I heart weddings

Meet some of our dear friends we've met through JAMZ

My girl, Kimmy, whom you've met here before.  We first met through JAMZ I guess 15 yearsish ago and we were instant buddies.  Before we knew it, we were BFFs and have remained so ;0

Mike & Arie.  Micheal was hired at the JAMZ office about 9ish years ago.  We were buddies, developed a little love-hate relationship (sorry Micheal, my opinion, i know!) but I'm glad that before my time was over in the office, we really got to a place where we loved and appreciated and respected one another.  I love our inside jokes and great memories we've shared over the years. 

Arie is this beauty inside & out and an extremely talented dancer (that I would admire and be jealous of when she was on stage).  They are now a happy little family with a little man named Gavin that's about 20 mos - that we haven't seen since his bday!!-  Tyler and I heart these two ;0

Mario and Kelvin.  Oh these two boys.  Kelvin started with JAMZ shortly after I did and is just a hoot.  Everything is happy and great with him. all.the.time.no.matter.what.  Mario is something else;0  I didn't really get to know him until we were on a 13 day JAMZ Hawaii adventure where we had not choice but to be nice and become friends ;0  And for that, I'm glad.  He's my brotha from anotha motha - and please tell your mama I said hello, btw, if you're reading!  Tyler and I must come visit you guys soon;0 -

A shot of the girls.  You've met everyone here but Julie, who is on my left.  I have too many words for her...so to keep it short, she was my boss for 13 years, but most importantly my friend, sister and confidant during those years...and it was such a treat to get to spend an evening with her

Kimmy & her hubby Adam ;0  our view of them at our table

the amazing house up on a hill in Murphy's...

my handsome hub and I ;0

...in the gorgeous sunset

Heather Bee, sister of the bride and someone also very special to me.  She and Mike (from above) were hired at the same time, and I got to choose heather to be my right hand woman and we worked side by side the rest of my days there ;0  I got to train her in a lot of my areas as we'd pass around the jobs :)  But mostly I enjoyed sharing an office with her, getting to know her better.  How sweet she is with her dad (since I got to listen in on phone calls;0), how her mind thinks.  She also (along with her sis coming up below) helped me when I was going through my divorce and taught me to be a strong, confident and independent woman.  Mouthful, but really, I appreciate the nights and days we spent together and everything that she shared with me to bring me to a place where I could be myself no matter who, what, when, where and why. 

...and the Bride, Ms Hollie...she too was a part of the 13 day JAMZ Hawaiian adventure where she and I roomed together the whole time and divulged every inch of our souls to one another making us dear friends.  She's just as strong and independent as her sister and her influence during the same time frame was also a huge help for me.  She's a phenomenal dancer (her sis too!), and such a kind hearted and genuine individual.  Love her!

 

OH YEAH, the post title is WEDDING...what we were all gathered for ;0  Here is Hollie and her man Brian (who I picked for her hub the night we met him!;0)

...and the start of their happily ever after!!!

**Of course, they are all 'our' friends now; I just happen to be having my own moments while telling you about everyone today;0**

#8

This picture is so beautiful to me because of my dear friend, Melis.  I could go on and on about her.  And I did!  When I posted the pic (if you'd like read/see more, click here).  She's just one of the first people I canNOT wait to see the second I get to heaven.

Random outings

For Christmas, I got Tyler tickets to the King Tut. We decided to try to make a trip to San Francisco to it by leaving early (right after church) and trying to hang out a bit at Golden Gate Park...HOWEVER, we were in so much traffic, instead we decided to enjoy the scenery from the freeway because instead of having a few hours to hang before our time to enter the exhibit, we got there oh about 20 minutes before it started (can you say far too much traffic?!)

check out this crazy raffle!

...and Dennis makes uniforms :)

almost missed it but this was a random statue made of like nails, chains and whatnots that we drove by.
and Tyler, super excited about everything he had just seen.

It was so neat to look through all the artifacts they had, and to read through all the information. It was also interesting to see a timeline that included Xerxes and Nebuchadnezzar - doing the Esther and Daniel studies really allowed me to get a better appreciation for what I was seeing (instead of just being there because it was something Tyler wanted to do :) )...

And then there was prom. Two of our friends own a dance studio and long story short...several of their seniors missed prom to be in a competition, so they decided to throw them one. They asked Tyler if he'd take pictures of the evening.

And my awesome husband knows how much I loved high school, and all the dances...and that I get sad for him that he missed out on proms! He asked me if I'd go to prom with him - and I said absolutely!!

They set up a full on backdrop for everyone to take traditional prom pics. Here are our prom pose pics :)

This one is: we're pregnant at prom.

This is Hollie and I. Hollie is one of the studio owners.

And here are both Hollie & Heather (the sisters that own the studio), and their dad :)

We had such a blast that night...stayed out late and all :) Ahhhh...good times!!

Aloha ;)

...ahhhh...what a relaxing time spent in Hawaii! It has been a couple of months now, since our trip, so in posting these photos to share, we are getting to revisit our trip.

The trip was twofold; we first flew to Kauai with 13 others for work (6 days), then we flew back to Oahu and stayed right on the Waikiki beach for a few days of vacation - just the two of us ;)

While in Kauai, we stayed at a neat home just across the street from the Kekaha beach, and a dear friend of JAMZ' that I've known for about 7 years or so and Tyler had the opportunity to meet in Vegas earlier this year, was our hospitable host!

On our first day in, she took us out paddle boarding...

it was great to see some of the gang trying to paddle board! It appeared to be a balancing act, so I didn't try it; my equilibrium felt off that first day there

...we also headed out to another beach and we all had a great time just playing in the ocean, swimming, jumping waves, and just letting our hair down and letting out some good laughs!

...here are a few shots of our 'homes'

they (JAMZ and Kauai Pop Warner) rented 2 houses for us on the same property,

so half stayed in 1 home and half in the other.

here's Tyler on the balcony outside our room

playing on the 'walkway' between the houses

view of the other house from ours

view of the ocean from our front door

the side of our house, where we shared the dinner we made together one night

- here's a pic of my buddy Yvonne! Such a sweet person!

THEN WAS WORK...we actually worked 3 of the days we were there (1/2 day on day 1, and 2 full days) so it allowed for a LITTLE play in between :)

couple shot; 2 of us are married, one is engaged, and the other two are on their way to being engaged (in that order from right to left)

singles shot :)

proof that we were working! :)

on our way home from camp one day, we posed for some pics at a pineapple store...

...we all had a nice 'end of the season' dinner night out...

On our last night and full day there, we were invited out with Yvonne, my buddy :), to her family's camp grounds on the beach - about a 1 minute walk from our houses.

Boys played volleyball...girls sunbathed and we all took a little time to head in to the ocean a few last times as we all left the island on that last day (Monday)...

Here's a pic on our way to fly out!

We'll save the Oahu pics for another post - will try to do soon :)

More graduations, birthdays and relaxing :)

So last time we shared pics from Alex's graduation and Chris' confirmation. In the last few weeks there has also been:

Robert's graduation - he is our friends Hilda & Bobby's son. He actually graduated from the same high school as Alex - so we got to share with this with both of them :)

(love that sequence of pics!) We also went to his graduation party last weekend.

My friend Cindy turned 30...and we had a way fun birthday party for her.

Scavenger hunt like we used to in HS and more :)

the sobriety check point we encountered during the scavenger hunt...but they just let us through :)

...Cindy is actually the reason we know Hilda & Bobby, as Bobby is her brother, and Hilda and I became buddies as bridesmaids in Cindy's wedding...shower & bachelorette party planning, hanging at the wedding, baby shower planning ...we (Tyler and I) get to see H&B quite often for work, as their girls are a part of a cheer program that attends lots of our events.

Cindy with her beautiful baby Dylan at Robert's grad party

...and a nice flash back photo of us in the limo on our way to John & Cindy's wedding :)

We got to celebrate Shanelle's birthday a couple of weeks ago, and that was a nice evening out :)

Coleson not enjoying being with Tyler :)

Gavin enjoying desert!
the beautiful birthday girl
Cora's din-din time

And we've also had a few hours here and there to just hang out at home. Last week (when we started this - a couple weeks now:) ), we called Indiana and caught all of Connie & Tyson's little ones hanging out with grandma. Here's Tyler talking to Cassie & Max. Wish we could have had you guys over for our BBQ that night!