Just call me Sara[h] Lee

It was my manager's birthday last week. We found out he loves giraffes. A guy on our team found a 5' giraffe on ebay and everyone pitched in and got it for him. We decided to have a surprise party for him and I volunteered to make the cake.

It was a warm day and the icing started melting off :(

(Thanks to Heidi for her help and the use of her kitchen)

WA to AK

For our honeymoon we went to Seattle and on a cruise to Alaska.
it was AMAZING
We had a busy day in Seattle
Gorged ourselves on the cruise ship
and were in awe over Alaska.

Seattle was the largest city I have ever been to (yes I am that sheltered) and I fell in love with it.
Our hotel was outside of the city and the first night we got there one of Benson's missionary companions and his wife picked us up and took us into Seattle for dinner.
The whole drive into the city I was just staring up at all the buildings and I couldn't wait till the next day so we could go exploring.
The next day we walked all over Seattle. We went to Pike's Market, the Aquarium, the Science Center, rode the monorail and took a ferry to Bainbridge Island.
When we got to the Space Needle, we decided to save three hours (the line was that long!) and $30 and just look up at it. It was my first time riding the city bus (like I said, I am sheltered) so that was another adventure for me!

Seattle Aquarium

Pike's Market

Butterfly house at the Science Center

Lunch at Ivar's

Seriously, I love food. I mean LOVE food... and honestly I could go for three four course meals a day any day. We found out that some older people live on cruise ships instead of retirement homes when they get to the point where they can't live on their own - sign me up for that!
Being pampered on the cruise was great, as was having all of our meals taken care of.
The staff on the cruise ship were so much fun. Our dinner servers were our favorite (you get the same ones every night) they were from the Phillippines and some of the nicest people we have met.

I don't even know how to begin to describe Alaska. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Growing up in Arizona I am so used to desert all the time - so seeing so much green and vegetation was soo cool. There were huge flowers and trees everywhere we went and we saw a ton of wildlife. Dolphins, a Killer Whale, Seals, Bald Eagles, Salmon (they would jump out of the water) and ginormous Slugs!

One petal was bigger than his hand!

Mendenhal Glacier
The last place we stopped was Victoria, BC. Another beautiful place. By the last day we were exhausted and so we didn't do much exploring in Victoria, we mostly just hung around the area where they dropped us off, but we sure had fun!

If you would like to see more pictures from our trip you can take a look at our online album!

(link at right)

I do I do I do!

We had an amazing wedding day.

It was so much fun and went by way too fast!

I was so happy to get the pictures back so we could remember what it all looked like since the whole reception was kind of a blur.

THANK YOU

to all of our family and friends who made it so wonderful!

Maesyn & Reagan Dancing

No, he's not really that tall (notice the brick)

House Update!

Since we have been home we have been doing our best to get something in our house done everyday.

Last week we were able to get all of our appliances and put them in their places

{Thanks to Craigslist we were able to get a brand new (never even plugged in) stove and matching microwave for super cheap - our realtor is sending us a check to purchase a new stove but since we got it for so cheap we used the leftover money and got our washer and dryer (also off Craigslist)

All for only $50 out of our pocket. Yeah, we were pretty happy about that.}

We also finished painting all the closets, washed all of our clothes, bought new shower heads, cleaned our bathrooms (from all the painting stuff) and picked up our new furniture.

Yesterday Benson and I cleaned up the Kitchen a bit and made our first meal on our stove/in our house: PastaRoni - gourmet, I know

Our goal for this weekend: Finish the cabinets so we can actually put our junk away!

I apologize to all of our friends and family who we have not yet invited to our house - trust me you're not missing much.

There is nowhere to sit

no lights (except in 1 bathroom and our bedroom)

and there was no door on the one working bathroom until Tuesday.

We're getting there - and when we do, you're all invited.

I will even make you food - and I promise it will be something better than pasta roni.

p.s. House, wedding and honeymoon pictures coming soon!

oh mexico...

So since I haven't posted anything remotely interesting lately I decided to post some pictures of the pre-wedding summer :)
At the beginning of July Benson and I went to Mexico with his family for a long weekend.
It was the coolest place I have seen in Mexico. We had a lot of fun swimming in the warm ocean, finding shells, playing in the sand, snorkeling, and eating lots of food!

A starfish we found snorkeling

Sunset from our condo

Benson and I were laughing so hard at this truck we saw as we were crossing the border... no joke, there was even a kitchen sink

flowers and the canoe

Jakie on the beach

Maesyn playing hopscotch after telling jake "It's a girls game only girls can play!"

Reagan in the sand

The beach had a TON of shells!

Everything else that happened between then and the wedding was pretty much chaos. (So glad it's all over)

I will post pictures from the wedding/honeymoon as soon as we get my computer working.