Meghann & Bryan's Wedding

Yesterday Mike and I went to our eighth and final wedding of the year - my good friend Meghann from both high school and Choral Society got married!

Mr. & Mrs. Stedman!

The wedding was absolutely beautiful - it was held at the Forest House Lodge in Foresthill. The ceremony was held outside in the courtyard and while the weather was cool, it completely cooperated (translation: no rain!). Meghann was an absolutely beautiful bride - I think my two favorite parts of her ensemble were the super sparkly veil and her cool red heels!

They went with a fall theme and had very similar colors to the ones Mike and I had. Seriously, how do you pass up those beautiful fall colors? Their tables were named after trees and the favor was a glass with the Foresthill Bridge (the tallest bridge in California - also Bryan is a civil engineer) and their names etched on it. Each of the glasses had your name on a leaf telling you which table you were at:

Favors/Escort Cards

Centerpieces/Table Names

It was a beautiful wedding and we had a wonderful time! Congratulations Meghann and Bryan!

A Week In Paradise

Mike and I decided to go to the Sandals Grande St. Lucian in beautiful St. Lucia for our honeymoon. We left the day after the wedding, which in hindsight, we wish would have maybe given ourselves another day to relax. Both of us were really surprised with how completely exhausted we were! The one downside to St. Lucia is that it's so far from California... it takes almost two full days to get there (two full days, four airports and three planes!). We flew into Miami and spent the night there before heading to St. Lucia on Monday morning. Once we landed on the island, we had a two hour drive ahead of us:

Hanging In The Van

Our driver was really cool and told us about the history of the island and pointed out landmarks. Because we got there so late, we were absolutely starving (and hadn't had food since breakfast), so we hit up the English pub for any kind of food:

Popcorn, Wings and Drinks - Dinner Of The Champions!

On Tuesday, we basically spent the entire day doing what we ended up loving the most - standing in the ocean with drinks. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the water was seriously warm.

Hanging Out At The Beach

I also found this really cute little crab under my beach chair:

I Shall Call Him Fluffy

On day three, we did one of my most favorite things of the entire trip - we went on a horseback ride. Not any ordinary horseback ride... this one was to a little bay on the Atlantic side of the island. They then took the saddles off the horses and we got to ride/swim them into the water. It was absolutely amazing! Mike had never been on a horse before, so I was hoping this was a cool experience for him. I think it was not as exciting since he got a horse that wanted nothing to do with leaving the stables, let alone walking anywhere else.

Riding Out Of The Ocean

One of our guides was this absolutely hilarious rasta guy... who I wanted to take a picture with before we left the stables. He insisted that we pose with him - the hand signals we're doing below are the rasta symbol for unity. At least that's what he told us. For all I know, Mike and I were throwing up some sort of St. Lucian gang symbol...

Unity!

On the fourth day, we did a deep sea fishing excursion. I've never really been out in the ocean like that, so I was worried that I would get sea sick. Fortunately, I did really well... no issues! The way they had the system set up is that there are five poles off the back of the boat. Each person gets ten minutes in the chair - if a fish bites on any of the poles while you're in the chair, you get to reel it in.

Mike Taking His Turn In The Chair

Unfortunately, we didn't catch anything. We heard on the radio that none of the other boats were catching either, but these guys tried really hard to find us some - we did all sorts of loops through kelp beds and other areas they normally have fish in.

That night we had our candlelit dinner on the beach. It was really nice - they set up a table right by the surf with two tiki torches lighting the table. We had a four course meal and it was absolutely delicious!

Dinner On The Beach

On our last day, we took a hike up to the top of this little hill next to our hotel. At the very top of the hill was a fort that was built by the British when they occupied St. Lucia. From the fort you could see where the Carribean and Atlantic oceans came together. It was stunning!

Two Oceans

The weather was beautiful for the entire time we were there... it was mostly in the 80s during the day although it was super humid. Several times during the afternoons it would just rain out of nowhere, but it was a warm rain and only lasted a few minutes. On our last night, there was a beautiful thunderstorm off the coast - we took our drinks to the beach and laid on the chairs to watch the lightning.

Then, it was time for the long trip back home... over way faster than we thought it would be! I think that if we had not been exhausted, we probably would have been a little bored at Sandals, but this was perfect for our honeymoon. We were completely pampered, didn't need to worry about where we were going to get food and had all the drinks we could handle! It was the perfect honeymoon!

It's Official!

First of all, welcome to my new blog! I figured new name, new blog needed. I'm still working on moving the old blog over, but this will be the permanent home of "Down The Road I Go".

Well, it's official! We're married! I can't believe how quickly the day flew by (as everyone said it would) or how wonderful it feels to be married! I seriously look at Mike every day and say "Holy crap, we're married!". It was a really long day and I can't believe how tired we were by the end of it.

I'll post some pictures as soon as I have more. It seems that not a lot of people took pics - which means everyone was busy having fun, so we'll have to wait for the professional ones. For now, I have this one:

Mr. & Mrs. Blankenheim!

I will follow this up with a honeymoon recap as soon as I have a little more time. We had an amazing, relaxing time! For now, Mike and I are super happy to be nesting - we spent almost all of today cleaning and organizing our kitchen with all of the cool new stuff we got. I can't wait to get cooking!

One Week Countdown

Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged! The last few weeks have been a crazy whirlwind! Today marks the seven day countdown to the wedding... I can't believe it's almost here! I'm starting to feel a lot less stressed and a lot more excited. Things are really falling into place! I've had hair and makeup trials, worked out lighting with the DJ, paid the vendors and we're working on all the thousand other little details involved.
We had a really fun weekend last week... one of our close friends is a nurse at a local hospital. As part of a fundraiser to help improve the hospital, every year they do a dancing competition similar to "Dancing with the Stars". They hold a fundraising dinner, live auction and dance competition. Mike and I decided to go this year, especially because Kassie was one of the dancers! We got to get all dressed up:

All Dressed Up!

Yes, I had a mask... the theme was very mardi gras and they handed out masks to everyone when they arrived.

Kassie and her dance partner did the freestyle salsa... they were absolutely amazing! In fact, they won the competition!!!

The Champions!

We will definitely be going back next year... this was a really fun event!

Meghann's Bachelorette Party

Last night I went to my friend Meghann's bachelorette party. Yup, two parties, two weekends in a row. I swear, that's the most partying I've done since college! Meghann is getting married a couple weeks after Mike and I in November. Theirs will be the last of our eight weddings this year!

Anna & Meghann

We started the evening off with dinner at Mas Mexican. The service was absolutely awful, but thankfully, we had a great group of girls. Once we got our food and drinks, we had a blast. In fact, at the end of our dinner, they brought Meghann a massive shot of tequila, complete with sparkler!

Hello Tequila!

After dinner we headed over to the Glass Turtle. Apparently I'm one of the few Oakmont High School alumni that has never been there - it's a popular hangout. Meghann's really sweet sister-in-law-to-be made sure that she had the best veil ever.

"I'm Tying The Knot, Buy Me A Shot!"

We had a total blast - they have karaoke there, which is something that Meghann and I love (as we both sang together in SCSO). It was a blast!

Almost October

Ok, faithful readers. It's almost here. Tomorrow is officially October which means that I can finally say "I'm getting married this month"! I can't believe how quickly time flies! Almost a year ago, we were in Seattle getting engaged! It seemed like we had so much time to plan and prepare - now we're three weeks out!

Honestly, I think I've become wedding bipolar. Ask me how I feel on one day and I'll tell you that I'm completely excited and can't wait for the day. Ask me on another, and I'll tell you that I'm completely exhausted and can't wait for it to be over. Whoever said that it should be a fun and relaxing process lied! It's one of the most stressful events I've ever planned!

That said, things have been really falling into place over the last couple of weeks. We met with our DJ last night - he's going to be so much fun! We had to meet at the fire station because Mike was on duty. The DJ was so excited to slide down the pole! I'm not gonna lie, he did it about 19 minutes faster than I did... but he really had fun! I can't wait for him to DJ for us - we have some cool and fun things planned!

My Bachelorette Party!

Yesterday Kati threw me my bachelorette party... it was so much fun! So much fun that I took three naps today and Excedrin & water have been my new best friends. It took me until about 4pm to actually be able to move from the horizontal to vertical position without feeling like my head was going to explode.

We started the day at Kati & Nate's house. Nate made some very fantastic jello shots for us before taking off for the day to go fishing. Apparently hanging out with a bunch of girls who start drinking at 11:30am wasn't on the top of his to do list.

We hung out by the pool for most of the day and relaxed. Then we decided to watch some movies - we started "Bridesmaids". Brigitte and I got sleepy, so we skipped out in the middle to go take a nap so we were all set for the evening.

Kati got me this fantastic chalice to drink out of:

My Bridal Cup

And then had these great shirts made:

"First the Rock, then we Roll"

The back of them said "Anna's Bachelorette Blow Out". So freaking cute! They definitely got us noticed!

Kati had a limo set up to take us basically anywhere we wanted for the evening. As it turned out, the driver was the same guy who drove us for Kati's wedding! Here are the girls who came in the limo:

My Beautiful Friends!

Me & Kati!

We headed over to Buca di Beppo for a delicious family style dinner... with way more food than all of us girls could eat! Here's the table:

More Of My Beautiful Friends

I felt so loved... I seriously have the best friends ever... they are a combination of high school friends, work friends and people I've met throughout my life... but they all mesh like they've known each other forever! Dinner was fantastic (even if they had issues with the "glasswear"). The work ladies put together a fantastic little basket with all sorts of things that I won't put on Facebook or the internet for that matter. They're so sweet!

After dinner we headed out to The Park Lounge for some more drinks and some dancing.

Shots!

I've noticed that I always look a little scared right before I take a shot. I think it's because I suck at drinking. That said, drinking apparently makes me into an absolutely amazing dancer:

Shaking What My Mama Gave Me

There was one point in the evening that I took a picture with a blow up doll. It was on someone else's camera, so I don't have it to post (a darned shame, I know). I didn't think much of it last night, but now that I'm sober, it makes me ask the question "Who brings a blow up doll to a club?". It did make for some interesting pictures.

Kati made us pancakes this morning and then we played a round of "Pin the Hose on the Fireman"... yup, it's exactly what you think it is. Then it was home for the day to recover and pick Shadow up from the clink. My bachelorette party was absolutely amazing!

All of this dancing and clubbing has made me realize how much I really love curling up on my sofa with Mike and Shadow. I know, it sounds sappy. Don't get me wrong, I totally had a fun time last night, but there's nothing like watching every episode of Criminal Minds with my two boys!

Wedding Planning

Mike and I have made some significant progress this week with regards to wedding planning. Even with helping Kati and Brigitte with their planning over the last year, I definitely didn't realize just how much there is to do! Today, the biggest weight feels lifted off my shoulders - I made the deposit at the florist. It's been a bit of a hassle due to some special circumstances, so what is probably a very minor thing in most people's wedding feels like a major victory to me.

Here are just some of the things we've done in the past few days since getting back from our trip:

Flower Deposit - check
Rehearsal Dinner Planned - check
Favors Ordered - check
Shuttles for Guests Researched - check (we FINALLY found an option that won't cost an arm and a leg!)
Ceremony Musicians Booked - check

We still have a lot to go, but at least now the biggest pieces are covered! Woo hoo!

Bridal Shower!

Today Kati and Mom threw me a bridal shower... it was fantastic! They went with a tropical theme held at Kati's house and it turned out really well. The food was absolutely delicious - there were chicken kabobs, coconut rice, fresh fruit, salad and sweet & sour meat balls. Yum! They also had a delicious rum punch! Later we had cake AND cupcakes... it was really fantastic!

The Centerpieces

We played bridal jeopardy (everyone had to answer questions about me, Mike, etc) and a game where the ladies had to decorate cupcakes. Here are the top three that I chose (they were all great!):

Brigitte's Tiki Cupcake

Eva's Beachy Cupcake

Kristine's Wedding Cake Cupcake

Then, there was the presents! And lots of them! It was definitely a little uncomfortable to sit in front of that many people just opening gifts! That said, my friends and family were so generous and I got lots of great stuff! Now time for all the people pictures:

Kati & I

Kati, Mom and I

The Yellow Table!

The Pink Table!

The Blue Table!

I had so much fun today and felt so loved by everyone! I'm truly touched that so many people wanted to come out and celebrate me getting married... I had friends and family that spent 4 hours in the car today just to be there! Now I'm completely exhausted and looking forward to a good night's sleep!

Cycling, Burgers and Cake

Great title, isn't it? Basically, I do the first one so that I can have the second two!

We went for a fantastic bike ride yesterday. I know I keep going on and on about this cycling stuff, but I'm really getting into it. I absolutely love running, but a lot of the time it hurts. Whether it's an upset tummy or sore joints, there is a lot of mental pushing to get through a decent run. Don't get me wrong, part of what I like about running is the mental aspect. But what I love about cycling is that I don't really have that kind of pain. Since I'm getting ready to marry a billy goat, we've been doing a lot of hill climbing and descending (that's the part that is the hardest for me!). Yes, it is hard and yes, my muscles hurt. But there's something about that kind of hurt that I really like.

Yesterday was the longest ride of my short cycling career. We did 25.17 mile ride with 2,091 feet of climbing. It was fantastic. However, on the way back down the mountain people were barbecuing in their yards... nothing on this planet smells more fantastic than barbecue when you're as hungry as I get when I ride! We had planned to have chicken kabobs for dinner, but made a stop at 88 Burger (or "Happy Burger" as I call it) on the way home instead. To be fair, we ate the kabobs tonight, so no food was wasted.

Our second great feat yesterday was to meet with the baker who will be making our wedding cake. I'm very excited to say that we picked a cake! I'm not going to give it away here (there have to be some surprises at the wedding!), but it's absolutely delicious! Our baker is Ingrid Fraser and the cake that we picked is absolutely amazing! She's going to do some great stuff with the cake to make it really pretty. I can't wait!

It Was Bound To Happen

"And one night it did". Sorry, lame Garth Brooks reference. No, I'm not talking about Papa driving a truck into a hotel, I'm talking about falling off my bike. I decided yesterday afternoon to take my bike out for a little spin close to home. We've got some great hills to climb (and I've got a big hill in the Alp d'Huez to climb next year) and I figured that since it was my first solo ride, I'd be able to walk home if something went terribly wrong.

I was aiming to do two loops (there's a solid climb in there) but it was really hot out (90+ degrees). On my way back up the first loop, I started to get really hot and thought I'd pull over to take a little rest. Apparently unclipping while heading uphill is much harder than it sounds. I pretty much came to a very slow stop and then VERY slowly started tipping over. In fact, I even had time to think "yup, this is the first fall" before I hit the ground. Again, very low speed, so all it really did was scrape up my elbow and scratch the left side of my bike a little. Badge of honor, right? I did manage to land on my keys, which got all scraped up and tore a little hole in my jersey. Maybe now that everything is a little banged up and doesn't looks so new, people will think I am a real cyclist!

The one good part of the whole experience was there was not a soul around to see me bite it. I'm told that many people do this at a busy intersection or parking lot, so I guess I'm lucky there. I made myself get back on and keep riding just so that I didn't end up with a mental block.

In other fun and exciting news, I mailed our wedding invitations today! I can't believe it but three months from today is the big day! It seems like there's so much to do between now and then!

Flowers, Ice Cream and Chicken

Well, today my mom came up in the afternoon and we headed over to Gordon Hill Flower Shop to meet up with the gang there and discuss wedding flowers. This is one area of the wedding that Mike gave me free reign on. I like to think the he just doesn't have time, but since he's a guy, I'm pretty sure that he just doesn't care what flowers I'm holding when I walk down the aisle. To be honest, if he's looking at the flowers, I wasted a lot of money on my dress, but I digress.

I decided on a combination of roses and calla lilies with some willow branches and holly berries added in for that "fall" look. I'm so incredibly happy. Here's a sample picture, but keep in mind that we're going with more of a burnt orange (as opposed to the peachy orange) and some yellow.

Sample Bouquet

I'm really excited about the bouquets and the rest of the flowers I picked for the venue. I can't quite check the florist off the list, but I think we have a good start. I have some really cool ideas for the centerpieces that I'm not going to give away on here, but I think it's going to turn out nicely!

After that, Mom and I headed over to Munnerlyn's Ice Creamery for a little ice cream snack. This place is seriously delicious... if you're ever in the Pine Grove area, it's a must stop place! I had the cake batter ice cream and Mom had the fudge mint. Yum! Then we came home and I made chicken cordon bleu. It was absolutely delicious! I tried this recipe out on Mike and Chris last week (it was a hit!) and Mom loved it too!

Tonight I'm hanging out and being mellow... a much needed restful night!

CERT & Bridesmaid Dresses

This morning I headed down to a CERT class... the first hour was a terrorism class (how CERT can help in those situations, not how to be one...) followed by a class on deployment procedures (for when we go somewhere to help. Both were really interesting, but to the point. I love a good, informative class that keeps it short!

After that Mom, Nicki, Skyler and I headed over to David's Bridal to try on Nicki's bridesmaid dress and Skyler's flower girl dress. I'm not going to post pictures so that I don't give away too much of the wedding but I do have to say that I have the two cutest flower girls on the planet and completely hot bridesmaids.

After that, Mom and I headed over to pick up Mike's wedding ring... it's ready! It's a really classy ring and totally says Mike... I think it's perfect! I can't believe how quickly everything is coming together!

When I finally got home this afternoon, I worked on some macaroni salad for one of our BBQs tomorrow. I also made some homemade macaroni and cheese - it was so delicious!

Home Made Macaroni & Cheese

Now I'm finally settled in on the sofa for a little bit of relaxing before I head to bed - not a bad day!

My New Pony!

Today was a crazy busy day for us. Mike and I got up and headed down to the orchard to finish the fencing. Basically, Mike built Shadow a pen about a year ago and today he finished the pen for me. :) This one is 6 feet tall and hopefully keeps the deer away from my apple, apricot, orange trees and my artichoke. He made it big enough that I could expand the orchard, which I just might do! We spent some time uncaging the trees in there (they each had fencing wrapped around them, but it made it hard to do any pruning).

After that we showered and headed down to Mike's Bikes in Sacramento to look at a road bike for me. This store was absolutely fantastic! The customer service was excellent and they had really great prices. I came home with a Specialized Dolce Elite Apex Compact. It's a size 44 - apparently the smallest women's bike that Specialized makes!

My New Pony On The Trainer

The pictures don't do it justice - this is a beautiful machine! I bought the clip in pedals and all of the goodies that go with it (including the nifty biking shoes!) and my personal mechanic helped get the whole thing set up:

The Blankenheim Household Bike Mechanic

The other big purchase I made today was a new little cycling outfit. They make all sorts of nifty pants and while I balked at the idea of paying $100 for spandex shorts, Mike assured me that I would be super satisfied with my well padded posterior. He said that while I was at it, I should get a jersey, so I chose one that not only makes me very visible, but also reminds me of the beach! I think Shadow likes it...

My New Bike Outfit

Finally, once I was all dressed up, it was time to get on the trainer and test it out!

First Ride On The Trainer

For those of you who don't know, "clipping in" basically makes your feet stuck to the bike pedals, which then allows you to pedal more efficiently. The one downfall is that it takes getting used to when it comes to clipping and unclipping. Every experienced rider tells me that you will fall over with your bike at least twice because you can't get your feet off your pedals and that this almost always happens at a busy intersection where lots of people can see. I can't wait... I also took it for a little spin out on the driveway - and managed to clip and unclip on the hill. Tomorrow morning we're going to take it out for a real ride - I can't wait!

Our other big adventure for today was taking a trip over to Shane Co. to look for wedding bands. I have to say, I've been nothing but impressed with their service. The sales people are not paid on commission and there is absolutely zero pressure to buy. The guy that helped us today was funny and very patient. I'm so happy with the bands we both picked out, but you'll have to wait for the wedding to see them!

Kati & Nate Got Hitched!

They did it! Kati and Nate are now officially Mr. & Mrs. Barcklay!

The rehearsal and rehearsal dinner were a lot of fun, despite the awful wedding coordinator they had. I think she meant well, but she very much stepped on Kati's toes and pushed her own opinion over Kati and Nate's. To make matters worse, they double  booked the church, so the one chance we had to rehearse in the building had to be in complete silence. However, we survived and moved on to Sienna for a fantastic rehearsal dinner. Nate's family had the outside patio reserved, which was a little nerve wracking considering the fact that it's December June and still raining. The weather held up, and thanks to some heating lamps and the outdoor fireplace, we stayed nice and warm. Cyndy (Nate's mom) even brought stuff to make smores!

Kati & I At The Rehearsal Dinner

The food was absolutely fantastic - I had the flat ironed steak with mashed potatoes and dessert was their world famous donut holes. They come with all of these fantastic dipping sauces - yum!

Nate & Kati At The Rehearsal Dinner

On Friday, I spent the day with Kati, Mom, Cyndy, Elizabeth and Emily. We did lunch and then headed over to the nail salon to get pedicures. If you know me, you know this is complete torture since I'm so ticklish. Thankfully, Cyndy had the foresight to pour cold water on me to take my mind off of being tickled! Friday night we had dinner with the Barcklay's and the Denny's, who were up from San Diego for the wedding. Then Kati and I went back to the hotel for the delivery of the dress:

Mom & Dad Delivering Kati's Dress To The Hotel

We thought we would just hang out, watch a movie and fall asleep. Well, the next thing we knew, it was 12:30am and neither of us could sleep - I guess we were just too excited! We headed over to Hoshall's to have our hair and makeup done around 8am. The ladies there did a fantastic job on everyone, but I think my hair stylist did a particularly good job! I had seen a hair style at a wedding a couple weeks back - I gave her the idea and then she asked if she could "do her thing". I said, of course and she added some cute braids and flair to it!

My Mom & I - Also A Good Hair Shot!

Kati's hair looked spectacular as well... and she had both her veil and her tiara:

The Crowning Of A Princess

We headed back to the hotel after our hair and makeup was done to have some lunch (Togos, in case you were wondering) and then to get dressed. Kate Middleton didn't hold a candle to my beautiful sister! Nate doesn't look so bad himself! :)

Mr. & Mrs. Barcklay

The wedding ceremony went off without a hitch and was over before we knew it! Kati and Nate had rented a Hummer limo to take the bridal party and my parents to the Serrano Country Club, where they were holding the reception. The limo ride was a blast, complete with singing, dancing and a little bit of partaking. :) Needless to say, we were in good spirits when we arrived at the reception. Such good spirits that I attempted to try shrimp:

Me Trying Shrimp

Looks like I enjoyed it? Oh, that's right... I downed an entire apple martini after this...

Random party pictures:

Mom, Kati & I

Dad & I

Eva & I

Erin, Keegan & I

Brig, Injured Amber & I

The reception was seriously fun. Their DJ was absolutely amazing and did a fantastic job at keeping the party going. He took requests and then actually played them! The cake cutting was a lot of fun too - they used their nice cake cutting set, but also used a fire ax. They bought the ax as a gift for my parents (it has Barcklay and their wedding date engraved on it), but displayed it at the reception.

Kati & Nate Axing The Cake!

Mike & I Goofing Around

Sunday morning a large group of us headed to Mimi's Cafe to have brunch with the newlyweds. Then it was time to get them off on their honeymoon! I seriously can't believe that my little sister is married! I am so happy for both Kati and Nate... they're going to have an amazing life together! I know they say weddings go fast, but Kati and Nate's seemed to go by especially fast! I wish we could rewind and celebrate some more!

For more pictures, visit my Facebook page!