If you remember a post I did earlier, you'll know that Bobby and I LOVE Costa Azul. It's by far our favorite restaurant in Coronado and no place would have been better for our rehearsal dinner.
Bobby's parents, Bob and Deborah, put together an amazing Mexican fiesta filled with margaritas, sombreros, and lots of guacamole.
Bobby's Brother-in-Law, Darren, gave a really nice speech while wearing a sombrero. ha!
To end the night, they came up with a hysterical game which can be dangerous if you have friends and family as funny as ours. On every table there was a picture of Bobby and me. Each picture was different and none of them had a description. A prize went to which ever table came up with the best story about their particular picture. Lets just say there were stories involving Tiger Woods, the Cubs losing, and our obsession with our dogs. Tiger Woods won. :)
I dedicate this post to the church Nazi....you know who you are. :)
It had been a crazy week already but for some reason the day of the rehearsal was probably the most hectic. There never seemed to be enough cars for getting people to/from and, not matter how hard we tried, we were at least 15 minutes late to the church for the rehearsal. I hate being late. Hate it. But apparently the church lady (lovingly referred to as the church Nazi) hated it even more. She had to have been in her 80's and clearly it was going to be her way or the highway. Now I can look back and laugh at her bossyness (is that a word?) but at the time, Bobby and I were hanging onto our last thread of sanity and I thought one or both of us was going to snap at her. Luckily we had Stacie, our wedding coordinator, there to help calm us down. I'm pretty sure this picture is capturing Stacie saying "Don't worry. We'll smile and nod today about all of the things she wants us to do and then tomorrow we'll do what ever the heck we want." (The church Nazi is in the green behind Joanna)
Everyone made it through alive and all of the "rehearsing" went off without a hitch.
Magnus was "playing" me down the aisle while Ghory was a stand-in for one of our groomsman still on his flight in from VA.
For those of you that know my sister, Joanna, well, you know that she LOVES to plan a good party. Although she is living in London, Jo managed to set up a super fun girls night at a wine bar in downtown San Diego called "The Cask Room!" We had our own private room and lots of vino and appetizers to keep us fueled while we all caught up with each other.
Lo is drinking N/A wine. :)
These are some of my bridesmaids (Lo, Nance, Ang) my amazing personal attendant(Jackie) and step-sister/friend (Rachel)
The Deppisch gals...Carolyn, Deborah, Kristen, and me!
After the happy hour with the girls, we went to another bar down the road and met up with the husbands/boyfriends who had happily been watching football while we were gone. The bar was COMPLETELY empty but they said a band would be playing soon so we stuck around. After all, we didn't have many other options and we really just wanted to keep talking. The band turned out to be AMAZING and we essentially had our own, private concert!
As if we weren't having a perfect night as it was, out of the blue, a woman who had been sitting at a table next to the dance floor came up to me. She told me congratulations on the upcoming wedding and asked all about Bobby. She was super nice and we chatted for a few minutes about all of the details. As we were wrapping up our conversation she went to shake my hand and I realized that she was giving me money. I told her thank you many times and tried to give it back but she insisted. She said "have a great time tonight and enjoy this with your friends" and then walked away with her husband. I started to head back to our table to tell everyone what had just happened when I finally opened up my hand and counted the money. A total stranger gave me $100!! This happened a month ago now and I'm still in shock.
All in all, it was honestly one of the most fun nights I've ever had with my friends and will never forget it. Thanks Jojo!
Getting married in Coronado in January doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to have warm weather. Luckily 90% of our friends and family were coming from MN and IL so the chances of a 60 degree high were more than OK in our book! Our wedding week had absolutely stunning weather and looking back, we completely lucked out! Rain (and even flooding) became an every day occurrence the days after we left so clearly the big guy upstairs had our back.
While in Coronado, we rented a home just a block from the beach that served as our "headquarters." To say that the house was incredible doesn't really do it justice. Having lunch out on the back deck on sunny afternoons, enjoying big family dinners at the dining room table, and sipping cocktails out front by the fire pit at night were the perfect places for some good 'ol family bonding.
Between our trips two and from the airport (all 10000 of them) we also got to spend some time at the beach. Aren't Porter, Charlie, and Sloane the cutest? I'm very excited to be their Aunt. :)
This is my college roommate "V" who came all the way from Africa and Bobby's college friend, Magnus.
Like most little girls, I often dreamed about my wedding day and acted it out using the long white curtains in our living room as my veil. What I somehow failed to envision was the enormity of it all. Here is my attempt at giving you the short short version of a very big week....
The day before (actually 2am the day) Bobby was due to fly to San Diego for our wedding, Wrigley starting making what we call a loud "harfing" noise. It's between a honk and a bark he was doing it loud enough and often enough to keep B and I up the rest of the night. Well, not only was it the morning of Bobby's flight, but it was also a Sunday which you other dog owners will immediately know means "emergency vet" and buco bucks. Those of you dog owners in Oak Harbor will also add in another sigh of regret because you know that that vet is 45 minutes away. We get to the vet and of course Wrigley doesn't make a sound. No sound = no diagnosis. From our description, the vet guessed that he has what is called "Kennel Cough." It's normally not serious but it is a virus so unfortunately there is no way to treat it. That being said, dogs with this cold are not allowed in any boarding facility because they can easily spread it.
At this point It's around 10am and Bobby's flight was only a few hours away so a decision had to be made immediately. Our options....
1. Still drop the dogs off at the "Bellingham Bed and Biscuit" and pray Wrigley doesn't make a sound. Pro: Wrigley doesn't make a sound and we're all set as planned Con: Wrigley continues to cough, the facility then calls us and forces us to pick him up. Being that we would be in San Diego or Mexico we would then need a friend to drive the hour to Bellingham and then some how take care of him the 2 weeks we were gone.
Option #1 = no option.
2. Drive the Tahoe down to San Diego and have the dogs stay with Jaimy (our doggy daycare gal we used in SD) Pro: The dogs LOVE Jaimy and we could have the Tahoe in San Diego for wedding week. Con: Should Wrigley still be coughing, Jaimy couldn't take him either. We'd then have two dogs in San Diego and no place to board them. Our flights home from Mexico also went through Dallas so we'd have to change all flights.
Option #2 = no option
3. Have somebody house/dog-sit in Oak Harbor Pro: Dogs would be comfortable in the house and having somebody keeping an eye on our house for 2 weeks was comforting. Con: We don't have ANYONE who could do this for us.
Insert a picture of Lara crying here. After not sleeping well for a couple of weeks and the stress continuing to build, I finally broke. Could nothing about this wedding come easily?!?... Bobby and I must have been sitting in the Vet's lobby for a half an hour weighing all of these options and praying that Wrigley would cough. Suddenly, the receptionist said "Hey, so you guys live in Oak Harbor? I actually live there too and had one of the vet tech's sons stay at our house recently to watch our pets. He's only 19 but he did a great job. Do you want his number?"
We called Dakota 5 minutes later, drove home as fast as possible, met him for 5 minutes, gave him the job, drove the hour and a half back to the airport, got Bobby off to San Diego, I drove home, packed, met Dakota again the next morning & gave him the house keys and then got myself to the airport the next day. Insert cocktail here.... :)
The dogs and I were really excited to welcome Bobby home from another deployment the first week of December. It had "only" been a 2.5 month deployment (which seemed short in comparison to his 4 month one earlier in the year) but, like always, it takes a little bit of time to get used to having the family back together. Luckily, Bobby's cooking, cleaning and decorating skills always kick in right away and help that transition along. ha! In honor of our first Christmas in an actual house, we finally bought a tree and got to decorating it immediately.
Finished Product!
Once the house was in true Holiday form, it was off to the races in getting all of the last wedding details finalized. And by details, I mean the entire ceremony. Oops! We got it done and managed to have a couple of weekends to relax as well as celebrate an early Christmas with Bob and Deborah Deppisch.
"Grandma" was nice enough to bring Wrigley and Grace some bones which, apparently we humans were the only ones who didn't immediately know exactly what was inside.
The two vultures were also happy to have "Grandpa" in the kitchen. The possibility of him dropping something was just too much for them to resist...
He's a great cook but he's also an amazing artist. For Christmas Bob created a picture of Wrigley and Gracie and not only framed it but made it into awesome stationary!
It was a short stay but it's always fun to have family come and visit. Hint hint everyone!
The last weekend home before the wedding festivities, we had amazing weather here in Oak Harbor so we decided to go for a hike in Ft. Ebey. It's just a short 10 minute drive from our house and the views are amazing. I had taken the dogs there once before while Bobby was gone and knew he would love it. Can you see why?
Like most things, I started this blog with a lot of excitement and the intent to keep this updated at least weekly.... But again, like most things, life just seemed to take over and it has now been months since my last post. In my defense, the past months have been crazy. Bobby returned home from another deployment, we got married in San Diego, honeymooned in Mexico, and I started a new job within Centro. The next posts are my attempt to recap all of those amazing memories. Here goes!
It's been a while since I've updated the blog but there really haven't been any "news worthy" events until this past weekend's Navy Ball. The Ball is a yearly formal event celebrating the Navy's birthday and, although my regular hot date is on the other side of the world, I was lucky enough to have other "single" friends to step in and keep me company.
Amy on the left and Whitney to the right...
The XO held a pre-party at his family's home on base and it was fun to see everyone dolled up and the guys in their dress blue uniforms. Josh Smith had it pretty rough! (His wife, Jamie, is the blond beauty in the long navy blue dress on the right)
Thankfully they served lots of appetizers at the pre-party because the dinner at the event was....indescribable. I couldn't even eat the garden salad. Eek! Instead of eating, we spent most of the night just talking and laughing. I'm so lucky to have such great friends in the squadron - especially while Bobby is gone. These two lovely ladies (Molly and Beth) are leaving us fairly soon and heading to Texas. It will be sad, but the Navy world is a small world so I'm sure we'll all come back around together again. :)
My dates...
The night ended with a lot of dancing (or hopping around in my case) unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that. Hopefully next year, I'll have my favorite date back!!
Although we're now back in our actual home, Oak Harbor, we just returned from a week long vacation in our favorite home of San Diego. We moved away from there a little over a year ago now and the itch to get back just never seems to fade with time...I don't think it ever will. Here are some pictures from our trip showing just a few of the reasons why we love this place so much...
First stop...
Shocking, I know. We literally got off the plane, checked into our hotel, and headed straight to the restaurant. The margaritas and shrimp tacos were calling!
The next morning I was like a 10 year old little girl on Christmas. Wide awake at 6am, I tried to stay quiet for an hour or so but then got too excited and had to wake Bobby up. I wanted to go to Sea World! However, we had priorities. Breakfast at Katy's. We headed down to Imperial Beach (our actual home) and visited old friends at the coffee shop. Check out Katy's new sign! It used to be "IB Coffee and Books" but we all constantly told her to change it to the real name - "Katy's". Looks like it worked!
Bobby wasn't too happy about this picture I snapped but he was MORE then happy to be enjoying his "bedhead bagel."
IB has made some nice upgrades to the city and it's great to see how wonderful things are starting to look. This new area is just outside of Katy's - near our first apartment in IB.
Bellies full, we were now able to venture off to Sea World. We never went while we lived there because we figured we'd wait to go with company but some how we just never got around to it. What an awesome place! Although I didn't get to go on any rides (which I found out that Bobby actually doesn't like rides but only told me that originally while we were first dating. ha!) it was still an awesome time. You can't go wrong with Shamu!
Tired from a long day of walking, we grabbed dinner at a near by sushi restaurant on the water then called it a night. The next day was full of wedding planning. I'll keep this part short. We picked the tuxes, started getting Bobby's uniform put together, got a taste of our AMAZING food for the reception, and loved the reception location. Looks like the wedding is a go! :)
After more meals at Costa and coffee breaks at Katy's, Bobby and I went for a walk along the beach in IB. Yes, we wanted to enjoy the scenery and did catch a glimpse of dolphins jumping in the surf, but really we just wanted to snoop in on our old place. It turned out that, while we thought we were the ones doing the snooping, we were actually being watched by people on shore. It took us a bit to really hear what a guy was yelling at us but, as we got closer, we finally heard "Where are your dogs!?!" It was an old neighbor from down the road that remembered us being pulled up and down the beach by Wrigley and Gracie a year before. ha!
We spent time at the pool, time at the beach, and time outside sipping cocktails, but what I'm going to wrap all of this up with was our trip the the Wild Animal Park. Bobby's about one of the only people in the world who doesn't like the San Diego Zoo but we both really wanted to see more animals sooo... we drove about 45 minutes north to the Wild Animal Park. The park is a cage "free" environment because, although there are obviously fences etc, they have 1800 acres of land where the animals are allowed to roam. Clearly they don't keep the lions with the antelope but you get what I mean. It was/is the breeding place for the San Diego Zoo so we were lucky enough to see baby elephants, cheetahs, and giraffes along with countless other animals. Although the size of the zoo is enormous, Bobby and I hit the jackpot when we randomly bumped into the staff taking one of their cheetahs on a walk. They had her on a leash as well as her best buddy, a dog, to keep her calm and happy. We were literally 5 feet from the cat and could hear her purring loudly. There is NO zoom on this picture.
The cheetah's buddy...
We finished our day off with a "safari" where we got to ride on a big truck INSIDE of the animal enclosure. Obviously we were only in with the plant eaters but it was still awesome - we even got to feed giraffes! Here is a video of Bobby feeding a very hungry gals. Keep in mind that we're standing in the bed of a truck so this animal if MUCH taller then it looks.
3 month old giraffe...
The experience is amazing and definitely one that I'd recommend. All in all, we had a great trip and were very sad to leave.
