Rings

We finally set up an appointment with our ring guy, Nick Kwan, to get our wedding bands designed. Kwan works for DeBeers and will be able to get our wedding bands done at a wholesale price, which means we can go for a higher quality metal and a better clarity and larger diamonds, as we did in my engagement ring. I also trust Kwan implicitly with the decision as to the design of my rings. I can't decide if I want a simple ring with a band of micro-Pave set diamonds to match my engagement ring or if I want to insert a few larger diamonds into the middle of the band, a la past, present, future rings. He'll be able to give me a good idea as to whether or not that would work. Nick really wants a tungsten ring, so that will be an easy choice.

Another thing we're working on is the actual dates of the wedding . . . yeah, November 7th is the BIG day, but we're working on making that the ONLY day as well. As of right now, we're getting married on September 26th in the Catholic church, but we're hoping that Father Jim will be willing and able to marry us at Thornewood on November 7th instead. I'm not optimistic because priests are usually only able to perform marriages in churches, and we won't know anything for sure until he's back from a vacation on August 5th. A few other things are suspended until we know the answer to our church question, such as the invitations. Yeah, I still haven't ordered those. Starting to stress . . . 

Oh, and I'm not making the favors. Too much going on to add that to my list, so we'll be ordering one of two bookmark favors that look like this (potentially):

We both love the idea of incorporating something we love into the wedding. Besides family and friends, I don't think either one of us could be happy without being able to read frequently. If the bookmarks don't work, maybe we'll do the personalized bags of coffee, which was our other favor idea. Ah, one more decision to make! 

Bend, Oregon

Day 1: Thursday

We got a late start in the morning and didn't get out of the house until around 10. We drove over the pass at Snoqualmie and dropped down through Biggs Junction into Oregon. Nick had 4 McDonald's cheeseburgers (you know, the grey patties you get with American cheese) and didn't feel so good. Neither did I after I had one and a peanut butter sandwich. Needless to say, we had to make a pit stop in this tiny town called Wasco and were scared out of our minds by the people there! Tiny towns . . . 

After that fiasco, we did a tour of a few ghost towns along 97, including Moro, Grass Valley, and Shaniko. Shaniko was our big destination for that day, which is why we took the long way to get to Bend. The beautiful, dilapidated old school had been repainted. The town's storefronts were re-done. Shaniko, while still a ghost town (population: 26) has become something of a tourist trap. One great thing was that at the town's antique store I found a necklace and earrings that might be THE ONES I will wear at the wedding. I'm still undecided, but the jewelry is gorgeous.

8 hours of driving and sight-seeing later and we were pulling into Bend. Our hotel is located right off the freeway, which was very convenient and, although a little expensive, the jacuzzi tub was worth every penny. We also had a king size bed and have decided that we can't live without one of those in our bedroom at home. Dinner that night was at the Pine Tavern (HELLO seafood lasagna and buttery rolls that taste like Krispy Kreme donuts!) and then we made our plans for the next day while soaking in the tub in our room.

Day 2: Friday:

We got an early start after our continental breakfast and headed to Lava Butte to take some pictures. Scary drive up there, let me tell you! Once we got to the top, Nick explained that all the hills in and surrounding Bend are actually cinder cones that erupt periodically. The last eruption was a long time ago and there are lava flows all over the area. The dirt in the area is also red and black from these eruptions. Anyway, it was all very interesting and the view from the top of the cone was amazing, but I fell in love with something else: the chipmunks and ground squirrels. Although there are signs everywhere asking people not to feed the animals, no one pays much attention and neither did we. They were eating bread out of our hands and I got tons of pictures (all of which I'll post later). We want a pet squirrel so bad now! (Not really, but they are so darn cute!)

After the butte, we did the lava river cave. This cave is over a mile long and was created by the lava flows in the area. It's actually a lava tube. When you drop down into the cave itself, the temperature drops to around 40 degrees, which was a nice change from the 90 or so degrees it was outside. Nick and I hiked to the end of it with a propane lantern and then hiked back out. It was unlike anything I've ever done before and was very interesting and fun. Pictures of that later too.

Finally, the end of our day was spent at the High Desert Museum, which had lots of exhibits and animals relating to the *shock* high desert. It would have been a lot more fun for both of us if we weren't already exhausted from the two hikes we'd already taken, and, as much of the museum was outdoors in the heat, all of our energy was sapped. We went back to the room and passed out. It was a great day, but I'm not going to lie, our dinner ordering experience didn't go so well and put a damper on the evening.

When I lived in Pullman, there was this great Chinese place, the Emerald Dragon or Garden or something. This place had the most delicious almond chicken and I've been craving it for a while. So Nick and I decided to try the Chinese place in Bend. I ordered almond chicken. It was not good. Almond chicken should be breaded pieces of large bite-size chicken breast smothered in a country gravy flavored like almonds. This mess contained large pieces of stringy chicken and some kind of gelatinous gravy substance that didn't taste like almonds at all. We were both sick the next day from that crap and hardly ate any of it (even Nick's egg foo yung wasn't good, so it wasn't just me).

Day 3: Saturday:

It took us a long time to get going on this day. Blame the MSG in the Chinese "food." This was shopping day. I won't go into particulars here because most people would find it boring, but Nick and I found some great deals and spent quite a bit of money. We started at the Columbia Outlet and got 3 coats and a shirt and saved around $300. We were really excited and this carried us for a while, but the heat and sore muscles from the day before meant not a lot of energy for shopping. Therefore, by the time we got to the Old Mill District, we were shopped out. We decided to watch the lucky bastards who were floating the Deschutes River and complain about our jealousy as we stood in the 90 degree heat. Sounds silly, but it was romantic standing on the bridge over the river holding hands and mourning our lack of inner tubes.

On the way back to the car, we decided to stop at REI to look at kayaks and racks. We walked out of the store with a rack and accessories to attach to the top of the Colorado this week. It was not cheap; in fact, the rack cost more than one of the boats we're going to buy (we landed on the Dagger Zydecos) this coming weekend. Nick always said that he would turn me into an outdoorsy person and now I'm a hiking, spelunking (ie cave exploring), and kayaking fool. His next goal: teach Stephanie how to ski no matter how much she protests.

The last part of this day was spent at Smith Rocks where we hiked around and watched the sun go down while marveling at the beauty God created in nature. All this while Nick got bitten by fire ants. It really was beautiful, despite Nick's swollen foot; I'll post pictures tomorrow . . . hopefully . . . 

Day 4: Sunday:

Driving and more driving and traffic as far as the eye can see. And detours through podunk towns. And more traffic. It's a good thing Nick can make me laugh because I was going nuts today! But being with him in some of these stressful situations life throws at us always reminds me how much I love him. We always have fun, regardless of the circumstances and spent most of the car ride laughing and joking.

Overall, our vacation was fun and restful. We'll definitely be going back to Bend to do more of this outdoorsy stuff. Another thing I'm excited about: Nick's working days this week, which means I'll get to cook dinner for him and spend the evenings with him, all things I don't get to do when he's working swing shift. Next weekend we're probably going to buy our kayaks and maybe go to Northwest Trek or the game farm in Sequim with Austin and his girlfriend. Lots to look forward to and pictures tomorrow!

Vacation!

Nick and I are finally going on a short vacation to Bend. Nick's been talking about going there for a long time now; it's one of his favorite places to visit. He used to ski all the time and so spent a lot of time in the little resort town. He's already created a list of things he wants to do and see while we are there, while I'm trying to convince him that vacation means VACATION, not rush around trying to do a million things. As long as I get to go outlet shopping and antiquing, I'll be happy.

This trip is going to be a crazy one. We are taking the route through Shaniko, which means we'll be going east over the pass instead of immediately south. Shaniko is a ghost town that we've been planning to visit for a long time now and I'm so excited to finally get to see it! Then Bend for 3 nights and a drive up the coast on the way home. Again, crazy. This is going to be a lot of driving! 

When we found out that Nick was going to have 4 days off, we made a list of places to go see. The Bend trip was the only one that didn't include flying. We talked Vegas, New York, historical east coast sites, California, etc. but I just didn't feel like dealing with the hassle of flying. This is strange for me, since I LOVE to fly, but we've got a honeymoon to Europe coming up in a few months and I think that will be enough flying to last me a little while. And realistically, Vegas was the real destination spot, the only one to which I typically fly, but I've done Vegas. I went every year for three years in a row. It gets old. And Nick and I don't gamble, so we would have had to plan to get a rental car to get off the strip and see some of the other sights, like Red Rock Canyon and some of the surrounding ghost towns. So, to make a long ramble short, Vegas was out and the other places just didn't sound like that much fun.

And finally: a wedding update. I still haven't ordered the invitations yet. Don't worry, I'm already punishing myself. This whole situation (including my to-do list) reminds me of being in college. I always left stuff to the last minute, due to the procrastinator in me, and spent countless all-nighters completing my 10 to 15-page essays. I was always successful, which doesn't discourage the procrastination, so now I've been conditioned to wait until the that very last second. (Like my long-winded explanation for being lazy? One of the reasons I did so well on those essays--I can B.S. my way through anything.) I can't do that with this wedding. Mom and I are hopefully going to look at some invitations next week, but with all the upcoming "stuff" (the Bend trip, Mom and Dad's cruise to Mexico-yes, they are finally taking a cruise!), I don't know if it will happen this week or next. Doesn't it take a few weeks for printing and mailing and all that too? Oh boy, I'm in trouble.

Invitations

For the record: I have not ordered my invitations yet. Emma Etiquette says that I don't have to mail them until 2 months before the wedding. As of yesterday, it is 4 months to the date of our wedding. So, if  you haven't received an invitation (and that is everyone), it doesn't mean that I am not inviting you, it means that choosing a freaking invitation design is not easy and is often frustrating. Plus, I have time. I don't need to rush. Now if I could just convince myself that that is true . . . 

Also, our Catholic ceremony is on September 26th at 1pm. No one will be receiving an invitation for this, as it is family only and they're not getting invitations either. Hey family, come to the ceremony at St. John's church in Covington on September 26th at 1pm. There's your invitation. Not family? Please respect our wishes and don't show up. 

I just wrote out my to-do list for the wedding. It's 3 pages long. Albeit, the "pages" I used are 3x5 notecards, but still. Holy crap! There is so much to do and so many things that I will need to delegate. I'm not good at the delegating. 

Here are two examples of invitations. Please vote on your favorite: