Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays.  There is nothing better than dressing up in pink and red, receiving flowers, writing little love notes, eating heart-shaped chocolates and telling the people you love, I love you!  

This Valentine's I was especially grateful that I could help others do this with my NEW JOB at this flower shop!

That's right!  I'm back making floral arrangements again and loving it!  As you can imagine, Valentine's Day Week was so crazy that I hardly had time to sleep, eat or even use the restroom (I'm really not kidding!  I got to the end of Valentine's Day and realized that I hadn't gone all day!)  Despite the craziness, working with flowers and hearing the sweet things guys had to say about their wives or girlfriends made it all worth it!  I loved every second of it and it made me that much more excited to spend Valentine's with my sweetheart!

I still remember our first Valentine's Day together.  We celebrated it in Manitou Springs at Adam's Cafe with chocolates, poems, love songs, and lots of gazing into each others' eyes with the occasional kiss.... or two!  

Now that we are married and actually in the same state, this Valentine's there was definitely a lot of that going on!  I don't know how we could have had a more perfect Valentines - Together! 

We took a long romantic stroll down by the beach at sunset (can I just say that I love California!),

followed by a delicious dinner planned by McKay, at which McKay shared a poem that he wrote for me!!!

Of course, you only get to see the card it came in!  But I will tell you that the poem was so touching and that McKay is my little renaissance man!

I am one lucky girl to have this man in my life and couldn't be happier!

I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful new job, 

but more especially to have the best husband!

Happily Forever After, Part II: Bridals/Groomals

As a young girl I never dreamt of being a princess for the day, or of whirling around in a big pouffy dress with my hair up in curls.  Instead, I was always the little girl with scraped knees, that climbed trees and splashed around in mud puddles to her heart's content! (Boy, those were some fun times!)

Until my prince came along...

...and brought out the princess deep within me...

...and made it seem as though it had been my dream all along!

But first we had to wait three LONG years, 

shed many tears,

until out hearts could finally become one!

And he was worth it!  Oh! How I love this man!

Since playing and teaching the harp is an important part of my life,

 I was so grateful to our extremely talented photographer, Suzanne Plant, for letting me "borrow" Abby, her daughter and my harp student! 

How adorable is she, right?

My mom was there by my side helping the whole time.  

Thank you mommy, you are the best!

Dreams do come true, 

just not always how we thought they would!

When Momma Came to Town

I've never understood why it is always so hard to be a tourist in your own city, especially when you live in a touristy city.  Perplexing paradox - I think so!  I lived in Paris for a year and saw many things, but not nearly as many as I would have liked to.  I've always regretted this, but in my defense, I was practicing the harp like crazy!  I suppose life is just busy and excuses are always easy to come by, which is why one of our New Year's resolutions is to see and experience more everyday!  Speaking of excuses, not that McKay and I wanted an excuse, but McKay's mom gave us the perfect one to start seeing some of those things we had been "saving" by visiting us in LA! 

It is always easier to get out and be a tourist when you have one, so thanks mom!  We started at the Getty Villa, which a friend of mine raved about, so naturally I had to go!  The museum is free - I know Wow! right?  J. Paul wanted admission to always be free at his museum here, but they found a way around it by charging $15 for parking.  In the end that's not so bad for the three of us!

 Getty's collection includes perfectly preserved Greek and Roman art, but probably my favorite part about the museum was the museum itself with it's beautiful architecture, gardens and pools. 

 They even had a sculpture of a harpist from Roman times...making harp the coolest instrument!  Sorry fellow musicians!

First thought when I saw this...

  "Slave!  Bring me my laptop!  I want to check my e-mail."
I mean what else could she be doing, right!?!

For lunch we took mom to True Food, one of our fav restaurants in Santa Monica because they cater to Gluten-free eaters, and then hopped over to the Santa Monica Pier.

What a beautiful day and people to spend a terrifically touristy day with!

(terrifically: what a funny word!  It either means:

1) Very Bad: Frightful

2) Exciting or fit to excite awe (the one I meant)

And don't even get me started on awful and awesome!

Ok, I already started!  Why is it ok to have some awe, but bad to be full of awe!  Just a thought.)