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.

We're Baaack!

I can't say that I was ready for it - but here we are... back from the honeymoon.

Seriously - I could have handled another week on the cruise.

The wedding and honeymoon were both awesome and I will post pictures of both as soon as I get some time to upload them.

If you have never been to Alaska - GO! Seriously, it's incredible.

As you all know we bought a house and we closed escrow less than a week before our wedding. We were pretty bummed since it needed a lot of work done and so we thought we would end up living in a house with popcorn ceiling and gross carpet, walls, and well everything else for a little while till we could get it all fixed up - that was until we mentioned this to our family.

The next day there was a cleaning crew at our house (at least 20 of our family members)

We got everything cleaned, the popcorn ceilings removed, new toilet seats, walls washed, fans down, bathrooms cleaned... in less than half a day. It was awesome of them to all come out and help. Then while we were gone on our honeymoon, the drywall men came and repaired the walls and ceilings, the new carpet was installed and our parents went in and cleaned everything (again) and painted the WHOLE HOUSE!

They also cleaned the new bedding we got and set up our bed so we would have something to sleep on when we got back. She also got a few decorations to put around the room to make it a little less bare.

Totally unexpected and totally amazing of them. It felt great to come home to a house that was clean and actually felt like a home!

I love my house more and more and can't wait to get everything moved in!!

almost there!

Yes, only two weeks away!

I am excited - and stressed beyond belief.

You see when we started talking about our wedding months ago we decided that we were going to do as much of it on our own as we could.

Sure we rented the location for the reception and they are taking care of centerpieces but everything else is all us...

Luncheon location, decoration and food.

Reception food, dessert, music and yes - even our cake.

Flower girl dresses and flowers.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, and honestly, I am happy that everything will be exactly how I want it - but holy cow.

I had no idea how much work this would all be. Benson and I both decided that we're never getting married again haha.

And on top of all this we are closing on our house...talk about stress.

Eventhough we have all sorts of things we need to get done, Benson's family was able to convince me to come with them to Mexico (a yearly tradition) with them this weekend to relax a little before the big day.

Relax? HA! I don't know if that will happen when I know of everything that will be waiting for me when I get home...Hopefully I will at least get a little color added to my pasty white legs before we go on our cruise :)

p.s. Benson and I had our Temple interview with our Stake President last night. He talked to us for a long time about marriage and said some really neat things. I am so excited to go through the Temple on the 12th!