Sonia & Danny's wedding

Brett and I went to California at the end of March for our friends' wedding - Sonia & Danny got married on a perfect sunny day at the St. Regis Hotel in Southern California. It was such an incredible experience. Sonia is Indian, and as you can see from the photos below, they know how to throw a beautiful wedding. If I was more adept at the whole blog thing, these photos would be in order, but I'm not, so you just have to muddle through :)

We had a fantastic time at the wedding, and Sonia is such a dear friend, i still get a bit choked up thinking about her getting married to such a great guy. Ah, happily ever after ... :)



The happy groom!

Me, Sonia and Lisa, just a few minutes before the wedding started.

Rachel & Sonia

Me and Brett - all decked out in our Indian clothes!

The view from our hotel room, looking down on the wedding site.

My henna tatoos - pretty cool, but nothing close to what Sonia had.

One of the ceremonies on Friday - Sonia with her parents and their priest.

Me, Danny and Brett - right before the Barat - the ceremony where the Groom leads a procession of dancing, drumming and singing with his family and friends to the wedding (traditionally, they'd come from the groom's village and process all the way to the bride's village - in our case, we just came from one side of the hotel to the other) .

Danny walking down the aisle with his mother-in-law-to-be.

Sonia and her dad, walking down to the wedding.

The first dance for the bride and groom.

The reception!

Sonia and her parents.

Me - wearing a bindi!

Getting ready for the Friday morning ceremony - she'll be covered in yellow tumeric shortly.

Sonia getting her henna tatoos - this process took well over 2 hours!

The Thursday evening festivities begin! Sonia with her dad and brother.

Just a boy and his Goose Nearly completed summer project Before: After:
Beachball

Tate's 2nd Birthday

So, he's only two, but already Tate has mastered the art of stretching out his birthday celebration beyond the single-day party. Instead, he had a birthday weekend - including a trip to Salem to have a pool party, a play in the park and a BBQ with his cousins, then a second party with some neighbors who also have birthdays in August - this time we went to the park, played with sidewalk chalk and topped off the day with some water-baloons!
Fun with side-walk chalk

Tate from way-up-high on the jungle gym

He didn't like the hat - we were only able to grab one quick photo of him in it!

Cousin Marissa turned 8 on the 14th, so we had two cakes. The more the better in my opinion!!

Swinging is good any day.

Tate LOVES swimming!

Post-swimming snuggle with Daddy :)

The diving board was a hit with all the cousins - Rhys takes off for a cannonball

Here are all of the cousins - from Left to Right: Tate, Elle, Hannah, Allison, Marissa, Dominic, Rhys, Rhen, Corbin

Seattle

We went to Seattle for a quick weekend get-away and a visit with Sonia and Danny. We took in all of the usual sites like Pike Place Market, the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project.


The EMP also houses the Science Fiction museum (a hot ticket if you're a trekkie) and a Jim Henson exhibit. This photo below includes the muppet characters, and you can almost see the little kids behind/below who are making the band play - it was quite a show!

An odd picture of me, but at least you get to see us standing in front of the market sign.

At the baseball game...

We had incredible seats for the game (thanks to Danny) - this is our view! Doesn't get much better than that!

Gang's all here

Ah, the market again - those fish were flying!

Sunriver

We went to Sunriver for 5 days earlier this month with my sister Kim and her family, and Mom and Jack. The weather was beautiful, the house we stayed in was plenty big enough for all of us, and we happily spent our days biking around the village, going to the pool, visiting the ponys and playing cards.


Tate's first experience with the ponys! - he has very little fear of animals. Probably because he thinks that Poco is his brother :)
From Left to Right: Rhys, Grandpa Jack, Grandma, Rhen, and Tate out in front. The candid shots are the best - we tried to get numerous photos of the kids on this little bridge, but none of them looked as good as this one.

Tate's first ride on a pony!

One of those post-pool-bike-ride late afternoons - Tate is the only one with any energy left.

Aw, snuggled up with cousin Rhys.

The two cheesey-smilers...

Bouncy

Here's a quick update! Tater turned 2 this past weekend. It's hard to believe he's already 2....he'll be off to college soon.....getting married.....putting us in a home.....C'est la Vie..:-) I'm sure Tricia will add some more BDAY pics in a bit.


Want Some Chalk? Tate liked using the sidewalk chart at the Overlook Park Birthday gathering.

I think the kids got some talent....his finished picture drew quite a crowd.


WATERBALLOONSSSSS!!!!


Birthday boy!


Tate likes the boucey bridge. Notice how he uses his knees...it's very important to bouce with your needs apparently.

Brett's Birthday

Brett's birthday was last Friday, so Tate and I decided to make him a cake...

Tate was scared of the mixer, but once he realized he got to lick the cake batter and the frosting off of the beaters, he became a fan of that mixer.

Had to get the frosting off of his cheeks somehow :)