The Z's First Christmas

We set up our little fake tree and our nativity scene together for the first time this year. Well...we might have done so once or twice in our 7+ years before marriage, but this time was in our own place :)

The walls are still bare and we were wearing very bland clothing, so it's not the best photo, but it's a first nonetheless! Merry Christmas!

Reception Part 2: Wes' Song

This reception depiction deserves a post all to itself. After the toasts, Wes sang to me, and ALL our guests, the song he wrote when he proposed to me. He even got all his groomsmen to be a part of the band! Lucky for him all these guys are very talented musicians!

We've got the Best Man Brain on keys (he's sitting in this photo) and Gabe on bass.Pete on drums.
Carlos rockin' on backup guitar.And of course Wes on lead guitar and singing!He's playing his shiny new guitar I got him as an engagement present.
And I just sat and listened to my honey sing to me.
Then he got a BIG thank you hug!
And of course, what you've all been waiting for...the lyrics!

Our World

by Wes

I spent so much time afraid.
Of being in a place where I could
Be this intimate and vulnerable
As I am with you.

How would I have ever guessed
That I could’ve ever met someone
Who would be as amazing as you
Someone who could be so much more
Than I deserve

Chorus
Holding your hand and kissing your lips
These are the expressions of how much I love you
But with you in my arms my world fades
And it becomes our world.

I could never have imagined
That God would bring me
To this place where I would feel
So much more whole and more complete
longing for that space inside your heart.
What can I do, I cant stand it,
I just want to be yours forever.
Please say you’ll be mine
till the end of time

Chorus

Reception Part 1

Ok back to the wedding photos for a bit. That's what Christmas break is all about! Catching up on blogging. :) And Jesus' birth of course ;)

So after some family photos and portraits taken after the ceremony (yes, yes, you'll get to see those too in a later post) our lovely driver and Best Man drove us to the reception.

Here is our triumphant exit from the Prius...
And our even more triumphant change of shoes to our favorite sandals...Reefs!
And of course our triumphant entry to the reception hall...
Then we sat down at our table, amazed that this moment had finally come.We admired our centerpieces, that the florist and I put a lot of thought into. Well...maybe it was just me admiring them...not sure if Wes noticed ;)After dinner, we moved on to toasts from the Best Man and Maid of Honor (who is now married herself! Pics soon to come!) Brain and Esther gave both heartfelt and hilarious toasts. They meant a lot to both of us.








And here we are toasting with them...
There were WAY too many reception pics to have them all in one post. So stay tuned!

WMD --> BTD

I think I've mentioned this before, but Wednesday is donut day at work. Once at a company event we had team names for Bocce Ball and I was on team 'Wednesday Morning Donuts' or WMD for short. Another former coworker and I used to wish each other a Happy Donut Day every Wed morning. But I've decided to change today's name to Big Tummy Day. Happy Big Tummy Day!

Every Wed I have a battle. Donut or no donut? I fight the urge....then I give in...but tell myself this is my last donut ever. Every Wed! You would think my little head would have some kind of control over the hands and the mouth that feed the big tummy. But alas. Then I think I'll start exercising again, but now that I'm married, I sure do enjoy cuddling up in the morning and hanging out at night...which doesn't leave much time for exercise. Where's the motivation that used to get me trained up for triathlons? I do not know. I do not know where it went. It must be around here somewhere. Maybe when Wes is in grad school I'll have to occupy myself with something and I'll find it again.

Thanksgiving a la Oregon

This year was the first year I've been in Oregon for Thanksgiving for a LONG time. In fact, I haven't been up there in the winter in ages! It was also our first Thanksgiving married...awww.

We went up this year to spend some quality time with Wes' family, since we'll see my family for Christmas. Most of the time we spent hanging out at home playing with our cutest niece in the world.

Here she is greeting Uncle Wes with a "puleeese pick me up" expression.
Ahhh much better.
And here you can see where she gets those amazing blue eyes from....Daddy!
Kaelin is a very busy little 2 year old...well almost two. She was constantly bouncing around exploring everything in the house or park or where ever we were at the time. She found a candle and was quite positive that the wick was a straw on a big drink of some kind. Makes sense, same shape and all. We thought maybe we should light it to illustrate how it worked, but that might have been a little scary. Here's Wes contemplating the wick with her.
Wes also loves to toss his niece around. As do most uncles, I'm sure. But the cutest thing was how she would squeal "Weeesss!" as if he was the silliest guy around. But again...he is. :)
We had a fun filled day in Portland with Wes' sister Jen and her boyfriend Derek, enjoying all kinds of yummy Portland treats. We started off the day with lunch at Mother's Cafe, where they have a mac and cheese of the day. That day's mac was cheddar and pork apple sausage. I was very tempted, but went with the tofu scramble instead. But I did get a bite of the daily mac.

Then we meandered over to a well known donut shop called VooDoo Donuts. They make crazy donuts with cereal, candy, and all kinds of crazy toppings...and crazy shapes...beware of the link. In all my time in the Northwest, I'd never been there. Unfortunaltey, I forgot the camera on our adventure, so I couldn't take pictures of the four of us taking bites from each of the VooDoo Dozen, so we could all sample each kind. But here is a pic from the website of the maple bar with bacon on it. Wes and Derek thought it was a perfect breakfast donut. I think I would have liked it more if the bacon was warm...but cold bacon wasn't that great.
I think my favorite was the Captain Crunch Donut. After eating our way too many donuts, we walked around the Portland Saturday Market in the freezing cold wind...with my hopes set on burning the calories off by walking and trying to keep warm, and also to find a warm hat. I did accomplish the latter, a very cool wool hat with ear flaps and fleece lining (again no picture...but my mom says I looked Peruvian), but not sure if we really made a dent in the donut calories.

The trip continued with more eating and hanging out with friends at one of my favorite Portland places. McMenamins! We got to visit the Chapel Pub for the first time. I enjoyed a delicious gyro and rubinator and some wonderful convo with friends. Alas, again no pictures. I don't know what I was thinking.

Well that was Thanksgiving a la Oregon. More wedding pics to come, and then maybe Christmas a la California!

Go Sarah!

Well, Sarah might kick me for doing this, but I'm so excited for her. She ran the Florence Marathon last weekend, but since she's still abroad, I haven't been able to hear how the whole thing went. But, with my amazing ability to Google, I found her race results. You know what that means everyone...she FINISHED! Woo hoo! And I was even able to print out a personal race certificate for her.


Hahaha. This is what I do when I can't run a marathon myself, or I can't be there in person to cheer. I'm cyber cheering! Go Sarah!

SF Adventure

Nisamina will take a break from its regularly scheduled wedding programming to bring you a special report of recent outings. I'm sure I just heard a faint sigh of relief coming across cyber space. But for those die hard wedding photo fans...don't you worry...we'll be back soon enough!

Today's post is a tribute to my friend Sarah who is off in Florence, Italy right now. She participated in the Florence AIDS Marathon. I haven't heard how it went yet, but I can't wait! So since I couldn't make it to Florence to cheer her on, my friend Elizabeth and I went to SF to cheer her on during one of her long training runs.

After a beautifully scenic drive up 280, and some wrong turns here and there, here are some views that greeted us upon arrival to Ocean Beach, near then end of Golden Gate Park (the start and finish of Sarah's run).

Whoops...there were cars...time to head closer to the actual beach...Ack! Despite this sign up and down the coast, it didn't stop those crazy nor cal surfers from suiting up and going in the water.Elizabeth and I brought bikes to chase Sarah around the course...and to most importantly catch up with her. Here we are ready to ride!
After talking to the people at the start/finish, and finding some supporters a long the way, we finally caught up with her. It was a very triumphant moment when her running group showed up at a rest stop where we had perched, and we saw Sarah head for the bathroom.

We greeted her with cheers as she emerged!
And we took photos to commemorate our cheers...of course!
We finished off our SF adventure with a lovely breakfast at the Beach Chalet. Yum French toast!

Ceremony Moments

The ceremony began with our mothers lighting candles. And then the boys come out from hiding....or maybe it was the other way around.Here's my handsome hubby awaiting my arrival.
Then I came down the aisle, trying to compose myself.We had prayer with each other...
Prayer with friends...Singing...lots of beautiful singing!And after vows and rings, we had a unity candle and communion...
And the kiss!! The joyous recessional...A brief moment after the ceremony...Here I am saying to Wes, "Can you believe it?! We're married!!!" We were both so excited. I think this is one of my favorite photos from the wedding.
And our boisterous escape from the church, showered by lavender!

More Preparations

It takes a lot to get ready to walk down the aisle...

Praying...

Diving...Lacing...
Lacing takes a long time...But has a nice effect...
And jewelry...Next up...walking down the aisle.

I hear there are some great pics of Wes getting ready. He had one of his groomsmen do his hair :). I haven't seen those yet, but they'll be up eventually.