Under the Giant Oak Tree

So we're about nine months away and have chosen a location for the dum-dum-da-dum day :) Since location is crossed off the huge list of things to do, we can now sit back and relax for the next couple of months. I like that feeling. So I wanted to share some photos of the awesome and super rad place that we're going to be celebrating at.

It's called Calamigos Ranch and is located in the hills of Malibu and the location we chose is called the Cottage and Pavilion. The cottage portion is the ceremony site and it has a ginormous Oak tree and waterfalls that flow behind the Oak tree.

•the mondo oak tree•

•one of the rad waterfalls•

After the ceremony, everyone heads off to the Pavilion for the fun part. Oh, I had to throw this photo in because on your way to the pavilion, you walk by the ferris wheel which is just cool because I like ferris wheels.

• pretty cool wheel•

And then it's all about the cocktails, dinner and dancing here at the Pavilion. Isn't that just purtee?

•cocktail area looking sparkly•

•dinner area which is also sparkly•

So yea, we found the location that was perfect for us. As soon as walked in, we knew that it was the place for us and everything else fell into place. It's awesome. We're excited. Give it about eight months, than I'm sure the stress will kick in! :)

A surprising anniversary

A little unknown about me. Ten years ago, I had a close encounter with death. My mentor, Kitty and I headed up to Kern River in Kernville to spend the day relaxing with some friends by inner tubing in the river. The weather was warm, the water was cool and it was a perfect and relaxing day. At least most of it was.

Sometime during our float down the river, Kitty floated too quickly down the river and we lost sight of her. About thirty minutes later, there was a huge tree in the middle of the river and stuck in the tree was Kitty, a rapid made her fall off of her tube and she climbed to the tree for safety. She was stuck there until we caught up to her. The group that we were with all steered towards her so we can grab her off the tree and help her get down all while trying to not to get swept away from the rapid. As I got real close to her, a tree branch hit me in the head and I fell into the water. It shocked me but not as much as getting tangled in the roots below me. My swim shorts tangled me into the roots pushing me further in the water. I couldn't move up to get air. I was stuck. I didn't panic, in fact, I did the complete opposite. I watched my air bubbles float around me and felt peace. I listened to the water and heard silence. It was so peaceful that I closed my eyes. I'm not sure how long I was there for before another person came to pull me out of my tangle. He brought me up to the surface and the sun and fresh air shock me out of my state as I choked up water. They brought Kitty and myself to the side of the river and we decided to call it a day. It was time to go home and take care of ourselves. Kitty and I rode back in silence, knowing all too well how the river can be very powerful.

So ten years later, I headed back to go tubing on the Kern River and had the most wonderful time (mostly).

•I don't want to go in the cold river•

Going through the rapids on a inner tube is wonderful and fantastic. My "river rat" provided enough cushioning to protect my ass from the rocks.

• see, adequate cushioning•

Going through the rapids on my ass because I lost the inner tube was not as much fun! I have the darkest and weirdest bruises on my, ahem, buttocks (was contemplating taking a photo but I couldn't get the right angle :). It was during those moments though when I had my mini-freakouts. Having my head back under the water, struggling through the rapids and being incredible weary of hitting my head made me have little flashbacks to ten years ago.

But by the end of the day, I was still all smiles and will probably head back down the river again in the future since it was a great camping trip.

•cheese•

But of course, what's a camping trip without some headache? My lovely car, which I've had since 02 and is the best little Acura RSX that one can have, decided to give me a headache. After enjoying a wonderful day on the river, we thought heading into town for some cold drinks would be perfect. My car had another idea and the alternator decided to die on me. Nothing better than having your car break down in the middle of the Sierra Mountains. It's still there getting fixed and my wonderful parents are going to pick it up for me and drive it back to Santa Clara later this week. I owe them a lot this upcoming weekend. But it works out so perfectly because I get to go scuba diving with my dad in Monterey this weekend. I'm glad that my near death experience didn't give me a fear of water or adventure because than life would be too boring.

Real Western Celebrations

• I'm starting off with an original Marijn dinner creation. When given the opportunity to cook meat for others at our house, he goes all out with the splurging of meat and so, on a lucky afternoon, he had the luxury of making pizza lined with bacon.

• We went off to celebrate America's birthday in true western fashion - by heading off to Prescott, Arizona. My grandparents live there (along with thousand of other retirees, I think it's either Arizona or Florida once one becomes the ripe age of retirement) so we thought that it would be an excellent idea to spend some time with them. It wasn't that bad, in fact, I think that we were able to enjoy ourselves.

• We fancied ourselves with a parade that showcased pretty much everyone who lived in the Prescott area. The parade was over two and a half hours. There were lots of horses, flags, veterans and more horses. We could actually only endure forty five minutes of it.

• Old fashion thunderstorms that concludes with a beautiful dual rainbow. California has the luxury of having amazing weather (hot, warm, windy or hot?) so it's been a very long time since I've been able to enjoy a thunderstorm. It made me warm and fuzzy to be in Prescott during monsoon season.

• The monsoons also provides an excuse to go into random stores and discover something new. While in the town of Jerome, the monsoons forced us into a tacky souvenir shop. However one little secret of the souvenir shop was that it held a silent movie theater upstairs. It was a time warp back into the twenties. Rad.

• Cowboys! Yes, they still exist! We went to the World's Oldest Rodeo and watched bull riding, horse steering and whatever else one does at the rodeo. There were a plethora of American flags, cowboy boots, cowboy hats and water-downed beer (Coors, Bud and Miller - those were the only alcoholic choices!) They opened the rodeo in a prayer. That was weird.

• A real working gas station in Skull Valley, Arizona. It's a blast from the past although I didn't live in that past, I'm sure that it's what it looked like back in the fifties.

• We went bike riding through Prescott into Skull Valley. I felt like such an uber biker chick. The only thing that I really didn't like is that you don't have to wear a motorcycle helmet in Arizona. It just doesn't seem safe to me, I would rather gear up head to toe in +100 degree weather (like pictured above) than to not wear a helmet for the sake of being cool and hip.

• Oh the moment of real beer touching my lips was bliss. We spent the whole weekend drinking water downed beer cause that's what one does when in Western world. The moment we entered the airport to fly home, a real bar with real beer was a must. Oh sweet nectar of the gods...

locations, tulle, dresses & flowers. oh my!

Wow. I've never immersed myself into the "feminine wedding" world so much as I am right now and it's crazy! Color patterns, inspiration boards, dresses, shoes, budget, music, jewelry! It's overwhelming!

I have never thought/dreamt of my wedding before. Growing up, we were raised in an anti-princess world. My sister and I would torture our Barbies, re-enact guns and robber or play dress up in military garb. We skipped the whole step of dreaming of our ideal wedding. And now, we are both completely immersing ourselves into this world. Mai is doing much better at playing the girl role than I am, she's already envisioned everything from the band, flowers, table decorations and food. I have to keep reminding her that it's my wedding.

I've been looking at the magazines and they scare me! All the magazines are pretty much the same and promote the exact same things. I've gone through Brides, Martha Stewart Weddings, InStyle Weddings and Real Simple Weddings and they are all identical! I'm glad that these were given to me because I feel sorry for the suckers who pay over $7 per magazine to get the same sugar-coated stuff in each 'zine. Besides the overwhelming factor, I don't know where to really start. I've only been in two weddings as a bridesmaid before so this whole wedding territory is so new to me. But at least we did one major thing already.

We crossed one thing off the list: the date! So, the official date of our wedding in Los Angeles will be (drum roll): Saturday, May 2, 2009.* We still haven't decided on the location but we are dreaming of it being by the beach (Malibu, Santa Monica, etc) so we can have the water, sand and sun reflecting on us all. For those that are going to be adventurous and join us for the Netherlands celebration, that date has been chosen too! It's going to be Wednesday, September 9, 2009 (yea, we are one of those kids who thought having another celebration on 9/9/09 would be rad).

And then there's the post-wedding things to think about. The last name?! After long thoughts on it, I'm keeping my last name because, well, it's been with me for the past twenty-eight years. Besides, I've perfected the art of the perfect signature that it will take too much effort for me to redesign my signature :)

Then there's the immigration world. Man o' man, is that complicated too! K1, L1, work green card vs. marriage green card. Throw into the mix that we want to move to the Netherlands in a couple of years and things start to get even crazier.

So although there are so many things that are overwhelming me, it makes me excited and happy all at the same time. We're still floating along in Cloud 9 and will continue enjoying it for as long as we can. I figure that it's best to focus most of our energy on all of the summer adventures and then start worrying about the details once September comes. There is one thing that I've become certain on that I want at our wedding. It's cupcakes and delicious desserts. Just take a look at these dessert bars, don't they look absolutely amazing and mouth watering? Yup, dessert bar is indeed a yes.


*oh crystal, laura, paddy (and all my other long distance loved ones) please tell me that you will be on the west coast?!*

Realizations and celebrations

When it comes to height, I've always seen myself as average. I'm 5'3" and on days when I want to be really spunky, I can be 5'7" although the days when I feel spunky are few and far between since I've discovered how much I love the flats. I surround myself with people who are similar to height and Marijn fits perfectly with me for height...not too tall where I hurt my neck trying to give him kisses so it's just right. However for the first time ever, I felt like a midget!

I went to Marijn's school reunion (their version of high school but starts at age eleven instead) which is celebrated every ten years because the class sizes are really small. So I was dragged to the event, meeting his classmates, his old snogging partners and his old teachers. While standing around everyone, I felt short but it didn't seem to bother me. Everyone was at least six feet tall so there was some height difference between me and everyone else. However that did not make me feel short. The restroom made me feel like a midget! After using the water closet, I went to wash my hands which stood at a decent level for me. I looked up to do the standard hair/makeup check and to my surprise, the mirror started at my forehead. Even standing on my tippy-toes, I could barely look into the mirror! This is a school where eleven years and older go and I could not even reach the mirror! I wish that I had my camera on me so you could see the difference. Dutch kids are tall! And I, a twenty eight year old grown woman, cannot see my own reflection in a kids high school mirror. Sigh.

On the celebratory note, I've inched closer to being an actual adult and accepted a beautiful proposal from my now fiancé. It took me a few days before I was able to say that word out loud. Marijn laughed at me but I think that at the same time, he was trying to get used to saying it out loud too! We've been talking about our future for awhile now so in the back of my mind, I knew that it was coming but there's such an amazing feeling when the dream finally becomes a reality and we've made it official.

We spent a couple of days in Barcelona, enjoying the time with my two beautiful college friends. We enjoyed plenty o' bottles of Cava with a delicious home cooked meal and ended up with the best mojitos on the Ramblas at about 2am. We stumbled back to our lovely four star hotel near Placa de Catalunya and passed out quite quickly upon our return. It was a really long and sleepless night since I was pretty sick starting at 4am which continued through until 11am. Being the great gentleman that Marijn is, woke up at noon and told me that he would pick up coffee. He came back, waking me up with breakfast in bed and beautiful red roses. Waking up to the smell of coffee and breakfast though didn't make me feel too pleasant but that was offset by the next few moments.

For me, it was the perfect moment, the two of us in our hotel room sharing this moment. Some people wonder/day dream that this moment will be a huge and elaborate affair but that's not something I would have dreamed of. We got to share this moment with just the two of us as we sat together feeling this euphoric wave come over us as we took the next step to make our lives connect on a deeper level.

Now it's time for the fun of planning! We haven't settled on any dates yet but things are starting to take shape. We are leaning towards a Spring wedding in the Netherlands followed by a Fall wedding in Los Angeles. I believe that once we get the dates set everything else will fall into place. We really are excited about this and can't wait to throw some kick ass parties! Weeeeeeeee!!!