Hola! We are back from our whirlwind vacation to Lima and Machu Picchu in Peru just in time to celebrate our eight year wedding anniversary!

It all started with a trip to Hawaii eight years ago…

(Big Island, Hawaii – September 20, 2001 – OMG, how young do we look?)

(Machu Picchu, Peru – September 6, 2009 – OMG, how tired do we look?)

More photos of our recent Peru trip to come!

Ok, so what left… hmmm.

There were some introductions and funny dances…

The cake was cut and fed to the other party in a polite manner as captured by my brother’s iPhone which I don’t think he put down for the entire weekend.

I gave a nice toast (barefoot) and did not completely blank, cry or faint -  go me!

A certain groom had to wear a funny hat courtesy or his brother. Michael’s said “D.u.d.e.” and Lauren’s said “B.a.b.e.” She declined to wear the hat at the reception.

The first dance was lovely, “The Prayer,” as performed by two family friends.

Then my sister and dad enjoyed their dance while singing along to “Because You Loved Me”.

After this point, we let the photo booth take the pictures!

After the ceremony, the limo took as to a few scenic points in Chicago for photos. Once we arrived at the Medinah Country Club, Eric jumped in with his camera and snapped a few shots of the formal poses on the front lawn. I gladly kicked off my shoes for this part!

Since we were running behind, Eric was able to go into the decorated room and get some lovely shots of the centerpieces and wedding cake in the late afternoon light.

And finally, one of us!

So even after all the craziness that led up to the ceremony last weekend, the actual wedding went off without a hitch. Thankfully, I didn’t once trip on the stairs leading up to the altar any of the many times I had to straighten out Lauren’s dress and veil.

Eric mentioned that a lot of people seemed to be a little worried about me descending five stairs backwards multiple times in 3.5 inch heels and at the end I got loads of compliments and an invite from the priest to help them with the 2:30pm wedding. :)

Here are some of the highlights… I think Eric did a fantastic job even though he doesn’t often take photos of people.

(Bob, Michael’s brother, and I walking down the aisle)

(my sister and a lovely shot of the Holy Name cathedral)

(the moms lighting the candles for the Unity candle ceremony)

(putting on the ring)

(you may now kiss the bride)

(posing for photos on the front steps)

We had only a half hour scheduled for the rehearsal on Friday night and the priest was very efficient in giving everyone their jobs while occasionally injecting jokes into the barrage of information.

the happy couple – Michael and Lauren

We practiced walking down the aisle (with the proper distance in between couples) and standing where we needed to be standing. My main job was to “floof” the dress to make sure it always looked good for photos during the ceremony.

Lauren’s very pink dress for the rehearsal

the entire wedding party up on stage

just married – well, at least for the practice round!

I felt much more prepared for the actual wedding part (and I imagine others did as well) and all the mugging for the camera made the entire experience fun.

There are more photos of the rehearsal in this Flickr photoset and I’ll also be adding many (many!) more in the next few days.

This week is Triangle Restaurant Week, where many local restaurants feature prix fixe menus in order to encourage people to try new places, so last night we visited Four Square in Durham. After reviewing a half-dozen restaurants on Sunday we decided to make reservations for Tuesday night with a group of friends.

Unfortunately, it turns out the wrong menu was posted when we made our reservations, and we discovered a more limited menu on the day of our dinner reservation. When asked, the hostess was very nice and explained that they decided to do an entirely different menu rather than smaller portions of their existing dishes, and that they sent in the revised menu well before this week and it just wasn’t posted on time. This makes a good case for Four Square posting the special menu on their own website in addition to the Triangle Restaurant Week website (hint, hint!). While I was actually looking forward to trying dishes on the regular menu, the changes still looked appetizing.

We arrived about 15 minutes early and took a seat on the front porch rockers while we looked over the wine list and talked with our friends. The restaurant is located in an old farm house, where each of the rooms has about 3-4 tables, making it great for romantic meals. At 7p we were seated upstairs in the back of the house in what must have been a bedroom.

Seating was followed by a rather long 10 minutes before we could place our drink order and then another good delay for our drinks to arrive. Fortunately, this was the only problem and the service was otherwise excellent. We choose a Loire valley Rose that we thought would complement each of the courses.

There were two choices for each appetizer, entree and dessert, so we decided to get different things and share—except we both choose the beef entree as I wasn’t in the mood for mahi mahi.

The fried green tomato appetizer was crispy and the sauce was good but it could not outdo the baby artichoke and sundried tomato pasta with chicken and creamed spinach. Delicious. The skillet cooked ribeyes were both slightly underdone from how we ordered them, so my medium rare was more of a rare plus, and Eric’s medium steak was a dark pink. The gravy was rich and seasoned perfectly but I would have called the seasoned potatoes ‘wedges’ rather than ’steak fries’ as they weren’t crispy after spending time soaking in the sauce. (Note: Only one couple split the mahi mahi and they thought the beef was superior.)

For dessert, the chocolate torte accompanied by a strawberry balsamic sorbet was the hands-down winner, but the strawberry shortcake put up a good fight. Personally, I would have preferred the vanilla bean cake to be lighter in texture and body, more like an angel food cake because it seemed like strawberries piled on a cornbread muffin to me.

Overall, we had a lovely time and would return. The service was great, and we thought the sauces used throughout were quite good. Although the regular menu is pricey, we found the wine list to be quite extensive and reasonably priced.

My dad is 67 years young today and I believe this photo of him is from 1998, the year I graduated college.

Happy birthday, Dad! Enjoy your James Bond martini and remember it’s always happy hour somewhere.  I love you! :)

On this day, one year ago, I opened up my business bank account and began the process of registering my business name and making my freelance web design career “official.”

Even though there have been challenges (getting paid on time, seemingly endless networking events, etc.), I have never once regretted the decision to quit my job at UNC and strike out on my own.

Plus, all of the self-marketing and conferences and after-hours events have not only helped me become more comfortable talking about what it is I do for a living, but it’s generated a large list of possible leads for 2009.

I have spent the first week of this year researching client management systems (I like Highrise), new hosting companies, and planning out what conferences I want to attend in 2009. So far, I am traveling to San Francisco in April for the NTEN technology conference. Very exciting!

I have a feeling this is going to be a great year. :)

As many of you now know, my grandmother (gram) passed away last Friday evening, a mere two weeks after she spent Thanksgiving with the entire immediate family in Florida. I have been back and forth to the Tampa area three times in the last three weeks, once driving and twice flying.

Once I knew she was hospitalized with kidney failure, the decision to go back and spend time with her in the hospital was obvious, but I wasn’t sure what else I could do… it turns out that we were able to get her out of the hospital and into hospice care, so she was able to spend the last week of her life in familiar surroundings without tubes, blood tests and beeping machines.

She mentioned several times during the five days I sat with her both in the hospital and at Patrick Manor that she didn’t know what she would do without me. I can’t even describe how happy I am that I had this time with her and that I was able to honor her last wishes.

Gram, life just won’t be the same without you.

It goes without saying that we love and miss her so much already, but I know she is in a happier place and she wasn’t in any pain. I consider it a blessing to have had this wonderful woman in my life.

Over the last seven years, we have grown from best friends who hiked a lot into world travel companions, daily cheerleaders for each others life challenges, and parents to a rescued canine.

We have visited 20 different states and 8 different countries together.

Every day I wake up he is absolutely the first person I want to see.

Happy anniversary Eric!

Unicoi State Park in April, 2001

We are celebrating tonight with a swiss cheese fondue and a sparkling wine from the Finger Lakes, just a sampling of the trips we’ve taken together over the past year.