Getting Ready for the Wedding

The Flowers

After the rehearsal dinner Amy, Monica, Cara and I helped Emily do the bridal bouquets.  We each got to make our own.  This was the first time I had ever gotten to make my own bouquet.  I mean really, what kind of a bride lets the bridesmaids make their own bouquets?  It's pretty funny that Emily said she would be a mean bride because she was pretty much the exact opposite.   She was actually really easy going, she let us do our own flowers.

It was really a fun job and I was pretty proud of how mine turned out.

Emily's Bachelorette Party

Last weekend, my Best Friend Emily Valko got married!!!  On Thursday night before the wedding her sister Amy and I had a Bachelorette Party for her.  We had a blast!! First we all met at my parents house for Champagne and hors d'oeuvres.  

Marcy, Monica, Emily, Heidi, Marion and Amy

Silly Girls

"Special" Gifts

Yes, Emily has a whip... not just any whip, a wedding whip!  Apparently when Emily, Monica and Marcy were in college Emily told them that when she became a Bride everyone would need to watch out because she was going to be a mean bride.  She said she would be like a general and that she actually wanted a whip to whip all the bridesmaids into shape.  The funny thing is she never told me this and I think she was kind of joking but Monica never forgot about it.  So, she found this whip and decorated it with white pearly ribbon.  It was awesome, Emily walked around all night with her wedding whip.  I think she liked it a little too much! ; )

General Emily 

We went to San Louis where we made Emily do some goofy, bachelorette tasks.  This is the famous Bubble Gum Alley, yes, the walls are covered with chewed bubble gum.  YUCK!  It's totally discussing but it was fitting for a bachelorette party!

I had so much fun decorating my car to drive the bride around! 

Here we are at he Library, that's the name of a tiny bar in SLO 

Ok, so Bulls wasn't the place we were supposed to end up at.  I had planned for us to got to Mother's Tavern which is a nice place but, when we got there we learned that the dancing wouldn't start until 10.  So, we had some food and then we decided to wander around and embarrass (or at least try to embarrass her, it's not that easy to do) Emily for a little while and then go back to Mother's when the fun started at 10.  Well, we stumbled in to this awful little place called Bull's where the Bartender made Emily a famous "Bull Sweat" shot.  It was horrible!!!  Long story short, it was really discussing she didn't drink it all because it was burning hot with Tabasco and other nasty stuff.  It was so funny, she actually tried it and then dropped everything and ran (literally ran) out of the bar.  It was nasty but it sure makes a good story.

One of the silly things she had to do was kiss a bald man's head.  

We had so much fun!  I was so glad that Emily had fun, she was able to let loose and forget about all the stress of the wedding and just have fun.  Some call this my "mean Heidi face"  I don't know, I kind of like it! 

Happy Birthday Grandma

My  Grandma's birthday is the 28th of December.  Because her and my Grandpa's anniversary was on New Years Eve, the holiday season was always an extra busy time for Grandma.  Along time ago we gave her a Birthday in July so that we could really celebrate her Birthday properly, without everything else taking away from it.  We always do a little celebration in December too, we can't just let her real Birthday pass without a little party!!  I love my Grandma so much, I wish we lived closer so that I could spend more time with her.  We are a lot alike.  I get my love of shoes, fashion and make up from her.  She is a retired a teachers assistant and I remember going to work with her when I was a little girl and wanting to become a teacher.  My mom and I both get our gift of hospitality from her as well.  I love you Grandma!!  Happy Birthday!

A special gift for dad

Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jon came into town after Christmas to celebrate New Years with us.  Crazy Aunt Nancy, that's what we call her, brought my Dad a really special Christmas gift.

First she gave him this card she made with a picture of her and a HUGE tool box.  She said if she were rich she would buy it for him for Christmas but...

because she is not rich he would have to settle for a meal from his favorite restaurant.  She brought him BBQ beef sandwiches from Chris and Pitt's in Long Beach.  They stopped and picked it up on their way in from San Diego and carried it in an ice chest all the way to our house.  Not only is this my dad's favorite food but it's also nostalgic.  When he was a freshman at West Point his mom mailed him a meal from Chris and Pitt's all the way from Long Beach to New York on dry ice.  Needless to say it was a very special Christmas gift!

Evan

It's hard to believe all that we did and all the friends and family that we saw over the vacation.  I still have more to post after this!!!  I promised Evan that he would be on the blog so here he is!!  It's always wonderful to see Evan.  He's just one of those friends that no matter how long it's been things just pick up right where we left off.  We went out to Doc Burnstein's (formerly known as Bernardo's, most of us locals will probably always call it that) for ice cream.  It was delicious as always.

I love making Evan Laugh!!

Amy, Josh and Jackson Come to AG

After Christmas Amy and Josh made a special trip to come visit us in AG. It was actually Jackson's first road trip. He was a real trooper. We basically live in Amy and Josh's home town so it was really fun to show them ours. We took them to Klondike's for pizza, peanuts, and roadkill pizza. Jackson actually got to sit in a high chair for the very first time while we were there. He also met his first Moose. The next day we went to Pismo for Clam Chowder and Chili in a bread bowl at Splash Cafe. Then we wandered around the beach and then went Avila and walked around. We had to show them where the shark attack happened. : ) Rick and Karen watched Jackson while we went out to our favorite sushi place. In the morning we had Broadway Bagels... so many of my favorite home town things!! It was so sweet of them to come and we had such a great time together!