Happy Halloween!

Halloween weekend was BUSY for us this year. My weekend started with a party at work on Friday including an adorable parade with all of our kiddos at school. Then off to see the Brokers at the coast, another great Halloween show. Saturday we partied with the McDonough's and lots of pre-teens! Finally Sunday with the Day family and their neighbors! Thanks everyone for spending time with us it was great!

Mrs. Mendiola

It's official we are married! The ceremony was perfect! The sun decided to peak out just in time for the ceremony to start. The location and flowers were perfect and the food at dinner was great! The best part of all we got an entire wedding and reception for less than $1,400... Damn we're good!

One shower down... One to go

This weekend I had a bridal shower at the McDonough house, they have pretty much become my adoptive San Diego family. Much like my other nanny families in Sequim. We had an amazing spread of food, fruit, veggies, sandwiches and of course queso dip and guacamole! The orginal plan was to have the party on their fabulous deck which over looks the valley in Escondido but mother nature had other plans. With not one bit of wind and 95 degree temperatures we decided the airconditioned house was a better plan.

I had a great time hanging out with some of my great San Diego ladies. Especially the always adorable  7 month old Emmerson who entertained the entire party by crawling all over the living room and trying to catch the cats. It was simple and low key just how I wanted.

This weekend my Executive Director is throwing me a shower at her house with all of my Principals and their assistants. It will be nice to see all of my coworkers who I usually only talk to by email. The crazy month has only just begun!!

7 Weeks to W Day!

I cannot believe that 7 weeks from today I will be married; it’s a little crazy to think about it. Everything is coming together amazingly easy, we have the flowers, cupcakes, outfits, location and reception cite.

Last weekend we got finally had a chance to order our flowers at the florist. They are going to be beautiful! They are all simple tropical flowers, it sounds like everything is going to come together perfectly. The florist specializes in tropical flowers so they are familiar with working with the flowers we are using and they can make Robert’s Lei there so we don’t have to get it somewhere else.

Yesterday we were able to get the cupcakes all taken care of… Yes we’re getting cupcakes and not a cake. It just didn’t seem right with everything else being so casual to get a big fancy cake. We’re getting ½ chocolate and ½ vanilla cupcakes with butter cream frosting. YUMMY! Here’s the best part… they are .89 a piece for a grand total of less and $30 for everyone! Can’t beat that!

We have an appointment in two weeks to get the marriage license and the paperwork so Joe can officiate our ceremony. By the time I’m sitting at my bridal shower next month everything well be ready to go! I’m just happy that the entire process has been pretty stress free. I think we got all of the stress out of the way when Robert asked permission and put dad in the hospital.

Less than 2 months to go

With less than to 2 months till the big day we are plugging along getting things done. This weekend was extremely frustrating, we tried to order the flowers but the florist was too busy to talk to us then went to but Robert's ring but the guy did not have the ring in stock that we wanted... AHHH stupid people!


We didn't let it get us down, oh not for long. We ordered Robert's ring off Ebay, we just got it in the mail today. It's looks great but it is a little big so we're working on exchanging it for another size. As for the flowers we made an appointment to go back in and get the flowers ordered, at least this way we had a little more time to decide exactly how we wanted to do them.


I love hearing about everyone who is on the RSVP list for the reception up in Sequim. We have confirmed Jeremiah's BBQ to do the food for us. They did a great job when we had them do Emily's wedding. Robert and I worked with dad to finalize the menu I'm not giving it all up but I will tell you that I will be able to get a great picture of myself in a wedding dress with bbq sauce all over my face.


See you all soon!

102 Days to go!

We have just over 100 days until our wedding! That was a crazy realization for me today at work when I realized next week it will be 3 months until the big day. Amazingly I am not stressed at all, we have everything figured out and I have a timeline for the last few things that we need to get done.

This weekend we're going to look at a jeweler for Robert's Ring, he already knows exactly what he wants we just need to find one that works for us. Following in the current trend he wants a Tungsten ring, they are a darker grey and extremely strong. Of course since he’s my surfer he doesn’t just want plain ring, instead he wants one with an abalone inlay. They look amazing! I love that he wants a ring with a little color in it.

We just need to keep plugging away, getting one thing done at a time until the big day is here!

Spring Time!

Spring is here, even thought it didn’t feel like winter was ever really here. With the weather heating up we’re going back to the beach and spending more time outside again. In the middle of an extremely busy weekend Robert and I found time to start a patio garden at the apartment. I got a 15 gallon pot to for my tomato and another planter for an herb garden with chives, cilantro, dill and basil.

Then to continue in our spring celebration I came home last night to a very happy Robert. He was waiting anxiously for me to come home so he could show me what he had gotten for himself at Home Depot. A Weber BBQ complete with his accessories. The best part was that he had also bought fixings for pork adobada tacos. It was so nice to eat dinner on the patio and it doesn’t get any better than tacos.

Busy week!

Last weekend thanks to my very generous parents Robert and I were able to fly up to Sequim for the weekend to spend some time with the enormous Howat family. We had a great time visiting with family and friends that we hadn’t see in a while. We both commented that it felt like we still lived up there. I had to remind myself a few times that I still had to fly back to San Diego at the end of the weekend.


I know we missed a ton of people, 2 days is not a very long time, but we will see you all in August! We worked on finalizing plans for our Reception/Barbeque in August; I know it will be a great party.

Back in San Diego we had a busy week, getting back to work and Robert getting back to school. Yesterday was great I had a half day so we were able to head out to the coast and spend some time at the beach. While driving around we were able to complete some more wedding details. We stopped by a bakery in Cardiff that we had gotten baked goods from before. We want to do cupcakes for the wedding down here, I had originally thought I would make them myself but have now decided that I wont have time and want to have someone else make them for us.

The bakery is called VG bakery if you want to look them up. I was thrilled when I realized that their cupcakes were $.89 a piece. So we can get 35 cupcakes for around $40. Doesn’t get much better than that! I also found my shoes to wear at the wedding, yes they’re flip flops! Honestly what else would I wear? I’m so happy that everything is coming together so well, stress free and cheap, my kind of wedding plans!!

Sick

Lucky me I woke up on Saturday morning with a tickle in my throat which has quickly moved into my head and settled into my sinuses. Thanks to my large supply of emergen-c in the house I think I have managed to shorten the life of my lovely cold. I spent half of yesterday and what seemed like all of today on the couch napping and watching movies.


Robert has been great making me dinner last night and taking care of me. He even found time today to fix the roof racks on my car. What a wonderful man. I just hope this silly cold goes away soon. I have a busy week at work and being healthy would really help it go a lot smoother.

I’m off to chug another glass of fizzy stuff.

Scrapbook Heaven

It may have taken me 6 months but I finally found an amazing scrapbook store. Of course with all of the sunshine and beaches I am horribly behind on my book which is ok because I think I’m going to switch to digital soon anyways.

The store “Cool Scrapbook Stuff” is less than 5 minutes from my work, perfect for a quick trip during my lunch. I went in today and was AMAZED at how much great stuff they had and how well everything was organized. This place was like 4x the size of doddle bugs!

I was just relieved because I was finally able to find some things that I have been looking for. Being the DIY person that I am I have decided to make my own wedding invitations to give them a personal touch, and save money. So today I was finally able to get some really great paper and embellishments that will look amazing and very Kelseyish with my invites. Not I just have to figure out what to write on the invitations. Something tells me “Hey dude come to our wedding!” isn’t the best way to phrase it.

Valentines Day Weekend!

Robert and I had a great Valentines day weekend, and mine still is not over. We went wine tasting with Lisa on friday at a local winery and then had tacos complete with a HUGE bowl of guacamole! On saturday I was suprised when robert brought home beautiful flowers after surfing. The arrangement has iris, anenonme flowers and some other very fragant flowers. What a wonderful guy!

Saturday afternoon we did a chocolate/wine/beer tasting in downtown Escondido with one of Robert's brothers and his sweet heart. It was so much fun! There was tables set up in different businesses downtown that had either wine or beer and chocolate paired with it. The weather was great and we got to wander around town for a few hours before going to get dinner at one of the Mendiola's favorite itailan places.

Our Valentines day was perfect, we had homemade breakfast and then went to watch Mary Kate, Robert's little sister, swim at a swim meet for a while. We packed a lunch and headed out to the coast. After a quick stop at my favorite farmers market in Leucadia we went to my favorite place in Del Mar. The first beach Robert took me to when we came down 2 1/2 years ago, the beach we were on when we started dating, the beach that Robert proposed at oh yeah and we're getting married there too.

We had a great time hanging out on the beach and then went body surfing with Joe. The sun and heat is such a wonderful suprise in February, yesterday we were both in shorts, and sandals. I even had to put sunscreen on before we left the house, just crazy! Hope you all had a great weekend!

Wedding Reception Ole

We have managed to check another thing off our "to do" list for the wedding. We reserved the restaurant where we will be doing our small California reception. We will be going to Fidel's a great Mexican restaurant in Solana Beach, just north of Del Mar where we will be getting married.




We talked to Paco the manager this afternoon. They only charge $1 per table cloth; we will need 8 tables tops and $.50 per serving for cake. Which means other than food we only have to pay about $20 for extras. They are going to set up the tables for us on their outdoor patio. There are great plants and decor all over the place plus lights running the length of the patio.



For those of you in Sequim it's a lot like El Caz but much more authentic food. The same kind of atmosphere though. Since neither of us are big champagne fans we've decided we will be toasting to whatever people decided to buy for drinks. So yes there is a pretty good chance that we will be toasting our marriage with Patron, Coronas or Margaritas. Sounds great to me!



We also tried a batch of cupcakes to see if I could successfully make lemon flavored cupcakes. They tasted great but not as lemony as Robert wants them, I’ll just have to try it again. We did figure out the frosting, I’m going to make a raspberry cream cheese frosting, it is delicious! Things area really coming together now, we only have a few more things to figure out and we’ll be good to go.

Bridal Bazzar

Today we went to a Bridal show, the biggest in San Diego according to the radio advertisements. We don't really need that much for the wedding so we went thinking that we were going to find a bakery to do our cake. The great thing is that at the bridal show you get to taste samples of the cake... mmm. We also got some ideas for flowers and favors.

We really enjoyed turning down all kids of vendors for things that we don't even need: DJ, caterer, wedding planner, limo service all the silly frilly wedding things we’re not using. I especially loved that all of the photographers “show specials” were more than were planning on spending on the entire ceremony. As Robert and I say yesterday we are bringing down the $25,000 average WAY down with our wedding.

Of course after all the cake tasting and talking to bakers at the show we decided on the way home that I’m just going to make cupcakes for our 30 guests with yummy frosting a put a flower on the top to dress them up. At least that way I’ll have an activity to keep myself busy.

After going to the bridal show we finished our afternoon with one of my favorite things, we went to our favorite farmers market to get some produce and hummus. We had great lunch and got to eat it on the grass listening to live music.

At least I got lots of picutes, magazines and ideas out of the whole deal. Things are flying by; we have most everything figured out. Now we just need to wait a while to get things ordered and figure out the last few details and we’ll be good to go. Can’t wait to see you all in Washington!

Animal Slobber

Last Sunday Robert and I finally gave each other our Christmas presents. A little late I know but it was well worth the wait. We went on the Photo Safari at the Wild animal park. For those of you who don’t know the Wild Animal Park is a 1,800 acre “zoo” in San Diego. It started out as a breeding facility for the zoo and now is another park open to the public.




Since it’s only 12 miles from our house we tend to find ourselves there frequently on the weekends when we don’t have anything else to do. A walk is so much more interested when you get to see elephants, gorillas and giraffes. Anyways in the Photo Safari you get in the back of a flat bed truck with panel sides with like 10 other people, a tour guide and driver. You then get to drive into 3 of their massive enclosures, my favorite of course being the African enclosure with about 20 giraffes right now.



Once we were in the enclosure they stopped the truck by the giraffe heard so they can come up to the truck and we can feed them. You stand at the back of the truck with leaves behind your back, you have to hide them from the giraffes or they will eat them all at once, and hold them up to feed the giraffes. It was AWSOME!!! I love giraffes and it is amazing to be in a truck with 3 with in reach of you and another 15 with in a few feet. Inside the enclosure we also saw Rhinos, birds and other animals.

But wait there’s more we not only got to feed giraffes we also go to feed a momma Rhino and her 10 month old baby. It was amazing to have my hand inside the mouth of such a massive creature. Merry Christmas! Best Sunday EVER!!

Our florist search today was successful! We found one in Carlsbad, for 15 minutes west of where we live and about 15 minutes north of where we will be getting married. The shop is called “Ohana Creations” so yes they do specialized in tropical and Hawaiian flowers.




I was trilled to hear the florist say that there was no problem doing what we wanted and that she could do it for all under $200. My goal of staying under $2,000 is going quite well. She was really nice and informative about different ideas for flowers and when we would need to come in and get the order started.



Here’s a picture of an example of the lei Robert wants, he wants it with plumeria and not orchids like in the picture. It’s called a Ti Leaf Lei, the leaves are twisted together with the flowers.

I’m looking for a bouquet with plumerias, orchids and bougainvillea. It should be really pretty! Kind of like this one but with the classic white and yello plumerias and white orcids. I really like the shape it gets with the different flowers and of course it will smell amazing with the plumeria.

Next on the list is cake. Of course Robert is excited about the tasting! Have a great weekend!

Wedding Planning

I’m feeling really good about how all our wedding planning is going. So far this is what we have done:


• Got the dress, one of the most important parts

• Found our officiant, still need to get him ordained though

• Robert has his outfit for the wedding

• Location

• Colors

• Makeup and hair dresser

Thanks to my mom's generous contribution my dress will be all paid off as of this weekend. So all I have left to get for my dress is a "cornflower" blue sash and my shoes. Yes by shoes I mean flip flops, what else would I wear at my wedding. I'm actually really thrilled at the idea of saying my wedding vows barefoot on the beach, it can't get much better than that.

We're trying to get a little bit done every week, so far its working. Even though we have less than 6 months to go we're doing ok, getting things planned and staying calm.
On our agenda for this weekend is looking at florists in the area. We really want to keep with our simple islander/beach theme. Robert will be wearing a tea leaf lei and I want a plumeria bouquet and flowers in my hair. We’re not set on how to do the boutonnieres yet but we have a pretty good idea. I’m stuck on what to do for the moms to, I’m bouncing between a few ideas but nothing is set in stone yet. I'm hoping to get some great inspiration from the experts.


Wish us luck tomorrow with the florists! I hope we find one we love

Our Crazy Life

I cannot believe we have already been in San Diego for 6 months, time has really flown by. The last 3 months especially with all the family visiting down here and the holidays I can't believe it's already a week into January.

We are getting married in less than 6 months, and there is still a lot to do. We have a location figured out, at least the general location. We're going to get married on the beach in Del Mar. You have to get a permit to have a group of over 25 people in a San Diego park so we're planning on slipping in just below with 22-23 guests. Robert's older brother Joe is going to marry us, we are getting him ordained via the Internet for $16 classy I know.

What I'm really excited for is finally getting back to Washington. We're planning a party at my parents house the month after we get married. As of right now the guest list is 140 I have a feeling it will grow a bit more before we get invitations out. It should be a great party with lots of family and friends from Sequim and all over. That's all for now, I'll update more later.