Diana and Will's wedding: a weekend of amazingness

Thursday morning I woke up at 5:30am, got to the airport and after a 5 hour and 10 minute flight (oh my god that is a long flight), I landed in sunny, beautiful Phoenix, Arizona.

Diana was there to pick up Caitlin, Meghan and I at the airport. The three of us miraculously organized our arrivals within a half hour of each other. This was quite the feat since Meghan came from Portland, Caitlin from Chicago, and I came from North Carolina.

We grabbed a quick lunch at the hotel/resort and then immediately went out to the pool where we found Pina Coladas and a "lazy river".

Cheers to the big day.

That night we had a fabulous catered BBQ at the groom's parents' house. I started getting tired and delirious pretty early in the night since I was on a three hour time difference (and usually go to bed around 10pm on weeknights), but I fought through as best I could. That night I had the best night of sleep of my life.

The next morning we went to the spa for manicures, pedicures, and mimosas.
Then it was back to the pool for a few hours of sun and lounging before we had to get ready for the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.

Outside the hotel/resort/paradise/where I want to stay forever

Caitlin, me, Meghan, Diana, and (surprise!) Dave
Will and Diana
Will, me, and Diana
The rehearsal was a little bit windy and the wind knocked over my champagne class (and broke it into two at the stem) but that did not stop me from using it!
John, my date down the aisle:
The rehearsal dinner was delicious, I made my toast and there were many tears. Well, I don't think my toast made anyone cry, but there were many toasts from parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and uncles....some were short, some were not very short.

The next morning we got up early and had our hair done in the bridal suite. Then we got dressed and prepared for what seemed like five hours of photos (it was actually four hours)

Getting ready (this photo is cool because you can see Diana in FOUR different places)


The bridesmaids: Meghan, Anne (Will's sister), me, and Caitlin (Maid of Honor). Meghan, Caitlin, Diana and I all went to St. Olaf together and all lived with each other at sometime or another. I was roommates with Caitlin and Diana our junior year (we lived in a triple) and our senior year in a house off campus.
The venue was in a beautiful spot outside the hotel, we could see it from the balcony of the bridal suite so we could spy on the guests without them seeing us.

Diana in her dress not nervous at all:
Diana's Dave and John stopped by
Posing for the photographer, his lighting is probably better than mine.
Guests beginning to gather.
Then the wedding planner came and said it was go time!

I have no pictures from the ceremony because I was in it, but as soon as the professional photographer's pictures are available I will post a few of them. The ceremony was short, sweet, and beautiful, as I hear are most Lutheran weddings, and once the business was done we walked to the reception to finally celebrate!!

Cutting the cake

The bridal partyThe next morning there was an overwhelmingly amazing buffet brunch awaiting everyone. I swear, there was bacon almost an inch thick! Then we hit the pool one last time before planes started to take off. The new Diana (Ostrowski) Huepenbecker showed off some new bling.
Diana is my first close friend to get married so made the weekend extra exciting. This was by far the BEST wedding I have ever been to, it was gorgeous and everyone was there to relax and have a good time. I think Arizona in March was the best choice that could have been made.

The newlyweds are soon off to Big Sky, Montana to ski for their honeymoon. Then it is back to Madison, WI to once again face the real world.

SLC: the new NYC?

Well, I didn't have any Louie sitings, but I did have a great trip to Salt Lake City. I went for the big annual Toxicology meeting. It is held in different cities each year and I was glad SLC was this year's destination since I have never been.

When I got off the plane I was greeted with this view of the city (taken from the airport). It was hard to get good pictures of the mountains from downtown because the buildings blocked the views. The conference was in the midst of those buildings.

Another view, this one includes the capital building....kind of like Madison, except with giant mountains in the background.
A closer shot of the city.

The first day I went to an interesting seminar on arsenic and it's association with diabetes and metabolic syndrome (relevant to my current work). Later I walked around the city to check out the sites. I wandered to the Temple Square which has the Salt Lake Temple, the Tabernacle, and the Family History Library.

The Temple was bulit between between 1853 and 1893 (so I guess it took a while). Only members of the church are allowed to go in so I converted...........WHAT!?!?! Just Kidding!!!
The Family History Library was REALLY cool. It is the world's largest collection of genealogical resources and the librarians were really helpful. The place was packed and I think the ratio of visitor to librarian was 2:1. I spent hours at the computer looking up my genealogy. The library has electronic and paper copies of birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, immigration records, ship passenger lists, and tons of other stuff I didn't have time to get to. I made a family tree and discovered that my dad's side of the family traced back to Germany and Norway. My mom's side is also very Norwegian (looks like going to St. Olaf made sense!). I was even able to trace one branch of the family all the way back to 1569 in Scotland!

The conference center took up a whole block. I attended some very interesting talks on POPs (persistent organic pollutants), Bisphenol-A, and phthalates.



Despite many rumors and warnings from my friends, if the city is dry I didn't notice and when I got home I slept all weekend (I'm not sure if the two are correlated).

In a couple weeks I will be headed to Arizona to be a bridesmaid in Diana's wedding! I can't wait!

Off to stalk an olympic snowboarder

After watching the Olympics and last seasons Dancing with the Stars, I became a big fan of Louie Vito. He is just too cute, and his hobby is rap music.....just like me......

Anyway I got so obsessed with him that I quit my job and on Sunday I am off to Salt Lake City where he lives. I am going to find him and we will listen to rap music together.

Ok, okay, actually I did not quit my job because I love it more than Louie but I am going to SLC on Sunday (for a week-long conference). Despite the truth of my situation I promise to keep my eyes out for him and report back on this blog.