Allison's and Kyle's wedding

My dear lifelong friend Allison got married last week to her wonderful fiance Kyle. Both E and I couldn't be happier for them.

Allison and Kyle chose a spot right outside Rocky Mountain National Park to tie the knot. For the ceremony they chose a big beautiful meadow facing the mountains, and a stunning lodge for the reception.

Before the wedding I arrived early to support Allison, get my hair done, hang out with the other bridesmaids and drink virgin mimosas, which are really just orange juice. The day was a blast. Allison looked amazing, her dress was stunning, and getting my hair done by a professional was really nice. (I haven't had a professional up-do since high school prom! On my own wedding day my mom did my hair!)

Here are all the ladies in the bridal suite before the wedding. It was so fun spending the entire day relaxing, getting my hair done, and being with one of my best friends.
All the dresses lined up. Isn't Allison's wedding dress stunning? I adore more simple styles without beads and lace, and this dress totally fits the bill. I love it.
By the time the wedding rolled around it was just beautiful outside, however, quite chilly. Fog and clouds and settled down low against the far mountains, and the sky was gray and beautiful. Because of the filtered light, the yellow birch and aspen leaves across the valley seemed to glow more intense.

The ceremony started at 4:00 and the meadow was quite cold for us in sleeveless dresses, however, being pregnant helped keep me warm. The ceremony was stunning, Allison and Kyle are so in love, and everyone there to support them was wonderful.

The view from the lodge looking up the river. It was gorgeous in real life. The yellow leaves just vibrated with color. And the clouds moved and changed, and really set the scene.
Allison looked amazing.
Allison's mom and dad give away the bride. Can you see Kyle's face? He looks so happy.
Darn it, in the only photo of all four bridesmaids my eyes are closed! I think we all look amazing.
Husband and wife! You may kiss the bride!
As soon as the ceremony was over the sky opened up and it began to snow! Little white flakes danced around us as the groomsmen happily handed their coats to the bridesmaids. Once back in the lodge the party really started with drinks, appetizers, dinner and dancing. Allison and Kyle are so lucky to have such a wonderful group of family and friends. The toasts were beautiful, and the entire evening was unforgettable.

Me and the bride. Love this one.
At dinner. It was such an amazing night.
First dance. Aren't they adorable together?
Allison decided a perfect favor for an autumn wedding in the mountains was maple candies shaped as leaves. I couldn't agree more.

Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park

Last weekend was one of my best friend's weddings, Allison married Kyle and all was fantastic! I want to write about the wedding and add photos, but tonight I am too tired and wanted to write a mini post about Rocky Mountain National Park.

E and I arrived in Colorado last Saturday and didn't have time to poke our heads into the park before Allison's wedding rehearsal. It was quite important that I showed up to the rehearsal, seeing that I was in the wedding and all. However, on Sunday, we decided to wake up at the crack of dawn and spend three hours in the park before I needed to be at the wedding location for hair, fun, and wedding duties.

We are so happy we did decide to go into the park, as E and I are self proclaimed "National Park Junkies". We were able to drive most of the roads that were open, the highest highways were closed already due to snow. We stopped at lots of view points, saw a male elk chase another smaller male away from his harem, and thoroughly enjoyed our morning. We even decided to splurge on a annual Parks pass (we've done this twice before) and stopped at the visitors center to get our Passports stamped.

Here are a few photos!

Elk male protecting his harem. Only moments later he went off to chase a challenger away.
Gorgeous Rocky Mountain National Park.
Title of this photo: "Pregnant lady enjoys the view"
E up near where the road was closed. The vista was amazing.

My poor sweet frozen family members

Over the last few weeks I've been too hot. When everyone else is comfortable, I'm roasting, due of course to being 8 months pregnant. Every night E and I sleep with the bedroom windows open and the fan on, and even then, it is rare that I'll even put the sheet over me.

I was thrilled to learn that this week the temps. were going to be dropping, seriously, I was so hot. Last night I opened the windows in the bedroom like every night and climbed into bed. It felt so good! Finally the air outside was cool!

E commented that he was cold before bed, so I gave him an extra blanket and told him to snuggle up next to me. Finally, in the middle of the night, he asked if we could close the windows, and I relented, and said yes.

This morning E woke up to take a shower and noticed the temperature on the thermostat - 54 degrees! Yes! Our house was only 54 degrees! He said all three cats were curled into tight little balls, barely able to even open their eyes, due to the extreme temperatures.

As E was telling me this, just moments ago, I decided to check the thermostat for myself. I've felt comfortable all morning, not too cold or too hot. I've taken a shower, gotten dressed and made breakfast, all completely normal. When I finally checked the temperature, I was surprised to see it only read 58! I can't believe it! I've been laughing about it since! Hahaa! Poor kitties. Poor husband.

Cabin again today

My Grandma and I decided to once again go to the cabin today, and we are sure glad we did - it was amazing! As we started talking about our plans, my Aunt Laura and Mom were super jealous that they would be unable to attend, since we were going on a work day. Both decided, however, that they were feeling a little cold coming on (wink wink) and really needed some mountain air, so they decided to join us.

The weather was spectacular, glorious, heavenly. Later this week the temps are going to drop, but today, with the perfect clear blue ski and all the mountain leaves changing, we couldn't have asked for a better outing.

We walked, played with the dogs, ate lunch, relaxed, enjoyed nature and overall had a fantastic day.

I don't have many stories or things to tell, since we just chatted and walked, but I do have a ton of photos, and a video to share! I hope the photos are one tenth as beautiful as it was in real life. Glorious.

Oh, and I posted twice today (yea me!) so make sure to scroll down to see my baby shower post!


Willow (who is looking quite drunk), Laura, my Grandma, Mom and me!

Are you getting tired of photos yet? If so, don't scroll down. There are a lot more...


Three of my favorite ladies in the world, with Willow and Maddie.
32 weeks, 5 days. Looking at this photo, it seems to me that I need a bigger shirt. This purple one doesn't quite cover the elastic on my maternity pants!
I tried to take this photo from the same place I took the two photos in this post. Really shows the change of the season.



And here is the video. ;)

Baby Shower!

On Saturday my Mom and Melissa hosted an awesome baby shower for me! As you well know, I was quite excited for this event, and was looking forward to it for a couple of weeks. Saturday turned out to be BEAUTIFUL weather wise, and so we decided to sit outside as guests arrived. The first activity was and idea I found online, and it was perfect for people to start working on while we waited for guests. The idea was was to make an alphabet book for Baby November out of hand drawn images. Each guest grabbed a page with a single letter on it, and the idea was to draw something starting with that letter (people could choose the letter, and whatever they wanted to draw on that page). Then, when the entire book is finished, we gather all the pages and bound them into a wonderful book.

The idea was a huge hit, as we sat there in the September sun Connie worked on "C is for cat", Laura worked on "P is for pumpkin", Brooke worked on "L is for love", Melissa finalized "H is for Home", and so on. All the images were wonderful, just beautiful. I can't wait to bound this into a book, and I'll be sure to make a blog entry about it soon!

When most of the guests had arrived we started to play some other silly games, and my mom had purchased prizes too! The first game was a fill in the blank game for nursery rhymes, which was super super hard if you didn't remember or know lots of nursery rhymes. Connie won with a perfect score! The next game was really silly, it was a tasting test of baby food. Melissa brought out numbered bowls with yellow puree, green puree, and orange puree. We all decided that #5 was the yummiest (pear) and #8 was the most horrible (peas). It was amazing how hard the taste test was, but it was quite fun. Then there was a really tough fill in the blank game where Becky won, and a final game where my guests cut a length of yarn that was how big my belly was around. Almost everyone cut way way too long, but Chelsea and Kendra tied and won with a nearly perfect length of yarn!

Inside we ate a fantastic lunch of pasta salad, chips and dip, salads, fruit and cheese, and cookies. Everyone loved my mom's idea of the tablecloth. Instead of buying a tablecloth, she decided to buy 6 yards of stripped flannel, with the idea that once the party was over, I could cut it up to use for blankets and burp cloths!

After lunch my friends really really spoiled me. We opened presents and I was blown away by the love and generosity all these woman showed me. I came away with dozens of outfits, blankets, pillows, books, and wonderful sweet little boy things. I literally can't describe how cute everything is.

For the finale, my friend Becky baked an adorable cake for everyone to share. She asked me what my favorite flavor was, and totally spoiled me and made a fantastic carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

Everyone left happy and full, and I left with four HUGE HEAPING bags of gifts and leftovers. The baby shower couldn't have been better.

Melissa, Brooke, Laura and Bonnie work on their nursery rhyme fill in the blanks. I'm telling you, it was tough!
Me, my Grandma and Kendra finish our alphabet pages. I did "R is for Rabbit", my Grandma did "F is for flower" and Kendra did "I is for Ice Cream"
1- Connie won by a long shot on the nursery rhyme game.
2- The yummy (and horrible) baby food.
3- Kendra's face after she tried #1, which was green beans, and was horrid.

Inside Chelsea shows off her first place prize and we gather for lunch.
The present table... I know... amazing.
Me, holding up an adorable shirt that I got for Baby November. My mom, Connie and Grandma look on.
My mom also make this adorable diaper cake. The idea is that you make a wedding cake out of diapers, it is cute, and oh so wonderful! My mom used 50 infant diapers which will come in really handy, and tied on bottles, baby spoons, wipes, and other goodies.
Here are some of my best friends: Susi, Becky, myself and Brooke.

Pika!

I'm having some guilt for not updating my blog more over the last two weeks. Life has been pretty slow here, E has been traveling a lot for business, and I'm feeling pregnant and tired. That said, I am very very excited for my baby shower on Saturday!

So, because I don't have much to post about, I thought I'd post one of my favorite photos from Canada that hasn't yet made it on my blog - E's pika photo!

Pikas are small animals that live on rocky hillsides in the mountains. They are kind of like squirrels, but live underground in little dens. One really neat thing about pikas is the fact that they gather their food (grasses and such) in the summer and fall, and dry it on rocks and boulders in the sun. When the grasses are dried, they gather it and store it for the coming winter! Each pika can gather and store up to a bushel of food each season! Isn't that interesting?

Anyway, along the Moraine Lake viewpoint trail in Banff National Park we saw these little guys, and we just adore them. The make the funniest noises, and the fact that they gather and dry their food is just so neat. Anyway, E was able to capture this little guy on camera. His mouth is full of gathered grasses, and I swear, doesn't it look like he is smiling? I laugh every single time I see this photo. Haha! Too cute!

Rest in peace Yagnesh

Our dear family friend Yagnesh passed away today. I feel shocked and saddened. Right now I don't know how he died, but I do know that Yag wasn't very old, and this is a huge surprise to all that loved him.

Here is a wonderful photo of Yagnesh and I right near my birthday this year (here is a link to the entire post). He was teaching me the secretes of Indian cooking, and as you can see, we were joking around and laughing. Yag, you will be missed.

Autumn at the cabin

One of my favorite posts of all time was this one and this one that I made last year when my Grandma, brother and I went up to the cabin in autumn. This year my Grandma and I are going to try to make it up there more often and enjoy the autumn as it progresses. It is amazing how quickly summer turns into fall and fall turns into winter up there.

So yesterday my Grandma and I decided to head up to the cabin for the day and enjoy the clear blue skies, the leaves that are just beginning to change, and an autumn inspired lunch of grilled cheese with garden fresh tomatoes and peaches on the side.

The day was amazing, and it is wonderful to spend the entire day with my Grandma. Over the last year I've really gotten to know her and really cherished our time together. Plus, we are the perfect walking partners, me with my big belly and her with her bad knees, we both go at a snail's pace. (This winter she will have knee replacement surgery, so by next summer we with both be rockn' the trails once again.)

The aspen leaves haven't quite started to turn yet, but a lot of the flora on the ground has started to change. I tried to get a few photos of the simple beauty of the changing forest.

Happy Autumn!