California

We finally set a date! August 8, 2009 is only 389 days away and I will be Collette Griffin. My mom, her best friend, Mary, and I took a 2 day getaway to Monterey and Carmel Valley. Just a little girls weekend away that was so much fun! Although the trip started off on a sour note, with two and a half hour delayed flights, it was very worth every minute I waited in the airport. We did some wine tasting, lunched at a quaint cafe, spent five and a half hours at the wedding venue, had an excellent dinner on the Pacific Ocean and most importantly enjoyed each other's company. I vote for a girls weekend every year!

Here is a picture of the smoke from one of the Californian wildfires rising above the clouds as visible from the airplane!


The venue! The gazebo in the right corner will be where the ceremony takes place with a dinner and reception poolside.


Just us girls!


Mom and Mary with Monterey's Cannery Row in the background. This picture was actually taken in the dark, so my apologies for the clarity.


I love wildlife in the wild. Notice there are two starfish the orange one and a purple one.


I wanted to take that sea lion home because he was so darling.



One last item that is not related to the trip to California, I had ordered two of the dresses that were pictured below and they were horrible. Neither had cap sleeves or any other sleeves of any kind. One did not have the pleats on the upper half of the dress as clearly pictured below. So I am back to searching. If anyone happens to come across a dress similar to the one's posted below, please let me know. Here is the only thing I have found recently and would love some opinions!

Pink or Red?

So, apparently Collette wants a pink wedding. This would be fine if she was a 16 year old on an MTV reality show. I feel that when a young woman passes the age of 19 they graduate from pink to red. Not "holy crap that dress is red!", but Boston Red Sox red or American Fork Caveman red. Of course, Collette tried to convince me that pink can be classy, so I am asking you all who read this blog which should be the wedding color? Please vote knowing that I am against pink and Collette is against red. So compromise is not an option because the dresses happen to come in two colors only, pink and red.

The Oregon Coast.....I'm Over It

Rusty and I decided to beat the heat this weekend, so we drove out to the coast for the day. Before we left I checked weather.com, which informed me it would be 77 degrees and partly cloudy. Sounds pretty perfect for a day of napping, reading, and listening to our ipods on the beach. When we arrived it was overcast and cool, about 60 degrees. We headed into Mo's for some chowder, or chili in my case. Towards the end of our lunch the sun began to peak out from the clouds. We grabbed our beach blanket and headed to claim a plot of sand. The sun and clouds started to alternate and it was definitely warming up. The next hour seemed to be the highlight of the day as the weather started to decline. Well, it never reached 70 degrees, let alone the predicted 77 degrees. It was also mostly cloudy with occasional sun and a strong cool breeze. This agitated me slightly.

The first time Rusty took me to the coast it was 85 and sunny, which I thought was pretty standard. Congrats, you fooled me! Since that memorable day, we have been to the coast a few times and no matter what time of year it was it has been between 50 and 65 degrees, foggy, rainy, windy, and cool. It just seems so unfair! The coast looks so pretty why can't the weather be nicer? Lately, the weather in Portland has been on my nerves. We had such a long winter. It was cool and rainy until June and then it was 107 degrees 3 weeks later. Rusty has a simple solution for my constant quest for perfect weather..."Move to San Diego!" Ahh, I can only hope that one day we will be able to. Rusty could have season tickets for the Chargers and life would be good. I heard rumors of beaches that have nice weather and I can only hope that what I have heard is true. In the words of Ron Burgundy "Stay classy San Diego!"