Party

I really wanted to at least post a little bit about our party this past weekend before leaving on our trip. I didn't take a ton of pictures with my camera since I was busy talking and dancing, but I will try to post more photos when I get them from friends.

Here is a picture of the room Moria was able to reserve on campus. It was perfect for what we wanted. There was even a kitchen which made things much easier than they would have been without. Kevin and Brian hung the lights the night before and then we put up the lanterns that day. It is hard to tell but they were white and light pink.


Brian, Moria, Sarah, and Jonathan all helped with set up and then we were ready to celebrate.

We kept the slide show going in the corner throughout the event so people could look at pictures as they had time or wanted to. I think our friends got a kick out of seeing pictures of us as little kids.

Sarah had wanted to try out her decorating skills on a wedding cake so she offered to make a cake for our event. I know how hard she worked on making it look like our wedding cake and I thought she did an amazing job.
Here is the cake from our wedding so you can compare. I sent here pictures of it and she worked away at creating a mini version for us.
Sarah even made five flowers from frosting to put on the top of the cake. (One for each year.) Everyone was impressed with her amazing work and were equally impressed with how delicious it was. The amount of time and effort she put into creating this blows me away. We have the GREATEST friends out here and I am so thankful to have them in my life.
Moria was a HUGE help in making this night go as well as it did. Not only did she help me decorate but she kept an eye on the food and refilled it as necessary. It was like magic. Brian and Moria were also key in the clean up and I can't express in words how much we appreciated it. Like I said....awesome friends.
We didn't announce when we went to cut the cake but before we knew it everyone was watching and taking pictures. Major deja vu.
It is hard to believe that it has been five years already. We have had our ups and downs like anyone but I wouldn't trade it for anything. A few of our friends asked me what I'd learned over 5 years of marriage and my answer was simple. You learn to say you are sorry a lot and you have to learn to compromise.
I brought our original guest book from the wedding and had our friends all sign it. That will be something I will treasure forever. There are some funny things written in there that we are still laughing and smiling about.


That will have to be all for now. We are finishing packing up and our flight to Oahu leaves tomorrow morning. I plan to take TONS of pictures and I can't wait to share our trip with you! Our honeymoon in finally here and we can't wait!

Anniversary Party

The night is finally here...our 5th Wedding Anniversary Party! We've been busy updating our slide show, getting music for the dance, etc. We hung the lights up last night and we are heading to the village center in a little bit to do some more decorating. I thought I'd post the invite we emailed out to our friends out here.


We can't wait. There should be lots of pictures so I will try to get a post up before we head to Hawaii on Thursday.

Superbowl Sunday

I know what you are thinking....'A real post! About time!' Sorry about that. I'm hoping to be better for the rest of the month.

For Superbowl this year we headed over to Jonathan and Sarah's again. None of us were rooting for any team in particular but we all ended up sort of picking Green Bay to cheer on. Before the game started we played a few rounds Euchre. It was a gorgeous February afternoon here in the Bay so we played out on the balcony.


Colin and I were self-proclaimed poor card players but we ended up beating Kevin and Sarah anyway. Needless to say we were pretty pleased with ourselves.

They dealt with the loss pretty well.
Jonathan and Sarah had a tasty appetizer at a restaurant during their last visit to Indy and he wanted to attempt to recreate it. Essentially it is just horseradish mixed in with cocktail sauce but I guess it was really really hot when they had it. It apparently didn't reach the same level of heat as last time (although Sarah was somewhat happy about this), but we all thought is was delicious. The presentation was amazing as well.
As usual we had a good time with great company. Superbowl won't be the same next year without Sarah and Jonathan.

Happy Birthday

Happy 80th Birthday Grandad!

I found a good picture that I don't think I posted before so I thought I'd throw it in. I wish we could be there to celebrate this weekend....we miss everyone!

(Happy birthday to Grandmom too!)

January Stuff

January has come and gone already which is sort of hard to believe. While we've been busy this month it hasn't been with anything really that exciting. I haven't been traveling with my camera much so the few remotely blog worthy events have gone without any photos. February definitely promises to be more interesting but I thought I'd at least take a minute to talk about some of the things going on in our lives right now.

Kevin is in the process of starting to wind things down with his research marking the beginning of the end of our time here at Stanford. This doesn't mean he's any less busy with his work but the tone is different now that he comes closer to finishing up his doctorate. A few of our friends have already accepted jobs and are in the process of working on their thesis and plan to be done at Stanford sometime this summer. Others, including Kevin, are in the process of looking and applying for jobs and/or post docs so they can begin the next chapter. It is all very exciting but sort of sad too. I can't help but feel a sense of finality to things we do. I know our group of friends is going to quickly begin to dwindle as people begin to depart in different directions.

It is also scary knowing that things are about to change drastically, but no clear idea on exactly how. Where will we be? What will Kevin be doing? What will I be doing? How close will we be to family? How close will our friends be? The questions are endless. I know they will all be answered in time and I just have to be patient.

Besides worrying about our future we are currently planning a party for our 5 year anniversary. We wanted to do something fun and we figured since nobody from Stanford was at our wedding we might as well use our anniversary as an excuse to throw a party and share something special with our friends out here. Moria was able to reserve us a room on campus to have the party (free!!!), we are borrowing some speakers to hook up to our computer for music, and Sarah offered to make a cake. A few decorations, snacks and drinks and we are set for a party! I'm updating the slide show that Patti made for our rehearsal dinner...adding new pictures from the last five years and I'm pulling out a few other odds and ends from our wedding. It has been fun going through stuff and I'm glad a few things will be put to use a second time.

The week after our party we are heading on a trip and I'm really looking forward to it. We love going home and visiting family but we don't actually spend much time together during those trips. It is completely understandable since we want to get time in with people we only see a few times a year...but I'm still really excited to have a week with just my hubby.

I promise the next post will have pictures and hopefully it will be soon!

Holidays in Kansas

It feels strange reflecting back to nearly a month ago for this post so I don't know how detailed it is going to be until I get going. Either way it will feel good to have this post completed so I can move on to the activities of the new year. Here we go...

We were so fortunate this year that it worked out for us to be home for Christmas and New Years. Originally I was supposed to work the week in between and I wasn't going to be able to arrive in Kansas until New Years Day. Luckily someone from my work canceled their vacation and I was able to take advantage and get vacation time. We took a red eye and left at midnight on Christmas Day. We had a short layover but managed to avoid the poor weather that the east coast was having and made it to K.C. Christmas morning. That flight is exhausting because you can never really sleep that well on the plane but it was worth it to be able to see both of our families that day.

We did manage to sneak in a nap before we had to try and be lucid and social with anyone. That afternoon we spent having lunch, opening gifts, and playing games with Kevin's family. All of us were able to be there including Joe who is living in Austin now and Thomas and Serena who are in Emporia. There aren't really words to describe how wonderful it was to have us all together.

Dinner time.

Kevin and his Momma.

After a few rounds of guesstures and catch phrase it was time for us to head over to my parents house. At that point I was really excited to surprise Hailie and Seth. When we rang the doorbell Hailie ran to the door to open it and exclaimed "You're here?!?!". We couldn't see Seth's face at first but my Dad said he sort of just stood there with his mouth hanging open. Keeping the secret of our arrival was difficult but definitely worth it.

After opening gifts, visiting, and eating we took a little time to play with some of the new stuff including the kids' Wii. It was fun watching even mom and dad get into a few of the games.

The beginning of our week involved hanging out with all the dogs and each other. Kevin has been really wanting a dog lately so I know he enjoyed wrestling around with all of them. We finally were able to do a family picture with Kevin's family (we'd been trying to accomplish this for over a year). We watched movies and just really enjoyed each others company.

Here he is Kevin with James' dog Dallas.

A little time out at the farm with Grandad and Grandmom.

Many games were played during our week back. One of my personal favorites was a game called Quelf. It basically has you doing a bunch of stupid stuff throughout the entire game. At one point I had to lie on the floor, play dead, and yell "You thwarted me again you vile beast" anytime someone passed me on the board. Kevin had to take down his Mom is a round of rock, paper, scissors.

Joe had to make a robot mask and where is for two turns without telling anyone why he was doing it. I don't know if it resonates well in the photo, but he was not happy about the numerous pictures I kept taking of him. Kevin, his brothers, and his Dad competed in the Olympics on the X box kinect for hours on end the entire week. I think they stayed up until after 2am competing on more than one occasion. Since the game is based on movement they definitely got a good workout in. They were drenched in sweat after their marathon sessions.

Hailie and Seth were on winter break and I loved that they didn't have to go to school every day and worry about homework every night while we were back. Hailie was really clingy to me this trip and I can't say that it bothered me. I love all her kisses and hugs.
Seth loved having Kevin to wrestle and rough house with. Kevin is strong enough to manage that kid even though he is getting bigger and stronger every time I see him.

Mom, Hailie, and I were able to get a little girl time in and went shopping and also just enjoyed hanging out. We pulled out our marble/aggravation game and took on the boys again. Unlike last time, the women were victorious and we took home the win.

I managed to get my girls together again this trip and I was very happy about that. We went out to dinner and had a great time catching up as always. Kara told us only a few weeks before she is expecting her first baby and due in June and I loved being able to see her and hear about how things are going so far. We had to get a picture of us listening for the baby since we did this with Heather when she was pregnant with her daughter.

Our gift to my Mom was for us to work on the office room downstairs in the basement. I had started a painting project down there almost a year ago and never finished. We were able to get all of the painting done, the room cleared out and the computer area arranged and organized.

Even the kids got in on the painting.

I watched some of the K-State bowl game with my Dad and few of his work friends. Despite the loss on less than ideal terms it was still fun being able to spend time together.

We celebrated James' 29th birthday with delicious Mexican food, cake, and games.

Kevin celebrated New Year's with his brothers and while I wanted to spend time with them I decided to stay in and just hang out with my family instead. We watched an adorable movie "How to Train Your Dragon" which I loved and cuddled with a fire in the stove. It was so cold that night and the thought of leaving just didn't appeal to me.

On New Year's Day we were able to see the Copp side of the family out at the farm for lunch as well as Kevin's Grandma and Grandpa Kent for dinner. The trip was incredible and like usual it flew by much to quickly. While we saw a lot of people there is never enough time to see everyone that we would like. If only we could slow time down for a bit during vacations...that would be nice.

We are getting back to our routine here in California but we are definitely looking forward to our next trip to Kansas.

Hiatus

Since returning from our wonderful trip from Kansas at the beginning of this month I've have had every intention of getting our blog updated with pictures and stories about our time. A few days after arriving back I was sick and it really knocked me down. While I spent a lot of time at home doing nothing when I wasn't at work, I couldn't motivate myself to work on uploading pictures.

When I finally felt a little better I began struggling with my laptop and it has made it difficult to get things updated. I think that Kevin has fixed my computer (I am so grateful he is handy with these things) so one of my goals this weekend is to finally post about our holidays.

Give me a few more days and hopefully I will have something interesting to post!