My friend Candice conveniently got married last week, so I took a little summer vacation (no pun intended) to be there and it was so much fun. I arrived in Denver on Wednesday and spent the afternoon seeing downtown with my friend Jeff (from Paris infamy) and his girlfriend who was also visiting.
After an exciting lunch and a not-so-exciting visit to the art museum (I think I like BYU better...it has more interesting stuff, takes less time to see, it's free and is guarded by the awesomest student security staff on the planet), we went to the capitol, which was very beautiful.
This is what happens when I give my camera to Jeff.
On the steps of the capitol. The gold dots mark one mile above sea level...but we weren't sure which one was more accurate. Maybe the city sank and they remeasured...
We strolled up and down the 16th St Mall for a while, which was interesting...then we went to a real mall and Natausha and I had fun trying on clothes in the fitting rooms while Jeff tried on gangsta hats and wifebeaters in the store. Would've taken a picture of that, but I was on the phone. And yes, this giant fake breakfast food display was in the mall, and this lady was polishing the sausage. We all simultaneously got out our cameras.
After that interesting afternoon, I went to my friend Stephy's house where I visited last summer and was so excited to see her and her super nice family, and my roommate Natalie, who was also there for the wedding. We sat in the deliciously dry backyard and made smores around the fire before Nat and I went to another house where we were staying, due to her allergies to Steph's dog and cat. I *might* have been able to make it with extra drugs, but she couldn't, so I stayed with her. The next day we met Stephy's friend Meredith in Boulder for lunch (Panera--delicious strawberry poppyseed salad and free cookie) and shopping (huge sale at Bath & Body Works--pretty much smelled the whole store and came out smelling like the whole store). Then we wanted to go swimming/visit Steph's sister Jeanne who was lifeguarding at the pool, but they had just closed for thunder. We went over to visit anyway. (Well, Steph and I did. Natalie was reading the second book in the Twilight series and couldn't do anything until she finished.) There were about 8 lifeguards there just hanging out. So we walked back home and washed Stephy's car and made sure to document it with some great action shots.
Stephy drying the car. How candid.
Then Stephy's brother-in-law made an exciting announcement--he was going to take Jeanne's lunch to her. Since we already had our suits on and the pool was open again, we walked back over with him and swam.
Post-swimming, we watched Enchanted (so cute) and we went to Candice's for a little girls' night.
Since I have a need to document everything, here's Natalie and half of my face in the car. We had lots of fun oohing and aahing over the wedding dress, chatting, eating Reese's pieces, and playing Scattergories. It was SO great to see Candice, who I hadn't seen since December (like Steph and Nat) and I wish we could have stayed longer, but Nat and I had to get back to our lodgings.
Friday was the wedding day. We were told to be at the temple at 1, when the ceremony started, so of course we ended up having to get gas where there was none in sight, asked someone, finally found gas, decided to skip lunch so we wouldn't be too late, arrived at the temple at 1:05, waited around for a while until anyone from the family or wedding party showed up, and then finally the couple came out at 2.
It was worth the wait. Look at how precious they are.
The temple and grounds were beautiful.
It was a good thing we brought extra water because the car with the water didn't make it to the temple.
At this point, they were taking pictures and I was a little bored, so I took pictures of my own. Stephy was an adorable bridesmaid.
My aim with self-portraits is getting better. I had lots of practice in France. After pictures we finally got some food and repaired to Candice's house. It was nice to have a little break between the festivities and get out of the sun. Steph and I played more Scattergories in the basement, where it felt great after Candice's mom cranked the AC.
A couple hours later, we headed to the reception, held here at Highlands Ranch Mansion, an old, well...mansion that has changed hands many times and supposedly has secret passageways, a haunted wing and the whole nine yards.
Since we were early, we explored the place, which is huge and unfurnished, and I took pictures. This is the beautifully decorated hall where dinner would be served later.
The wedding party taking more pictures on the lawn. It was so pretty!
We were able to have a minute with Candice before people started thronging her.
Once everyone had finally come and talked and mingled and found their seats, Candice's dad talked about the significance of a temple marriage because there were many nonmembers there, Candice and Marcus did a little ring ceremony, and everyone at the head table (bride's parents, groom's parents, best man, and maid of honor) gave a toast. Funny thing is, Steph didn't know she was the maid of honor and expected to give a toast until the day before. We had joked about it. But she did a great job.
Stephy and Jeanne. They're adorable.
Jeanne and Joel. They're pretty much the coolest married couple ever. Except anyone reading this.
Not the best placement...or maybe it's good. Do I look angelic?
I, who am not a big fan of cake in general, LOVED the cake. It was beautiful and delicious, with some kind of berry filling inside.
We knew this would happen...haha.After the throwing of the garter and bouquet (caught by Candice's adorable 11-year-old sister MacKenzie), the DJ started the dancing. He got the boring stuff out of the way first--the bride/groom dance and the daddy/daughter dance. I was itching for them to be over so I could get on the dance floor. Okay, I videotaped the whole thing. Actually, the four of us girls were all sobbing on the sidelines. But anyway, that has nothing to do with this video, which is the groomsmen busting a move.
Of course, this was taken after we had all gotten sweaty dancing. But aren't we cute?
After the groomsmen danced it was pretty much the five of us on the floor having a great time. We didn't care because we didn't know anyone there besides Candice's family, and the DJ loved us.This is Candice's adorable little cousin who was breakdancing the whole night. I wish I had gotten more of it--aDORable. All-in-all, a very nice, memorable reception. A good time was had by all, even (or especially?) by the valet parking guys. They flirted with us, made sure to remember Stephy's name (probably thinking the girl who got there too early and forgot to put her car in park), and went back to the car to get the gift, which we had left inside (not that it was an extra trip). One of them said this was his second job, where he'd come straight from his 9 to 5 and he was trying to gain weight. All that running is not helping.
The next morning we had decided to do yoga after Steph, Nat and Meredith did a yoga class at the rec center on Wednesday night and came home so relaxed that Natalie didn't even follow through on her plans to attack me with a bear hug and scream loudly. So we busted out a DVD, and after realizing how weird the couple demonstrating were, turned down the volume and turned up Enya. We ended up not following the video, and instead made fun of the yoga couple and Steph and Nat tried to remember moves from their class. I was terrible at it, but it was a lot of fun.
Meredith came over and we walked to the Huckleberry for lunch, where I enjoyed a huckleberry milkshake and falafel sandwich.
Mmm I want another milkshake now.
In downtown Louisville...how cute.
Steph's friend Natalie came over and we headed to a nearby lake to go paddleboating where Meredith had gone before. This is Natalie getting ready for her exercise on the hyperextension bench...
instructions seen here. These little doodads were all around the lake. Interesting.
After looking for the paddleboats, we discovered that Meredith had been dreaming and there were none. Turns out all of us except Steph had seen the sign identifying the lake as Whatever-its-name-was-lake, which she knew had no paddleboats. So we did what any group of five girls would do--took pictures of ourselves at the water's edge.
Natalie, Meredith, Natalie, me.
They like to call themselves Natalie squared.
We spent the rest of our time there playing on this conveniently-located playground.
Can I put an existing picture on my driver's license? This one would be good.
Aw Natalie I miss you already.
This little girl wandered up to me and attached herself to my leg. She was so cute and just looked up at me like she wanted to come home with me and be my friend forever.
Then her brother or cousin or someone showed up and started chatting away and playing with us. He was so funny. Apparently liked the red slide, but only a little bit. His grandma kept thanking us "for being so kind."
Yes, I have rope-ladder-climbing skills.
Natalie had this cute picture idea, but it was really hard to hold myself up on the slide and at the same time not die of laughter. The other Natalie and Meredith were cracking up for like 10 hours straight. Okay, it was more like 10 minutes.
This seesaw thing was rad. Other playgrounds need to follow suit.
We finished with a rousing round of the ha-ha game. I don't think we got past 2 or 3 ha-has because everyone was laughing so hard from the beginning.After the park we went to the grocery store to get stuff for dinner and make fun of the strange fruit they had there. Natalie wanted to get drinks from Sonic, so we asked a kid at the store where the nearest one was. Ended up taking the scenic route among cows in the pastures. But once we got there, a stroke of genius made possible the filming of this commercial. We could become gazillionaires.
After that adventure we all went back to Steph's for a delicious dinner *on the patio* and a rousing round of mafia, one of those someone-killed-one-of-us-let's-find-out-who-it-was-and-kill-them games.
And then I came home Sunday. I'd like to thank everyone who made this trip possible, and our very gracious hosts Bro. and Sis. Jones. It was great to see friends I hadn't seen in a long time, support Candice at her wedding, and get away from work for a few days. Not to mention the amazing weather. Let's add Louisville, CO, to the list of places I've been where I wouldn't mind living: Brookings, OR, and Le Vesinet, France.
