Hurricane Honeymoon: Monday Night

Monday, October 11

One thing I forgot to mention about the plane ride - we were sitting right next to a little girl, maybe around 8 or so, and she spent the entire flight going over the safety pamphlet and asking her mom... "What will happen if we crash in the ocean? What will happen if we crash in the desert? What will happen if we crash in the mountains? What will happen if we crash in a city?" And on and on. I swear, it was good she didn't have a nervous flyer beside her. Her mom just kept answering her questions, not telling her to be quiet or even telling her, "Don't worry, we won't crash." I mean, geez!

Oh, and another funny thing - we were on the plane with at least 5 other couples on their honeymoon. Getting married on 10/10/10 and going to Cancun to honeymoon? Not very original, apparently. :)

Anyway, on to the topic at hand.

As soon as we got off the plane and headed out into the airport, we were bombarded by people asking if we needed taxis or a map. It was a little overwhelming, and we were finally suckered into one of them. I thought she was really nice, giving us tons of great information, until she said we needed to go check out her hotel and take a tour. No thank you. We did finally get into a taxi and were on our way.

We stayed at the Westin Resort and Spa, which is located right at the beginning of 'the strip'. It's far away from the dance clubs and restaurants that Cancun is known for (Spring Break! Whoo-hoo! haha) and we were happy about that. All we wanted to do was lay on the beach and relax. No club-hopping for us on this trip.

When we checked in at the Westin, they said we had a double room. Two double beds. On our honeymoon. (??) I made them give us a King. At that time I didn't realize how easy that was for them, as we found out later they were only at 10% capacity!

The hotel was eerily quiet. It was weird. We honestly felt like the only people at the hotel. I thought, "well, maybe people are just downtown partying right now." Nope, they were just that empty.

We dropped off our bags and went to the bar for our first margaritas!

mmmmmm....

We relaxed for a bit and then had dinner at the hotel. Again, we were the only ones in the huge restaurant. Dinner was good and for dessert, they brought us out the 'Honeymoon Special' for free!

Joe with our dessert and the wait staff we came to know quite well.

I honestly couldn't tell you what this was, but it was goooood. It had a cookie bottom and a custard top (maybe flan?) surrounded by chocolate and mango/raspberry puree.

All in all, it was a good first night in Cancun!

Hurricane Honeymoon: Sunday Night & Monday

Sunday, October 10 & Monday, October 11, 2010

Our wedding was fabulous and soon I'll get up some of the many wonderful pictures my family and friends took during all the festivities. But for now, we'll have to start with the honeymoon. (Why we're calling it the "Hurricane Honeymoon" I'll get to in another post!)

For the night of our wedding, we chose to stay in a nice hotel in downtown Seattle - the Alexis. Although we were only there for about 9 hours total, it was worth it to be pampered in style that night! I would definitely recommend the Alexis. It's a nice hotel, so it's pricy, but it's amazing and dog friendly!

When we got to our room (a Spa Suite), we were greeted by a plate of chocolate covered strawberries and a welcome note from the hotel, congratulating us on our wedding. It was so nice!

So yummy - thanks Alexis!

The room was gorgeous - a long hallway leading to a nice big bedroom with an armoire, table and chairs, and lounge. It was simple and elegant. The bathroom had a huge jacuzzi that sat up high - you had to walk up a few stairs to it. A huge framed mirror took up the entire wall where the jacuzzi sat. Just gorgeous.

We ordered room service for dinner and opened the scarily-overpriced bottle of wine in the minibar. (Never would do that normally, but threw caution to the wind that night!) It was so fun and out-of-the-ordinary for us.

I refused to take off my wedding dress for the longest time, knowing I would never wear it again. I loved that dress and wanted the feeling to last as long as possible.

I'm hesitant to post the next picture, because when people see 'honeymoon' and then a bed, they think dirty thoughts, but I promise you that is *not* what was happening here. (I do keep some things private!!) But I love this picture because I think it's so pretty and I thought the bed was so pretty. :)

Love that dress! :)

We went to bed early, knowing we had a very early wakeup call to get to the airport on time. I had thought we were to get up at 3:30 a.m., but apparently, as I was fast asleep, my mother called Joe to tell him that the flight was actually an hour earlier than we thought, and that she'd need to pick us up an hour earlier. Joe didn't tell me that until we were on our way out of the hotel. That man woke me up at 2:30 in the morning that day after our wedding! The horror!

Anyway, both my mom and my dad picked us up to see us off at the airport. I asked them to bring the dogs as well, since I hadn't seen them since that previous Friday. I missed them! She agreed, so we were picked up by a full house!

We got to the airport and said our goodbyes, then grabbed our luggage to go. Ooops - Joe's backpack was missing! And his backpack had our passports in it! My mom had forgot to bring it along, so she and my dad jumped back in the car and rushed back to retrieve it. An hour later, they were back and we rushed to get checked in and get to our gate. (Joe loves to rub it in that it was a good thing we got up an hour earlier!)

We made it in plenty of time, so no worries there.

6 hours later we got off the plane in sunny Cancun, Mexico!

We're Back!

We completely unplugged for the two days before our wedding and the week of our honeymoon. It felt goooood. But now I'm back and I know a lot of you want to see pictures and hear stories from the wedding and honeymoon. I'll see what I can do! Hopefully I'll have time to download some pictures tonight and get something up tomorrow.

I'll just say that we couldn't be happier right at this moment. I love my husband. :)

Adopt a Shelter Pet Month: My Jackson

So, I mentioned before that October is Adopt a Shelter Pet Month and I told you a little about my adoption of Ava. Well, Jackson is a shelter dog, too, so here's his story!

Around the time I was fostering Ava, Joe moved out of his apartment and into a house with two other people who both had dogs. He started getting the itch right away. He was a dog owner before chiropractic school, but his beloved Rottweiler Buddha passed away.

We started talking about what kind of dog he thought he wanted, and the only stipulation he had was that he wanted the dog to be around 30 pounds. He also didn't want a puppy. So, one weekend we set out to look.

We drove all over the Portland area to a variety of different shelters we knew about. Every shelter had many adorable and deserving dogs, (I remember seeing a Bernese puppy and almost forcing Joe to adopt him, even though he wasn't an adult OR 30 pounds, haha) but none seemed to be 'the one.'

Each time we left with Joe just a little more disappointed.

When we left the last shelter, Joe was just so discouraged. He didn't want to stop looking, but we had run out of options. Seeing him like that was awful, so I traveled back in time 20 years and actually picked up a phone book. :) I found a couple more shelters we had no idea about and we headed to the first on the list - a shelter called Family Dogs New Life.

We flipped through their list of adoptable dogs and found a couple we thought we'd meet. They all looked pretty big, but we thought we'd look anyway. And we were right, the first two dogs that we met were big - in the 50-60 pound category. But then we met lucky #3. This dog came out full of energy, trying to run around the office with a huge smile on his face. Joe and I looked at each other in surprise - this dog was smaller than we imagined - just about 30 pounds! His name? Jackson!

We met with Jackson in a little room and he seemed really high-energy, but sweet. We took him out on a walk and he pulled and pulled and pulled. Seriously, that dog had energy. We brought him back into the little room and asked the coordinator if Jackson was good with little dogs (I had a inkling I might be adopting a little dog, heehee). The coordinator brought a dachshund in to test him with and Jackson was great. Score!

Joe wanted him, pure and simple. I hate to admit this, but I tried to talk him into 'sleeping on it'. "You don't want to jump into such a big commitment," I said. "If you still want him in the morning, we can come back and get him then."

Yeah, that argument didn't work. :) We took him back to Joe's house that day and Jackson settled right in!

Soon after adoption.

He helped us with fosters too! Here he is with Ava and foster Ducati.

And here's our boy today!

Jackson is seriously the BEST dog. He is so sweet and loving and always has a smile on his face. He is playful and loves his toys. His favorite place is curled up next to our feet or next to us on the couch. He's so smart and is so good at letting us know what he wants and needs. I seriously couldn't ask for a better dog.

Remember to choose adoption as your first option, or you could miss out on a fabulous dog like our sweet baby boy.

Adopt a Shelter Pet Month: My Ava

October is Adopt a Shelter Pet Month! As most of you know, this issue is near and dear to my heart. Since adopting my first Italian Greyhound in 2005, and learning that all of her health issues stemmed from originally being purchased at an unseemly puppy store supplied by puppy mills, I have been dedicated to rescue efforts.

When I lost Sophie after just a year and a half, I couldn't bring myself to 'replace' her with another dog. So, I became a foster mom. I was able to care for numerous dogs that needed forever homes, love them and spoil them to the best of my ability, and then send them off to their new families. I did this for several months.

One of those foster dogs came from an 'accidental' litter. She was 9 months old, had never been outside, and hadn't even been named. I took her in like I did all the others, but she was *much* worse off than the others I had fostered (I was lucky to have fostered well-adjusted, healthy dogs up until that point.) This dog was scared of the world, unsocialized and untrained. I had my work cut out for me.

I spent that first weekend getting to know her and researching names that would fit her. I believe a lot is in a name and it can set the tone for the rest of their life. She was so elegant and ladylike, and I eventually settled on the name Ava, after Ava Gardner.

I worked with Ava for months, helping her learn to be in the world, making her understand I would always protect her, and teaching her the basics of walking on a leash and being in a crate.

The Rescue Organizer kept asking me when she would be ready to be placed up for adoption, and I kept putting her off. Everyone knew what I wasn't going to admit - she was mine.

When I officially adopted her, no one was suprised. :)

This is the picture I first took of Ava to be used when she was placed up for adoption.

She helped me with other fosters after her. Here she is with Ducati.

With more fosters, Izzy and Rerun.

Sharing her bed with Izzy and Rerun.

My snuggle bug.

Adoption has always been the best option for me, and I truly believe it's the best option for everyone. I don't want to anger the responsible breeders out there (I could care less about angering the irresponsible ones!), but the fact is that there are so many homeless dogs in the world that I just can't fully get behind creating more puppies that will go to families that very well could have given a homeless dog a home.

I could have bought an Italian Greyhound puppy from a breeder no problem. But what I got in a 'shelter' pet was equal to what I would have got from a breeder, AND I had the added bonus on knowing that I saved a life, I gave a homeless dog a home, and I helped the overpopulation problem as opposed to adding to it. That is a great feeling.

(And yes, Ava was still quite young at 9 months AND a purebred. Those two things are never an excuse to use a breeder.)

Next up: My other Rescue pup, Jackson!

Weekend

Not really a lot to report lately. It's been pretty quiet here, which is pretty remarkable considering... wait for it.... we're getting married this week!! *woot!*

We had a pretty relaxed weekend, and I think we both needed that. Well, I know I did. Saturday Joe went to work and when I woke up I realized that it was 11:30! I haven't slept that late in years, so I'm guessing I needed the rest. Maybe I've been more stressed than I think? I took the dogs for a long walk, and then crawled back into bed and watched TV on the computer until Joe came home from work. It was awesome.

Stuart flew into town on Thursday, so Joe and I took a drive out to Port Orchard (where his family lives) to visit him Saturday night. We had a great time catching up, and I was happy to have a relaxing visit before all the craziness of the wedding festivities begin.

Sunday we ordered some more last-minute things for the wedding and went to the library to pick out some books for the honeymoon. Then we came home, packed for the honeymoon, and spent the rest of the night dancing around to our reception playlist, making some last-minute tweaks. (Okay, maybe I was the one dancing...)

So that was basically our weekend. Now it's back to work for four days, after which starts the biggest event so far in my life. Can't wait!

Some Thoughts at 10 Days to Go

When Joe and I got engaged, I had no idea the roller coaster we would be on over the next ten months. I thought it would be easy and fun and that everything would just go along as it went along. I had no idea what went into planning a wedding - the money, the stress, the highs, the lows, etc. But the main thing that has really hit me lately is how people really surround you.

It's really humbling the outpouring of love that we have received since getting engaged. We are so lucky to have family and friends who are so happy for us, as I know not everyone has that support. For one, my parents have been so incredibly generous in helping to fund my perfect wedding. When I told them I fell in love with a wedding dress that was a feeew extra dollars over what I originally told them I would spend, they didn't bat an eye. I think my dad said, "Do you love it? Then it's yours." My mom has also talked me down off the ledge more than once. I think she has gotten good at that. I can be a tad bit emotional.

Also, I can't believe we have been given three different wedding showers. The first thrown by my bridesmaid and good friend Heidi because she wanted me to have the experience of celebrating my engagement with the people I loved, since I was so far away. The second thrown by my cousin and bridesmaid Christi, who wanted to bring my side of the family together to celebrate. And the third thrown by my future in-laws who wanted to usher me into the family in their own special way.

Speaking of my in-laws, I don't think they could be any more welcoming and excited about this wedding. This is even more important to me because Joe has been married before. They don't treat our wedding as anything other than the most exciting event in Joe's life - which I really appreciate. They are so excited and happy for us and that means so much to me.

My cousin came to my rescue in a very important way during this wedding process and we have become much closer because of it. I couldn't be happier about that.

Everyone in my wedding party have helped me put this shindig together, which has created a huge network of people involved that all come back to a shared core. My photographer is Christi's good friend. My hair stylist is Heidi's mother-in-law. My iPod DJ is Heidi's sister-in-law. My second reception photographer is Stuart's brother. Not to mention friends of ours who are participating in big ways - our officiant was Joe's classmate and our florist is an amazing friend we made in Maryland. People are stepping up from all ends and creating this huge community that will be our wedding. I can't tell you how much I love that, and how lucky I feel that people want to be involved.

I will admit, I've had my highs and lows, I've laughed, I've cried, I've yelled in happiness and yelled in frustration. I know our wedding is not going to be perfect, things will go wrong, it won't meet everyone's expectations of how a wedding should go, but it will be ours. And we will get to share it with all of these people who love us. And that is perfect.

Thank you, everyone, for being there and helping to make this wedding what it is. 10 days to go. I'm ready.