Wedding dress extravaganza!!!

It finally happened - after YEARS of planning and scheming, I finally had my wedding dress par-TAY. It was truly one of the best nights EVER, we all had such a blast that we've decided it's going to be an annual event.

I even got Galileo ready for the night...he was none too pleased.

Unlike an actual wedding, it was all about being comfortable. I rocked my converse as did my friends Paige and Marley.


I'd forgotten just how beautiful I felt in my dress - I think we all felt the same way.
Mo, Karen and Leigh:

Julie B, Jody and Julie L:
Mary, Marley, and Paige:
Me with Julie and Jody and my preggers friend Monika - she was such a trooper squeezing into her dress and staying out all night with us!

Plus, we just kept giggling looking at each other. There's nothing like having a cocktail in your wedding dress with 10 of your closest friends...also coincidentally in their wedding dresses. Lunacy, I tell ya.


It was all about the accoutrement's: we rocked our veils and some fake glowing wedding rings.

After hanging out at the house for a while, we packed up into the limo. Our limo driver was pretty tolerant of such crazy chics and even took some pics for us.
Good times in the limo:

About 10 minutes into our limo ride, my camera batteries died so we dropped by a Rite Aid on the way. HYSTERICAL - Paige and I got out and ran around Rite Aid like a bunch of bridal freaks...people were laughing and staring and we got several "congratulations!"..hahahaha! In retrospect, we should have bought a pregnancy test, that would have been WAY funnier. Our poor cashier was a little weirded out.
And the funniest part of all? I pulled such a "Beth", after all that hoopla? I bought the wrong damn kind. It made for a fun field trip, though.

Next up was the drag queen bar and they freakin' LOVED us! They were so much fun - there was a bridal theme all night and they had us in the front table.Good times, good times:
At one point Mo and I were dragged onstage to dance with one queen - we were laughing so hard but kept going. At one point, he was trying to have us go sit back down but we were clueless and just kept on dancing. It's not every day you can upstage a queen, let me tell you.


After a fantastic night, we headed back in the limo. The night went WAY too fast although I was pretty stoked to take that dress off after a while - I'd forgotten how heavy and hot it was! I was kinda sad putting it away the next day but at least I know I'll bust it out in a year for another extravaganza...love it. I waited to take it off until Rob came back from his night out with the guys - of course I had to remind him he married a sassy lady (as if he'd ever forget)!

POW #30.5 the "Still a blushing bride" edition

So, Rob took a few pics of me in my wedding dress when I got it back from the tailors for my party and this one, I SWEAR, I didn't even do because of the old picture. I guess, in 10 years, not much has changed. I'm so classy.

POW #30 The "Blushing Lovely Bride" edition

This week's picture o' the week is in honor of my upcoming wedding dress extravaganza happening this Saturday! I've been thinking about this party for years and am so stoked it's finally happening. 13 of us are throwing on our old wedding dresses (and a few have even purchased theirs on ebay and in various thrift stores, I can't freakin' wait to see those gems) and running amok in San Diego with a limo. Throw in a cocktail or two and maybe a drag queen show and the night is complete. Can't wait! I just got my dress back from the tailors and it finally fits me again! She took off a ton of inches and it feels awesome to be able to wear it again...and not have it fall off. :)

I don't even remember who took this candid shot of me on our wedding day (maybe one of my cousins? Josh? Val?0 but it cracks me up, obviously I was a little over getting my photo taken at that point. Please to enjoy...

Always a good time at Doggy Beach

Usually dog beach isn't all about the photo op's, but we went with friends last time so I schlepped along the camera to capture the moments. Although let's be honest, since starting my blog, I pretty much turn anything into a blog-worthy event. It's the age-old question, if a camera is not there to capture the moment, did it really happen?

The beach really is Galileo's Mecca and the dogs all had a blast playing together. We had a good time hanging, as well.

Swimming with Daddy:

Hanging with our wet Sand Flea...

Happy dogs:

And of course, some baby Bennett time too...

And the Colorado fun continues...

In addition to Ruth's surprise party, we also did our standard fly-by through the entire state of Colorado trying to soak up as many people as we could. We hung with Rob's Dad over Mexican food:...and did some crazy eye-wear shopping for Vegas, perhaps?

We drove by the fire hydrant that Rob hit when he was newly driving at age 16 and was viciously attacked by a Slurpee...the hydrant is still tilted!


And also swung by our friends Pat and Deena's (we've gone to Mexico with them twice, they're such a blast). We were celebrating Pat's graduation from grad school and I finally got to see my friend Nicole's preggers belly! She's due in August and it was so fun to see her pregnant...

The Mexico vacation gang all back together again - Me, Nicole, Chad post Achilles surgery, Deena, Pat and Robbio!
It was so fun to hang with Pat and Deena and their dogs...they're the best.

After that, we hung out with Rob's best friend Jeff - and his adorable wife Judi, their almost 2 yr old Owen (Rob's namesake) and their new baby Willett! Isn't he so cute???

Willett is too cute, we had so many fun doting on him and Owen continues to be such a fun little guy...he's so observant and such a smart kid, the things he says are hysterical! We had a good time with him at the park.

The weirdest thing is after all that, we spent some great time with my family but I must have been too distracted and never even busted out the camera! Yikes...the Bloggess is slipping, I can't believe I did that! You'll just have to trust me, we had an amazing time with everybody - what an awesome trip. Love you all and miss you like crazy!!!

No one has ever accused us of not liking surprises...

Rob's Mom Ruth turned 70 last weekend so we conspired with one of her coworkers to plan a surprise birthday bash. Rob and I flew out as did his brother Steve and Sister in Law Pam from Texas, and a lot of Ruth's family from Nebraska made the trek down as well! All in all we had about 60-70 people at the party, it was so much fun.

Luckily the party remained a surprise until the very last minute Ruth was walking in the door and noticed her friend's license plate parked down the way...but she still had no idea her family was there until she was inside for a while - we were all hiding around the corner. Here's a great, but long video of the surprise...it cracks me up, she glanced our way a few times but obviously was so overwhelmed she didn't notice us at first. Her face is priceless once she makes the connection - I boohoo'd right along with her, it was such a sweet moment.

Ruth's brother in law Ray made her a walker with Bronco attire and a horn on it, it gets plunked down right in front of her as we're singing, too funny. Here's Aunt Phyllis modeling the walker...

We had such a great time hanging with her, watching her open all of her gifts and seeing an amazing woman honored in the perfect way.Ruth with her great-nephew Caleb
Towards the end of the party, we were entertaining ourselves with our cousins' daughter Megan who is seriously the cutest. Good times...
The next day we hung out as a family and had a great time catching up. My darn camera is on the fritz and seems to have a hard time focusing...but you'll get the gist.

From left to right: Rob's cousins Becky and Ben, Pam and Steve, the woman of the hour Ruth, Aunt Phyllis, Aunt Grace and Uncle Lee and in front Rob and I with Caleb and Megan

More family time:

My garden gnome could beat up your honor student.

I swear, ever since we added Norbert our Garden Gnome to our back yard, the flowers act like we've given them 'roids. Check out my bougainvillea in the back corner! It's insane beautiful! (Norbert's hat can be seen at the bottom left)

Ok, probably not the best post I've ever done but stay tuned - this weekend I'll put together all of our Colorado trip pics for your viewing pleasure. Wait for it...wait for it...