Fourteen Going on Fifteen

Another year gone by, another to look forward to. This year has been extra special because Roy and I got our (first) marriage underway! A full wedding post is long overdue but I am still waiting on photos from the reception. They are taking forever!

I wish you a prosperous 2015 filled with many joys and adventures! I am looking forward to see if Roy and I will be able to expand our family this coming year. I know we have lots of plans in the meantime to keep us busy (we're moving!).

But while we're busy making plans, let's take the time to spend one more day and one more night on this 31st of December to enjoy everything great and and everything crappy about 2014. Girls hit your hallelujah! Whoooooo! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I AM NOT DEAD

I'm not dead! I'm not dead! I'm very much alive although I felt a little dead last Sunday. We had our crazy wedding reception this past weekend and it was off the hizzy. I'll be back to blogging about it soon. Until then, here are some of my favorite G-rated shots from the photo booth. Roy and I only got in there once (separately). I wish we had the whole night to party but it was only a short five hours. It flew by so fast!

Road Trip to Wedding Part XI: The End of the Beginning

It's been over two months since we got married so this post is way overdue! Here are the photos from our first day in Las Vegas (Wedding Day Eve). We left Torrance a little after noon and stopped at In 'N Out in Rancho Cucamonga for lunch. I love that place.

Heading to Vegas from California

We dropped off the rental car at the airport and a driver brought us to Aria. The check-in line was super long.

But since we were staying in a SkySuite we had a separate check-in area and lounge. Behind that wall is a snack bar with free beverages.

The room was pretty nice. 

Our wedding package included a ride to the courthouse to get our marriage license so we did that after we settled in. We got to the Marriage License Bureau at around 5:30, paid $60 and each filled out a simple form. There wasn't many people there at that time. Easy peasy Japanesey. Our package also included a dinner at Social House which we reserved for 7:30 that night. We invited anyone who wanted to go with us.

Daeho and Irene flew in from MD the night before. Our entire group couldn't sit together so Roy's family is at the table behind Daeho.

The cousins flew in from PA that day.

Remember Liz and Steve? Our San Fran friends flew in the day before.

Adam and Kathy flew in from PA that day also. Reunited and it feels so good.

Daeho and Irene got us sashes to sport on our last day as non-married people.

Angela and Jess sitting in the pigeon chairs outside the Aria Lobby. After dinner we took cabs to the Stratosphere. Our friends came with but they decided to head down to Fremont St.

We went up to the top of the Stratosphere. Someone was about to do the SkyJump.

It costs like $200 jump down. I think someone would have to pay ME to do that and a lot more than $200.

We rode the Big Shot instead. It was pretty fun.

After Stratosphere we headed back to the hotel. We got to our room and housekeeping was already changing the blankets on the bed. We hadn't even slept in it yet! She said she was changing it to something more comfortable. I guess this is normal. They clean the room twice a day if not more.

I didn't want to stay up too late because I wanted to get some beauty sleep before the wedding the next day. That didn't really happen though because we were up til 2 hanging out in the room.

To be continued...

Road Trip to Wedding Part I: The Midwest

Roy and I have been back from our road trip for over a week now. In short, the trip was amazing and the wedding was perfect! We made it to Vegas after driving 5175 miles and spending 95 hours together in our rented Ford Escape. Our trip went pretty much to plan except for a few adjustments to our itinerary which was not a big deal (sorry, Seattle - you got bumped). I'm just thankful we didn't have any flats or horrific weather or traffic to deal with - although we did come close to some wildfires. I meant to blog along the way but once we were on the road that notion went out the window. I didn't use my new laptop once! So here's part one of our trip.  Our first stop was in Bellevue, Kentucky to visit Roy's sister, Karla (one of the triplets). 

We got up bright and early on Friday and picked up our rental car.  It was a 2014 Ford Escape with over 28K miles on it and South Carolina tags.  Final destination: Las Vegas!

We had intended to leave our house by 9 AM but after breakfast, running around and getting everything loaded we ended up leaving at noon. We made it to Roy's sister's house at about 8:30 pm.  Bellevue is right across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

Karla's house. I wish we took some photos of the amazing pizza and sushi Karla and Ernie got us for dinner that night but I think we were too in the moment to get the camera out. I wish we had a group photo also. I guess we weren't in documentation mode quite yet.

But I did manage to take some photos of Madonna the cat.

Testing out our new Sony camera before we left the next morning. It has a flip up screen so you can see yourself when taking selfies.

We went to the port and checked out the river and the view of Cincinnati before we headed off to Chicago.

HOOTERS sits on a barge.

Driving through Indiana we saw hundreds of windmills. They seemed to go on for miles.

We got to Chicago by lunchtime that Saturday. We headed to the Navy Pier but after seeing how crowded it was we decided to get lunch first. I wanted to check out Lou Malnati's for some deep dish pizza. I heard it was the best.

We went to the one nearest to the Navy Pier on Wells St. Roy and I each got a personal size pizza. It was just okay. I remember Giordano's pizza tasting much better when I ate it the first time I visited Chicago in 2009. I'll have to go back there next time and see if it really was better.

Strolled around the Pier and watched the yachts and speedboats. It was sunny but not too hot. A band was playing.

Ginormous.

A view of the skyline.

Selfie time.

A view of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower). I wanted to swim in the lake but time was limited.

We headed toward Millennium Park after the Navy Pier but it was barricaded off and there were crowds of people everywhere. We found out that Lollapalooza was going on at Grant Park so we decided to head to Milwaukee. If we were staying in town it might have been cool to check out (Eminem and Outkast!?)

We left Chicago and headed north to Milwaukee. We got there around dinnertime and checked into a hotel near the airport. We headed to downtown to look for a place to eat but we ended up on a road that took us toward the city but it wouldn't let us exit off due to construction so we headed back out of it. We found this restaurant called The Packing House that ended up being right down the street from our hotel. So we drove one big circle to and from downtown Milwaukee to end up two miles down the street! It turned out to be really good though so I guess it was worth it. We both had baby back ribs and Roy picked up his first of many pint glass souvenirs.

We decided at the restaurant that we'd travel 11 hours the next day in order to get to Wall, SD. Better get some rest!

NEXT: Part II: The Road to Wall