Thank you Everyone!

  Thank you to everyone who got in touch with me yesterday (via facebook, text, email, phone etc.)and wishing me a Happy Birthday! I had a nice day with my daughter and dinner with my husband and daughter. As I get older I feel like birthdays aren't a big deal and I shouldn't expect it to be. But then the day comes and everyone taking the time to wish me a happy birthday means me feel speical. So I wanted to tell everyone how much I appreciate it. 

Since Cole and I have birthdays near each other we like to celebrate together. But right now, Im his old lady since I'm not 28 and he is 27 haha.

But with my mom and Mil coming in town the day after we get back to Seattle, we figured we'll go out that saturday and celebrate then. That way we don't feel rushed through dinner and feel like we can enjoy a glass of wine :)

Im pretty excited about this weekend. We're going to a Sesame Place! Its a Sesame Street theme park. usually a water park but there are apprently lots of things you can do that are not water related and everything is geared towards toddlers! So I think Elyse will love it! I have Sesame Street on in the house. She can't watch all of it, but she watches it sometimes so I think she will reconize some of the characters there!

(Plus: we have to get as much Big bird in before Romney takes office.. if he takes office) Joking!! joking!! (kinda)

Sorry, I don't usually like to talk politics because I don't like someone shoving their opinion as the "right" opnion in my face, and I don't like to push my opinions on politics on others. But I just HAD to do the big bird thing, only cause we're going there!!

I can get very heated about it as everyone else does, so I would just usually prefer to not get in a fight about it. When it comes to politics and religion, all I ask is to be considerate when you're in mixed company. I have been in WAY to many situations where people don't know I'm a dem and they start going off about how dems are stupid and I want to say something, but I don't.  I just usually prefer to not get in an arguement. If it's talked about, I prefer it to be jokes.. :)

ok enough heavy stuff!

End on a lighter note, 7 more days till we go back to Seattle!! one week!! I'm so excited! I think Cole is a little sad to leave his project here, so I feel bad. But I need to go home and be with my house and doggies and friends... Just a litle break from here even though its been fun here!

Homesick - Dogsick

Although I am so grateful to be able to travel with Cole and Elyse right now, I have to mention... I miss my doggies so much!!!

ok first of all, look at these adorable faces!

I did not grow up with dogs. My one pet was a tortise and it was like owning a eating, pooping, rock. I loved my tortise Arnie, formally known as Claire as I thought he was a girl for like 2 years. But they don't really snuggle or protect you or leave their hair everywhere as a reminder of their presence. And I did try to make that tortise cuddle with me. When it was a baby, I would let it sleep in my bed next to my pillow kind of like in the crook of my neck and I loved it until I woke up rolling in poop.

Gross.

I'll be honest, I was a little excited to be dog free for a little bit. No shedding, no begging, no worrying about my belongings when I leave the house. But omg.. I miss them more than I thought I would. It made me realize I can never go back to a life without a dog. I love seeing them and feeling their protection. I missed them after a few days and now that its been a few months, I am so sad :(

Thankfully, my mom and mother in law and been generous enough to travel to Seattle the weekend we get back and bring them!! so only 2 more weeks until I get to see their furry faces!! I'll be sad if they don't care when they see us, but at the same time, whatever. I get happiness out of seeing those two. Wiggling tails, big brown ears and short pug sneezes. 

Im also really curious to see how they react to Elyse and vice versa! Elyse lights up when she sees other dogs, but I dont know if she knows she has 2 of her own! (and they are NOT her brother and sisters, they are my fur babies yes, but Elyse and my pets are not equals)

She was gentle with them before we left, but who knows now!

Heres a few of my favorite pictures of my fur babies:

This is the first weekend I got Brody! I believe he is about 11weeks old in this picture

Big Brown!!

From when Brody was a puppy... awww! so long ago!

Taylor has always been all legs. This is from when she was a puppy enjoying our first winter together.

MY boys!!!

Guilty!!!

Battleship New Jersey

So, I was wrong, I did have a few photos from the Battleship New Jersey!! I am going to share them :)

The Adventure Aquarium and the Battleship New Jersey are right next to each other in Camden, New Jersey which is right across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. It's really close for us. We just go across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and it's right there!

Above is a picture of us in front of the aquarium with the Philadelphia skyline in the background. The fun thing is that we live right across the street to the comcast center(the tallest building, kind of right above my head in the picture) in Philly. So we can always judge how far away from our "home away from home" is. This picture was a really hard picture to get becuase Elyse was not in the picture taking mood so thats why Cole and I look a little silly. He's saying "take it" between his teeth and I'm in the middle of saying "I am". HAHA

Here is the other picture we got from that moment. Which better shows Elyse's true feelings...

So the Battleship. It was really impressive to see. I can't get over how naval architects designs ships like this. There are so many passageways, levels and rooms and stuff to fit then to make it all sail. Its amazing! Then to think of all the men on the ship needed to run it and how crowded it must have been.

Well, I didn't take too many photos on the ship. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was a little difficult to tour the ship wtih a baby who wants to walk around. 

Heres a panaramic photos of the view from the aquarium! You can see Ben Franklin Bridge, Penns landing and Philadephia.

Here's Cole and Elyse lookin at the BSNJ. This dock was made for the ship museum with all the black pillars on the side are all the battles the ship was in and surrvived. 

Heres a panaramic picture of the ship

Look at those guns! I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of those! (and a family doing a cute mini photo shoot on the ship)

Elyse fits right in with her military style jacket :) 

Momma, don't leave me here! My crib is bigger than this!

See anything that would stand out to Cole on this photo?

If you guessed the Crowley tug pulling the BSNJ then you were right! :D

Well thats all I took. I got a little sick in the small areas. I don't know what is it is about old ships, but I get uncomfortable in them. (oh yea, I'm terrified they are all haunted!)

Im in a much much better mood than yesterday which is nice! The weather here took a really quick turn from dresses to pants and a winter coat over a day! Friday it was warm out and sweaty. Then saturday we were both freezing our tushys off! I feel a little bad. My friend Tany called me last week and asked if she needed a winter coat to bring and I said "no I dont think so. I don't have one and I've been fine. Its really hard to say cause it really depends on the day." Now a winter coat would be helpful. whoops! 

 

 

Adventure Aquarium - Camden, New Jersey

This weekend was a fun one. We stayed local this weekend since our trip here is coming to an end in 3 weeks. Although I am extreme homesick, I've found plenty of distractions. Most of my homesickness is my friends, and my normal routine in my house. We are currently staying in a corporate housing apartment in downtown Philly which is nice because there is stuff to do. But I don't have a car and theres only so much you can walk to everyday. The first few weeks were easier because everything was new. But now we've been here 2.5 months and I am just ready to get back to my hobbies back home. Scrapbooking, sewing, failed attemps at exercise, cooking with my stuff, cleaning my house, doing laundry in pjs! (we have a washer dryer on the floor and not in the unit so I have to get dressed to do laundry.. Im just not used to it)

With fall approaching, I miss my routine of the fall that I missed out on last year being in Roseville this time last year. I love decorating the house for the holidays. But I guess it will have to wait another year. We're looking into buying a house so that we can expand our family and really settling in somewhere. This would be our first house together which is really exciting!! but with that we have to pack up our house and rent it out asap!

These last two weeks, I've been in a bad mood. Just sad about being gone still. Although I really love traveling and being over here, it's hard to be in this limbo of "we're not here long enough to make it a home" but "we are here for a long time". It's fine until recently. Apprently 2 months is my max in this limbo. Being away from home for so long has been hard. We've really been gone since the begining of June and I think thats really where this is coming from. 

But Cole has been extremely understanding and it makes the trip a lot eaiser. We were expecting visitors this month so I thought the month would fly by. But not everyone could make it and we completely understand. Its not a short trip and its not a cheap trip either!! 

We are thrilled that Kevin, Jodi and Tany are all coming for a visit though!! Tany for 2 nights and Kevin and Jodi for 4 nights! Once they leave, we only have 2 more weeks!

One thing I am trying to do is blog more. I know I mentioned that before and then didn't. But I had an app on my ipad that will make blogging easier so I am able to do it more! 

Also, less people check this than my facebook so I feel able to really say how I feel. I'm starting to not enjoy facebook as much anymore either. I don't know if its my bad mood talking, but there is so much judgement on facebook. I don't have thick skin so it's hard for me. If you post too many pictures, people judge, if you have too many friends... people judge... if you have a long status... people judge. If you have grammatical errors.. judgement..it just doesn't end! 

I liked it when I first used it because it wasn't over the top like myspace. Which is why I still like it. But now I use it more for my family and friends who are curious to see what we're up to and see Elyse grow without having to ask me to send them pictures or updates. They can find it themselves! I dont post pictures so that people can think I'm bragging about my life. If they think that, I wish they would just unfriend me. But you can't be an open book because people LOVE to point out what is incorrect or wrong with your comments or status updates. sigh...  I realize I'm just being negitive right now. 

Okay enough on that, heres pictures from our weekend at the Adventure Aquarium in New Jersey.

Elyse loved looking at the fishes...

Shark teeth! 

They had a really cool and big tank there with turtles and sharks!

Look how big that turtle is!!

This is a ray shark, very rare.

Elyse liked the kids section

and of course the boat in the kids section.

The shark tank! We could talk through this tube and sharks swam over it. But we made it quick for two reasons. 1, it reminded me of Jaws 3 i think where Jaws breaks a tank like that and 2, parents and kids alike were shouting at the top of their lungs when a shark went by.(and there were tons of sharks)

I don't have pictrues of it but we also went to the Battleship New Jersey. It is the most decorated battleship in US history. It was really neat! We enjoy going in ship museums, but it a little hard with Elyse trying to carry her and walk through small passageways and such. But it was so big and so much to see!

As far as our travels out here, it is probably at an end. Since we've pretty gone every weekend to see something we're finally burnt out and spending the last 2 weekends here in the Philadelphia area. If we do come back, I do want to go back to NY and DC and Boston. Great places! We didn't see everything we wanted in all the locations but someday we will:)

So some of my next posts will be of some of our past trips that I didn't find the time to blog about at the time! So I will fill in on the Boston trip and NY. Also, our wonderful trip to hawaii!!!!

Anniversary

(picture from this year)

Since we are now married for 2 years, I want to reflect on our past anniversary!

We didn't plan to be in Philadelphia for this anniversary so really doing anything to celebrate was really difficult this year. When we got married, we had planned that every anniversary possible, we would stay at Hotel 1000 and go to a Seahawks game. Well, seeing that we're not in Seattle, that wasn't able to happen. So we may do it when we are back from Philly.

But last year, on our first anniversary, that was exactly what we did. My mom and aunt came to Seattle to watch Elyse for the weekend while we enjoyed our first anniversary. It was nice to know Elyse was in good and caring hands while we were away. We spend saturday night going out with friends to a bar/club. Stayed up way too late and were very hung over for the Seahawks game the next day. It was still a wonderful weekend. Being at Hotel 1000 and having a night to remind us of "pre-baby" life was really refreshing. Of course, we missed Elyse the whole time, and I had to bring my breast pump. So it wasn't exactly "pre-baby" life.

We did also get to have an anniversary cake from our bakery that made our wedding cake. It was soooo delicious. It was the confetti cake with cream cheese frosting. We did not save the top of our cake to eat from the wedding as I heard it's not very good and probably not very good for your health either. Our baker includes the anniversary cake into the price of your wedding cake to help couples not feel obligated to eat an old cake for their anniversary. I believe most bakers do that now, but you do have to remind them to make it a few weeks ahead of time. 

Since it was our paper aniversary, we got each other cards and tickets to the Seahawks game.

This year, we were very low key being in Philly and having no baby sitter. Although while my mom was here we had a "pre-anniversary" dinner so we could go to dinner without Elyse since we haven't been able to do that since we've been here. We dressed up went to The Captial Grill. We had planned on going to a movie(another activity that is hard with a baby) but we were too tired and the movie theater wasn't close by.

On our actual anniversary we decided we would do something more special when we got back to Seattle. But we exchanged cards, chocolates, and I got flowers. Then we went to the Melting Pot for dinner. (sooo yummy)Since it was our cotton anniversary, I got Cole a 100% cotton shirt. (and maybe something else when we're back home:) ) Can't say what since Cole reads this...

Here's some photos from last year(2011)'s anniversary!

Our seats at the Seahawks game. We didn't drink a drop that day from being so tired and hungover.

The Hotel prepared a nice little treat for us when we arrived! The truffles were so delicious!

Our anniversary cake from our baker. Wished it was bigger haha

My mom and Elyse when she came to watch her for our anniversary.

Since we didn't have our wedding video with us this year, we just watched this little clip that Azzura sent to us awhile back:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fxxz5-uE8Q&sns=em

Happy Two Year Anniversary

Today, October 2, 2012, marks the two year anniversary with my wonderful husband(our cotton anniversary). Our wedding day was such an amazing day, I wish we could do it all over again exactly the same. I know everyone thinks their wedding was the best they had ever been to and I am one of those people. (but I think there is something wrong when you don't think your own wedding was the best) A room with so many important people in our lives, all our family and friends sharing in this speical moment where we commit our lives to being one. 

We both did so much planning into so many of the little details of the day, and it came out perfect. Exactly how we planned. Every year we hope to relive it a little with a speical diner and viewing our wedding photos, guestbook, and video clips. Since we aren't home with all our stuff, we have to postpone some of that till we're back. But in honor of our speical day that brought us to who and where we are today, I'm going to post some of my favorite pictures from it. Some you've probably seen a lot already due to facebook, but I wouldn't post them, if they weren't my favorite! I'm sure I'm missing a few too...

I like to say that this one was one of my favorite days in my life because it really was the whole day that I loved. It was actually the whole weekend. From friday morning, primping and getting pampered in the Hotel 1000 spa, and bridesmaid lunch at the Four Seasons, to the minute we left on our honeymoon to Ireland. 

Here we go!

Friday, Oct 1, 2010

Getting ready for the big day! At the nail salon with MOH Courtney! Nails and taming of the eyebrows, CHECK!

Bridesmaid luncheon at the Four Seasons. (missing Auny!) after getting my hair done at Swink in Seattle. Love how my hair turned out.

The rehersal where I fubbed the vows....

Rehersal Dinner at Sip in downtown Seattle with my MOH Courtney and Bridesmaid Tany! During the rehersal I remember messing up the vows. Yes, at times it's hard to repeat words when there is so many eyes on you! hahaha

Rehersal Dinner with my Mom and Grandmother. Three generations of Baik women.

My bridesmaids and I at the rehearsal dinner.

Awesome reaction to bridesmaid's gifts. HAHAHA MOH Sharon. Timeless face, must send to Ford Models ASAP.

Saturday, October 2nd, 2010

Details, Details

My MOHs getting me suited up!

One of my favorite photos to show my Seahawks pride! (also to add to the Seattle themed wedding)

Ready to go from Miss to Mrs! Meanwhile...the guys are:

Spraying cologne where deodorant goes.....and

and drinking. Just kidding, all empty bottles in this phto. But clearly, picking up the room for the photos wasn't on the adgenda. 

Group photos!! ( pretend you haven't been up since 5am!! woo hoo!)

Another all time favorite, if I could see Kevin and Matt more and if the dogs where looking at the camera. But really a fav.

my babies.... I miss them so much right now. Taylor was here usual angel self that day. I remember Brody was a butthead though. It's like he didn't know he was getting a dad that day!

There was a jogger going by. Another favorite.

Slug bug!

This photo got us into Seattle Bride Magazine :)

The program that matched our invites. I wish I had remembered to bring an invite to get photographed. I LOVED our invites! We spent so much time with the designer(the daughter of a friend of Cole's) designing the invite to be so personal to us. Seattle themed(the rain drops, and us under the umbrella silhouette) , wedding colors(eggeplant and mango), library book-esk(the booklike style and return card was like when you rent a book from the libaray), and us (our doggies). We even planned the invite color to the orange bakers twine we wanted.

This is the moment I had a little trouble getting Cole's ring on since he was burning up in his tux. I always feel bad for guys at weddings. They usually end up in 3 peice tuxs and having to run around all day taking photos and getting hott. While the bride and bridesmaids are in dresses, usually strapless, sometimes cold. I would take cold over hott anyday. 

We're Mr and Mrs Coulston Van Gundy!! There were so many bubbles, I couldn't believe it. It was SO beautiful from our view. This picture is great but it doesn't do it justice to all the bubbles that our friends and family put in the air to welcome us into married bliss :) This was a very fairy tale moment for me.

It's time for the party!!

The Cake. Although it was kind of a miss-matched mess, it describes a part of our personality. We love so many things, its hard to chose. So we chose everything.(three different patterns, 2 cake toppers... 2 cakes) The cake stand was a nice, last minute touch. I painted the hair on the topper to match mine and Cole's too. I was so happy with how it all turned out. Seattle themed(umbrella and rainboots), but still us. It was delicious too!!(at least to us it was!) A traditional vanilla white wedding cake with orange and purple sprinkles, so it was confetti cake (cole's favorite) with cream cheese frosting (my favorite). Perfection.

We also had a small sheet cake to accomidate everyone. At the end of the night, the whole sheet cake was still there... this made me VERY happy to eat later.

The reception room, was later transformed to the dancefloor while we cut the cake in a different room to move guests around. The chairs(thankfully) came with the venue and worked well. The table cloths, chair ribbons, and centerpieces were perfect. Designed by Aria Style in Seattle. When we went into the consultation, I had no idea what I wanted. All I said was "our colors are eggplant and mango. I don't prefer hydrangeas at my wedding, so please avoid those. I want a modern, not traditional centerpeice." and this is what we got. I was thrilled! They looked like mini gardens!

The amber uplights were done by my fantastic DJ from good times DJ in Seattle. I was so happy with him too! He was young and had a great personality! Perfect for the dancing. He also played "teach me how to douggie" for me even though it had bad words .

My MOH Sharon had designed the menus and photoshoped the table "numbers". This really helped us a ton!! Now everyone could know what they were eating. Lastly, they aren't in the photo, but the place cards matched the invites and programs. There was bakers twine on the top of each which depending on the color of the twine, signaled the waiter as to what was ordered :) 

Wedding favors! Most people don't know what to do about wedding favors, so I say... eat it! Thanks to my MOH for helping me bake and ice every single cookie! The icing ended up being alittle runny so they kind of look like horses and sheep. But it's suppose to be Taylor and Brody!. Also Thank you to my friend Amanda for hooking us up with the wedding colored myjones, Jones Soda! These were a hit! When I go to visit relatives, I always see one of these bottle in their house somewhere! We didn't even end up with one of each, but Im happy to have at least gotten a pictuer of them! I think it really helped everyone has a night of drinking and dancing :).

Our first dance - You and I by Michael Buble. We took months of dance lessons, and I'd say it turned out pretty good! I could tell cole was very nervous. Thankfully, dancing in front of people makes me feel like I am in my element so I did a pretty good job of slowing him down. It was so much fun :)

Father daughter, mother son dance. I wish there was a better picture with us dancing and Courtney singing. That was seriously one of the best things. I felt so honored that she sang that song. I only wish I could have watched her sing :(

and now... time to get down!I was a sweaty mess at this point. 

After all the food, fun, drinks and laughs, it was midnight and the party moved to Fado, a bar a block away. 

Ended the perfect day with a Seattle hotdog. 

Thank you to everyone reading who helped make this day perfect by being there, or if you weren't able to make it, for being apart of our lives. We love you!

Here are my last two all time favorite pictures:

All this lead to this: (my happily ever after)