Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Wow, a LOT has happened in the last couple of weeks since my last post!  I won't even try to mention it all... maybe just a summary will do.

On July 9th, I became a happily married man to Elizabeth Salton in Ames, IA.  We had an amazing wedding and a very fun reception with around 175 of our friends & family.  The reception was in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. 

Walking down the aisle as man & wife!

 

Attack of the confetti outside of the church.

The Salton family picture at the reception.

Ok, that's only the tip of the iceburg as far as wedding photos go.  You can check out my aunt LaVonne's pictures on smugmug if you want just "a few" more. 

Following the wedding, Elizabeth and I spent a wonderful week (from Wednesday the 13th to Wednesday the 20th) down in Cancun, Mexico for our honeymoon!  This included visiting the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, parasailing, horseback riding, zip-lining, and lots of swimming & relaxing at the Moon Palace resort.  We also had two special dinners (a concierge & a honeymoon dinner), sang karaoke, and went to a hypnotist show. 

Elizabeth sending a few postcards to family.

Our hot tub in the hotel room!

The view of the Caribbean Sea from our balcony.

Elizabeth singing karaoke.

The Temple of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza.

The great ball court at Chichen Itza.

No big deal.

Elizabeth pretending to be one of the pillars outside of the Temple of the Warrior.

I had a lot of fun seeing one of the new seven wonders of the world.

Back at the hotel, here is Felix making us a round of flaming "Mexican Flags".

Here I am above the jungle treetops just before we start our zip-lining!

Hard to tell, but this is Elizabeth as she zip-lined UPSIDE DOWN.  What a baller.

After zip-lining, we enjoyed an hour of horseback riding.  This is Elizabeth on top of her horse, "Wizard".  

Me and my horse "Cartridge".

This is Elizabeth all dolled-up before we head out to our concierge dinner.

Looking good at dinner.

A view of our pool at the Moon Palace.

Here we WAY up in the air as we parasail above our resort.

That's our tiny little boat way off in the distance.

A view of the moon palace resort from above.

Here is a closer look from above.

Wow our honeymoon was so much fun!  In all we took about 300-some pictures and a few videos while were on our trip, so the ones in this blog are just the start.  Later on we plan to order our own picture book on shutterfly.  Now sadly, we are back to reality and will be at work tomorrow :(  How depressing!  At least we still have the rest of the afternoon to ourselves... we plan to go see the final Harry Potter movie here soon!!  Adios amigos!!

Monday, July 4th, 2011

Happy 4th of July everyone!  ONLY 5 DAYS UNTIL OUR WEDDING!!

Our weekend started out to be a very sad one as we drove to Waukon, IA and attended the funeral of Elizabeth's grandmother, Laurayne A. Easley.  I only had the pleasure to meet her once, but it sounds like she was an amazing woman.  She was a teacher for well over 40 years, and her marriage to Donald Easley was a few weeks shy of lasting 69 years.  It's pretty amazing to have such a long marriage.  If Elizabeth & myself can make it to our mid-90's we'll be close to that!

For the rest of the weekend we tried to have some fun around Palatine in efforts to cheer up.  Yesterday we went to a carnival and enjoyed some good food, listened to live music, rode a few carnival rides, and later in the evening sat and watched the fireworks show.  Here are a few pictures just in case you don't believe me:

Elizabeth enjoying some freshly grilled sweet corn.

The corn was dipped into a vat of melted butter.  Mmm!

These kids must have been in middle school, but they were playing some RHCP songs pretty well.

Elizabeth going down a kiddie slide!

Ferris wheel.

We bought wrist bands to go on unlimited rides. 

On the ferris wheel.

While riding the ferris wheel, here is the view of the roller coaster that just goes in a circle.  We managed to survive that one as well.

Looking down at the festival below.

Enjoying a cold beverage before the firework show begins.

Ok, it's kind of hard to capture a 20-minute firework display with a few pictures.  There were some very nice fireworks that looked like smiley-faces, but I wasn't able to get a picture of any of them.  It was definitely fun to watch though.

So far today we've gone to the mall to pick up some things for Cancun and some gifts for the groomsmen in the wedding.  For lunch we made Jucy Lucy's (hamburgers with cheese on the inside), and they turned out amazing.  I may never grill a regular hamburger patty again. 

I'm looking forward to seeing all of our friends & family back in Iowa here in a few days.  Can't wait!!!

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

10 DAYS UNTIL THE WEDDING!! 14 DAYS UNTIL MEXICO!!

So today I had a very busy and somewhat stressful morning, so I decided to get my spirits up again by going out for a yummy sushi lunch... mmmmm.  If I do end up moving back to Iowa shortly after the wedding, this may be the last time that I get to enjoy my favorite Chicago sushi place...

Outside of the restaurant.  It might not look like much, but it's the best for all-you-can-eat sushi!!

Round 1: 3 eel, 3 salmon, 1 mountain roll (avacado & cucumber inside, tuna on top with chef's spicy sauce), and an American dream roll (shrimp tempura, tobiko, cucumber, eel, avacado).

Another view of my first plate.  The mountain roll was amazing.

Second plate: Crunch roll, 2 tuna, 2 salmon, 2 eel, and 2 massago.

I'm not sure exactly why, but it is so fun to look at pictures of sushi later :)  This way when I move back to Iowa, I can remember this yummy place. 

Sunday, June 26, 2011

13 DAYS UNTIL THE WEDDING!!

So a lot has gone on since my last post... I probably should mention that I went to Las Vegas last weekend!!  I met up with Christian and the Seago brothers (Jon, Matthew, & Jeremy).  For the most part we went around together as one bachelor party, but I also knew 2 other bachelors out there (Foster & Willie).  They went around with Marschman, Jake, and Foster's brother Torrie and their dad.  That makes 11 of us all together!  We all stayed at the Imperial Palace.  Here are just a few of many pictures:

Christian met me at the airport for our first beer of the trip!

Matthew at the slot machines in O'Sheas casino.

Elizabeth is such a wonderful fiance... she had a bottle of Patron delivered to out hotel room!  BEST FIANCE EVER!!

Christian & Matthew playing video poker at O'Sheas.

Christian having an artist draw his caricature at the top of the Stratosphere.

Looking out over the city...

View from the Stratosphere.

Myself, Matthew, Christian, Jeremy, & Jon on top of Vegas!

...yet another view from the Stratosphere.

Jon having his picture drawn.

Jeremy & his caricature.

There was a snake-handler on out on the strip that let us take a few pics with his boa.

Jeremy with the boa.

Walking along the strip at night.

Foster's brother Torrie teaching me how to play craps.

The craps table.

Needless to say, I didn't exactly win big... but it was a great time for sure!  This weekend I worked on Saturday, and Elizabeth drove back to IA for her cousin's wedding.  Lots of wedding!!  Really I didn't do much other than work this weekend and catch up on a few things around the apartment... laundry, etc.  After I had the kitchen all cleaned, for some reason I decided to cook a huge meal and make a mess again.  I found a recipe online for Eggplant Parmesan, and mine turned out just like it was supposed to. YUM!! I didn't take any pictures of my work, but you can just follow the hyperlink to get an idea. 

I'm looking forward to seeing all of my family & friends for the big day!!  It's so close!

Friday, June 10th, 2011

Let's see, what did I do today... I dropped Elizabeth off at the train stop like usual and went to work.  Since it is Friday I only had to work until 2:00 or so which was nice.  I actually got to come home, relax, and do absolutely nothing for a couple hours.  It was everything that I thought it could be :)  After I picked Elizabeth back up from the gym, we went out to Portillo's for a very traditional Chicago supper.  Portillo's will definitely be on of the area restaurants that I will miss when we move back to IA.  I had a Big Italian Beef sandwich with sweet peppers, and she ordered a cheeseburger with french fries (no onions naturally).  Then we both ordered a chocolate cake shake because they are absolutely delicious. 

I'm looking forward to Las Vegas very much... Seago sent me a text message today admitting that he is a little scared to go, which I think is hilarious.  He is so unsure of what he's getting into that he is honestly scared.  I love it. 

I'm also rather enjoying the series between the Mavericks & Heat at the moment because there is a good chance Dallas will pull it out.  I can't stand Lebron James.  If you ask his for change for a dollar, you will only get 75 cents.  He never gives you the fourth quarter.  Haha.  So yeah, hopefully Dallas can win either game 6 or game 7 in Miami and close this thing out. 

Time for bed.

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

It's one month exactly until the WEDDING!!!

I've been fitted for my tux, the RSVPs are coming in pretty well, and it's starting to finally come together :)  We still have a few loose ends to tighten up, but in all I think that we are pretty ready for everything.  Also, I've got one more week until VEGAS!!

It gets even better because CANCUN is also getting close!  We found out last night that we will have free tickets to watch Shakira.  She is having a concert right at the resort we are staying at.  More exciting for Elizabeth than myself, but it's still cool that we will be able to go for free.  Plus getting to see the Mayan ruins, having all the good food & alcohol we want all week, and enjoying the pool/spa/relaxation will be awesome!
Check out my honeymoon resort here.

I can't wait for everything!!  In a side note about my previous post, the Cubs managed to lose the next 8 games in a row after we watched them.  Glad that we picked the right one to see!

Monday, May 30th, 2011

Yesterday we had a great time enjoying downtown Chicago even though the weather started out pretty crummy.  Elizabeth and I took the train downtown along with Mike & Sara.  We had breakfast at Clarke's diner on Belmont (and a couple drinks).  About the time we sat down it started to pour outside along with lightning & thunder.  We were worried that they may cancel the baseball game, but luckily for us it was only delayed a couple hours.  In the meantime we decided to stay at the bar at Clarke's which turned out to have some cheap drink specials ($2 bud light or coors light draws), and the bartender was telling lots of funny stories about crazy people he had met in the bar.

Rain delay at Wrigley (2 hours, 34 minutes).

Sara, Mike, & myself waiting out the storm at Clarke's.

Outside at Wrigley.

 

At the ballgame!

The view from our seats...

The game itself was fun because it was a close ballgame all the way until the final out, and because the Cubs beat the Pirates 3-2!  We didn't get to our seats until the bottom of the second inning, and at that point the Cubs were already trailing 2-0.  Then soon after we sat down we were able to see Aramis Ramirez hit a solo home run to left field which got the crowd excited.  The other Cubs runs came from a pair of sacrifice flys from Koyie Hill and Starlin Castro. 

Of course we had to sample some of the treats at Wrigley field including hot dogs, nachos, pretzels with cheese sauce, and cotton candy.  We enjoyed singing "take me out to the ballgame" during the seventh-inning-stretch, and the "Go Cubs, go" song at the end of the game after the win.  That was the first time I've seen the Cubs win a game in Wrigley (I've only been to one other game).  In all it was a very fun day downtown.