Corinn and I had the honor of getting to attend my good friend from grade school's wedding yesterday!  The wedding ceremony took place in a church in Pittsfield, MA and it took about 4 hours for us to drive!  Andrew looked pretty sharp and maybe a little stressed, but didn't let it show too much; it looked like he had everything under control.  Erin was very beautiful and was walked down the isle by one of her brothers (her father was in an accident and recovering, but was able to attend the wedding).  I chose not to take pictures during the wedding as I felt it might be a little rude, but I definitely took pictures during the reception... And boy was it fun!

And by fun, I mean a little geeky fun, as in Star Wars theme fun!!!  What was totally friggin’ cool was when they walked into the reception with the Star Wars Episode IV end music playing (where Han and Luke get their medals after blowing up the Death Star)!  And it did not end there, they had a superimposed print of their faces on Han and Leia’s bodies within a frame where people could sign their names or words of wisdom!

To “top it off”, not only did their cake look great, but if you noticed the figures at the summit, you’d notice they best resembled Han and Leia too!

It was friggin’ awesome that they had a R2-D2 figurine with a top hat… A TOP HAT!  How awesome!

Did I not mention how jealous I was about this?  I told Corinn that if this was an option for our wedding, I would have pushed for it… Of course, she rolled her eyes and smiled for the camera anyway.

I did try to take a lot of photos with Corinn’s camera, but I think we got lost in a lot of dancing and other wedding festivities around us.
Thanks Andrew and Erin for a great time and we’re happy to see you both start your lives together!

Hurrah!  I have just booked our airline tickets which makes our trip OFFICIAL!

I am so excited I don't even know what to do with myself!  For those of you who don't know, I have a long history with Scotland.  When I was 16 I did an exchange program where I lived with a family (Charles and Mary Nasmyth) in Edinburgh for 3 weeks.  The following summer Charles, Mary and their son Richard came to visit and stayed at my parents' home.  The summer after that, as part of our 3 week family vacation, my parents, brother and I all made a week and a half stop in Scotland and stayed with the Nasmyths (we also did a wee bit of time in Ireland on that trip).  In 2001 I completed my Winter/Spring semester at the University of St. Andrews, which is less than an hour drive from Edinburgh.  This was the last time I was in Scotland, but the last time I saw the Nasmyths was almost five years ago, when they made the trip to this side of the pond for our wedding!

So I love Scotland, and truly feel that I could move to Edinburgh.  But I haven't been back in what feels like a million years.  Now, some how the fates have aligned, and Ray decided this should be the destination for our summer vacation!  We had played around with the idea of doing a West Coast trip and visiting friends in San Francisco and Seattle.... but certain Seattle friends will be spending 6 weeks on vacation... so we figured that was better pushed back.  I don't know if Ray's inspiration was (a) the desire to experience more international travel as sparked by last summer's visit to South Africa, (b) the fear that if he did not book an actual vacation away from home that he woudl end up just working throught he entire thing or (c) the fact that in order to have an actual vacation he will need to go somewhere where his cell phone will not work (if there was no internet, that would be even better)! 

Regardless, I am over the moon about our trip!  With much research, planning, and a great deal of assistance from Charles, Mary and their daughter Mary Ann, I have planned a 13 day trip that includes the highlights of Edinburgh and Fife, some reminiscing in St. Andrews, a four day drive through the Highlands and Skye and three nights in London!  Hopefully not too jam packed, but certainly fun, exciting and offering a plethora of vistas to be photographed!  I just can't wait!

I don't know how I am going to sleep tonight...

As as (now) become our annual tradition, we headed to Koto Japanese Steakhouse for a birthday dinner in honor of Tonya!  It is now an annual tradition, because Tonya has declared it so.  I guess if this is where she wants to eat on her birthday every year, we can be accomodating!    So myself, Ray, Danielle, Jami, Sheila and Jess all met up with Tonya for a yummy hibachi grill dinner.  With a party of seven we were big enough to have the entire table to to ourselves!  Dinner started with the show from our chef, as he wowed us with his knife skills, egg juggling talent (although he did need two eggs this year....) and unexplained desire to pick on me!

The big challenge at Koto is the catch-the-zucchini-in-your-mouth test that they seem to feel everyone must pass in order to get dinner!  We had some mixed success this year: I was able to catch the second piece tossed my way, but Tonya's kept popping right off her front teeth - I think she was smiling too much!

Sheila had better luck using her hands!

Once again the dinner was yummy and the company was great.  Interestingly, on a miscellaneous "forward" that we had all participated in, one of the questions was something along the lines "what is the most fun birthday experience you've ever had" - Jami's answer was last year when we went to Koto for Tonya's birthday!  Dinner was finished up with an extremly delicious coconut and lime cake from Mirabelle's!

Happy Birthday T, we love you!