Bears!!!!!

The ranger greeted us by saying, "we have a bear problem and it's been getting worse over the past few weeks."

Woah Nellie he was not kidding! The first night we were woken three times by crying baby bears running through the camp sites. I had no idea baby bears cry so much like little puppies. The second day I was standing in my underwear ankle deep in the coldest brook ever after a challenging hike up the knife edge when a baby bear comes bounding down the trail. My first thought was "what kind of black dog is that." I quickly realized it was a very curious baby black bear. I wrapped myself up and begged S to hurry up so we could get out of there before it's mother showed up. Unfortunately, after 10 miles with the camera handly, we didn't have it at the swimming hole with us.

The baby bears came back crying through the campground during the night on our second night, but after seeing how small they were I was a lot less scared of them. I had the camera poised for a morning shot, but we were packed up and on the road before they made their morning breakfast scraps rounds.

Off to the Woods

There's really no denying it, we're car-to-site campers.


The jeep is fully loaded for two nights of camping. S has no less than 5 pairs of pants. However, in his defense, my parents were throwing clothes on his packing pile this morning after they saw his Navy issued cotton thermals. Cotton thermals? Now that's an oxymoron. We also stopped at dicks and came out with a couple pairs of zip off pants.

Looks like we're ready for our longest forced march yet. Happy honeymoon, darlin'.

Returns...An Unexpected Gift

We drank more liquor than 130 people should ever be able to consume (well done flounder). But when then cloud lifted and our hazy heads cleared we had well over a thousand dollars worth of beer and wine to return today (ahem, not going to mention how much we spent last week, in addition to the booze from S's students). When the credit reciept printed it was like a little unexpected gift. Maybe we'll have a little left over from the budget to go towards the new house :)

Welcome to the Navy, Ma'am

It's official, I'm a Navy wife now. I have my ID card and I'm enrolled in tri-care. I peppered the nice woman in the medical building with dozens of medical questions. Conclusion is that between my current coverage and supplemental tri-care I'm about as covered as I can get and I can still see any doctor I darn well please. Being married to S has even more perks than I thought!

That's It

We're official! Off to change my name now.

Lanterns

The lanterns were awesome!

On My Way

I'm en route to the church! No photos to post, just driving in the land yatch, wearing my gorgeous earrings from S. I'm psyched and not nervous at all...yet :)

Setting Out Light with Lexi

I drove the Jeep with Lexi and the lanterns around the yard today as mom and dad set out the lanterns. Lex knows something big is happening because she's alternating between sticking like glue and hiding in my closet.

Nails are Did

Mom, A, and I got our nails did:


While S, his dad and some really good and generous friends hung all the lanterns.


I am so grateful for their help. Now today A and I are on our way to the salon while bro and W's husband hang the throwies.

Present Time

I gave S his wedding gift a day early. After the amount of work he's done repeating, "it will all be worth it" was starting to fall on deaf ears. I hope this makes it worth it :)

Centerpiece Flowers

Are done and perfect. I'm psyched!

Little Tent

Bathroom tent is up and its lanterns are hung!

Folding Bags

Is a pia.

Lexi

Lex wearing her ear protection to drown out the noisy humans.

Tree Trunks

I wrapped several tree trunks with mini lights today. There are a few more to finish in the AM, but we ran the cables out for the first batch. They look fabulous and throw a ton of light.


At the end of the drive where 5 paper lanterns will be hung:

Corn Hole!

Brother came home this weekend and built four corn hole thingys with the wood S and I bought at Home Depot. The wood purchase was nearly a disaster after I forced S to put his bags in the cab of the truck, much against his will. But, the corn hole games a fabulous and built to my perfectionist standards. Bro is quite the craftsman and like me knows that any job worth doing is worth doing right.

Corn hole, fun for all ages:


And rather than leave the holes white, S decided they need contrast trim. Problem is, I'm the painting pro in our fledgling family. So after a full day AND after making dinner for everyone, I taped and painted trim as S watched and chatted at me.


I'll have to give them another coat in the am with a roller then apply a few coats of clear gloss coat. Because I don't have enough to do already....

Alerting the Neighbors

My mom wrote a letter to all our neighbors, I baked cookies for them, and today Lexi and I delivered the goods.

First Batch of Flowers

The first batch of flowers arrived today. Freesia take longer to open than the other flowers so we had them delivered today instead of Thursday with the rest of the flowers. 200 stems do not take up a lot of space. I am super impressed with fifty-flowers.com!



I cut the ends and removed all the leaves:


Here they are!