She's the One

my wife is fantastic. have i told you that? what, you didn't know i had a wife? well, i know that's not true since, the fact is, if you're reading this, you probably know me personally, however, in the off chance that you were forwarded here from some other blog, perhaps by a mutual acquaintance, allow me to elucidate.

well, internet, remember this one post? its time for a follow up. why have i waited so long? you may be inclined to ask, and for good reason. but really, i don't know. maybe everything got crazy, and all of my good intentions were brushed to the wayside. maybe i avoided it for fear of an inability to articulate my feelings, or maybe for a fear of actually just articulating them (sometimes that's hard, you know?). maybe i thought i would wait till we had some pictures posted, and then let my procrastination get the best of me. no matter what the "reason", there is not a good one. this story is long overdue.

so, lets start at the beginning, or is it the end? i suppose its both.
on March 15, 2008, i married the girl of my dreams in the Salt Lake City Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

at the thought of the day, i am struck instantly by a myriad of images associated with the event. Thoughts, feeling, emotions, it's overwhelming.

the day started in a relatively relaxed way, due to the fact that my (obviously) inspired wife to be scheduled our sealing for 1:30 pm. so many people talk about their wedding day being a blur, that they barely even remember it, that they can't even remember who was at their reception. i think that's a terrible shame. i feel like i remember everything about the day, and i attribute it all to the fact that we didn't have to rush to make our sealing time in the morning. starting the day off right made all the difference.

i got to the temple, it was busy that day, and after changing, getting a little advice from one of the Temple presidency and getting pointed in the right direction, met Britney and we waited in the celestial room until it was our time.

i don't think i ever remember a celestial room looking so beautiful. even when we were in it, just a few days before, it didn't resonate with such light and color. i think i must have almost cracked my face, i was grinning like an idiot.

we got sealed in a very straight forward and efficient little ceremony. it was so exciting to be there with my future wife, hearing the sealer pronounce us husband and wife. it was great to be surrounded by family and friends.

after the sealing, of course, it was picture time. Salt Lake had sported beautiful weather the days previous, so we figured we were in luck for a nice day of pictures. boy were we wrong. sure, the sun was out (sort of), but it must have been broken, cause even on the times it peaked out from behind the clouds, it was generally ineffective.
of course, then it started snowing. no, i mean hailing. like, you know when you get a fountain drink from some places and they have that ice which is bigger than snow cone sized crystals, but smaller than regular ice, and then it gets a little melty and gets all compact in the bottom of your styrofoam cup? yeah, hail like that.

so, we tried to bust out the group shots as fast as possible. our photographer was fantastic. she must have eaten her weaties that morning (or . . . you know, her speed) because she was like a 7 year old who forgot her ridalin. which was actually really helpful, when you're trying to get pictures that include 7 year olds, and adults with the attention span of 7 year olds.

so, the group pics whent well, everybody left . . . and then it really got cold. yeah, we thought it was cold before, but, you know, we were wrong. it got frozen hands people crying due to exposure cold. (no, not me, i wasn't crying. i'm a real man, and real men never cry, right?).

luckily our photographer only needed us in the freezing cold, for, like 7 more hours, so we finished up, got some nice shots, and were off to the reception. where we took some more pictures.

and had a party!

and it was a fantastic party. Britney had organized everything: the decoration of the place, the cake, the food, the Mariachi band. yes, the Mariachi band. yes, they were real. yes they were awesome.
the food was awesome too. we had little pulled pork sandwiches. little barbeque beef sandwiches, little key lime pies, churros - so much good stuff. apparently, the 2 hits of the evening were the brazilian limeaide and the stuffed churros. i dont remember if i had any limeade, but i know i missed the stuffed churros, which is driving me crazy because whenever anybody talks about our reception, the only thing they can talk about is the stuffed churros! if they were so good, why didn't anybody bring me one!? oh yeah, cause everybody was too busy eating them. there was a line all night at the churro stand. i didn't understand it at the time, but now i get it. i guess . . .

oh, and we had the best wedding cake ever. ever. sorry to everyone else, in the whole world, our cake beat yours by a mile. you can cry about it later, but its true. and, it looked cool too. we even took the lemony top to our cake with us when we left and ate it for the next 3-5 days. oh man, it was so good. i wish i could eat some of it right now. of course, it might also have been the beginnings of my 20 lbs of excess baggage. . . . but it was so worth it. . . mmmm . . .best cake ever . . . .
well, the evening went well. so many people came. it was so excellent to be surrounded by family and friends for the big day. that's whats it's all about, being able to celebrate the momentous occasions with family and friends.

so, we took off from the party, spent a couple of nights at the Grand America hotel in Salt Lake, and we were off to Hawaii for a week of relaxing on the beach. . . sort of.

Hawaii was great. we were on Kauai, the north most island. we weather wasn't too rainy, so we were able to to so much stuff. we went diving off of the forbidden island (a natives only island, just off the north west off Kauai), saw some sharks, dove through some killer arches. we went horseback riding, snorkeling, up to Waimea canyon (the "Grand Canyon" of Hawaii), sat on beaches, took loads of pictures, and ate seriously tasty apple turnovers from Yumi's. we ate alot of great food, and just had a great vacation.
it was all over too fast, and before we knew it, we were off to VA for a quick weekend open house with my folks, and then we were back in Santa Monica. i went straight back to work, and Britney went straight to work turning out little apartment in to a home. she's done a fabulous job, none of our friends even recognize it as the place where Andy and i used to live.

so, that is the short version of the story of the beginning of this new life, and the end of the old. i'm going to have alot more to say about my excelent wife, and our adventures now that we are married, so stay tuned.