A much needed break from the house

The first two weeks of married life were spent painting, painting, and painting some more. Suffice it to say I will blog about the house some day... possibly when we are done with the house in 2012, but for now, trust me when I say that I needed a break! Brian's weekend with Ekco couldn't have been more perfectly timed. I was getting so sucked up into working on the house I was becoming an irritable ogre and I didn't even realize it until... we got to Battle Mountain and I took a deep breath. It was wonderful. I could not work on the house. I did not have any grading to do. So we just plain enjoyed ourselves, played, hiked, and had a great time.
Ali was back from Cedar City so she went exploring with us and even Tim and Brittany joined in on the fun. It is so wonderful out in the mountains behind Brian's parent's house. I know I say this all the time, but it truly is wonderful to be able to get out of the city and enjoy the outdoors. It was so soothing and calming and forced me to remember that there are much more important things in this world than whether or not the 20 foot ceiling has proper coverage.
As usual there was an old tractor. We rarely go out when we don't find some old type of machinery.
And an old mining contraption with superman flexing his muscles up at the top. I didn't take a picture of it, but I shot one of Brian's rifles and I hit my target perfectly and it was fun!
Grandma came too!!!
We just walked around and Ali took the kids up and down the hills which they appreciated.
And, also as usual, Brian played around on Tim's bike and Xiana insisted that she get a ride on the motorcycle. Actually, it's kind of funny but Brian has a nice motorcycle and Xiana has never ridden it and I have no pictures of it. He never rides it, but every time we are out of town he rides Tim's.... go figure:) I guess the streets just aren't the same as the mountains.
Ekco and Xiana played on top of this hill for a long time giggling and enjoying each other. They are such good sisters and it makes me very happy!
Hunter needed in on the action too.
No trip would be complete without some trampoline time.
They are so cute!!

Rehearsal dinner

Brian was pretty adamant that we have a rehearsal dinner. I thought that was just added stress, but as it turns out, this was a crucial night. It was so important to have some time to spend with family before the wedding. The day of we scarcely got to talk to each other. Also, it provided an opportunity for our families to get better acquainted with one another. Plus, the food was to die for. Brian's brothers grilled the steaks and chicken and they were perfection.
After we ate... the room was transformed. Literally!
Practicing :)
Matt spent hours on the basketball hoop. I will be honest. I was frightened as I watched him wrap purple around it. I decided that I didn't care what it looked like and I was not going to look again. I envisioned a terrible eye sore so imagine my surprise when Mark said, "how are you liking the basketball hoop?" I looked up bracing myself and was shocked to find it had turned out beautiful. It was a very nice touch to a simple decor.
We also got a sneak peak into the song our sisters performed which was excellent because it provided me an opportunity to get teary eyed minus spectators and mascara.

Getting ready...

I couldn't resist including these gems of the wedding.... the girls helped me get ready.
Then they twirled as all girls should do when wearing princess dresses.

And these are my behind the scenes girls.
the true test of the dress was whether or not I could pick up Xiana. It passed.

Mini Moon

Brian cleverly dubbed our quick getaway that is not quite a honeymoon, but also not just a trip our "mini moon." So, here you have it.... We stayed up at Tahoe compliments of Tyler and Kate. There was a really neat lodge dog named Kona.... she was very nice. Due to special dietary needs there were signs stating that you should not feed her. You could, however, give her carrots. I'm not making this up. But, back to the mini... this lodge was oh-so-amazing and if you ever get to stay in Tahoe you should look up the Fireside lodge because it was cozy, quaint, family owned and run, and extraordinarily authentic. For starters, they have a vintage game room with skee ball and air hockey. Plus, they have a movie library where you get to borrow movies. Fun right? They also have a private therapy hot tub that was amazing (especially after our massages). The icing on the cake however, consists of three things 1: homemade cookies in your room; 2: wine and cheese hour (despite the fact that we didn't indulge in the wine, Brian enjoyed the cheese and meats and crackers and I still think this is just such a genius idea) and 3: drum roll please.... a bon fire with all the fixings for smores set out for you to indulge in to your heart's content.... completely amazing. But wait, there's more. When we checked in they told us there was complimentary breakfast. Little did we know...
It consisted of a waffle bar with little ramekins of waffle batter and machines and about 15 luxurious toppings to put on said waffles. It was so much fun. I ate two.
So did Brian.
I love when you go places that the owners run because you can see and feel that it's a labor of love. They actually care about their guests and concern themselves with the little details. If you look up the word "quaint" in the dictionary I am quite certain you will find a picture of this lodge.
We went out and hiked a bit and the location was right next to Emerald Bay and Fallen Leaf lake. We couldn't hike the latter due to the 5 feet of snow still resting on the trail.
But we made it to Eagle Falls which was also beautiful.
Lone little coyote.
We drove around and admired the marvelous homes up around the lake and fantasized about owning/ visiting one some day.
Emerald Bay... too cold to swim yet, but summer might be here in the next 3 months.
Don't we just look so married here?



The way the water cut the snow was breathtaking.
And there was a steady stream of melt off rushing down.

The mountains were also beautiful. It was too short, but it was wonderful to get away. We really enjoyed ourselves and also caught up on some much needed relaxation. We dined out and watched movies and drove around. It was special.

And I forgot to mention that we had the entire place to ourselves... literally. Everybody had left after the weekend and we were all alone. Super fun!
When we arrived on Sunday it was Spring. When we left on Tues it was winter. Big surprise.

Wedding minus 545 pictures

So, here it is, the day before and of our wedding play by play:
9:00 am: show up at Brian's house to pick him up to take care of the 3001 things on our to do list only to find him making pancakes in his jammies. First minor melt down ensues.
9:15 am: head to the rental place to pick up rentals
10:00- 3:00 pm: set up the church, have loads of help from family and friends, miscount flowers by 120, watch Xiana have melt down after melt down, feel extraordinarily guilty, have a major melt down, rethink wedding, get more help from family and friends, feel better, church is set.
3:30-4:30 pm: down diet dr. pepper number 4 and head out to our new house to show family
4:30: jump out of and in to clothes to head back to the church to help with the rehearsal dinner.
5:00-10:00 pm: enjoy a delicious dinner hosted and prepared by Brian and his family, visit with family and friends for quite possibly the first time that day, watch as the gym is transformed into a beautiful wedding hall, remember how much I love my soon-to-be-husband as we listen to our sisters practice the song and also as I watch him sweep and mop approximately 75 feet.
10:30 pm: rip apart 3 bouquets because the little girl's were almost the exact same size as mine... too big for them and too small for me. Put the bouquets back together and breathe a sigh of relief when they end up beautiful. Pack stuff for wedding day, night, and to make our new vacant home livable for one night.
1:00 am: crash and sleep easily and immediately.
7:00 am: wake up hold Xiana. Head out to our new house again to show friends.
9:00 am: Meet my family for breakfast at Black Bear. Thwart Brian's family from their meeting place of Black Bear. Laugh because I think it's both romantic and funny that they go somewhere else rather than risking the groom seeing the bride. Feel nervous only slightly, mostly excited and anxious.
10:00 am: go home, finish packing, visit with family.
11:00 am shower... breathe
1:00 pm: head to Brian's to pick up Ekco to get our hair done by new sister-in-law, Tosh. Eat fruit and chocolate and drink coke zero.
1:30 pm: get hair done and it looks absolutely amazing... get teary eyed.
3:00 pm: do makeup and only drop mascara brush 3 times....nervous?
3:30 head to the church to meet friends and family and get dressed. Make sure slide show (countless hours in the making), music, and flowers are beautiful and cued...they are.
4:00 pm: Get dressed. Stop breathing for a few minutes in part because of the dress and in part because of the adrenaline.
4:30 pm: get ready to walk out the door. Try to keep Xiana from having a melt down, send the girls out in front of me.
4:40 pm: The girls look absolutely beautiful and I put lipstick on them both which they think is a treat. Watch them walk down the aisle and only find out hours later that Xiana yells "daddy," when she sees him standing at the arch.
4:42 pm: take my dad's arm and walk...... realize I forgot the ring and send him back for it..... get to the arch and take Brian's hands.
4:44 pm: Everything is surreal and I can no longer account for a play by play description. Bishop Mooney says some really wonderful things which I cannot focus on for long enough to actually register (he printed it out for us which is an incredible idea). All I know is that I am holding hands with the man I love, the man I am marrying, and I can't believe it's finally here. I cannot be more happy than this moment. Sometimes I stare into Brian's eyes and sometimes I look away for fear of being overcome with emotion. The bishop gets choked up and I see Brian's cheek start to quiver and I have to look away to compose myself. Then we both say "I do." And we're married. And I know, like I've always known with absolute certainty that this is the man that I want to spend the rest of my life and the rest of eternity with. Ali sings To Make you Feel My Love and Cami accompanies her. It is beautiful. The entire thing is perfect. Brian and I are smiling from ear to ear and I can't seem to squeeze his hand hard enough. I want to crawl inside his being and become him. Figuratively speaking I do. Relief, joy, happiness, gratitude and a million other emotions create an indescribable phenomena. We take the girls and head outside for pictures. Xiana is kind of a pill but it doesn't matter because the pictures turn out amazing. We head back in and stand smiling for 500 more pics with family. Then we try to eat something, but it is precisely at this moment that people start piling in. We spend the night hugging, talking, dancing, and sharing this moment, this uncapturable moment with so many people we love. We don't really get to spend any length of time with said people, but in our hearts we know they're there and that is enough. Plus, that's the way it goes. The bride and groom aren't there for everybody else:) It. is. perfection. There is a bit of confusion at the end of the night of who goes where with what and whom. The girls are both a bit miffed at us for leaving for our mini moon without them, but we go anyway:) We head to our new house and I am now Mrs. Andersen. And we now are united halves that make a whole. And it rocks. And that is where this play by play ends....

I usually call my bum butt

This is the ongoing argument in the Frey, er um, I mean Andersen household. Xiana has taken to saying butt instead of bum, but that isn't all. She insists on stating that she usually calls it butt repeatedly throughout the day just to see how many differing reactions she can get. Still, she is potty trained so I guess I can't expect her to use little girl words forever :) She has also recently taken to removing her potty seat from the toilet before she uses it because, as she assures me, "I'm older."--another reoccurring statement in our household. In our new house, she has a castle bed and she no longer wears pull ups to sleep. She has made it three weeks with no accidents. I think it's safe to say she is potty trained. It's really nice because I no longer have to remind her or anything... she just does her thing. She is very inventive and I often overhear her saying some of the funniest things. The other day while driving to my parents house in 30 degree weather with hundred mile per hour winds she said, " I see the sun. We better go to Lake Tahoe!"

I know it's completely out of my character to have been feeling guilty or worried about her with this transition *wink wink* but I was. Now, I find that I didn't need to obsess or be so concerned. We have become a little family quite seamlessly. I do, however, feel utterly guilty for relying on the princess and the frog to be my babysitter whilst I paint every inch of our new home. And yes, I am going to write about my wedding... but today I just want to say that we set up our trampoline and I have never seen a happier girl than Xiana jumping on it with her cousin Kylee. It was.... perfection!

I'm back!

I just looked at my last post and discovered it has been *gasp* more than a month since my last post. However, in my defense I have been privy to the most life changing moments in any person's or peoples' or however you say its lives. Not only did I get married (super duper life changing... will blog about that when I have more than a mere 20 min to dedicate to the spectacular-ness of it all), but I also bought a house... a fixer upper.... which requires lots of fixing... So I have been MIA in all meanings of the words. Still, the truth is that despite all my busyness and new life and the end of the semester, and MOVING... into a (did I mention this already?) fixer upper, I would have made sacrifices to blog had I just had this tiny little thing called Internet. Alas, my long lost friend and I are reunited and now we must dig ourselves out of the proverbial cyber hole together. I can't wait to post pics of my wedding.... a month ago wedding that is, and to post pics of the major MAJOR transformations of our new home, and to catch up on the goings on in our lives as a FAMILY, a genuine family. But all that must wait. Tonight, I am simply going to relish the fact that blogosphere is once again at my fingertips, let you all know that I have returned and I will not abandon you again for a long long time, and tell you all that the semester is over and it was extraordinarily rewarding. I did a new assignment where I had my students revise two papers and then present to the class about their journey as writers over the course of the semester. It was moving to see (and let them see) the changes that occurred. While I can't hold myself single-handedly responsible, I can say that their remarks were very complimentary and at times, down right cheezy. Kudos to them and dare I say it? Kudos to me. If I can plan a wedding, get married, buy a house, and teach composition with relatively few melt downs (and typically minor ones) then bring. it. on!