Summer Street and a right onto Beechwood, and walk out to 3A.


this is in my driveway.... i love these. call them weeds. that's ok. i love them.
buttercups too. my favorite house along the way had a whole lawn full before and now they're gone :(

i love this house. so quaint. and this is the front door!

this house has the BEST front porch.

doesn't it just look SO inviting??

we need to get some rocking chairs for our porch :)

there are a lot of little creeks along the way...

and beautiful flowers

old fences

this is my favorite house along the way. it's set up high on a hill

its extremely old and somehow just looks very different in person....

greens up against a stone wall.

i love these trees

no idea what they're called

they look japanese to me, but i'm sure they're not ;)

more flowers

these beauties are right across from Shaw's

i had put my camera away thinking there was nothing else photo-worthy

and then had to pull it back out to capture this.

this is my favorite flower along the way

crossing back into scituate on my way home

took the longer version of my walk today, down Captain Daniel Litchfield Lane

love this swing.

this thing probably looks old and crumby

but i think its pretty cool.

and finally home.

about to turn into the driveway

this is the new-ish sign they put up... that people like to throw trash at

did i mention before that i hate litter?!

i had wanted to take a photo of our house (with porch completed) when i got home

but the battery died.

maybe tomorrow.

hope you enjoyed coming along on my walk with me!