the anderson's: Our weekend getaway in Monterey!

This year we ended the month of January celebrating the wonderful wedding of our dear friends Vanessa and David Moore. Gregg and David have been good friends since high school so this wedding had so many familiar faces attending it and we were really excited to catch up with everyone. Gregg and I flew into LA first (on the tiniest) airplane that I have ever been on and then literally hopped off (for security purposes) and back on again to travel to the beautiful city of Monterey. We hopped in our rental car, checked in early and immediately met up with more high school buddies Rian and Sarah Henry. The four of us decided to venture off and see the town and ended up at this cute little London Pub for some late lunch. I loved all the signs on the wall and had to get a picture!

After lunch we met up with the rest of the gang that was arriving and headed out to the rehearsal at the beautiful Carmel Mission Basilica in the quaint little city of Carmel. It was a bit of an adventure to get there, but we made it and the rehearsal went off without a hitch. It was so exciting to see Vanessa and Dave (the last time we saw them they were celebrating OUR wedding day). They were very much in love (even at their rehearsal) and I was so excited to be part of that special moment, where we even got to see them rehearse their actual wedding vows.

After their flawless rehearsal we headed back to the yummiest pizza place for some good old fashioned pizza, beer and company. It was an absolute pleasure getting to hang out with all the "Folsom" peeps and their signficant others. We even made a stop at CVS for extra 'goodies' to celebrate David's last night as a single man!

happy and full after our yummy pizza dinner!

The day of the wedding was gorgeous. Depsite the downpour of rain the night before, it was absolutely stunning the day of the "Moore/Blanco" wedding. While eating breakfast with the Lile family, I made the executive decision that I didn't like my dress that I had brought for the wedding. So what did I do? I dragged my girlfriend Raemy and Jake's mom to Macy's and SHOPPED!! Luckily both Raemy and I found super cute dresses (she is a better shopper than me) and we were set for the wedding! Vanessa was such a gorgeous bride. Her happiness shined through her beautiful smile and she was just glowing...as every bride should be the day the say "i do". My favorite part of the wedding was probably the little "after party" we had in the Bride & Groom's suite. Vanessa and Dave are probably the coolest B&G and invited all their good friends into their suite to continue the partying and fun. There were about 20 of us crammed into their living room and we all just sat and talked for hours - it was a room filled with such good company and such great conversation.

some exciting pictures of the night...

Since we were in the beautiful city of Monterey we HAD to make a stop at the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium! We were SO incredibly lucky because as we were done with our little photoshoot (outside of the aquarium) this lovely little lady came up to us and told us that she could get all of us in for free with her pass that she got while working at the nearby library. Thinking this was sort of a joke, we reluctantly walked in with her and wa-lah, we were in!!! What a blessing that was and what a thoughtful lady. This was a perfect "point" to prove to our husbands that sometimes making the time to take pictures to capture memories has its benefits - like saving us m-o-n-e-y. HA!