Happy Thanksgiving from Palm Springs and Las Vegas

This year for Thanksgiving we took a vacation down south. First to Palm Springs and then to Vegas. Lucky for us, we have a friend that owns a condo in Palm Desert (right next to Palm Springs) and she lets us stay at her condo rent free! We just have to pay for the cost of running the AC and water and other utilities. It has a pool, a golf course, lit tennis courts, and access to unlimited sunshine! We enjoyed our trip so much earlier this year in May that we just had to find time to go back. We left on Saturday morning and spent four days soaking up the sun, golfing, playing tennis, and enjoying the desert. We checked out the Palm Desert Zoo while we were down there, which had an awesome giraffe exhibit and I love zoos, so I was in heaven.

On Wednesday, we drove four hours to Las Vegas...it was a nice drive and somehow managed to beat all the holiday traffic. We met up with Clark's parents in Vegas for Thanksgiving. It was fun, except for our dingy, gross, disgusting hotel. Since we already spent an arm and a leg on the airfare (did I mention that traveling over Thanksgiving is EXPENSIVE?!?) and a rental car, we wanted to keep our expenses down and stay at a cheap hotel. We found a great deal online for Imperial Palace, which had a great central location on the Strip, but I guess we got what we paid for...cheap hotel rates in Vegas = icky hotel rooms. Note to self: next time I may not want to drop $300/night to stay at the Bellagio, but I would upgrade a better hotel...maybe somewhere different like The Venetian, Paris Paris, or New York New York.

Anyway, aside from the dingy hotel room, we had a great time in Vegas with Clark's parents. They showed us all the sights off the Strip and took us to some great buffets at newer hotels off the Strip. We gambled a little, but didn't win that much. We walked around through all the hotels. We never made it to the top of the Eiffel Tower at Paris at night or took a gondola ride at The Venetian, but we did see the fountains at the Bellagio and rode the rollar coaster at New York New York.

I don't think we will ever go to Vegas for Thanksgiving again (too expensive) but it was great to spend time with the Mather Family.

Golfing in Palm Desert

Ostrich at Palm Desert Zoo
Giraffe at Palm Desert Zoo

Zebra at Palm Desert Zoo

Big Horn Sheep at Palm Desert Zoo

Caesar's Palace

Paris in the background

At The Venetian (the wait for the gondola was too long)

Andi at the Eieffel Tower

Paris Paris at night

Lucy turns TWO

Today we celebrated Lucy's 2nd birthday...she is older, wiser, and somehow even cuter and more adorable than ever. I baked her doggie-friendly chocolate cupcakes with doggie-friendly frosting. In addition to the special treats, she also got a new squeaky toy...she LOVED it.

Happy Birthday our dear Lucy, we love you!

Lucy anxiously waiting for her signal "release" so she can go chow down on her birthday cupcakes

Lucy's chocolate cupcakes w/ frosting with a bone treat on it and of course...a number 2 candle
Lucy sporting her birthday hat with her new birthday squeaky toy

My Wedding Dress

When I got engaged, my mom told me she had two wishes for me and my wedding dress. The first was for me to wear her dress. I tried it on and while it fit, my mom got married in the 70s, so the dress had long sleeves and it was made of polyester. It had a neat vintage feel to it, but just wasn't my style. Good thing my mom understood. She said she will use the fabric to make my baby (someday) a baby blanket. Her other wish was for me to purchase my dress from a wonderful organization, "Brides Against Breast Cancer."

This organization has a great story...the founder is a breast cancer survivor from Portland, OR and wanted to do something to give back, so she had her friends donate their wedding gowns and then re-sold them at a fraction of the price and donated the money to grant wishes to women diagnosed with Stage 4 Breast Cancer and not that much time left to live. Word of mouth, her organization grew and pretty soon, she went on the Oprah show and BAM! All of a sudden she started getting donations of new wedding gowns from designers and boutiques all over the country. While she still accepts gently used gowns, the bulk of her collection consist of new gowns - sold at a fraction of the price. A true win-win for everyone...the bride-to-be purchases a beautiful, designer gown at a fraction of the price and all the proceeds go towards a wonderful cause. Brides Against Breast Cancer doesn't have a store, but they travel the country and hold wedding gown shows in nearly every major city.

I went to a wedding gown show with my mom in Seattle in January 2008 and we found "the dress." I knew it immediately once I tried it on. Not only did it fit me perfectly, but it was so simple, but yet elegant at the same time. My mom, Ms. Waterworks, was crying so I knew it was the one. I bought it, along with a slip, and a veil - all of those three things PLUS sales tax all for under $300. It is wonderful.

Fast forward to now. Since it has been awhile since I purchased my dress and we set a wedding date, I was starting to wonder if there was another dress out there that might be more perfect for me. Especially after I saw my best friend, Jen, get married in a gorgeous lacy, antique-looking dress. So I thought it might be worth going back to see if there was another dress in a different style that might fit me better.

So I took the day off to attend another dress show in Portland with my mom and this time, Jen, my matron-of-honor was able to join me. After trying on some vintage dresses, while they were beautiful, I still couldn't bring myself to return my original dress - the simple and elegant one. So there you have it, I didn't purchase a new dress but re-confirmed my original purchase was still "the one."

I would post pics of the dress and me in the dress, but that would be bad luck...so you will have to wait until the BIG DAY!!!

Brides Against Breast Cancer - a great organization

Me shopping and trying on new dresses
Me with Jen, my matron-of-honor and her baby son, Kelley

My mom and I wedding dress shopping for the 2nd time - it is still THE ONE!

We FINALLY set a wedding date!

Well, after being engaged for over 3 years, Clark and I FINALLY set a wedding date and secured a venue for our ceremony and reception! It is official because we put a deposit down - we are getting married at the McMenamin's Edgefield in Portland, OR on Sunday, September 19th, 2010.

We are having an outdoor ceremony in a private garden area and an indoor reception just next to the garden. We chose McMenamin's because of all the wonderful things to do at this place - two par-3 golf courses, a Spa, pool hall, movie theatre, numerous bars and restaurants, and most importantly...they brew their own beer, make their own wine, roast their own coffee, have an ice creamery onsite, and even have their own distillery onsite. There are over 100 guest rooms and it will be a fun mini-weekend getaway (we hope) for our out of town family and friends.

We will have fun weekend activities for our out-of-town guests to participate in including a beer and wine tasting on Friday night, golfing with the Groom on Saturday morning, spa day with the bride on Saturday morning, and movie night on Saturday night. On Sunday, we are having a midday ceremony and a brunch reception afterwards. To check out all the amenities McMenamin's has to offer, see our weekend activities, and learn about how we met, how Clark proposed, and our wedding party, please visit our wedding website we created to keep our family and friends updated: www.mywedding.com/andreaandclark

Cheers to wedding planning and celebrating the big day!

Clark and Andi (and our trusty fuel-efficient Prius) in front of McMenamin's Edgefield

Camping in Central Oregon

For Labor Day weekend, we decided to take a camping trip with my parents (also known as "The G-PAs" to Lucy). A close family friend of ours owns a piece of property in the Bend/Sunriver area where my parents have their camper parked so we have a place to cook and have a campfire and while we could have camped with our tent again, there is an A-frame for us to sleep that is insulated from the heat and bugs.

Bend/Sunriver is in Central Oregon, about 4-hours from Portland. We arrived and Lucy loved the car ride and immediately loved the campsite...lots to sniff and lots of sticks to chew on. Clark and I were able to golf one day and we were able to drive about 1 hour to Crater Lake National Park to check out that National Landmark. It was AWESOME and somewhere we had never been before. Very breathtaking and awesome. We played games of solitare, sat by the fire, made s'mores, and even saw some wildlife.

At one of our rest stops on the drive over...interesting signage...sad, but must be true for them to post this stuff

Mom at some historic looking bridge overlooking a steep cliff
Andi

Lucy at the campsite - loving it

sacked out in the backseat of the car in Grandma Dog's lap

Crater Lake National Park

Clark golfing

Andrea golfing - I seemed to find all the sand bunkers

Clark shuffling and getting ready to play cards with me

Mom cooking dinner in the camper

Our campsite

First Family Camping Trip

I found a 3-person Coleman tent on sale at target earlier this summer and it has been itching to be used for the first time...so we decided to take our first family camping trip. We left early on Saturday for Port Townsend, a cute little coastal town on the Northwestern tip of the Kitsap Peninsula. We camped at Fort Worden State Park, which had both forest and beach camping sites. We opted for the beach camp site and while there was relatively little privacy between campsites, it was within walking distance to the beach and we could fall asleep listening to the sound of the waves.

It was great. Lucy loved the car ride, Clark loved that the tent was crimson and gray, and I loved packing all sorts of snacks and food. We set up camp midday on Saturday and then hiked around the coast...it was beautiful. Nothing like camping to make you sit down, relax, maybe read a book, or just simply enjoy each other's company and talk. It was chilly at night, but we had a 90-lb dog snuggled in between us to keep us warm.

Unfortunately, Clark had to leave early the next morning to work - BOO! But I didn't let that spoil the rest of our little weekend getaway. After dissembling our tent and packing up our campsite, Lucy and I walked around downtown Port Townsend, which is a charming little antique town. Lots of cute shops. Then we went to the beach and enjoyed the sunshine...I read my book while Lucy laid in the sand. Despite our best efforts to get her to swim in the water, Lucy didn't go far enough to swim, but she did enjoy wading in the water.

We will be camping next weekend with the G-PAs (grandparents) down in the Bend/Sunriver, OR area, so this was a test...Lucy passed with flying colors.

Clark actually read the instructions on how to set up the tent - a first!
Clark and Lucy in front of our tent

Our tent and campsite

Taking a hike along the beach just minutes from our campsite

The view just minutes from our campsite

Lucy's pawprints in the sand

Lucy staked her claim on our air mattress bed early

Lucy found a stick to chew on...ahh, the simplicities of being a dog

Lucy and me hanging out at the beach