Okay This is a WARNING for everyone as they begin to read this blog...it probably will be LONG but it has loads of pictures!
So as you saw from my last blog, Brandon and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary this month on August 4th...So this was one of the first things I did on my vacation and that was celebrate being married a YEAR!!! woohooo!!! I can't even believe that it has been a year, it's flown by but has just been great. I feel very lucky to have Brandon as my husband, he is the best!!! The first event of the BIG day was breakfast with the Bing's... I though it would just be with Brandon's parents but it was the whole family. I thought it was so sweet that everyone got up to come and celebrate with us. We ate at Cora's and it was delicious...I was stuffed by the time we were done. It was great to visit with the fam and remember what we were doing one year ago at that time...I think I was still getting my hair done at breakfast time!!hahha!!! I've always been blessed with a great family and I feel very lucky that I married into another great family. Brandon and I are very lucky to have such a wonderful family...we love every member...even you Laura...hhaha Just teasing...your the best little sister...hahha!!!
I took pictures of us at all our stops of the day...I won't post them all but this was us at breakfast that morning...Brandon was happy to be there even though he wasn't smiling...hahha! I wish I looked this tanned on my wedding day!
Happy 2nd Birthday Ethan! That was our next stop on our anniversary...and that was Ethan's 2nd birthday party which was a lot of fun. Ethan had a great family party and got loads of great gifts!! His super store cake was awwwww sooooo good... everyone enjoyed it...especially miss Georgia as you can see from below. He got this cool little race track thing which all the kids enjoyed watching and playing with...especially Phil and Matt...they were too funny setting it up!! I got to have another sneak peak at baby clothes from sonja...she has some super cute dresses for her little girl...I can't wait to see her in all these cute dresses!! It was fun to see everyone and especially the kids and to see how much they have grown since the wedding...the party started around 2ish and that was around the exact time that we were getting sealed for time and all eternity which was pretty exciting!!! When we were married Ethan was almost one and still crawling. Georgia was only a few months old...and was pouting in my wedding pictures...hahha!!
This is Georgia one year later...over dosed on sugar! It was too cute she was sitting there putting her finger in her cupcake and then to Ethan's...she was also loving the powdered donuts!
That night Brandon and I had some alone time as we headed out to the Greek Restaurant OPA for our anniversary dinner. We'd been given a gift certificate to the restaurant for our wedding from a friend and customer of mine at Roots and we'd been saving it...and it was well worth it because the dinner was delicious!!! Our waitress was really sweet and started the night off by bringing us glasses of Champagne because she knew we were celebrating out anniversary...we thanked her so much for the thought but of course sent the drinks back...we felt a little bad...but what can you do. I wanted Brandon to experience the coolness of OPA by having what I call the flaming cheese...I don't remember the Greek name.. but it i delicious...they have this cheese pour alcohol on it and then light it on fire so that the alcohol is burnt off and your left with this delicious shell on the cheese....ohhhhh it is soooo yummy!!! Our meals were delicious...
especially my potatoes...yummy...I'm hungry just thinking about them. It was great to just be together and chat and remember our big day. We were trying to think about our reception...and we were talking about how we didn't get to eat as much of the food as we would have liked to, we were both just too stuffed...the day after our wedding we found out that they would have done up a plate for us...bummer!!! Oh the memories!! We had a great reception...we actually watched our wedding video this morning which was so much fun...Nathan did an amazing job with our video it's such a great memory to have!!! Back to dinner.... for dessert we shared a piece of cranberry mango cheesecake which was DELICIOUS!! We left the restaurant very full and very happy!!! That night we spent some quiet time watching a movie...P.S I Love You...which I have wanted to see for the longest time and Brandon finally gave in and let me rent it... I cried...given but it was not as good as the book was so everyone I recommend reading the book!!!! We had a great anniversary and I'm looking forward to many many more to come!!
I forgot to mention that Brandon and I also got to remember our wedding by having the top layer of our wedding cake which my sweet mother-in-law was storing in her freezer for us. It kept really well and actually still tasted really really yummy!!! We had fun eating it and cutting it up, although we ended up throwing out quite a bit of it in the end!!
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On to the rest of VACATION...
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The first full week of vacation was pretty low key...I took some time to clean the apartment, cook nice dinners for Brandon and I, watch some movies and do some scrapbooking. I have a scrapbook where put wedding invites of my friends and then I scrapbook the pictures I have taken at the reception...so far I've gotten Shane and Jessica, Kellie and Alex, and Katrina and Logan's weddings pretty much done, and they turned out really well. I was quite excited about that and can't wait to get onto the other weddings I attended!! We also went over and hung out with the Nelson kiddies...we played a little Wii...Bran had a little water fight with the kids and I played with the webkinz...thanks to Sarah Grace who got me addicted to Cash Cow....I hooked all four kids up while they were away by caring for their pets...and getting them points...let me just tell everyone they have some really fun games on there!!!
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Happy Birthday KEAH!!! On Saturday the 9th we celebrated Keah's birthday....which was really Keah's birthday week which she made known at dinner...hahah she was too cute!!! We headed out to OPA again for her birthday dinner....just me and O'Hearons ( mom and dad- mike and keah). It was so much fun having dinner with the fam..I again made them try the cheese...and we also tried this dip that kathy had recommend which was super yummy!!! Dinner again was delicious...I don't think I could ever get sick of OPA!! They surprised Keah with a special birthday dessert, with a candle and everything! As you can see from they picture she was pretty excited about that!!! hahha I just love keah!!!! After dinner we headed back home to have some birthday cake...which was of course a super store cake which was super super yummy!!! We also had a family sing-a-long to the soundtrack if the movie mama mia and all the ABBA hits...it was sooooo funny...I love my family!!!!
All the O'Hearons at Keah's Birthday Dinner at OPA!
This is a shot of me and my sister-in-law Keah Outside my favorite place OPA!!!
Monday brought on the COTTAGE! The Bing's rented a cottage for the week so we headed out there for four days. Although the sun didn't make an appearance too much we had a great time and enjoyed hanging out with the whole family. This is a shot of the cottage from the dock...so cue all snuggled up there in the trees. Phil, Sonja and Ethan headed up with us on the first day and we hit the water as soon as we could. Ethan didn't love his life jacket or the boat too much but he did love throwing the rocks into the water. I'm not the biggest fan of out door water...I enjoy pools but not knowing what's in the water makes me nervous... so sonja and I hung out on the dock and watched the boys try water skiing and took pictures, which was a blast! We had a pizza party for dinner and home made ice cream made by meaghan. Peter, Laureen, Brandon, myself and
jaccob stayed up until almost 2am playing games...it was so funny! We were all getting pretty crazy funny!!!!!
The Nelson Family hanging out on the dock!! I think ethan wants OFF!
A much happier Ethan showing off his baby blues safe on land!!!
My brother-in-law Jaccob getting ready to try the water skiing for the first time after his mission and he wasn't rusty at all he got up first try and was even able to kick off one ski and go on just one ski...we were impressed!!!
I wish everyone could see this bigger it's my awesome husband skiing using one hand and waving to us on shore!!! I was definitely impressed!!!
This was Day 2 of our cottage vacation... Brandon, me, Peter and Laureen headed out on the boat that morning and toured around the lake. Then when we got back Brandon and I took out the canoe for a little trip. Phil, Sonja and Ethan came up for day two and the boys had some more fun on the water. The weather wasn't the greatest that day so we stayed inside and watched the Olympics and robin hood. I also started reading Breaking Dawn...and was super excited about that. I'd been waiting to start it and a rainy day seemed like the perfect opportunity! Brandon and his dad went out just before dinner and tried to do some fishing with GREAT SUCCESS! We didn't believe them at first, but they produced a GREAT fish. The cooked it up and ate it for dinner... I didn't try it but Brandon said it was the best fish he'd ever eaten!
Brandon and Peter with the Catch of the day...such a great picture of these to guys!
Day Three at the cottage brought some sun finally!!! As you can see from the picture above Brandon and I were very excited about that. Day three also brought all the family back up to the cottage. I got a lot of reading done that day I'd almost finished reading breaking dawn...I was hooked on the reading!!! But we did take some time to head down to the water, Laureen and I went down to the office and got a paddle boat and got a good work out paddling back down to the cottage. Chelsey and Ryan tried their water skiing skills...
How cute is my sister-in-law chelsey...working her way into the water...she was super impressive water skiing...she stayed up for the longest time!!!
This is Chelsey's boyfriend Ryan who she convinced to try water skiing...his first try he didn't make it but second time up he actually got up on the ski's...yeah Ryan. He has a bad ankle which didn't let him have a third run!
Meaghan and Jason were able to come up Wednesday night and we celebrated Meaghan's birthday...which was the next day. We had a delicious steak dinner and watched meaghan open some presents and had a yummy yummmy birthday cheese cake! That night Jaccob, Josh and Jason also tried their skill at water skiing which again they all had success!!! This was a cute picture of Meaghan and Jason on the dock that night!!! Meaghan got a super fun game for her birthday called catch phrase...if you've never played you don't know what you are missing. So we all got together around the campfire that night and roasted marsh mellows and played round after round of catch phrase...we laughed soooooo much!!!
I had been waiting for this marsh mellow all summer. and it was worth the wait! I did of course burnt my hand that night on Brandon's marsh mellow cooker which was a hanger...luckily I iced it and Laureen gave me something to put on it and I was fine!!!
The last thing we did that night was sparklers to celebrate Meaghan's birthday...there had been some fireworks purchased but we found out we were not allowed to use them...although one was accidentally set off and it was super cool...we're saving them though for another time!!!
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Thursday brought our last day at the cottage...Brandon went out and did some fishing and us Bing girls played some croquette (sp?). We were not quite too sure on the rules but we made up our own special version and had so much fun!!! I took some nice shots of nature around the cottage and I really liked this one of the dock it just looked so peaceful and relaxing. It's my favorite place to just sit! Meaghan and Jason brought their dog Buddy up to play with Lucy at the cottage it was so funny to watch her fly into the water and swim around. We headed home thursday since Brandon had to work that night...we drove home in the rain which I guess was the perfect time to head home. We were both pretty excited though to be back home and just sit and relax although I did three loads of laundry that night!!!
Friday was my last day of vacation which i was so so sad about...I didn't want to go back to work at all. So I relaxed around home...did some grocery shopping and then headed out to a surprise baby shower for my cousin Sara who was up visiting from Utah...I have pictures but I don't have them on the computer yet...I'll post them on facebook soon. Sara was surprised by the shower and got some beautiful gifts...she was really cute opening the gifts!! She looks great and has a cute little baby bump...she is having a little girl and is due in early november. I had so much fun hanging out with my cousins...it was great to see both Sara and Emily and all of emily's cute kiddies!!!
So this is the end of my massive blog...I started back at work on Saturday and wow do I not want to be there...I'm a little more excited for school to start because I like not being at work...hahha. It's just kinda wierd because my replacement is in training right now, so there is nothing for me to really do since she has to learn it all. I'm finding lots to do visually though in the store so I am surviving...Jeff you are so lucky you are not here to atch your replacement be trained...I think Laura is closer to finding a full time key though.
Oh one more thing...on monday before we went to the cottage I went and saw mama mia with my mom, mike and laura and it was AWESOME everyone should see it...I have been singing ABBA ever since...I totally want to see it again....such a CUTE movie!!!
Okay now my back is officially sore because I've been sitting gere for over 2 hours. Hope you enjoyed this massive update. The next big thing going on in our home is that we start school on september 3rd...ahhhh soooo crazy!!! Hope everyone is having a rocking summer can't wait for everyone's updates!!
P.S this was so long that I didn't re-read it so I hope that it all makes sense!!
