We visited the new Amazonia exhibit at our zoo with our friends Dustin and Kristin. Since Casey and I renewed our zoo memberships (and friendships with D&K), we’ll have to come back with our brand spankin’ new camera, a Canon EOS 40D. This is a seriously professional camera. We just ordered a book to learn how to use it.
My side of the family spent a weekend in a vacation house outside of Chicago in August. I use the term "vacation house" lightly; it was advertised as such, but the pool was out of order, the oven was missing it’s door, the house didn’t have the number of beds it promised, it had counted the unfinished basement as a bedroom, etc. Despite all that, we had a great time playing games, eating amazing Chicago pizza, roasting marshmallows, playing with nieces, and eating. Lots of eating. Thanks, Shaun, for bringing your Wii!
Mario Kart on the Wii – yeah, it was intense.
We celebrated our anniversary in Amish country in northern Indiana at Spring View Bed and Breakfast over the weekend (photos below). Casey and I had a sad week last week, so the weekend was a much needed getaway to relax and reflect.
We also got to visit my friend Alyn and her fiance. I completely forgot to pull out my camera to take photos of them, that’s how excited I was to see Alyn! She’s lived in the middle east for the last 2.5 years, so it’s rare that we get to hug and chatter in person.
We came home to our huge and lovely hibiscus flowers blooming in our backyard (my hand for comparison):
We had some guests this summer, visited some friends out of state, and enjoyed our friends here and our new firepit immensely.
Here are some random photos of all that:
We spent a Sunday with Casey’s side of the family at Holiday World – a waterpark & amusement park rolled into one. It was so much fun playing with our nephews in the water. I love waterparks!
Cousins and best buds.
Look at those super sad faces because it was time to go home.
We spent the last weekend in May in St. Louis with Casey’s parents and our nephew, Grant. Here’s a visual story:
Asianic Lilies in our front garden
So bright and full of sunshine!
Rhododendrons
We have three rhododendron bushes in our front garden, but whoever planted them might not have read the tag – they’re each supposed to get 8′ wide x 10′ tall and they’re in a tight space with other flowers and a tree around them! Aren’t they pretty though?
More Spring Flowers
Our lavender irises are about done blooming, but our columbines are now in full bloom. I don’t think our lilac bush survived the floods that we had a month or so ago, but everything else looks great. Our serviceberry tree is starting to create lil’ berries. The staff at the nursery where we bought our tree said that the berries are super yummy and they try to eat the berries before the birds discover them. Can’t wait to try our own lil’ berries!
Friday, November 18th, 2005 Casey Valiant proposed to me at a gorgeous restaurant at a winery. Here’s the story:
In October we took some friends on a wine tour and tasting at a winery near my house called Messina Hof. We picked up a flyer there about some romantic movie nights that they do and I noticed that Casablanca was going to be shown the beginning of November. Around the third week of November I saw the flyer in Casey’s car and I realized we had missed the Casablanca movie night. That Wednesday Casey brought the flyer and was all giddy as he showed me that Casablanca was to be shown in two days on Friday, November 18th. I was really confused because I was so certain that the flyer has said either the 4th or the 11th. The thought crossed my mind that maybe Casey faked the flyer by scanning in the original and changing the date (which he had done), but I really became more suspicious when he asked if I was going to dress up and he told me to bring my camera. I thought about calling one my friends, Alyn, to discuss my suspicions, but I didn’t want to think that maybe he was going to propose and then if he didn’t I’d be disappointed about a really nice date at a winery. So I didn’t call her.
At that same time that I was going to call Alyn, Casey had called her for help on his plans setting up everything. She went along with him to pick out the ring. We had never talked about a ring, but he picked out the perfect one -simple and elegant – white gold with a v-shaped cutout (for his last name – Valiant), and a diamond with the most fire (sparkle)! I love it!
On Friday night when we arrived at Messina Hof, Casey brought me into the restaurant. I was bombarding him with questions because I thought we were going into the wrong building to watch Casablanca. "Where would they show Casablanca in this nice restaurant? I think we’re supposed to go into the gift shop building. The people in here look like they’ve been eating awhile but the movie night is supposed to start now. Did we need reservations to come tonight?…" Casey ignored all my questions and had us seated at a table near the Christmas tree and wine barrels. It was so beautiful! The waiter came over and dropped off glasses of water and then left before I could ask him any questions. Casey had set up for them not to have the waiter speak to us or I’d figure out pretty quickly that there was no movie. Casey chugged his whole glass of water. Then another waiter came from behind me and set a red rose across my plate. Another waiter quickly came and set a bottle of wine on the table. I didn’t have time to look at it right then, but it was a bottle of Messina Hof’s private reserve Port (my favorite kind of wine) and Casey had them print a special label on it that had our names and the date and "As the Mouse…". There was a Chinese song we learned in Asia this summer that went "I love you, loving you, as the mouse loves the rice…", so we’ve been saying "As the mouse" since then. Right after the waiter set down the wine and before I had a chance to look at it, the maitre d’ came and handed Casey the ring box. He had them keep it in their safe because it was large enough that I would have noticed it in his pocket. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! And I said, "Of course, yes yes yes yes, did I say yes yet?"
Check out our wedding photos here.