January 5th: Bridal/Groomals

So Jennifer Gilmore rocks our world...

...SERIOUSLY!

She is the wonderful photographer who took our pictures in California. She's incredibly talented and so great to work with. We were so impressed and grateful for the wonderful job she did, we asked what we could do for her - she said to just let people know how much we liked her. So here you go guys...

WE ** LOVE ** JENNIFER GILMORE!!!

These are just a few samples of the pictures (some of you might have seen these already on FB) - there's a DVD coming to us, but these are just ones she gave us to use for the receptions. If you guys want to look through more of what Jennifer does...here's her blog and her website. She is also GREAT with kids! (And how do we know this, you may ask? She took McMullin family pictures and Cisternas family pictures on the beach as well - and the kids actually paid attention to her and smiled. Yep, she's THAT awesome.)

January 4th: Welcome to California!!

From the moment we landed at the John Wayne Airport, we knew we had made the best decision in the world.... A California wedding in January was the ONLY way to go.

We had just left dreary and cold Missouri for a very cold, foggy, and snowy Utah layover and then we landed in California to this - and pardon the lesser quality, these were all taken with my phone:

UNREAL! It was like another world...from white/gray foggy, cloudy weather to sunshine, blue skies, and palm trees - all in a matter of hours. Mark and I had an immediate change in mood and we just kept commenting over and over again about how great it was to be in California again, how much we loved it there, and how perfect it was to be getting married there. We were ELATED!

People have always asked us why we were getting married in Newport Beach - especially when he's from Missouri and I'm from Utah...and at the sight of the confused brows, I had our list ready to go. It went something like this:

1. Mark and I met there and...
2. He took me there when he proposed.
3. It was always one of Mark's wishes to be married in the Newport Beach temple...
4. Plus the Salt Lake temple would be incredibly busy because of all of the students marrying there during the semester break
5. The weather in Utah during January vs. California in January

Some might think we were stretching the reasons, but who cares? If you only get to do it once, you might as well do it like you want to and we both wanted California. We stopped by the temple that Tuesday afternoon and again, that feeling of excitement took over - who wouldn't want to get married here??? It just felt so PERFECT!

So Mark and I were lucky - our travel to California was pretty ideal. For some of our family though, it didn't go so well and a quick layover in Utah turned into hours!! Everything that could go wrong, did. Thankfully, despite all of the troubles, they made it in (although it was very late at night) and were able to have a good time (or so we hope). We're both so grateful to have wonderful people who trekked by plane and car to come and share this event with us. I know it came at a great sacrifice to them and we are just so SO happy that they were there to share it with us. I also know that a lot of you wished you could have made it and were there with us in your thoughts.

To ALL of you who were there with us and those of you who were there in thought:

THANK YOU!! We love you!! And we feel VERY LOVED!!

Single Digits

As of today, we have 9 days until the wedding...FINALLY! Today is also the start of many much waited for and anticipated events...including:

1. Mark getting to Utah (YAY!!)
2. Going through the temple for my endowments (this is another one of those 'finally!' sentiments)
3. Driving to Missouri (A little nervous about this, but excited for it as well)

...and of course, the wedding in California NEXT WEEK! I feel pretty excited because instead of 1 day to celebrate, I get several weeks of events all tied to the wedding - from moving to MO, to flying to California and then back to Utah and Missouri. I have time to take it all in and enjoy the beginning of this new stage in life! Mostly I'm just excited that Mark and I don't have to be separated by 2-3 states worth of distance...and that when we go anywhere, we'll mostly be traveling together rather than away from each other.

The past couple of weeks have been filled with packing and planning for the next several days (If you could see my room right now, you'd probably wonder what on earth I've been doing all this time because it doesn't look like I've made any significant progress... but, trust me! I've been working on it!!) and it's nice to finally be able to carry out those plans. It all starts tonight, circa 730 P.M. as I head to the airport to pick up Mark. :) (Except for the fact that it really started around 1030-11 am as Mark got ready to catch his Shuttle...long day of travel!!)

Halfway Through

Another stressful semester is finished. While I won't find out my grades for a couple more weeks, it feels great to be done with finals. The picture to the side is all my notes from this semester. To be honest I don't think the picture does justice to all the material we covered in my classes. For example, my outline (the summary of all the information we covered) for Business Organizations was 94 pages. Too long? Absolutely. But it was necessary to have information about all the topics we covered (Agency, Partnerships, Corporations, and Securities).

I am so happy to be done with this semester and to be halfway through law school. Now to focus on the next big event: January 6, 2011.

Engagements - A Sampling...

The Waiting Game

So the past couple of days have been spent in anxiety...

Pictures should be here any day now and then we'll finally get to see how it all turned out. I think I'm TOO excited...Mark would say that I'm guaranteeing my dissatisfaction because I'm letting my expectations get too high. I really think we're going to be happy with the way the pictures turn out....BUT just to be safe, here's my attempt at lowering my expectations:

1. I blinked during the perfect shot

2. Mark is right when he says that he really can't smile in pictures

3. I had lipgloss on my teeth, Mark had pepper in his teeth. (Where it came from, I have no idea since we didn't eat until after the shoot, but no matter...it was there!)

4. As beautiful as the scenery around us is, we end up as just blah...

5. The camera ends up catching Mark's eyerolls and my mouth stretches - for every shot.

No, this is not an attempt to fish for compliments, but just a way to keep me down to earth, so that I'm pleasantly surprised. I'll let you know if it worked.

*UPDATE: Here's a good low expectation from Mark: "On the one picture where we are actually smiling, your dress is bunched up or my tie is off to the side." ...Just a few more days to keep our fingers crossed...

Mark in Town!!

This past weekend Mark flew to UT for a much needed weekend together. 8 weeks is the second longest amount of time we've spent apart and we've both determined that it is not something that should happen often. Lucky for us, I get to see him in 3 weeks when I fly to Cape for Thanksgiving. (22 days and counting...)

After 8 hours of travel door to door, Mark was finally back in UTAH...and that made me VERY HAPPY. Thursday night was spend driving back from the airport after a quick stop at Downtown Salt Lake. The construction makes for a very interesting drive, but it's incredible to see how quickly it's all changing. When is that supposed to be done again??

Friday was a busy, busy day! Mark and I met for a quick breakfast before I headed into work for a few hours. After work, he and I had to finish preparations and get ready to take our engagement pictures! We had originally planned on doing them Saturday, but because of the weather forecast, we moved them to Friday. It was a good thing we did because Saturday afternoon was cloudy, rainy, and gray. Friday's weather by contrast was BEAUTIFUL! Blue skies, sun, and fall colors. We went to the Utah County Courthouse - a place Mark and I would walk to almost daily when he was here during the summer, the oh-so-popular brick wall at Sammy's (someone was getting her bridals taken when we got there...Actually, she was also at the courthouse...), and Utah Lake (we beat the bride to the Lake though :)). We're both anxiously waiting to see how the pictures turned out - but it was a fun experience. Heather was wonderful to work with and she even made Mark smile during some of the pictures.

That evening, we headed back to Salt Lake to see Ballet West do Carmina Burana. I am a fan of the ballet...I have even taken a few lessons throughout the years. But I enjoy going to the Ballet and watching the pros make steps that are incredibly difficult look effortless. Their grace and strength always amazes me. It was a selfish date, but I was really happy to be able to share something I love with Mark.

Saturday was a great day to relax, enjoy the weekend, and cross a few items off of our to-do list. We had lunch with our friend Shelley at Rumbi's, did some window-shopping, and watched a few football games. Sadly, Mizzou lost and USC lost. Shelley was also able to help us decide on what flavor of cake to do for our Utah reception. We had 3 options and the unanimous favorite is..... a surprise! You'll just have to come and taste it for yourselves. :) We also stumbled upon an invitation store in the University Mall...by the end of the night, not only had Mark and I agreed on a style we BOTH liked, but we had also ordered proofs, and hopefully within the next couple of weeks, we'll be able to check one more thing off of the list!

Sunday was the dreaded day...Mark had his flight back to MO. Having a weekend together is always wonderful, but just as you get used to having the other person around, you get that email reminding you that it's time to check-in for your flight. It's always so disappointing! Mark leaving this time is made better by the fact that I'll be seeing him soon and that in 66 days we won't have to be apart anymore.

One last thing before I close up this really long post...I am so thrilled for Mark and his internship! After seeing all of the work that he's done to get an internship lined up for next summer, I am very happy that he's not only chosen which one to take, but that he had options from which to choose from. I love how happy it has made him and I hope that it'll be a great experience for him!