Finally married--and absolutely loving it

Well, we did it! We finally got married. I don't even know where to begin--the wedding was a little over three weeks ago, but we've only settled into our cute house in Provo a week ago, so things are still pretty fresh and new here. Sean and I have made a 'resolution' to try and be once-a-week bloggers, but we'll see how we fare. First and foremost, I feel incredibly blessed to be married to such an amazing man. I think I am the luckiest girl in the entire world.

Second...the wedding! I guess I'll give the quickest run-down I can--Actually, I feel this would be better summed up in a picture, so, here:













Yep. SNOW. Are you kidding me?! It's the freaking northwest, for heaven's sake! Wait, if THIS doesn't catch your attention, maybe this one will:



















Well, there it is. Snow everywhere. The last picture is from the entertainment room in my house. At the end of the storm, we ended up with about 2 feet. It was absolutely gorgeous, yet, quite devastating. Allow me to be a little pessimistic: because of the snow, many of our good friends and family were not able to make it--one of my bridesmaids, in fact. And for those who get lucky enough to make it out in time for the wedding, they ended up being stranded in Portland and confined to their hotel rooms until Christmas Eve. But thankfully, everyone was able to make it home in time to spend Christmas with their families.

Ok, I really want to give the details of the whole thing! We arrived in Washington December 18th to a whole lotta snow. We made it up to Winlock safely and were greeted by a hill full of sledders! Oh, in Winlock my family lives on a huge hill that gets closed down every couple years when we get a good enough snow so sledders and snowboarders alike can come and show off or whatever. When we finally made it up the hill of snow (walking, of course--we couldn't park in our driveway for almost two weeks), we were greeted at the front door by my DARLING niece, Lucy. She just turned 3 and is the most precious and perfect little girl I have ever met. Her parents (my older sister, Kristi and her husband, Dave) live in Michigan for now while Dave finishes up dental school at the University of Michigan (go Wolverines). It was just such an awesome week. My WHOLE family (all 9 kids, plus spouses and offspring) were all there. I seriously have the best family in the entire world.

Anyway, we woke up Saturday morning to make the supposed hour and fifteen minute drive to the Portland Temple--ha. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get down--yes, we were late--late enough that the temple actually called us to see if we were still coming. It didn't start snowing until about 10 miles outside of Winlock, so we had no idea the weather was getting so bad already. Oh my gosh, we had SUCH an amazing turn-out of friends and family at the temple. Sean had 5 of his best friends from freshman year drive all the way up from Utah to attend, and I had a dear friends of mine change his Christmas plans so he could make it, too. Other family members, aunts and uncles, grandparents, parents, siblings, ward members, were also there. We are so very blessed and we thank everyone who weathered the storm (literally) and came out.

By the time the ceremony was done, the snow was coming down in sheets. It was an actual impossibility to take pictures outside the temple. Lucky for us the Portland Temple has a really pretty atrium inside, so we were able to get some shots in there...ok, I'll post some pictures for ya real quick:



(The first one is the bridal/groom party (minus Caitie), the second is my family, and the last is Sean's family)

When we were finally ready to leave the temple to head back up to Winlock for our 4 o' clock reception, about 7 inches of snow covered the roads. It took us 4 hours to drive back up to Winlock, in a vehicle that had 4-wheel drive AND chains. We were a half-hour late to our own reception. A car that had my sis, bro, bro's gf, bro-in-law, and niece didn't make it in time, nor did Sean's dad and step-mom. It was a nightmare! People who lived in Winlock couldn't even get out of their own driveways. But, the reception was BEAUTIFUL. Absolutely, positively, wonderful. My mom did such an amazing job. It was so stunning. I don't have the pictures back from the reception yet, but i'll post them as soon as I can.

The reception concluded at 6 and Sean and I were gearing up to head out to our honeymoon up at the famous Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. Not. The mountain pass to get up was closed and every alternate route we possibly could have taken were also closed. Freaking snow! Luckily, good family friends have a cute bed and breakfast a little bit outside Winlock that we were able to go to for the night. It was sweet, quaint, and romantic. Just what we wanted.

The next day we drove the mile back into Winlock and decided we wanted to drive up to Seattle to spend a couple days in a nice hotel downtown. Nice it was. We were in the executive sweet about 10 rooms up. It overlooked beautiful, downtown Seattle, snow-glazed and all. We stayed there two days and made our trek back down to Winlock. Christmas was wonderful with my family. It was so much fun to be around everyone.

Saturday the 27th, we left for San Mateo. We had our open house the 28th at Lisa's house. There was such a good turnout! So many of Sean's friends came by to wish us well and give their congrats, along with many ward members, school affiliates, and family. We spent New Year's with Lisa and New Year's Day with Matt and Shantele. It was such a good way to end our wedding/Christmas week.

So that brings us to Provo. Our house is so perfect! We are renting the top floor of a two-bedroom house. I don't mean to brag, but it's pretty dang cute. We spent last weekend getting random things for the house and unpacking the 5 suitcases we had been lugging around for the previous 2 weeks. It is now Sunday night, wait, very early Monday morning, and Sean and I are soon to retire to bed. We love our life! I love having a husband. Being married is absolutely everything we thought it would be and so much more.