Sweet home in the Uintas....

Just a couple of my favorite photos from our latest camp trip to the Uintas....

Frightened Rabbit @ Urban Lounge - May 13, 2010

Frightened Rabbit is a band I fell hard and fast for.  I looked up a few videos on YouTube and wasn't all that blown away with their live performance, but OF COURSE had to go see them play at Urban Lounge anyway. 

There's something to be said for lowered expectations.  They were superb live, and Annan and I had an absoultely mezmerizing time watching them from the front row at that tiny venue. I may or may not have cried during the breakdown of "Keep Yourself Warm"--it was simply soul-crushing (in a good way). My friend Rebecca snapped the photo below with her phone, and apparently that's my arm there up in the air on the front-right....

I will definitely be seeing them the next time they visit from Scotland.

The Seven Year Itch

 

On June 5, Mason and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary, and threw a grand ole party!  Why celebrate 7 years in such grand fashion?  Well, that requires a bit of a back-story.  I'll try to be brief:

...Carly throws her back out right before the wedding in 2003, Carly goes to the ER and physical therapy, they prescribe Carly pain pills, Carly doesn't really like pain pills and decides not to take any until the day of the wedding when her back is really bothering her, Carly makes it through the ceremony and the photos then starts to feel nauseous, Carly throws up for hours because she can't handle the pills, Mason attends our reception by himself and has to answer the question "Where's your bride?" way too many times, Carly and Mason miss the bouquet-tossing, the garter, the first dance, and all those other things you're supposed to do at your wedding, Mason carries his vomiting bride across the street to the hotel, puts her to bed, and watches billiards on ESPN2 on his wedding night...

For years we have wanted to re-do what we missed at our wedding.  7 is our favorite number. Our anniversary happened to fall on a Saturday this year.  We have a new house.  We haven't had a housewarming party yet.  Combine all those reasons and boom....the 7 Year Itch Party was born.

As long as we were trying to re-create the first dance and throw the garter, I figured I might as well bust out the white dress!  The good news: it still fit!  I decided to have it altered (or un-altered) and removed the cap sleeves that I had added 7 years ago.  I really liked the sleeves at the time of the wedding, but the dress was MEANT to be strapless, and I think it was happy to be back to its intended design.  Yes, dresses have feelings and opinions too.

We invited our close friends and family, cleaned the place up like new, hired some very cheap yet professional caterers (our moms), and had an amazing and wonderful evening.  I feel like I finally have the memories of my "wedding" that I've always been missing. 

My favorite memory of the evening: my "first" dance with my husband. 

Mason and I have danced with each other countless times since our wedding, but there was something so profound and different about the feeling I had while we danced under OUR deck at OUR home, surrounded by the family that we have built together over the past 7 years.  We both had a hard time containing the tears, so we just grinned from ear-to-ear the entire time. 

I also got to dance with my daddy, which was something I had sorely missed the first time around.  We sang along to Frank Sinatra together while we danced.....epic:

Mason's mom custom-made us a Moulin Rouge-ish garter 7 years ago to go with our wedding colors (red, black and silver).  It was fun to finally put it to some use.

Our dear friend Matt, who we met after we got married, caught the garter.  It was perfect.  I can't think of anyone better....

I tossed a small bouqet of red sunflowers and red gerbers--just like the original bouquet--and my adorable niece was the lucky lady to catch it.  This was also perfect, because it was her baptism day, and she continued to feel like the special lady of the day!

The food was incredible and plentiful (or Bountiful, if you will).....

We put out the wedding albums and photos for nostalgia's sake...

Other random favorite pictures from the evening:

Most of the guests left by 2:00 am, but a select few of us kept talking, picking at the buffet, laughing and dancing until after 6:00 am when we saw the sun rising over the hills:

"Happiness is having a scratch for every itch." 

                                   - Ogden Nash

Latest mix...

Yeah yeah, I know, it's been awhile.  I have lots to catch up on but this is a quick and easy post...my latest mix!  It's a good one, let me know if you need a copy.  Title:  MAN JOBS  (stems from a camping trip joke...)