I was Brown and now I'm Wight: April 2013

Yesterday marked 4 years for Cole and I as a married couple. The day wasn't particularly lovely, but I knew that ahead of time. We are moving in a few days and needed to pack. We did go out on a date last weekend when my mom was here to babysit and next weekend we are going to Tofino for a couple nights- so we're counting those as our celebration. Yesterday we packed boxes, dealt with a cranky toddler and ate pancakes for dinner, but four years ago we woke up in Seattle and prepared to get married. Here are some of the memories from that day:

The weather was beyond nice for April- so sunny that we had squinting and shadows as issues while taking pictures.

We booked the last slot for getting sealed (married forever) in the Seattle Temple so we didn't have to feel rushed (I think it fell somewhere around 1pm), but my mom still woke me up early that morning.

Meeting Cole's younger siblings over breakfast at the inn we all stayed at the night before. They came in late the night before so I still hadn't met them. I was standing around the continental breakfast table with his sisters chatting it up and none of us realized who the other was until I saw Carter, his youngest brother, and thought that boy looks a lot like Cole. When he joined their party, I realized I had been talking to my sisters-in-law.

So many people travelled to Seattle to support us even though not all of them were able to go into the temple and we really felt their love. We didn't have our reception in Seattle- it wasn't until the next night in Vancouver, so a lot of them came out just to wait for us to come out of the temple, take pictures, say congrats and leave again.

Because we got married around lunch time and then spent a couple hours taking pictures, Cole and I were starving when we left the temple grounds and our first outting as a married couple was the drive-thru at Jack-in-the-Box. Our dinner reservations weren't until much later that night.

The Olympic Fairmont Hotel is still one of my favourite hotels I've ever stayed in. So beautiful. Cole's cousin works for the chain and got us a great deal and we even got upgraded. His cousin's wife is a photographer and took all our pictures that day as well. We really appreciated both of those contributions.

I LOVED having our marriage ceremony and wedding reception on two different nights. It will always be one of my favourite things about the whole weekend. It's such an overwhelming experience, it was so nice to just be alone with Cole after we took pictures and take time to just enjoy the rest of the day. Cole made surprise reservations to at the Space Needle's (he always calls it the Space Shot) revolving restaurant, Sky City. Our wedding dinner was spent at a table for two revolving slowly above Seattle. It was the most expensive dinner of my life to date but we planned ahead of time for that and enjoyed every minute. I think we started with crab cakes, Cole got surf and turf and I got the prime rib. We ended with 3 scoops of housemade sherbet, which cost like $12 but to this day I still think about it. It was the most delicious sherbet of my life (which it should be for $4 a scoop). A table nearby had a couple of older women and they asked our waiter if we were celebrating a special occasion because we were "glowing" and he told them we got married that afternoon. One of the women went to the gift shop, bought a disposable camera and took our picture for us and gave it to us a wedding gift. Unfortunately, none of those pictures developed properly- too dark. But it was a very nice thought.

Memories that seem even sweeter while I sit uncomfortable at 35 weeks pregnant and get on my 1 year old for making trouble while our house is a mess of boxes and all she can do is get in trouble....

Happy Anniversary to us!