10.17.2009

Happiness is a universal emotion, but the physical manifestation looks a little different on everyone. This is what absolute happiness looks like on me.



One year ago today, after almost 7 years of dating, Peter and I got married. It was fantastic. I spend the whole day surrounded by my favorite people in the whole world. I have never smiled and laughed so much in one day. I also broke my personal record of number of cupcakes eaten in a three-hour period and danced until I could barely walk. Everything about that day was perfect.



Here are some of my favorite moments from the day. Note: all photos on this page were taken by Blake James Photography unless otherwise noted.

Getting ready [photo by April]



First look



Putting on Peter's ring



First kiss [Photo by Brendon]



Immediately after the ceremony



So many people helped make our day special. To you (bridal party, mom/dad, Karl/Carol, BAWF, Karen, Jody, Sylvi and gracious guests) a gigantic thank you.



And most of all, thank you Peter. Here's to 83 more anniversaries together. Love you P.

Kristi, for the win...

Today I finished the last two of my five comprehensive exams. It was pseudo-hellish but I am fairly confident I didn't fail any (note "failing" is a B- or worse.) I have been studying for a long time now, but the last few weeks leading up to them were especially stressful for a number of reasons I don't feel the need to elaborate on. I feel like I can finally breathe again.

Now that they are over I can do all the things I have been putting off until after comps. Most of the aforementioned things are school assignments and clinic documents, but I am also real overdue on some blog posts. Some of them, like the rest of my vacation mini-series photo posts, are just not going to happen. So, if you want to see pictures from Mt. Baker, Seattle and Vancouver, check facebook. Otherwise, expect some posts this weekend.

Bellingham

After two weeks of travel we finally headed home.

Here are the Bellingham highlights.

Boulevard Park




Whatcom Falls Park





Downtown


Fairhaven




Clayton Beach





Lake Whatcom (three dollar kayak rentals!!)





Friends!

Portland

Alright, vacation mini-series part II.

From Maui, we flew to Portland for five days (ish)to spend some quality time with friends and family. Also, we ate a lot of really good food...

like peach pie



and meatballs.



One of the best parts of the weekend was going to Brain Tumor Walk to be a part of Nicole's team the Midnight Angels. The turnout for the event was fantastic and Nicole's team was huge! We cut a pretty impressive swath of blue in the sea of mostly white shirts. And, our team won lunch for fundraising the most. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the event.













I first wrote about Nicole in this post. I wish I could say that her situation has improved drastically since I wrote it, but it hasn't. Things have gotten more difficult lately. If you have a spare moment, think a happy thought of healing and comfort and send it toward Nicole. You can never have too many happy thoughts.

Another big thing we did in Portland was have an open house out at my parents house. It was a rousing success. We got to see a lot of friends and family that we hadn't seen in a long while. And once again, we ate a lot of good food.











The last exciting thing we did in Portland was meet Sylvi and Cody's new baby Gemma! In general I don't like babies very much (full disclosure; they scare me), but Gemma is so precious and beautiful and sleepy that I am making an exception.





Welcome to the world little friend.

Maui

As promised, here is the first installment of the Kristi/Peter summer vacation mini-series.

The day after Peter flew in from Korea we took of for the radiant island of Maui. Back when Peter's leave was scheduled for July, I planned the trip to the great state of Hawaii with my mom and my grandma. Rather than cancel it when his leave dates were changed to August, Peter and I booked our own cottage and rolled with it.

Our cabin


The garden


All we had to do was cross this street...


to get to this beach


Grandma and Mom spent most of the time alternating between reading on the beach and reading in the gardens (I come from a long line of book enthusiasts,) but Peter had never been to Hawaii to everyday we took the rental car and went exploring. Here are some of the places we went

Lahaina






Haleakala (Volcano)




Iao Valley




Various stops along the road to Hana

M.I.A.

Hey guys, it's been a while.

In fact, it has been such a long while that I feel I should explain my hiatus. In short, as soon as my husband's plane landed in SEA-TAC International Airport one month minus one day ago, we went off-grid.

Armed with Peter's new Canon Rebel T2i and the kind of unbridled happiness only people who love each other madly but spend way to much time apart can sustain, we trekked all over Maui, Portland, Bellingham, Vancouver, B.C. and Seattle.

The last four weeks have been fantastic. If I could have somehow suspended the passage of time and froze myself there I would have, gladly. But alas, I couldn't and I wasn't. As I write, Peter is in Fort Hood preparing for in-processing and I am in Bellingham actively dreading the impending start of my second year of grad school. Lame.

To refocus, there are so many good stories from the last month's worth of adventuring. If I still had a week left of summer vacation that wasn't dedicated to studying for my comprehensive exams I would tell all of them. But I don't. So, over the course of the next few days I will condense our travels into a series of photo-journals.

Stay tuned.