Our Honeymoon

Well, we were gone for a week, so I will give you the short version. We left on Sunday, January 25th to go to Pismo Beach. We had booked our ocean front suite months in advance at the Cottage Inn by the Sea. On our way there it was raining and my wiper blades were tore up, so we stopped at Pep Boys in Bakersfield, not even knowing he would be there, we ran into my father in law. Holy Cow! He was getting his tires replaced on the car. So we visited with him for a few and them back on the road we went.
This is in no particular order due to the fact that we did so much I cant remember what order it all happened in. Lol.

We got to the suite and it was so amazing...it had a fireplace, breakfast nook, and a back patio facing the ocean with stairs leading down to the beach...it was perfect. We got spoiled with complimentary breakfast every morning. It was delicious. There were waffles, cereal, bagels, muffins, yogurt, EVERYTHING. Our first night in Pismo we ate at subway and then shopped at the outlet malls for a few hours. We went down to the beach and played around. Winter is by far the best time to go. The weather was great and the people on the beach were mostly locals so it wasn't crowded and they are so nice and helpful. This lady, Kay, talked to us for a while and told us that if we were hungry there is this great restaurant at the end of a pier in Avila called Olde Port Inn. We went there and the tables are basically holes in the pier with glass over it so while your eating you can look beneath you and see all the sea life. There were so many seals...it was ridiculous. They were funny, barking at each other and trying to jump on the pier to sun bathe. Totally recommend this restaurant to anyone who goes to Pismo in the future. Great food, decent price, and wonderful experience. We got up close and personal with a giant pelican. He wanted the fisherman's fish. We were going to drive somewhere to eat lunch after we got back to the hotel, but on our walk back from the beach, we found Marie Calendars. It was worth it. The food and service was impeccable. We went to the Butterfly Grove....OH MY GOODNESS! I loved it, there were butterflies everywhere. They clustered in the trees and it just looked like a bunch of dead leaves in the trees. They were matting on the ground and it was funny to watch everyone take pictures of them stuck to each other on the ground. We found 77 unbroken sand dollars on the beach...it was awesome. We went to Hearst Castle, it was decent, I wouldn't go again, but it was fun for a one time thing. When we were coming back from the castle on the bus we heard people talking about going to see the elephant seals on the beach just down the road, so we did that right after we left the castle...they are the ugliest things ever...well the males are anyway. The babies were cute all cuddled up with their mommies. They were funny though, they scream at each other and fling dirt on each other. We were heading back to the hotel and stopped at some tide pools that we had been to when we went for our one year anniversary...the water is so receded that we saw way more than we did the first time. We found so many star fish, hermit crabs, and plants. It was crazy...kinda gross, but fun anyway. We played cards and ate pizza delivered from Domino's..Lol, yep, even on our vacation. We saw a sky writer when we were walking on the beach. He didn't actually make anything or spell anything, I think he was just practicing or playing around, but it was really neat to see, I had never seen it before. We decided to stay in Pismo for 4 nights instead of 3 because we didn't want to go to the Winchester Mansion since we already went to the Hearst Castle. Our last night in Pismo we walked the beach at night and it was so pretty...you could see every star in the sky and the moon reflecting off the water. Thursday, we left early morning (after our breakfast of course Lol) and headed to Monterrey Bay Aquarium. I really love Pismo, didn't care much for Monterrey, but the aquarium was awesome. We ate at Bubba Gumps Restaurant. It was so funny. The atmosphere of it was based on the movie Forest Gump. If we needed anything, all we had to do was flip our sign from "run forest run" to "stop forest stop." We went to the fisherman's wharf and had a lady draw a cartoon picture of us. That was fun. Don't think it looks like either of us, but it was still awesome. We were going to stay at the Motel 6 on North Fremont...Yeah, no....we bounced because it was like the ghetto of Monterrey. We felt like we were watching our backs the whole time so we ate dinner and then got our shit out of the hotel and hit the road. Got home this morning at 2:30am. Poor Matthew, he was so messed up...he had a huge Red Bull and one of those yellow jacket energy pills to stay awake for the drive. I tried so hard to stay awake, but I was assed out by the time we got on the 101. Now we are home safely and happily married. I would say that this was the best vacation of our lives, but wont be the last. Perfect Honeymoon for a Perfect Couple. Sorry this was so babbled, but there was so much that we did, so much that we saw, and it was incredibly exciting its hard to put into words.

We Tied The Knot

So, as you all know, we were supposed to be officially married on the 23rd, but when we went to the courthouse, they only set up the paperwork for the minister/officiant to sign it and make it all legal, so no big deal. We actually got married on the 24th.
The day that we went to the courthouse to get married I was so happy and overwhelmingly excited that I couldn't not smile. I tried, but the smile just kept coming back. I love the rain, and it was raining, and there were geese flying all over the place, and I saw not just one, but 2 full, beautiful, rainbows in the sky. I have been told that rain is good luck on your wedding day, so that was nice. It was just so wonderful. First, I took Matthew to work at 5:45 and then came home and got all dolled up, I put my hair in ringlets. I had my nail appointment at 9, so Jen and I went to that and I got the greatest pedi ever at Lady's and Gentlemen by Julie. She did a great job. Anyway, then I went to Matthews work and picked him up early. His mom had called us to let us know they were in town and said that they were going to stop by Wal-Mart before they came over. They asked if we needed anything and we said, "no, I don't think so...actually we need toothpaste." His mom shows up at the house with a gift back full of toothpaste, tooth brushes, mints, gum, mouthwash, candy, and chapstick. Lol. It was too funny, couldn't handle it.
So, our parents met us at the courthouse and we filled out all the paperwork to find out that it wouldn't be official till the next day, Lol. We all went out to dinner at Casey's. Seriously the most delicious food in town. My dad finally got in town, but we had to bounce so we could decorate the reception hall, so we left dinner at a little after 6. Aimee helped us decorated for about an hour and then we were there until 9:30pm. Not too bad since we decided to do it all mostly ourselves, but I have to admit, I'm glad that Aimee helped because it would have taken a lot longer to cover the dividers. Matthew and I finished up and then went home to sleep...Yeah Right...sleep? We really didn't sleep much. We were too excited about our BIG day.
♥January 24th, 2009♥ , we are officially getting married! We got up at about 5am and Matthew was so damn cute. He couldn't even contain himself. Brian (best man) came to pick him up and they went to double check everything at the hall while I stayed home and got ready for my appointment. I didn't have to do my hair or make up yet, so I got ready so fast that I went and had coffee with my daddy. Then I went to Identity Salon and Angel started doing my hair at 9am. By the way, she is amazing. Kelly did Jens hair. They did such a good job and it was so much fun. Then I did my make up at the salon and Jens make up and then we got in our dresses in the pedicure room. Lol...its such a cute room. I loved it. For the most part, we were right on time for everything. We had to be completely ready by 11 because we decided to have our bridal party pictures done at 11 and the family pictures done at 12:30. However, I was driving my car, and its a stick, and I'm in a huge dress....lol....see where I'm going with this. Lol. There was no way, but fortunately Jen knows how to drive a stick so we left her car there and she drove mine. We all went to the Grape Leaf parking area first. Then after we took so pictures there, we headed to the Golf Course on base. Now, we didn't get a badge for our photographer but I used my cac card and I let the guards know that she was with us...thinking it was cool, no problem. No, they hassled her and wrote her a pass and wasted our time . We ended up just a little behind at the Golf Course, and the people there were like, "there is a tournament" and "you can only take pictures aiming south." Lol, then the weather was a little uncooperative. It was slightly windy and there were those pussiwillow's were blowing pollen all over the place, but I think the pictures turned out very nice. We cant wait to get them back. Once we finished up there at about 12:40, we headed to the Paradise Cafe Community Center to get married. Paradise Cafe...AMAZING. They were so helpful and so wonderful to us, I love them. I think they for everything. The food was delicious, just everything. Everything was so beautiful. Words cant describe how I felt. Jocelyn took some pictures of our rings before the wedding and then it was down the isle we went. I got so emotional just walking down the isle. I felt like I was going to cry so I held it in, that made it worse I think. haha. I got up on the stage, Neil said a few words and then asked me to say what I wanted to say to Matthew...but, ummm, I forgot the paper. Lol, luckily Neil had it on his IPhone. So, I read it to Matthew from Neils IPhone, toward the end of the poem I started to cry...Matthew said that he got choked up because I was getting so emotional. Lol. Then when Neil was having us repeat our vows, I had ADD or something because before he could finish his sentence, I said "I do"...Ooops Lol...so I said "I do" like 4 times. It was funny. Then we were pronounced Husband and Wife...and we kissed and walked down to Jackson by Johnny and June. The reception was great. When the ladies moved our table forward to put the dividers behind it, they accidental knocked the medium martini glass over and sand got all over. Lol, they felt so bad, but assured them it wasn't a big deal at all. They are too sweet. Even when the cake fell and the CD with all the special songs for the first dance and all didn't work. So, yeah, our cake fell over because Stater Bros. didn't listen to a damn think we told them and they made it all wrong. We didn't want them on pillars, we wanted them stacked on top of one another and the green was supposed to match the swatch we gave them and it was like a dark green. Lol, but oh well, we made it work for about 1 hour. Then it fell over and our top cake landed on the floor...upside down....and the other two got swished. Lol. The silence in the room...PRICELESS. I think everyone was waiting for me to cry or flip out or something...I thought it was funny. I might have been a little upset if we didnt get a picture of it before it fell, but I reminded Jocelyn to get a picture of it. We were pretty bummed that we didn't get to dance to Alan Jackson's Like Red on a Rose . The Pink Panther theme was supposed to be playing when he took off and threw my garter, and Wild Thing was going to play when I tossed the bouquet. But it was so fun and those little things don't matter. Its not like our marriage is going to end over it all...seriously. Lol. So, we partied and had a great time with our friends and family that showed up. A lot of people didn't show when they said they would, but its no big deal. We still love them. lol. We came home, got our of our attire and got ready to go bowling with my daddy. It was so much fun. I miss my dad, really wish he were closer. Now, we are getting ready for our Honeymoon.
♥I'M OFFICIALLY MRS. MATTHEW GRISWOLD! WHOO HOO♥

My Bachelorette Party

So, I suppose I should start with day one. The girls showed up to pick me up. Before we left town we wanted to stop by the NEX to get booze...Okay, so I had to use my sick leave to get paid for these days I took off, so what did I do...I told my Sgt. that I had to take my grandmother to Reno for that laser eye correction surgery. Officer Turner shows up at the NEX and I think okay, cool...he doesnt care...he is a good guy. Shortly there after, Sgt. Padilla, Sgt. Lukins, officer Hayes...they all show up to get coffee there at the same time. They see us and make jokes about the booze saying we need to put some in their coffee and all....OH MY GOD! Could I have any worse karma. LOL. My Sg. says, hey aren't you supposed to be...I said it was cancelled so we decided to go to Vegas for my Bachelorette party since I had the days off anyway. I hate lying and I especially felt awful for lying to my favorite Sgt. So that was kinda funny...and sad. Lol. What can I say, that's why I don't lye...I would never get away with it.So, we leave the NEX and get on the road and we rocked out all the way there. We couldn't check into our room until 4pm, so we decided to get party favors at the mall....yeah....where is the mall now??? Lol, we call everyone and ask if they know where a mall is, my mom was at work at the time and go figure the day I need her computer to work most, its running ridiculously slow so couldn't get directions. We stopped at a gas station and asked and the guy gave us the wrong directions. Right area, but told us to make all Left turns when we needed to make a right turn somewhere along the line. Lol, so then we get to the Mall, NO SPENCER'S! Are you kidding me right now. Lol, so we got new directions to get to a different mall...THE BIG MALL...the only place in entire VEGAS with a Spencer's. We became very well acquainted with Vegas at this point. Then we checked into our room...yeah, okay, this is a timeshare my maid of honors dad let us use...its not a room its a damn apartment. It was awesome. 2 bedroom 2 bath fully equip kitchen, washer and dryer...need I say more. We went out that night to the Fremont street experience...Nope...didnt actually see the lights because we were in the Mermaid Casino at the top of the hour...getting way too drunk. I didn't intend on drinking that much, but Jen wasn't drinking and because it was a bachelorette party the lady's were giving us drinks left and right...and for all four of us. They were disgusting drinks, but...I got really drunk. It was weird...my mind wasn't drunk, but my body was wasted. We decided to go to our room after that because we were all so tired and didn't want to do anything more that night. I had been up since 5 because I took Matthew to work that morning, Christy worked that night but was able to get off at 2am, the other girls have kids so they didn't get to sleep in either...we were sleepy. lol. I laid in bed and talked to Matthew for about an hour before passing out. We are so pitifully, cant even go one night much less two with out each other. We missed each other incredibly too much. The last time we were apart was when he was in Alaska for a month and that was over a year ago. So, it was hard.Day two...Jen, my maid of honor, was up all night talking to her family...she had a lot going on, so she didn't get much sleep, so she stayed at the hotel while us three got ready and went to the strip to walk around and site see. We went to quite a few places. The M&M Factory (cant believe how huge it was...its 4 floors high), the Miracle Mile Mall, that was amazing...the other girls didn't appreciate it the way I did because they aren't as into pictures and stuff and Matt and I are, but we still had fun browsing. Then we went back to the room to get Jen up even though she didn't really sleep at all (poor thing). She got ready and then we went to Hooter's to eat. WORST EXPERIENCE! I really don't recommend the Hooter's there. The girls were so rude and I think it was because we were all girls and it was a bachelorette party because the lady that seated us said with a dirty look and attitude "Well hello bachelorette" So, whatever. They took out order and then when it was ready it sat there and got cold before this guy brought it to us. Wasn't that great anyway even if it was hot. Then we went to the store to get alcohol and to kill a few hours before our limo showed up at the room. I told Christy just drop us off at the front of the store and that way she could park the car and we can start getting the alcohol so we made it back to the room in time for the limo. I get out of the car and there was a speed bump right where I got out at....I want to emphasise that I am SOBER, lol, I slipped over the speed bump and fell on the ground...this was so funny, the battery cover on my phone popped off and I was laughing so hard I couldn't put it back on, I was sitting on the curb laughing at myself and looking pitiful. LOL. When we were back at the room waiting for the limo and getting all dolled up the limo driver called Christy to say that she was running a little behind...then she called back and said that she had a tire blow out, so there was another limo driver on their way. The guy was an ass but anyway, he showed up about a half hour late, so we took pictures in the hotel while we were waiting...it was way funny. The limo driver took us to the volcano (AWESOME! totally recommend seeing it) on our way there the girls were so drunk, Christy took my camera and took a picture of the cop car next to us because we kept talking about how the side of their cars say do not dial 9-11 it says to call 3-11, the cop spotlighted her...Oh my...these are my friends. Lol, then we went to this church on a hill to see all of Vegas city lights, then to the Fremont Street....We actually got to see the light show this time. Lol. It was cool. Then we were on our way back to the limo when we decided to do this dancing heads video. It was so funny, and people were watching us, we were famous for all but about 20 mins. lol. Then our Limo left us. What the fuck. Lol, so we had to pay him to take us back to the room. I was sober by then so I said I would be the driver because I didn't want to drink anymore so we went back to the room and got the car to go back to the strip. Went to New York New York, Paris, Miracle Mile Mall again...I really wanted to see the rain storm in there, but they ended it a half hour before we got there. Anyway, it mostly a lot of walking after that. It was a fun night.Day three, we left the room at about 9:45am and went to Panda Express for lunch at 10am, then we got on I-15...they are blowing up the roads on Wednesdays to widen the roads, so yeah, super, we were stuck at state line for 3 hours. Didn't get to leave until 2pm (which is when we would have been home) so...we made the best out of it...we went to Buffalo Bill's Casino and rode the rides for free. SWEET. We rode the Flume Logs twice and Jen and Lois rode the dropper twice, we all rode the roller coaster, the Desperado, 1 time and I cried and turned white. I don't like roller coasters and that was the scariest one I think I have ever been on. Lol, Christy and Jen rode it 2 more times after that. Lol, (I have whiplash from it, we are all so sore now). Finally about 1:30 we get to the car and try to get back on the 15, yeah right, traffic was so congested I thought there was going to be a brawl in the middle of the road between these people. Everyone was so frustrated and irritated with each other. It was a mess. Needless to say we made it home at about 7pm...would have been about 1/2 hour earlier but we decided to go through Victorville. LOL. Jen told Christy to stay on the 15 instead of getting off at the 58 toward Bakersfield. No big deal though, we made it home safely and had a good time. That was my trip guys.

Lingerie shopping with my soon to be mother in law

This is going to be incredibly awkward. Okay, so about a month ago, Matthews mom calls. When Matt answered the phone she said that she wanted to talk to me not him...he asked why do you want to talk to her a few times until she finally told him. The expressions on his face made me so curious, so when I got on the phone he stood there to wait for my expression. I'm listening to her and waiting for the punchline. So, she say, "I was thinking that it would be fun to go to Bakersfield, just us two, and have lunch and do some shopping..." I said, "that sounds like fun, whats weird about that?" Then she finishes her thought with, "I wanted to buy your lingerie for your guys' honeymoon." Okay, so now my jaw has unhinged. LOL. Let me describe Debbie to you...she is the sweetest, most naive, religious, lady I know. She teaches special ed kids at Kernville School. She is very "PURE" I guess you could say. Its hard to give you the exact picture, but that's the best I can describe, so you can imagine what I'm thinking when she is telling me this. Haha! So, I said, "Isn't this going to be kinda weird? I mean, I'm going to be wearing this on our honeymoon...for your son..." She says, "Well, I don't think so, I wore lingerie too, I wouldn't anymore because my husband would die from a hernia from laughing so hard. haha. But I think it would be fun." So, I agreed, and we scheduled this play date for Saturday, January 10th...TODAY! Yesterday, she called and said that someone told her not to shop at Victoria Secret because its over priced that we should go to Fredricks...so I tried to explain to her that Fredricks is a little more ronchier then Victoria's too. I prefer Fredricks, but its less conservative too. I'm kind of nervous now...Its going to be fun, don't get me wrong...I'm hoping it wont be too weird, but what if she finds something....how should I say, not so conservative??? She picks up crotchless panties and says I think these are torn and defective and I say no they are supposed to be like that...they are for easy access. LMAO. So, that's my excitement for today. I will be sure to tell you all how it turns out. We are going to go to Panda Express which is freaking awesome and so some other shopping. I'm going to see if I can find M.A.C. make-up and look at bachelorett stuff while we are there, so that should be fun.

So, I am back from shopping. Had a lot of fun and spent good quality time with Debbie which was really nice. We talked and shopped a lot. The lingerie shopping was awkward as expected, but it didn't last long because I'm pretty quick at shopping. I'm not much for browsing for one thing for very long, I usually find what I want pretty quickly. So, we went to Macy's and I found M.A.C. make up. Super excited about that. There were a lot of sales going on so we found really good deals on everything. Then I got my ring cleaned...its ridiculously shiny again and I'm almost afraid to wear it before the wedding, lol, don't want it to get dull again. We had dropped off my dress and Jens dress with Davids Bridal and once again they piss me off. They really should work on their customer service skills. They spot clean and steam the dresses in the store yet they still think that they need to keep the dresses for 2 weeks just for that. Im annoyed at them for that, I don't trust them with my dress for 2 weeks, but whatever. So, we have to go back to Bakersfield Thursday to pick up Matthews tux and my dresses. I think Im going to have them clean my ring again real quick so it will look just as beautiful on the wedding day as it does right now. Then we went to Panda Express, it was delicious as always. That was my day. YAY! 2 WEEKS TO GO!