Mom Visiting and Housing

This past week my mom came up to visit for a week and it was great! We got a lot of stuff done for the wedding, which is very relieving! It is coming together nicely, which is great since we are getting down to crunch time! We got the catering taken care of, which was a big stress reliever. We even found us a place to live, which I'm VERY excited about! I was really stressed about it, because I REALLY didn't want to live in an apartment style housing. I've been too spoiled the last 2 years living in a duplex with a yard and room to breath, but as we were looking around, it seemed as though that was going to be impossible. So one day my mom and I were driving around looking at different housing, and I happened to turn down a street that was a dead end, and we found this little place with a FOR RENT sign in the window. I called the number and we met the landlord the next day and we LOVED it! It's perfect! It has 2 bedrooms, Washer and Dryer in the unit, it's on a quiet street, it's just perfect! And the best part is it's a month to month lease! We even have a little area to grow plants! So, that was definitely one of the highlights of the week. We had lots of fun with mom though. We went up to my uncle's house on Sunday and had dinner and played cards (that's what the Nelson's do when we get together!) We went to Humpy's and ate some amazing fresh Halibut, and then mom went up to Palmer and spent a few days with my uncle and aunt, because I had school on Wednesday and Thursday night. Friday mom met me at work and Dr. Bilan took us to lunch at Momma O's for some more fresh Halibut. Friday night we went down to David's Bridal so that mom could look at my dress. The alterations weren't quite done, but I was able to put it on and she got to see it. She was supposed to be taking it down with her to Utah, so she brought an extra suitcase, but they called and said it wasn't going to be ready L. That night we drove out to Wasilla to my cousin Jacelyn's house for her baby shower. It was lots of fun, and we had a great time visiting. Saturday we plugged away at more wedding stuff. We did take time to go to Allen and Petersen and look at their home appliances! That store is amazing. Mom and Dad are buying us a mixer for the wedding, so we wanted to go compare brands. It was fun to look around at all their fun kitchen toys! After that we went to Sushi Sushi and had some of the best sushi I've ever had, which they served with this Teriyaki Halibut, which was SO good! It was sad to say goodbye, but we're glad she came. It rained the whole time she was here, and I don't think it got about 65 degrees, but she loved it compared to the 102 degrees she was missing out on! Thanks for coming mom!

Jetblue to the rescue

Mike and I have been having a very hard time deciding on our honeymoon. Because we live in the great Alaskan Tundra, one of the things I miss the most are Rollercoasters. So, for this reason, I wanted to go to Theme Parks for our honeymoon. Our dilemma follows: The few theme parks that are in Northern California are going to be closed in September when we are going to be down there for all the wedding festivities. Needless to say I was a little distraught. Because we don't get to see our families much, we wanted to make sure that we get as much time with them as possible, while still including a honeymoon. So, the other day I started getting online to see what my options were, one of the ones I came up with was to drive from Sandy to Los Angeles, through Vegas, spend a few days in Southern Cali, and then drive up to Northern Cali where Mike's family is. Well, that is a lot of driving (20 hours) for such a short trip and although I love road trips, I don't want to use this occasion to burn all that fuel. So, one of my co-workers suggested I look at flights. And low and behold…my dilemma has been solved! For a merely $300 the 2 of us get to fly from SLC to Long Beach, spend 3 days there, and then fly from Long Beach to Sacramento, and spend a few days with his family and have another wedding reception! It was the perfect solution! Now I get to ride all my rollercoasters, and still have a reasonable amount of time with each of our families! I am SO excited! Thanks Jet Blue!

Darts!

Last Night we had an enjoyable evening with our friends. Paul and Shug invited us over to see their new home and to play darts. It was lovely (minus the overbearing mosquitoes) and I even hit the dart board a few times! As you can see, Paul has great form! Kirsten and Jesse even showed up, which was lovely. Kirsten, Shug and I all lived together at one point, but then marriage got a hold of them! We hadn't seen Shug and Paul since they had gotten married, so it was fun to get caught up with everyone's lives. The funniest moment came when Shug's dart got stuck in the roof of their house. Needless to say she was off the mark on that one! I'm very greatful for my friends, and for the Alaska Summers, that allows us to play darts late, late, late! After we were done playing we got to spray paint our names on their board. Mike now tells me that I can't say he's never tagged his love for me anymore!

We made it

We have had just a lovely week! It seems to be a whirlwind however. Tuesday we went and got pre-approved for a house. It's more than we want to spend, but it's nice to have a ballpark figure that we can work with. Now we just have to start looking to see if we find something that we just can't live with out. We still haven't completely decided if we are going to rent or buy, but we don't want to rule out any options, until we see what those options are. We are going out on Tuesday to see what's out there. Thursday night, my class at school got cancelled! I almost didn't know what to do with my time, but we made the most of it. We took the opportunity to finish registering for the wedding. It took us 2 trips, and 7 hours to complete it, but it is finally done! I didn't know that it was going to be such a process. I'm sure that the employees of Bed Bath and Beyond were glad to be rid of us! But, I do believe it took so long, because they went through the WHOLE store with us, and did the scanning for us. (We talked to some friends who said they got to just take the scan gun and do it themselves.) We were kind of bugged by that, but are happy that it's over. Friday night we had a date night and went and watched "Hancock", which is the new Will Smith movie. It was okay, but not my favorite, but we haven't been to a movie in a while, so it was fun to be out! Today was busy, busy! Mike started a part-time job at Best Buy, so he was at orientation most of the day. I made the most of my time! I did some grocery shopping, worked on wedding invitations to make sure I get them just perfect, got dinner all prepped and made, went to Costco to pick up some pictures, cleaned my house, went and took a tour of a BEAUTIFUL home, went to my last dress fitting, finished making dinner and fed the Sister Missionaries. All with out a nap! These days keep going faster and faster, and the wedding is going to be here in no time! That makes me happy!

Independance Day Festivities!

We had quite the 4th of July this year! We started our long weekend by going to dinner with Jamie at Red Robin on the evening of the 3rd. We then headed out to Eagle River, AK to watch the fireworks that they do. They don't start until midnight because that is the only time that it's dark enough to see them. They put on a pretty good show, although for some reason we always seem to sit behind the telephone pole, that distracts our vision! Friday we drove down to Whittier, to participate in their activities. It's really beautiful down there, overlooking Prince William Sound and you get to go through a long tunnel to get there, so fun is always had!

They had a parade, but we got there too late, but we made it in time for their BBQ. They also had a money grab for all the little kids. They had $500 in coins that they dropped in the gravel and then the kids got to go after it. It was kind of cool. But as this was going on there was one particular parent who was TOO enthralled by the loose change, and failed to watch her little tyke. So, off this little boy went down the boardwalk, leading to the boat pier.

At the end of the boardwalk the only thing keeping him from falling into the water were 3 chains stringing across the post (with big gaps, I might add!), his little sister pulling on his sleeve yelling for help, and Mike, who ran down the boardwalk to save him. At this point the mother had realized she was missing her son and ran down to Mike and grapped him. Although she offered no thanks (we believe she felt dumb) I'm thankful for Mike and him helping to avoid a disaster! After that great event we walked around the little town, and ate ice cream, before heading back to Anchorage. That night we went over to where our friend Brittany was housesitting and had a little party. We ate pizza, played horseshoes ( I even got a ringer), played Apples to Apples, and Mafia. I think we all enjoyed Mafia the best. It got a little intense, but none of us wanted to quit playing. All in all, we had a great 4th, and enjoyed spending it with our friends!