Thanks for all the love while I was sick, I am 100% back to normal now! Now I can finally catch up with posting. Here’s what we did over the weekend, even though I was ill I wouldn’t have missed it for anything!

This past Saturday we got to attend the wedding ceremony for two of our dear friends, Chinua and Katie. They have been married for 2 years and have a gorgeous little boy together and were excited to finally add the experience of their “big day” to their family memories.

They got married at the same restaurant we did, Wahoo! It’s a beautiful venue with great food and a garden-like setting.

We chatted with the bride, groom, their adorable son Anhur, and old friends for about an hour before it all began.

Chinua’s father got things started with a speech about marriage that had all the ladies tearing up.

Then the lovely couple got to exchange their heartfelt vows….

And kiss!

I stuck with softer foods for lunch because I was still quite ill. It was all delicious though.

And signed the guest book…

We have a running joke with them that as soon as we get pregnant with our first child they’re starting on baby number 2. It’s not even really a joke, though. I may have to inform Katie that I’m pregnant even before Jeff and I’s parents! 😉

After the ceremony and lunch, the party moved to Twain’s for beer hour.

There were snacks…

And cupcakes!

We had a little of both. Jeff got a maple cupcake that he loved.

I thought this strawberry was insane.

I’ve known Chinua for nearly a decade now. He’s been my friend, my coworker, and even my boss at different points over the years. He couldn’t have found a better partner in Katie. She has become an equally wonderful friend and I adore both of them.

Congrats guys on 2 years of happy marriage!

And May 1st is our anniversary too! I’m even bringing my wedding dress to Seattle to wear to dinner that night. (It’s casual, it doesn’t necessarily look like a wedding dress.) I’ll fill you guys in on our trip when we get back!

April 27, 2011 Alayna Discussion 9 comments

Sorry I’ve been absent for a while.

I don’t normally like to apologize for not posting any given day because sometimes life just happens and I don’t want to start filling up my blog with dozens of posts that all start with an apology. But, at the moment I’m not sure how many more days are going to pass without me posting, so I thought I’d at least give you a heads up on what’s going on with me this time.

I have been VERY sick for the past couple of days. Something I ate on Friday sent my body into a rebellion. I haven’t been able to eat much of anything and even fluids are difficult to keep down. My hunger has returned now but eating still just doesn’t feel good.

I’ve been surrounding myself with various fluid options to keep hydrated…

Man, kombucha has been a life-saver. It’s really helping to replace some of the healthy bacteria that I’ve lost from not being able to keep food down. And Jeff has been making me a tummy-calming ginger tea with lemon and salt to replace electrolytes.

So for now, I’m concentrating on getting myself better for our trip to Seattle this weekend and refining our itinerary. I’m gonna try to get a few posts up before then but right now I’m just not cooking anything exciting or going anywhere fun to report about. I do have some fun posts scheduled for the week that we’re gone, so next week will be back on track regardless.

What foods or drinks do you rely on when you’re sick? No really, I need suggestions!

April 25, 2011 Alayna Discussion 11 comments

Thanks everybody for all your praise over the wedding cake!

It was really weird to get up every day this week and not start doing something cake related. I found myself pacing around a few times feeling like I was supposed to be frantically baking something.

Thankfully those anxious feelings have subsided…………….to be replaced by new ones! 😉

Jeff and I are approaching our first wedding anniversary on May 1st and we’ve been talking about taking a vacation around that time for months. The problem has been that we don’t have the budget to blow like we did on Japan, there aren’t too many places we’re interested in right now that aren’t on the other side of the planet, and I can’t get my passport renewed before we need to go so we can’t leave the country easily.

So, we’ve been trying to decide where we could have fun within the U.S. for a whole week.

Answer:  Seattle!

(source)

Seattle has been on our minds for a couple of reasons, it’s hard to explain why without this turning into a lengthy essay. So basically it’s that: we like the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, we like the culinary scene there, we like the eco-consciousness, we align more with the political and cultural viewpoints of the majority there, we like the public transportation and bike culture, we like the higher asian population than other parts of the U.S. which means lots of multiethnic food options and cultural experiences, we like the access to fresh sushi-grade fish, and we like that it’s a whole 5 and a half hours closer to Japan – you know, should we ever find ourselves living there and vacationing in Kyoto regularly. 😉

Also, we spent a week in Portland, OR two years ago thinking that we might want to relocate there someday for the same reasons listed above. We didn’t fall in love with it like we thought we would though. I felt so tragically uncool there all the time. So, we’re kind of auditioning Seattle in the same way, as a possible home for the far future when we don’t have kids anymore and want to travel to Asia a lot.

Maybe that sounds crazy, but I have never felt that in love with or attached to Georgia in any way. That, and my wanderlust has exploded in the last few years. I now feel like I could pack up my life and start over anywhere (with Jeff of course!) and adjust easily.

Anyway, we’re excited to spend time getting to know Seattle. I’ve started to put together a list of places we’re interested in and later I’ll form them into an itenerary.

Getting everything together

We leave April 30th!

If any of you guys have been to Seattle and have recommendations for where to go, we’d love to hear em’!

April 22, 2011 Alayna Discussion 12 comments