for the love of Seuss

At the end of June, we had the opportunity to go back home to Arizona for a whole 10 days.

The weeks before consisted of panicky packing (I'm a terrible packer, I need this for my birthday or something), Mexican food cravings, excited texts and Facebook posts, and lots of cleaning and Luna-loving to prepare us for the journey ahead.

The reason for our long-awaited trip was the marriage of my darling friend Lauren to her beloved beau Aaron. We had been planning and expecting to be going home eventually for their wedding, so we were extremely excited when they got engaged and set the date. June 23rd! (The anniversary of my brother and sister-in-law, as well!)
We promptly bought our plane tickets and were able to extend the trip to include several days of Arizona time before we headed to Cali for the wedding.

We hadn't seen Lauren since we went to New York in November, one of our favorite trips.
She was getting ready to move back to California from Connecticut, and she was really looking forward to being reunited with Aaron for good.

On Thursday, June 21st, I set out to see my bee eff effer. It had been a whole year and one month since I had made that well-known drive to California!

I was feeling very nostalgic.

Since graduating CBU, our lives have been very purposefully set in forward motion. We haven't had a lot of time to look back or to even miss our college days. We were pretty ready to graduate when the time came. But driving that road and being so close to Riverside was a really weird feeling!

When I arrived, there was a lot of fun stuff to do. Bethany (Lauren's sister and maid of honor!) and I ran some errands, and then we arrived at Lauren and Aaron's condo. Their soon-to-be home together!
I gave Lauren the presents I had brought to her, including the ring pillow for her little brother.

(Lauren had been wearing her bright pink bikini and her bridal crown all day long).

Then we got to work on some poofs!

I had done these before for my friend Britany's wedding, but apparently all my knowledge and experience was all for naught.

I was terrible at them.

Most of them ended up looking like this:

Yikes!

We somehow managed to create a few successfully. :)
The next morning was the rehearsal, so we all tried to get to bed fairly early. It was really fun to be with everyone again.

Me, Lauren's brother Chris, and his wife Alyssa decided to make the mandatory Starbucks run the next morning for the bride-to-be.
I won't get into how I got us completely lost and made us ridiculously late to the rehearsal.
Details are a bit hazy and I'm going to plead the fifth.

But I did manage to get this!

(The barista acted like I was speaking spanish when I said "bride". To make sure she didn't think I said "Bright" or "Pride" or something ridiculous, I made sure to say "Yes, bride. Bride. My friend is getting married, getting her a drink. For the bride. My friend is the bride. Getting married.")

I didn't want anything like this hilarious fiasco:

Although at least in that case, it could arguably make sense. My maid of honor was...made of honor. Sure?
Only in Casa Grande.

Rest assured, we did make it to the rehearsal, and all was well.

A lot of sweet moments.

Lauren's mom, Joy, surprised her with a beautiful citrine ring. Her favorite!

The wedding was going to be at The Vintage Nursery.
It's a really sweet place with a lot of beautiful details.

As you can see from above, the ceremony was going to take place in a lovely enclosed coliseum-style hill. The reception was in a large tent enclosure, which you'll see later!

After the rehearsal, the girls and boys said adieu, as we each went our separate ways for our pre-wedding festivities!

Us girls went for nails and a day by the resort pool. We all had to make sure we stayed out of the hot sun for too long -- we didn't wanna be burnt to a crisp for the big day!

First, we had reservations for a super fun VIP room at a really nice salon.
Upon arrival, however, it appeared that they had accidentally scheduled us for 10am the NEXT day. As in, 10am June 23rd. The exact time of the wedding.
Deciding that she'd rather get married on Saturday than get her nails done, we opted to find another salon.

Which actually turned out to be great! And we had it all to ourselves.

I loved the bright orange that Lauren's sister-in-law Kate brought for her to use.

Afterwards, we had a lovely and relaxing afternoon sweating it out in the sun. We spent some time under the umbrellas for lunch, and then luckily were able to snag some shade until our room was ready!

Several hours later, when we thought we all might die of heat stroke, we got the call informing us that our room was ready. We all rushed to the room and lounged about, enjoying the cool room and giving Lauren some more presents.
Then it was time for the 'rehearsal dinner'!
An awesome backyard dinner, complete with a professionally-done taco stand and lots of yummy fruit and chips and salsa. It had cooled off and there was a really nice breeze, it turned out to be perfect weather!

One of the "best guest" awards has to go to Lauren's friend Lauren, better known as Faye, to avoid confusion.
Lauren and miss Faye became besties while Lauren was nannying in Connecticut, and it was so fun to see them back together again.

Before Lauren moved to Connecticut, we had always joked about how she was going to forget all about me and find a new best friend. One late night, we named this fictional character Mary Marlin and bestowed her with all the best and most absurd qualities. Whenever we'd talk, she'd always let me know that she was on the cusp of finding her Mary Marlin.
Well, this is her Mary Marlin. In the flesh!

Bestie and bee eff effer!

I apologize for the coming onslaught of pictures, but some of these sibling shots are my favorite, and I had to include them all!

The soon-to-be brothers, Aaron and Chris.

The happy couple!

Sister love!

Cuties.
I love little Billy -- I met Billy when he was 3 years old, right after Lauren's parents adopted him. Seeing him grow up through our years in college together was so much fun. I loved visiting Brawley and seeing him. He's such a handsome kid!

Brothers will be brothers.

After the night wound down, we were all ready to get some sleep. 5am the next morning would be very early for us girlies!

Lauren, Bethany and I shared the master bed. It was an interesting experience.
I slept as still as I could in the middle, and they both were very active sleepers. Sleep-Bethany was very angry at me on several occasions, and Sleep-Lauren was pretty restless.
Must have been the nerves.

Lauren's alarm went off not-so-bright and early, signaling the still-dark morning time. It was wedding day!!!

Four of us were headed straight to the hair salon to accompany Lauren for her wedding do.

Beautiful bride!

The morning was on -- speeding by before we even had time to wake up.

The coffee helped!

We all loved Bethany's hair!

All done!
The finished product! Just in the nick of time.
Gorgeous curls for the lovely almost-Mrs.

So pretty! Love her little purple jumper.

All the other details fell into place.
Her colors were gray and bright orange.
Her sister-in-law Kate got her the most adorable hanger for her dress.
Everything from the ring pillow, flower girl basket, tissues, flowers, and lolli-pops were orange!

Taking it all in. Right before the first look!

I don't know why I get so nervous being a bridesmaid.
I feel really skittish and panicked before it's time to walk down the aisle. I think I just feed off of other people's energies. Whatever the reason, I was giddy with nerves and excitement when the music began.

The pre-aisle walking music featured tracks from The Holiday, one of my favorite movies.
It has possibly my favorite soundtrack of all time.

Cue music! And off we went!

(Little/big side note: my handsome aisle partner is Lauren's brother Jared. He happened to have appendicitis and emergency surgery the night before. But there he is, walking like a champ! No biggie! He couldn't miss his sister's big day.)

Billy the Ring Bearer!

Jared and Kate's princess, Chloe.

Here Comes the Bride!

Lauren walked down to a really simple and lovely instrumental version of "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles. Listen to this to kinda get you in the feel of it all.

Here she comes!

Lauren's grandpa offered up a prayer for the new couple!

Introducing, Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Seuss!

:)

The reception took place on the same property, in a tent that was set up with a full breakfast bar.

Bagels, pastries, goodies, drinks, and a really stellar omelette bar!

Despite the heat, everyone enjoyed each other's company and the joy of seeing the new happy couple interact with one another.

So much love.

My hubby got a ride from our friend Steve. He had been staying with him and our other friend Mike for the few days leading up to the wedding, so I could hang out with Lauren and the girls.

I was really happy they were there :)
Steve made a really great wedding crasher.

Luckily, Lauren was on board for a crasher.
She didn't seem too upset :)

Me, Dusty, Steve, and our friend Brenton spent most of the reception together. Brenton had driven up for the wedding as well. Brenton, Dusty, Lauren and I had spent many-a-day together in college. It was good to have the gang back together.

I spent some time looking through all of their engagement pictures (which are some of the cutest engagement pictures ever, their photographer is adorable), and writing little notes and signing their version of a guestbook -- a birthday calendar! 

Then it was time for the new Seuss duo to take off for their new lives together.

Things like this always go by really fast -- but it was lovely to be a part of it. 

After years of scheming, dreaming, laughing and crying, I'm so happy my friend is so happy. 

I knew as soon as I heard that Aaron liked the Labyrinth, that she had found a great guy. A guy that was enough like me, that he could make her happy. :)

I can't wait to see what's in store for them. I wish them many years of happiness, Godliness, loveliness, adventureness, and baby-having. 

Love you guys!

(But I love you most, Lauren - always!)

In love,

Cait

it's been a while

Two weeks.

That's embarrassing!
I haven't even wished you all a happy July yet.
(and by "you all" I really mean mostly myself, because I think less than 10 people read this. I'm a tenth of my own viewership.)

Since I've last spoken with you, a lot has happened! Dusty and I went home for a whole 10 days, which was magical. We celebrated my best friend's wedding, and no, it wasn't anything like the movie. That would have made things a whole lot more interesting. And shocking. And awful.

Needless to say, the wedding was beautiful and it was wonderful to get to celebrate with her.
I want to do a full "home" post, which will feature a beautiful bride, an adorable baby, and lots of Mexican food. :)

After we got home, we were on the receiving end of a derecho. Don't know what a derecho is?
Neither did I.

de·re·cho/dāˈrāCHō/

Noun:

A line of intense, mean, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and invites all of its windiest friends to damage everything in its path, including trees and power lines until its satisfied that every town in its path is forced to live in barbaric conditions for as long as possible.

Oh. And also? It all happens in about twenty minutes. Maybe less? I don't know. All I know is we were out getting ice cream and the next thing we knew, people were dying and trees were falling and we were stranded outside of our apartment complex.

I also hope to do a full post on that interesting week.

In the middle of the city-wide blackout, the in-laws came into town. So we had to figure that out as well!

And somewhere in the middle of all that, there's some fourth of July celebratory activity.

THEN we went to Washington D.C. for the weekend. Which was the hottest, sweatiest, and stickiest I've ever been in my life.

While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and do a full post on that.

Which will probably include a full paragraph describing my humid body. It'll be good.

The bottom line is that I have hundreds of pictures that I still need to upload (none of which are of my humid body), but life has been batty. So once I do that, I'll have tons and tons of posts up my sleeve. And I'll bet at least half of them will be really interesting.

At the current moment, my parents are now here visiting. Which has been really awesome. July is just the month of family and trips and adventures. My mom has visited a few times, but this is the first time my dad has been here since we first moved in! So there's a lot to show him, and it's been really fun. 

And TONIGHT my aunt and cousin are coming in. It's gonna be a full house, and I kind of can't wait. 

They came in on Monday night. They came by train.

Let me say it again -- they came by train. 

The railroad sprawled in muggy dusk,

With wooden planks and metal husks.

Top hats and dresses, with long golden tresses.

Time long gone, of fancier people,

We stand around near a bell-chiming steeple.

Our loved ones draw nearer

And we grow steadily cheerer

All along the railroad way.

That's my poem, because I was feeling very poetic that night. Except I wrote it just now, because I'm feeling very poetic thinking about the poetry of that night.

I mean, come on. Who knew this even existed in Lynchburg? If you did, pretend like you didn't because I feel like we happened upon the secret garden of travel locations.

Welcome to Lynchburg!

Here they come!

When they arrived, they were ready for some barbecue. Unfortunately, all the good stuff was closed, so we went instead of Cook Out to get some burgers and shakes!

They have a super delicious mint Oreo shake there that I sometimes crave. 

This is a video I sent to torture a friend who is gone for the summer. I'm a pretty sweet person deep down.

Did I mention both Dusty and I got horrible colds? That was thrown in the middle of all this nonsense as well.

Although I think we're both better now, so things are looking up.

So Tuesday night, we did some grilled chicken, wedge salads, grilled veggie kabobs and Caribbean Snow (our favorite snow cone hut that we can't stop talking about) and we watched The Dark Knight, since mom had never seen it!

That was a nice fun night in. 

My parents went to the nearby National D-Day Memorial that day, too. Days are much more cheerful knowing your family is nearby. :)

Then yesterday, after a Starbucks run, and a whole day of work, we went straight to Jimmy's on the James for dinner.

Dusty and I first went there with a Groupon a few months ago, when it was really busy. We thought it was a really fun atmosphere, and really enjoyed the food. When we were there last time, I decided it was a place that I had to take my parents when they were able to visit next.

So off we went!

We were the first ones there, arriving right after it opened at 5pm for dinner.
We had our lovely fresh flowers on the table, with fun oldies music playing in the background.
Jimmy himself came by and talked with us for a really long time, describing the night's specials in detail.
Our mouths were watering by the end!
He's a really personable guy, who has developed a really lovely restaurant. We all decided to try something different. I got the Barramundi fish special. Oh. My. Word.

It was almond-crusted Barramundi with coconut cream. It was absolutely the most extraordinary dish of the evening. They only get it once or twice a month! A real treat.

My mom got the pork, which was also on the specials menu. It had been marinated and was served with a peach glaze. It was spectacular.

My dad got a house favorite, the Shrimp and Grits. Dusty also chose a house favorite, the lamb. It was really tender and delicious, with their buttery "spoon bread" on the side. 

One of the key menu features at Jimmy's on the James is the dessert.

Fried Oreos.

Now, don't judge. Basically, just imagine the most delicious funnel cake you could ever dream up, and that's what this is like.

Oreos are fried up in a thin, delicate, chocolate batter. They're warm and delicious, served with fresh cream and berries, with a chocolate drizzle. Ohmyyygooosshhh.

We had also heard that their donuts were extremely good.

But we had no idea how good.

Two honey-glazed donuts are grilled to a golden luster, topped with vanilla ice cream, fresh berries and a honey drizzle.

They had the most amazing crisp to them, almost caramel-y. 

Needless to say, we were waddling out of there, very happy indeed. 

We plopped on the couch at home, and watched an episode of So You Think You Can Dance to just relax and laugh and ooh and aah. 

:)

We're having a great week! That will only get better, I'm sure. 

I'll try to not be so lazy and upload my pictures and post some more next week.

But until then, so long, farewell, alveterzane, adieu, au revoir, goodbye.

In love,

Cait