Wedding in Colorado

Friends, continue to get married, I absolutely love going to weddings. The wedding of my former roommate Leigh and her new husband Joe took place in Fort Collins, where Leigh just finished her MS and Joe is working on his PhD.

First, the wedding:

Just what the meteo nerds ordered

When I told my sister Molly that I was going to Colorado for a wedding, she immediately asked if she could come. So, Molly was my date, and we worked some fun things around the wedding, including whitewater rafting on the Cache la Poudre river (or the Poudre "pooder" to the locals), the bachelorette party, breweries, and bar hopping around Fort Collins, plus dinner in Denver and hiking outside Boulder.

No zoom. This guy was just chilling on the side of the road outside Boulder.

The best part of the trip was seeing old friends and meeting some fun new people out for the wedding (Leigh and Joe's friends from home and PSU). Becca, another roommate from Penn State, graciously picked us up and dropped us off at the airport and let us crash at her apartment. Laura, yet another roommate, hung out when her bridesmaid duties didn't call. And, my bunk buddy from my first day of college, Sara, drove us to/from Denver and all around Fort Collins. It was so good to see my buddies; we're scattered across the US now and we don't get to see each other nearly as often as we'd like.

Me jumping over Boulder

Molly, Me, Becca, and Sara at the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins (mmm Fat Tire and Blue Paddle and hooray free beer and postcards and a wind-powered brewery)

Laura, Sara and I as the last women standing during the dinner hailstorm in Denver

Penn State Wedding

You know it's a Penn State wedding if...

you hear We Are... Penn State at the ceremony in Eisenhower Chapel

the Nittany Lion shows up to dance with the bride at the reception

the meteorologists arrange for stellar weather over State College

... and it's a big reunion at the wedding

EMS THON crew at the Lion Shrine with the Brewers

I brought my bff Sara along as my wedding date, and she fit right in with the Penn State crowd. We ate and drank our way through town, even taking in a Spikes game.

Sara, Eric, Armand, and Donati at the Spikes game

Congratulations to Joey and Kelly!!!

2008 Wrap-Up

2008 was a bittersweet year for me, but aren't most years? Full of highs and lows, losses and gains. What a bunch of cheesy clichés, but that's life.

I lost two influential family members in 2008. My great-aunt Lillian passed away in January. She, along with everyone else in my family, was so supportive and encouraging of all of my endeavors. She was such a sweet lady, and I am so grateful that she left her piano to me. Once it looks like I'll be settled down somewhere, her piano will be coming with me; for now, it's one of the few things left at my mom's house. The second loss was my grandfather, Alvord, in June. I'm so lucky to have had my grandfather in my life for so long, and that he was so close by. A lot of people aren't so lucky. The grandkids all knew to ask Poppy if Gram and/or our parents said no to something; he inspired my desire to play the piano, after learning my first song, "When the Saints Go Marching In" on his organ. I grew my first garden this summer, full of zucchini, motivated by his ever-blooming summer garden. I'm proud that he was a WWII veteran, and that he was born, raised, lived, and passed away in PJ, and that he loved and was loved by so many. I miss him a lot.

Offsetting the losses, I had some pretty life-changing experiences as well. I left the US for the first time in February, and ended up spending 2 full months of 2008 out of the country. I spent 4.5 weeks in London over 3 trips, and 1 month in India. As a lot of my friends and family like to tell me, I'm quite the world traveler now. I really like London, and I enjoyed my time in India. Leaving the US definitely opened my eyes to the rest of the world, and how others live, and how much of the world is out there for me to see.

I celebrated love at 3 weddings this year. I helped raise a puppy. I went on my first week-long family vacation. I missed my far-flung friends. I made new friends. I thought about all of my experiences and what I'd like out of my young life, and I'm single for the first time in 5 years. I moved into my very own apartment. I voted for Obama. I lived my life, learning from my successes and failures as I went along.

So long, 2008. It was a good year.

Catching Up

I'm a slacker. I know it. It's hard do to do anything extra in a day because I've been so busy! Here's what's been going down.

Early June: My grandfather passed away at the age of 83. He had his ups and downs after having his stroke last year, and his body just couldn't take anymore. I plan on doing a tribute post at some point; he had a really big impact in my life.

Mid-June: My sister turned 20, my brother turned 9! We also attended the PA reception for Jonathan's brother and sister-in-law.

Early July: Celebrated 4th of July in Baltimore with Jonathan's friend Victor. Went to wedding #3 of the summer. I was a bridesmaid in Sara and Todd's beautiful wedding. It was at the Dorito church in State College, followed by a reception at Tussey Lodge. It was fantastic seeing everyone again. Pics stolen from Ashley.

She smacked his hand out of the way :)

The wedding party at Tussey

Florida for 2008 Wedding 2 of 3

Jonathan and I spent last Thurs-Tues in Florida. His brother Jeremy finally got married to his girlfriend of 10 years (engaged for 5), Maria. They live in Miami and got married down in Key West. It was a small wedding because it was so far from family for both of them (PA and Long Island), but it was really nice.

We arrived down in Miami on Thursday night, along with Jonathan's parents, grandma, and his sister and her boyfriend. We headed down to Key West Friday morning, stopping to feed some ginormous tarpon along the way.

Some of these fish are 5 ft long!

Most of Friday was devoted to driving and rehearsal stuff, but we got a chance to hang out a bit at the pool and beach at the gorgeous hotel. Definitely the nicest place I've ever stayed.

Back of the hotel. The pools are hidden in the pic, and the beach is right behind me

Saturday was the wedding. I don't have any pictures from the wedding itself because I was the videographer (haha), but from the pictures taken before the wedding, you can see how beautiful Maria was in her dress.

Jeremy and Maria breaking tradition and getting pictures before the ceremony

The reception was held at the Grand Cafe on Duval St in Key West. Excellent food, strong drinks, and great entertainment provided by Jonathan, who had a really good best man speech, and then managed to spill an entire glass of Pellegrino in his lap.

On Sunday Jonathan and I wandered around Key West for a bit, ate some excellent key lime pie, and headed back with his family to Miami. When we got back to Miami, we could smell the smoke from the wildfires in the Everglades. Crazy! Unfortuately, we got rained off South Beach on Monday, but it was nice to relax, eat good food, and go out dancing.

8AM Tuesday, the only time we had a little sun

We're back in Jersey, and Jeremy and Maria are on a cruise in the Bahamas. They'll be up to PA for second reception in June for all the family that couldn't make it down to Key West (and there are a lot of them!) There is a link to my pictures from the wedding in the picture links on the right, check 'em out!

2008 Wedding 1 of 3

This past weekend Jonathan and I went to Hazleton to see his friend Phill get married. The bride and groom made their own pretty and tasty cake (they're pastry chef graduates of the Culinary Institute of America)




Victor was there as well. Ceremony was nice, dinner was good, dancing was ok (the DJ was kind of crappy). Congrats to Phill and Kate!



By popular demand, I've included a video of Cade. She's running around with Jonathan's parents' dog Lady. Cade's about the size of Lady now, which is surprising. She's almost real dog size!