weekend update: August 19-21, 2011

This weekend was wonderful, mostly relaxing and awesome celebrating with Josh our 1 year anniversary! Again, I can't believe it's been a year already!!

Breakfast on Friday - Overnight French Toast Casserole + real maple syrup! (recipe coming this week)

Friday packed lunch/dinner - California BLT Sandwiches

Our hotel for Friday & Saturday

Niagara Falls, NY - the American Rapids

Our comfy room! (I was standing right next to the entry door)

We spent a lot of time site-seeing while riding around on the trolly. It was $2/person for all-day riding, so it was worth it!

Saturday early afternoon we went to the aquarium and spent a good amount of time there.

Josh made friends with the fishies.

This guy was looking right at me!

A swimming turtle!

Another one of Josh's new friends...

We stayed for a 30 minute sea lion show. This was Dina - she was almost 25 years old and very talented!!

Me as a penguin.

Riding the trolly to Goat Island.

Horseshoe Falls from the US side.

Dinner @ Top of the Falls restaurant. Kinda pricey (that was expected), but the food was pretty good, service was quick (we were there for an early dinner) and it was a nice view of the falls.

Anniversary dinner @ Wine on Third. Very cool place - not your every day eatery, you're paying for fresh food, presentation and atmosphere.

Their own sangria. Very tasty and in a HUGE glass.

Bread with dipping sauce of olive oil, balsamic reduction, pesto and asiago cheese. Delicious.

Josh's meal: NY Strip steak, veggies, baked potato and onion rings. A little disappointed they had NO steak sauce - it's not like the steak was cooked with a special sauce...

My meal - Blackened pork tenderloin (done medium well - and perfect), mashed potatoes, veggies and a demi-glaze. Absolutely delicious. I could have licked the plate clean (but used Josh's onion rings to mop the last of that delicious sauce up instead).

Chocolate lava cake with raspberry + white chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Delicious, though I would have liked more melty fudge in the middle.

Breakfast outside Sunday before we headed out. Forgot to get a picture of my food :(

Thanks for sticking through to the end - there were a lot of pictures!! We got back home around 3 on Sunday and spent the rest of the day playing Josh's video game "Heavy Rain." It's like one of those "Choose your own adventure" books where you make choices to dictate where the story goes and your decisions affect the ultimate outcome (people can die...etc).

Oh - and today I've been off! It's been nice lounging around - this weather is gorgeous and screaming jeans, scarves and light jackets (meaning: FALL!!!). Yeah, everyone in Erie is looking forward to fall today!

we made it: one year!

I can't believe it's been a year since our wedding week. At this time last year, my best friend from Florida was in Erie, helping me with whatever I needed. I had just picked up my dress, my family, friends and I were going crazy with last minute details. I was back living with my parents. My niece could barely sit up on her own, now she's a full-fledged walking toddler.

If you're a more recent follower, you can catch up on my wedding using the "my wedding" labels, though that will take you back a year of planning! I didn't put too many of our pictures up after we got them back, so here are a few favorites in honor of this special week:

Ah - my family :)

We took almost all of the bride + bridesmaid pictures at my aunt + uncle's house before the wedding. They recently sold their house, so I'm even more honored to have so many gorgeous pictures on their beautiful property.

Where Josh and I attend church together. One Sunday a month, we are on stage helping to lead worship to this beautiful church. I have gone here all of my life. Though the building is new (built in 2007), the people are the church, and we were so blessed to have so many family, friends and church family there with us.

This bridal party was the best. I mean, look at all those gorgeous girls! And all those super cool dudes!

Our pictures were done by my long-time, very good friend and at one point, mentor, Danielle Hartland. She did an amazing job and I couldn't be more pleased with everything she did for us.

Kimberly of Make Way for Cupcakes did our gorgeous and delicious cupcakes. They turned out exactly how I had envisioned and my family was happily stuffing our faces with leftover cuppies for days after the wedding.

Our first dance song was written by my cousin Paul, who Josh was friends with in high school. It was so awesome having so many family and friends doing things for our wedding day.

Tell me about your wedding experiences! What was the best part of your day or a friend's wedding you attended? Other than walking down the aisle to meet my hubby and say our vows, our off-site picture time and reception were both a blast. I can't really pick - I loved the whole day!!

If you're interested in viewing more pics (my gosh, there are so many pics), look me up on Facebook - I have three albums!!