one month ago

I married my best friend. People ask us is anything different now that we are married? The answer is no, everything is still the same, nothing has changed much besides my name. We are still the same people living the same lives as before. But at the same time something is different. I somehow feel more love and a sense of belonging. When I lay my head down at night I know the person next to me trusts me with his heart and life not just for now, but forever. And I trust him with mine. Of course I knew this before we got married, but saying those vows on that warm fall day somehow made our commitment to one another even more meaningful, stronger, and amazing.

The professional pictures are starting to come in. Here are just a few. I will share some of our favorites with you when we get the rest of them!

happy thanksgiving

Oh how I love Thanksgiving! Brisk air, colors changing in the vineyards and trees, smell of turkey in the oven and a crackling fire warming the house. Every year I like to start out Thanksgiving day with a bit of exercise to burn off some calories before the afternoon of eating! Normally I try to sneak away for a quick run, but this year I tried something different. After an early morning boot camp session of sprints, lunges, push ups, and bleacher runs, we met some friends and family in Windsor at Foothill Regional Park for a hike. Despite the sprinkly morning, lots of other walkers/runners/dogs had the same idea and were out enjoying some fresh air and exercise.

It was a fun morning, great way to start the holiday, and the day got even better when the sun decided to come out and bless us with a beautiful Thanksgiving afternoon. We spent the afternoon eating, drinking, and hanging out at my parent's house. Cathy cooked up a delicious meal of the usual suspects - my favorite being the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy. After dinner and dessert we met up with Luke's parents and family friends for round 2 of dessert and a friendly game of dominoes.

Pumpkins from Cathy's Corner

Cathy cooking up a storm!

Gorgeous view from water tower

The table ready for our Thanksgiving feast

Brothers, Matt and Doug

Brothers-in-law, Jimmy and Luke

Three black dogs - Ellie, Fank, Charlie

Waiting for some treats

Luke and Frank

All night I was debating on whether or not to brave the stores for a little Black Friday shopping. Ultimately I chose to sleep in instead and enjoy a quiet morning while Luke was out hunting.

Listening to Christmas music for the first time this year as I type this!

Happy holidays! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving day filled with good food, great company, and lots of laughs.

So much to be thankful for this year:
- My husband
- Wonderful family and friends
- Gracie and Ellie (Frank and Charlie too :) )
- Warm house
- My job
- My health

honeymoon

Luke and I spent a wonderfully relaxing and rejuvenating 8 days on Kauai, known as the garden island of Hawaii. We stayed in Kapaa which was a great central location enabling us to easily travel north or south to Princeville and Poipu and really explore the island. Kauai is a few hours ahead of California time and I don’t think we ever really adjusted to the time change. We woke each morning before the sun and fell asleep each night before 10:00! The condo we stayed at was about a 2 minute walk to the beach so we started each day by making some coffee and walking, coffee cups in hand, to the beach to watch the sunrise.

We did so much and it is such a beautiful island that it is hard to pick just one favorite thing of the trip. Highlights include taking a dip in Queen’s Bath, snorkeling with a turtle, hiking the Na Pali coast to a secret beach and the biggest waterfall I’ve ever seen, taking a muddy ATV tour and seeing a wild pig, renting stand up paddle boards and trying to catch a wave, local bananas, kalua pork, Duane’s Ono Burger, Chicken in a Barrel, hiking in the pouring rain and praying the lightening storm didn’t get too close to us, running along the Kapaa coast, river crossings and muddy hikes, Kauai happy hours, going directly from the beach to the rental car drop off to the airport (still in our wet bathing suits!). I guess pretty much everything we did on the trip was a highlight!

Our digs in Kapaa

View from our room

Plantation Hale, our home for 8 days

Enjoying some local goodies

The sunrises we fell in love with

Playing with the "Just Married" flip flops my mom gave me

Taking in the morning

Cool roots along the side of the road

Snorkeling at Tunnels Beach and the Na Pali coast in the distance

Kee Beach and a seal sunning itself

Queen's Bath

Luke taking the plunge into Queen's Bath

Enjoying a Kauai sunset

Who knew our dessert would be so big! We ended up taking it home and enjoying this dessert all week long.

Hike to the top of the Sleeping Giant. Views of Kapaa and the Wailua River

Kayaking on the Wailua River

Muddy hike to the secret falls via Wailua River

Enjoying another sunset right before our dinner at The Beach House

Enjoying another sunset right before our dinner at The Beach House

Life is good - soaking up the sun in Poipu

Luke loving his kalua pork burrito from Da Crack (delicious hole in the wall we found in Poipu) 

Local guys catching some waves

Another beautiful sunset

Luke getting ready for our ATV tour on the Kipu Ranch

We got VERY muddy

What was a white shirt....

is now a homemade Kauai red dirt shirt!

Another sunset!

Hiking along the Na Pali coast

HUGE waterfall. See Luke in the picture for some perspective.

Our last sunrise

Enjoying our final minutes in paradise by eating lunch outside at the Lihue airport

The weekend after we got home, we saw this amazing sight. Hawaii may be warm and beautiful, but it has nothing on our Sonoma  County sunsets!

Good to be home!



i now pronounce you MARRIED

What a whirlwind two weeks it has been! The wedding day came and went even faster than everyone warned us it would go. It was an unbelievable day, absolutely perfect in every way.

 

We kicked off the Young/Conover Wedding Weekend with the rehearsal dinner at Greg and Carol's house on Thursday. Long time family friends, Randy and Gail, were our servers for the evening and cooked up a delicious meal! Thank you Randy, Gail, Greg, and Carol for hosting such an amazing evening!

Our wonderful "hired" help for the evening, Randy and Gail

Katrina and her ladies

Luke and his boys

 

Friday, friends and family joined us at the Alexander Valley Hall to get it all set up for the big day. Everything came together better than anything I had imagined. It was truly a group effort and with everyone pitching in, the hall was set up and ready to go in no time.

 

AV Hall all set up

Saturday morning my girls and I hung out and munched on goodies (thanks Megan!) while we got our hair done and ourselves ready for the wedding. Luke and his boys spent the morning wake boarding on Lake Sonoma enjoying glass water conditions and the lake all to themselves. We were blessed with perhaps the most beautiful day of 2011 fall - bright blue skies, not a cloud in sight, and 80 degree weather in Sonoma County. 

 

Spectacular weather and the beautiful vineyards

Girls getting ready morning of wedding

Guys all dressed up and looking good

Lace her up!

Here comes the bride

Our very gorgeous and handsome wedding party

These boots were made for walking...down the aisle

Luke, welcome to the family!

Katrina, welcome to the family!

Father-daughter dance

The new Mr. and Mrs. Luke Young

It was a magical day, one that we will both remember fondly for the rest of our lives. Thank you to everyone who helped out - we absolutely could not have done it without you! And thank you to all our friends and family who came out to celebrate this special day! Words can not express the feeling Luke and I both had being announced for the first time as husband and wife and walking into a room filled with 160 of our closest family and friends all standing and cheering for us. That is a moment we will both remember and cherish forever.

 

When Sunday morning came, we were both exhausted. We spent the day opening some wedding gifts, cleaning up the house, and packing for our honeymoon. Monday morning at 5 am we were off to the San Francisco airport and headed towards Kauai!

 

Some call it a honeymoon, but we like to refer at ours as an adventuremoon! Aloha!