Happy Birthday to...

...our BLOG!  Can you believe it's been a full year?!  We sat down with a glass of red and some Oreo cheesecake (in honor of National Cheesecake Day), last night, while we read through our posts from our first year.

 

We stumbled upon a few of our favorites:

1.  Check out our very first post!

2.  This post makes me laugh because each picture perfectly represents our faces and body language before and after our apartment news.

3.  Wes really likes our engagement post.  We had so much fun writing this one, as we reminisced about such a wonderful weekend!

What a year it's been and quite an exciting one is in our future! 

Wedding Weekend #2

As many of you faithful readers are aware - we traveled home last week for wedding #2/3 and a super fun wedding project get-together.  Oh, and a dress fitting, wine tasting, and wedding band pick-up.  It was a whirlwind trip, to say the least!  Take a look...

My dad adding a rustic look to the "bride and groom" signs for our chairs.

Station #1:  Frame painting.  They won Most Independent.

Station #2:  Burlap table runners.  Most Focused station.

Station #3:  Boutonniere's.  Biggest complainers and carpet stainers.  Juuuuuust kidding - we LOVE all of the enthusiastic help.  It makes everything that much more special.  xoxoo

The next morning, we had a few important stops to make before we headed to the wedding. 

 

 Look who has his wedding band!

 

Wine tasting at Century Liquor.  Best part of wedding planning, so far!

 

Our moms were able to join us for the fun!

 

Ok, fast forward to the rehearsal, Friday evening in Utica, NY.  Not only did the Priest resemble Mickey Rourke, but he also took on a celebrity persona, as he multi-tasked, a "very important" phone call with the bridal party line-up.

 

Handsome devil.

 

There are few people in the world that can pull off hot pink panty hose socks.  Clearly, Wes is one of them.  What a good sport he was.

 

Check out The Stanley theater - one of the stops the wedding party made to take photos.  Wes took a bunch of pictures of his own - BEAUTIFUL theater!  Oh, and yes, that is the bride "fanning" herself.

 

Florescent socks for everyone!

On our way home yesterday, we drove right by the Cooperstown All-Star Village.  It looked fun, so we  stopped to check it out.  The grounds were B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L!

Tomorrow's a big day...find out why by stopping by!!

What is it about greasy food?

After a Friday night filled with 3 bottles of this:

 

Our Saturday was full of this:

 

:)

 It was also a dreary day here in Arlington, so we were able to work on a lot of wedding projects!  Stay tuned for a post about some of our DIY projects!  Happy Sunday!

 

Friday Inspiration

After reading the book The Happiness Project, I started subscribing to the daily email Moments of Happiness, which sends out an inspirational/thought-provoking quote each day.  Those that speak to me, I keep in a folder, others I delete.  I thought todays was a keeper:

As much as Wes and I miss home, especially our fantastic families and loyal friends, we try really hard to live by this idea.  We're often saying to each other how beautiful the area is, while walking around Arlington and DC.  So we thought we'd share a few images of these beautiful spaces, that we may not have before.  Enjoy and happy Friday!

View of Georgetown from The Kennedy Center waterfront.

We always comment on how healthy and bright the flowers are here and for such a long period of time.  

More sun = happy flowers.

One of the may city parks you'll pass by, while walking DC.

The Key Bridge, which takes you from Arlington to DC (Georgetown).  This photo is taken from Roosevelt Island.

Fountains outside of The Botanic Garden.

Beautiful streets of Georgetown.

Canal in Georgetown that we LOVE to walk along.

The trees were so vibrant last Fall!

Cherry Blossoms!

Cobblestone Streets of Old Town Alexandria

And of course, there's nothing better than when we stumble upon a little piece of home. :)

Oh NO YOU DIDN'T Wegmans!

While Northern VA is a beautiful area to live in, with a TON of interesting and fun things to do, we've quickly learned that it's pretty much an 80/20 split of rude to kind people.  However, Wegmans* was always a friendly escape.  A safe haven we could visit to feel at home for a short while.  Well, it happened - Wegmans* (in Fairfax) let us down.  

After tutoring yesterday, I stopped into Wegmans* to pick up a few things.  I left all of our reusable bags in the car, and because I have a very difficult time using plastic, I bought another bag at the register (this happens on about 75% of grocery store trips).  In the time it took me to snag the new bag from the hook and hand it to the cashier, she had already placed the milk and butter in a plastic bag.  Here's the conversation that went down thereafter:

Jaime (in a kind, apologetic tone):  "Oh, I actually have this here, I was hoping to buy and use."

Bitch cashier with a stink look on her 17 year old face and super attitude tone:  "Ugh, so do you want me to re-bag ALL of this?!"

Jaime (realizing her uncalled for attitude and fed up with the NOVA rudeness):  "Oh, you mean those 2 small items?  Yes, I would actually like those to go in the reusable bag.  I'd like everything to go in the reusable bag.  That's why I'm buying it." 

Bitch cashier with a stink look on her 17 year old face and super attitude body language:  silent...but she did squish my Kleenex box.  I know this because both Kleenex boxes were in perfect form prior to the bagging incident.  I'm very particular about my Kleenex boxes, ask Wes.  Furthermore, back in my cashier days, if I encountered a super-rude customer, I would usually secretly squish a tomato while placing it, ever so gently, into the bag.  :)  Just doing my part to ensure karma.  So, the point is, I'm onto her little tricks. 

*Wegmans is the BEST grocery store in the entire world.  We still love Wegmans.  Wegmans, Wegmans, Wegmans!

Summer of Love

We're back from wedding #1/3 this summer and what a FANTASTIC wedding it was!  Check out some photos from Lauren & Chris' (Jaime's friend from college) wedding extravaganza!

The old Cortland Crew!  p.s. this photo was taken around 3am. Cortland prepared us well.  :) 

Prior to the wedding weekend, we traveled to Owasko Lake for our annual trip with some fantastic friends...

The beautiful view from the house.

Engel and Wes catching up and enjoying the view.

Fishing and Kayaking were our first adventures!

Look at that form!

My Pinterest attempt. :)

A MAJOR dance partay ensued on Saturday night.  Engel and Wes broke out the ever-popular puppet dance.

Recovering from the dance party, on the dock.  

Great times with great friends!

...and then there was the 4th in DC...

 Taking a much needed break during our 105 degree walk.

Ta-da!  It's the Kennedy Center - where dreams come true. ;)

Found our firework watching spot for next year!  Book your ticket now.

Actual Conversation:

DC Police Officer:  "Sir, does your bag contain any weapons, explosives or harmful chemicals?"

Wes:  "Yes, all of the above."

DC Police Officer: (stone-cold stare at Wes)

Wes:  "Just kidding, man."

...thank goodness I was already through security and out of earshot of this conversation.

So many jokes to be made.

We thought this was pretty clever.  A little gross, but better than overflowing garbage cans.

This woman saved our lives!  Seriously.  We didn't bring nearly enough water with  us on our journey and when you're down by the National Mall, there aren't really any drug stores, or even restaurants.  Plenty of food trucks, but they only take cash and we had zero.  After walking a couple miles with our heads down scanning the sidewalks for loose change, we were able to collect .80 cents!  This woman was kind enough to give us bottled water at a discounted rate!  It could have been the holiday spirit, or the sad look we both gave her...either way, we were re-hydrated!

Great shot of Arlington, from DC on our way home.