Five years ago today Mark and I got married in Seattle, WA. I was 22 years old and Mark was 29. It was a beautiful, sunny, HOT (90+°) day. Both Mark and I had so much fun at our wedding. We didn't stress over anything so we had no disappointments. I can't believe it's been 5 years! We have had so many wonderful moments. Yes, it's been hard many days but we believe God gives us our spouses so we can be more Christ like. Mark and I wouldn't change a minute of our last 5 years....well maybe that one day back in 2006......just kidding.
We got married in a church that was 100 years old. This wasn't our church but we liked it and our pastor could marry us in it.
Here is my dad walking me down the aisle. Growing up we would always talk about "when" he would walk me down the aisle. We would talk about what we would be talking about, inside jokes and how special it would be.....and yes, it was special. This was the only time I got nervous, but once we started walking I relaxed and enjoyed seeing everyone.
Here is my mom and I. She was my wedding planner/support person. We had so much fun planning it. We had what we called "Wedding Wednesdays." The only time we would do anything wedding would be on Wednesdays. This way we didn't get overwhelmed. It turned into a very fun and special time for us.
Here is our wedding party. Both Mark's brother and my brother were in our wedding. Mike is Mark's older brother and he's standing right next to Mark. Todd is my older brother and he's in the front row on the very left. The rest of the party were friends and two cousins.
As a wedding gift some friends of ours took us from our reception to our hotel on their boat. The hotel we stayed at was across the lake from the church where we got married in so it worked perfectly. They made it really memorable for us. They had refreshments waiting for us and we got to go watch the sunset on Lake Washington. It really was a nice relaxing time after the hoopla of a wedding and reception.
Here we are after our fun boat ride.
The next morning we had to catch a plane to
Puerto Viarta, Mexico......stay tuned, I have pictures from that coming tomorrow.
We went to Disneyland!! This wasn't part of our plan. The day after our wedding we had a flight scheduled to take off around 7am to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We got to the airport in plenty of time. We even boarded our plane. Once we were on and ready to take off the pilot came over the intercom and told us all that we had to get off the plane and go sit back in the terminal because the engine was leaking oil (or something like that) and they were going to "fix" it. We thought, no biggie we'll take off in an hour or so. So, while we were sitting back in the terminal we over heard that they had to cancel the flight all together and they were going to put us up in an airport hotel and have us take off the next morning........This was not an option for Mark, he wanted his new bride to be in a nice hotel and not sitting around waiting for our flight. So my amazing husband went over to the ticket desk and got us on a flight to LA that morning. The flight to Mexico that we would be on tomorrow had a layover in LA anyway and we could get on it then. So instead of waiting around in Seattle we took off to LA and Mark said "we're going to Disneyland!!" What a guy!! 
Here's Mark trying to get the sword out of the stone.....Mark is still just as fun and silly today as he was 5 years ago.
One thing that was really fun about our flight was that when we checked in at the desk back in Seattle we got upgraded to first class for free. This happened because I was carrying my bouquet with me. So the lady at the desk saw this and asked if we just got married and I said "YES!!" so she said "well congratulations, I'm going to upgrade you to first class." So we flew first class to LA and to Mexico. Not only did we go to Disneyland, we went in style! 
We finally made it to Puerto Vallarta. We were only a day late. We had a great time and it was nice and warm and so much fun.
Here is Mark in the infinity pool at our resort. That's the Pacific Ocean in the background. 
Then we got married again! Our resort offered beach weddings so we thought "why not?" They had an officiant, photographer, dinner and cake for us. We were already married but how fun to be married again on the beach at sunset! My mom made me a special veil for this wedding. It was just Mark and me along with the officiant and photographer. Everyone that watched thought we were eloping since we had no wedding guests there.....it was sort of funny. But very memorable for us. 
We even made front page news in Puerto Vallarta since our photographer worked for the local newspaper. We had no idea that he was going to do this and the next day we had been down on the beach and came back to our room and found this paper on the side table as a fun surprise.
I look away for 2 seconds and this little guy gets food all over himself.
I had a fun Mother's Day. My family really spoiled me! I got flowers from my wonderful husband and Lulu picked out some really fun gifts too. Mark took her to the dollar store and she got to pick out whatever she wanted for me. She picked out a really fun bubble maker, a pink and purple tote bag, really cute hair bands, silly string, pink nail polish and a yellow Matchbox car from Levi. She knows what I like and I like everything she got. The silly string was a blast in the back yard. Then after church we went over to my parents house for a nice early dinner. Uncle Todd and Aunt Stephanie came and grilled chicken on the BBQ.....my mom didn't have to lift a finger.
For Mother's Day my mom made me a gift certificate to go see the movie BABIES with her and get a pedicure. So last night we went and enjoyed the movie portion of my certificate. It's been a while since my mom and I went out just the two of us. Lulu wanted to come but it was almost bed time for her.
Here's what we saw as we drove off........I never really get to see this view, I'm usually in the window waving too. We had fun on our girls night out. After the movie we went and got coffee and talked and talked and talked. Thank you Mother! I love you!
Mark's mom has been in town and Lulu, Levi and I spent the morning at the Children's Museum with her. This was just so much fun for Lulu to play with all the different activities. Connie was so thoughtful and bought us a membership for our family. We are going to have a blast going back and it's good for a handful of different museums in the area.
