Christmas Ribbon

One of the most beautiful subtleties of Christmas is the way each year notches out a little nest in the timeline of our memories. It is one day each year we remember with great attention to detail. While we forget what we wore, or where we were, on Monday, March 14^th or the third Thursday in August, we can recall details from past Christmases in great detail; like the texture of silk on our porcelain doll's pinafore and the way the ruffles of our Christmas dress chaffed our legs in the pew sitting next to Grandma at church. We recall the care we took to paint an awkward Rudolph that still finds his way onto your mother’s tree. We can remember hiding from the “stench” of lutefisk in the basement at our Great Aunt’s house; then later sitting with our noses pressed against the cool glass, our breath creating wreaths of fog on the window, watching for any sign of Santa’s sleigh. These memories float easily to mind each Christmas, arousing our senses and flooding our head and our heart with nostalgia and appreciation.

The timeline of our memory ceases to be ordinal. That ribbon of time holding memories of Christmases past bends, folding back and forth, back and forth, condensing time and allowing us to live Christmases past and present simultaneously. In this way, we are able to keep the spirit and traditions of family members that are no longer with us on Christmas Day very much alive.

This year, the Thoe cousins went caroling wrapped up in coats and cloaks that have been passed down from our mother’s, grandma’s and great aunties. To the surprise of our great aunts, we showed up at their door on Dec 23^rd and sang through “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, followed by a funky version of "Joy to the World". We thought we sounded pretty good when we were breakin' it down... until we heard ourselves on video!  

In Oshkosh, we  shared a very poignant moment; one that will now be woven into the fabric of our Christmas memories for many years to come.  

December 14, 2011 my Uncle Leon passed away unexpectedly. Last Christmas was the worst I can remember, and yet it was a miracle in its own right. Leon's passing right before the holidays allowed the family to come together for an extended period during a very difficult time. We spent Christmas laughing at old stories, sharing our grief, comforting one another and healing. 

Christmas was his favorite time of year, and this year his big presence (and recipes) were notably absent from the festivities. Jim and Candy surprised everyone when they brought out 20 large lanterns after dinner. The roar of excitement that inevitably rumbles when the Luker clan is together calmed to a hush. We quietly filtered out of the living room into the backyard, through knee-deep snow out onto a little bridge all four of my uncles built for my grandparents’ four-wheelers years ago. Incidentally, the last time the whole family was together with Uncle Leon we took a picture on the very same bridge. We lit the lanterns and watched them sail out over the Luker farm.  At Leon's funeral each cousin placed an item that represented their favorite memories with Leon onto a fir tree. The tree was covered with fishing lures, arrows, camouflage, blaze orange, gun shells and cooking utensils. Last spring, the tree was planted near a four-wheeler trail overlooking a little meadow and the forest. The wind caught the lanterns and carried them directly over that little tree.

Had any children been watching with their nose pressed up to a window nearby, they would surely have mistaken the bobbing lanterns for Santa’s sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.            

Drew's Very First Christmas Letter

This year we sent out our very first Christmas letter. In the Imes family, men take Christmas letter duty very seriously. I really enjoyed Drew's first rendition!

Hope you enjoy our Cyber version of the Christmas Card! If you are reading this, you are probably someone we know and love. We are thankful for you and hope to see you often in 2013!

Growing up is hard. Your first few years of life are genuinely awesome. You get to run around naked, play with toys all day, and generally speaking, aren’t expected to do much at all except eat, sleep, and eventually sit on a toilet. Life as a toddler is so great that people think you’re cute even if you puke or soil yourself. After those childhood years though, life begins to make demands: Get good grades, get a job, find your own place to live, pay the bills, do this, do that, don’t soil yourself. They say these things are just part of growing up; part of becoming an adult. Well, what if you don’t want to be an adult? What if you don’t want to cross that line from being young and exuberant and full of potential to becoming old and boring and hopeless? “Too bad” they say, “It’s impossible, you have to grow up.” Well, I’ve always clung to the hope that I was winning the battle with age, that I would stay young at heart forever and never become a boring-old adult. But alas, I now realize that I have lost the war, for the day a person writes their first family Christmas letter is the day their childhood officially dies. Therefore, by writing this Imes Family Christmas Letter, on this 6^th day of December, 2012, I now declare that I am truly an old and lame adult. God forgive me.

Besides falling into the dark abyss of adulthood, 2012 has been one heck of a great year. I’ll start with the biggest and best news, which of course, is that I grew a mustache. Wait, no, I mean, Amanda and I got married!! Yes, this was and continues to be the best thing that has ever happened to me, and Amanda agrees, that it is the best thing that has happened to me. Our marriage was on August 3^rd at the Mayowood Stone Barn in Rochester, MN. Most of you reading this were probably there, so I won’t go into great detail. I will say, however, that despite the average temperature of 197 degrees (in the shade), it was the most amazing wedding that mankind has ever witnessed. The only thing that overshadowed the wedding was the bride herself. She was, (the following statement has been proven to be true by various unbiased scientific communities), the most beautiful bride ever. Period.

So the wedding was a big part of the year. Unbeknownst to me, it takes a certain amount of planning and preparation to make a wedding happen. You have to collect buckets of rocks from the shores of Lake Superior and very nearly break your wrists hauling them up a steep hill back to the house where you will use them to make candles and other crafty things. You have to scour Craigslist looking for hundreds of mason jars and then go to these strangers’ homes hoping that they are not a serial killer or some sort of deranged lonely widow. You have to search the countryside for a certain type of plant/flower that you bundle up, tie up, and then hang from every possible space in your small condo to let dry. Oh, there is also the small matter of collecting dozens of shepherd’s hooks, which, if you are educated like me, now know that these are things you hang flowers from and not the actual hooks used by shepherds to tend their flocks. And don’t forget the invites. No, you cannot forget the invites. But if you are a male, please do not attempt to surprise your lovely fiancé by preparing the invites yourself. You will most certainly put the cards in backwards, use the wrong stickers, and forget to include a vital piece of information.

Bosco, our French Bulldog, also played a major role in the wedding. No, he wasn’t the ringbearer, but he did manage to get lost five minutes before Amanda and I were supposed to be at our ceremony. It’s true, as we were leaving the Thoe Farm to get married we realized that Bosco was missing. We looked and yelled and yelled and looked, but we couldn’t find him. Eventually, people told us we HAD to go and some volunteers stayed behind to find the worthless mutt. Surprisingly, having a lost dog, possibly a dead dog, on your wedding day, is not something young girls dream of when they sit around and plan their weddings. So we both arrived at our wedding ceremony with heavy hearts, until… hallelujah!!!!...a report came in that Bosco was found in someone’s’ car nearly, but not totally, baked to death. Bosco is alive to this very day.       

We did do more than just have a wedding this year. In March we went out to Colorado with a group of friends to get in some spring skiing/snowboarding. We skied from morning to night for about seven days straight. The girls took a day off from skiing to take a hike up to Hanging Lake, which, when all was said and done, the guys were jealous of. In all, we skied Keystone, Copper, Vail, and Beaver Creek. To give you an idea about what the weather was like, after skiing all day, we would swim in the outdoor pool at our hotel. It was definitely a lifestyle we could get used to.

In June we went to Alaska to visit the Alaskan Imes Family, which consists of our two beautiful nieces Anna and Mara, their lovely mother Maren, and my “special” brother Nate. It was an amazing trip. The best part was seeing the family, but climbing mountains, kayaking with sea otters, fishing for halibut, and eating elk hotdogs were okay too. A memory Amanda and I will always cherish is climbing the Blacktail Rocks via Mount Baldy in Eagle River, Alaska. This was a pretty legitimate scramble up a steep snowcapped peak. We stopped before the snowline (in June!) and shared a miniature bottle of wine and took in the view from what looked like the top of the world. The wind was so powerful it felt like it would blow us off the jagged cliffs, so we holed up in a little cranny until we felt rested enough to begin the long descent. I think we both could have stayed up there forever, but that was before the wolves began to howl. Amanda might have set a mountaineering record for the fastest descent of Mount Baldy. Alaska is a huge and wild place, and we both can’t wait to visit the Alaskan Imes family there again.

Let’s see here, what else? Ah yes, we also went to the Bahamas for our honeymoon. Neither of us had ever taken a dedicated “beach” vacation so this was our attempt to do so. Amanda had no idea where we were going until we were at the airport and we arrived at the gate which said: “Destination - Nassau”. Amanda got really excited for a minute, and then she realized she didn’t know where “Nassau” was. If it wasn’t for the unfortunate invention of smartphones and Facebook, she wouldn’t have known where we were going until we actually touched down on the island. The trip was fantastic, yet not quite so relaxing as one might expect. You see, being the savvy shopper that I am, I found a beautiful bungalow on the beach for a surprisingly modest price. The only caveat was, it was part of a Yoga Retreat. Well, Amanda loves yoga so I didn’t think that doing yoga once or twice would be a big deal. Little did I know that guests were expected to do 4 hours of yoga and 4 hours of meditation/crazy chanting a day! However, through conversations with other guests, it quickly became apparent that you could skip stuff without fear of punishment. To be fair, the Yoga Retreat was great. It was like a jungle oasis on the beach. We also stayed in a former buccaneer’s mansion which has become the oldest hotel in the country. It was very classy with beautiful art and furniture, a 4-Diamond restaurant, a guy that rolls you fresh cigars, an in-house chocolatier, bottles of wine worth $200,000, and the delightful company of the father and son Italian Mafia owners and their overly-dramatic Mafia wives and daughters. Lastly, we stayed at the Hilton British Colonial Inn where we had access to the VIP lobby on the top floor where you get free food and drinks. Swimming with dolphins and being attacked by schools of rabid fish while snorkeling the barrier reefs are some other highlights of the honeymoon trip.

Okay, I have to start wrapping things up now, but there is still so much left. We are both really pumped to have my new sister-in-law Bonnie and my “special” brother-in-law TJ live here in Minnesota. They moved up from Texas in August and it is great to be able to spend time with them. We all went and chopped down our Christmas trees and walked a Spruce Maze (the girls cheated of course) a week or so ago. We are looking forward to many more adventures with them in the near future, as long as the girls promise not to cheat anymore.

Amanda is a busy bee. She is working part time at the Department of Revenue researching the effect of online sales on the state’s sales tax revenue. She also works ten hours a week working for a professor to research the effectiveness of university extension programs. Oh, and she goes to graduate school fulltime. She will get her Master’s Degree when she finishes her thesis in early Spring. She also found time to go on a trip to South Africa through her graduate program. In Cape Town she went to the top of Table Mountain, frolicked with monkeys, and took a day-trip to the southernmost tip of Africa, Cape Point. She also went on a safari, stayed at some really authentic ranches, fell in love with a meerkat, and observed that South African men still wear really short and tight cut-off jean shorts. If you haven’t noticed, I was not on this trip. Am I bitter about that? Yes. Do I tell Amanda that I am going to go on a cool trip by myself? Yes. Am I really going to take a trip by myself? No.

I still work at the Department of Revenue full-time doing boring stuff. I also coach a freestyle snowboard team for 9-12 year old kids. On top of that, I am working part time at REI, which is a big outdoor recreational equipment store.

We live in condo in downtown St. Paul, which is quickly becoming a trendy area. Our new family consists, of Amanda, myself, and a dog that can only be described as “gremlin-like.” As mentioned above, his name is Bosco. He pukes, farts, smells bad, and generally misbehaves; and yet we still think he is cute. I guess nobody ever told him he needs to act like an adult.

Happy Holidays!

  

Love,

Amanda Joy Thoe Imes and Andrew Ralph Imes

Amandles

Making candles has its ups and downs. Despite the fact that Drew has to deal with the constant wax mess I'm creating and his perpetual fear that I'll burn the condo down... there is a certain joy to candle making known only to those wonky enough to give it the old college try.

The picture in the book is what the candles should look like. Lemon/Orange candles were a "down" moment. 

Creating 20 unique rock candles for my friend Bryana's wedding was a definite "up" moment. We also made candles out of invitations for a few of our friends that were married this summer, another up.

The first Amandle craft sale...an up, and a down...

I've been filling mason jars from the wedding with wax every weekend. I also started making these gourd candles:

I definitely overestimated the demand for these candles.

First, I made about twenty candles.

Then, Bry and Kristen were due for a girls' night. I decided I'd take advantage of their free labor.

Bry and I ran to Target to pick up some gourds to carve and transform into pumpkin candles.

"So, two bags or three?" I asked as I picked up the little gunny sacks of gourds.

"Ummm, I was thinking one would be plenty." Bry responded.

We compromised on two. *I'd like to note here that the "free labor" idea did not pan out as these two ladies just sipped on their wine and watched me carve the pumpkins.


So now I had about 45 gourd candles...

But that didn't stop me. I picked up two more gunny sacks of gourds while grocery shopping with Bonnie.

Bry and Kristen were wise enough not to offer to help. Bonnie wasn't so lucky, she had no choice- I just gave her a spoon and told her to start scraping.

Seventy gourd/pumpkin candles later, I was ready for my very first craft sale.  I thought I was going to be rich. I was planning to sell the candles for $5 a pop, or maybe $3 at a minimum. I thought they would go like hot cakes.

I'd only been at the sale about 5 minutes before I reduced the price to 3 candles for $5, or $2 each. By noon, I had sold one gourd candle.

Drew joined me for lunch and immediately struck the prices even further. He changed the price of gourd candles to $1 a pop, and still we couldn't get rid of them.

Turns out, people don't really want to buy candles that will eventually rot. We made $45 whopping bucks, whoo hoo! Looks like my family will be getting mason jar candles for Christmas, and I'm sure my Thanksgiving spread will look even better with about 30 gourd candles to spruce things up!

I did manage to spend most of the profits buying crafts made by my coworker Alyssa. I can't post any pictures of them here because I'd be spoiling the surprise for their intended recipients on Christmas day!

Ending on a positive note, the name "Amandles" received rave reviews. Now I just need to work on the product!

Check out other fun blogs here: <a href="http://yeahwrite.me/84-open/"><img src="http://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/opengrid84.png"></a> <a !

Some problems cannot be solved, they must be managed: a case against taxpayer subsidized amenities

2006: State of MN promises $393 million in public subsidy
2007: State promises 138.48 million for the new TCF Gopher’s stadium
2012: Vikings awarded $1 billion for a new stadium
2012: Saint Paul Saint’s promised $25 million to move the stadium from it’s current location in Midway to Lowertown

This semester I’m taking a class with former research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Art Rolnick. Dr. Rolnick is also a Senior Fellow at the University of MN’s Humphrey School of Public Policy and one of the leading experts in the economics of investing in early childhood education. I’m fortunate enough to listen to his insights on investing in early childhood development twice a week, and I wanted to take a minute to share some of his views with my readers.

Before taking this class, I was a big supporter of a Lowertown Ball Park. I live a few blocks away and I believe the stadium will generate a lot of revenue within the city of Saint Paul. I think it will be a cherished amenity, and I’d even go as far as calling it a public good for the city.

But Dr. Rolnick has convinced me that these stadiums represent a serious problem for the overall economy. He often uses stadiums as an example simply because budget deals for stadiums are so highly publicized. The unfortunate reality is, states are offering subsidies to expand and retain private businesses all the time. 

Retaining and “attracting” businesses makes sense at the state level, but it makes no sense for the national economy. If a company has a greater comparative advantage with headquarters in Atlanta, GA, then it would be in the best interest of the national economy for that company to base its headquarters there.

However, that is not how the scenario is typically played out. Competition for businesses among the states is a zero-sum game, or even a negative-sum game, in which private businesses are the benefactor and taxpayers are the losers.

The root of this problem is that cities and states competing for businesses cannot afford to ignore one another. For example, if MN had decided not to participate in competitive behavior, the Vikings would have left for LA; they in fact, used that very argument to put pressure on the state. Herein lies the problem, while it is rational for individual states to compete for specific businesses, the overall economy is worse off from their efforts because taxpayers lose important tax revenue to support public goods, such as funding for education, and businesses suffer because subsidies encourage a misallocation of resources.  

Some people have another word for the act of forcing somebody to pay for something by threatening to do something harmful to him/or, and that word is blackmail. The problem is, the rules of the game are set up to encourage this type of behavior. I don’t blame private businesses or states for participating in this game, because the incentives of the game encourage participation.

Understanding this issue can be clearly illustrated using game theory. The matrix for this game is presented in the following chart. Imagine the figures in the boxes represent the amount of revenue (in millions of dollars) each state has to win or lose by choosing to cooperate or compete.

California	Minnesota
	Cooperate		Compete
	Cooperate	(5, 5)	(-2.5, 7.5)
	Compete	(7.5, -2.5)	(-2.5, -2.5)

The two strategies available to each state are (1) to cooperate by refusing to participate in competitive behavior with other states, or (2) to compete with the other state by offering subsidies and tax incentives for businesses to relocate to their state.

What should these states do? Consider first California. If Minnesota cooperates (doesn’t offer a subsidy to build a new stadium), the best thing  for California to do is compete. California would enjoy additional tax revenue from the Vikings relocating from Minnesota to California.  However, if Minnesota competes (offers the subsidy), again the best option for California to do is to compete (offer an even greater subsidy) because failing to compete would result in a substantial loss in tax revenue.

The strategy pair compete-compete is a dominated strategy equilibrium. Unless a strong incentive to cooperate exists, such as a federal mandate required by Congress, both states will compete. If both parties were rational, the equilibrium would obviously be for both states to cooperate. One of the most important roles of government is to implement policies where market failures exist; competition among the states is a prime example of a market failure demanding Federal attention.

Unfortunately, under the current political climate where cooperation is practically a curse word and the perception of losing state revenue is political suicide, it is unlikely that such a mandate or bill will ever reach fruition.

Dr. Rolnick has become a highly sought after expert in this field. The evidence is overwhelming; investing in early education provides substantially higher returns than investing in so-called public goods such as stadiums. Some studies suggest that in metropolitan areas the returns to preschool are $16-$1, a huge return on the initial investment. For more information, read this article, "Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a high public return."

I'll leave you with the concluding paragraph from the article linked above:

"The conventional view of economic development typically includes company headquarters, office towers, entertainment centers, and professional sports stadiums and arenas.[...] The return on investment from early childhood development is extraordinary, resulting in better working public schools, more educated workers and less crime." - Art Rolnick, Rob Grunewald


 

Meet Bosco

Meet my dog, Bosco.

Bosco is very photogenic.

See what I mean?

 

He loves to sleep.

Bosco can't really swim without a life jacket. (Pathetic but adorable)

The only thing Bosco likes better than sleeping is playing with balls.

Sometimes Bosco thinks rocks are balls... the beach tends to make him a bit frantic. BALLS EVERYWHERE

Bosco is a good sport when we occasionally dress him up. 

Rockin some booties and a muscle tee.

Hot Dog!

When we camp... he gets carted around behind the bikes.

When Bosco goes for walks, he tends to get overheated. He always pulls this move when we come across vents. 

He also wallows in every puddle and fountain we come across.

It's possible that we love our dog too much... Drew carved this pumpkin last year.

Meghan's Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party

 This weekend we celebrated the upcoming  wedding of my cousin Meghan. We kicked off the festivities with mimosas and a bloody mary bar accompanied with some delicious breakfast her friend (and chef) prepared for us! He also made us dinner at Meghan's house before the bachelorette party and it was five-star quality! 

 After breakfast we had fun playing everyone's favorite shower game, the "make-a-dress-out-of- toilet paper-game". Katrina's avaunt-guard, gaga inspired dress won!

 

While Meg opened gifts, this little entrepreneur 

set up a mini-farmer's market, so cute. 

Every year the Luker's decorate one of the trails in my grandparents woods for Halloween. It's become a tradition to take a haywagon ride out to the trail with some adult beverages and walk along the path without flashlights. It's a tradition we all love. Bonnie and I try to get there to make a giant spider web, but this year with several helpers we made two giant webs and a webbed archway over the trail, as well as a little canopy of webs! It's sort of hard to see in the pictures, but trust us, it is pretty cool!

I love Meg's dogs! Meet Jack.

 

Mary, McCayla, Merrill and Gabrielle 

                                                  Until next time, Happy Trails Oshkosh!

September

So... I've been meaning to start a diet. Drew and I have so been enjoying the throes of newlywed bliss, partaking in wine, cheese platters and whatnot, that we've sort of let diet and exercise go to the wayside.

We just keep finding reasons to celebrate...our one month anniversary, the beginning of the semester, the premiere of Parenthood, and the list goes on.

This week I decided to really buckle down. I bought lemons and made lemon water. I bought chicken breasts, yogurt and egg whites. I was really ready to get back to a sense of normalcy.

On Monday I ran about four blocks, decided I wasn't really feeling it, turned around and walked home. I went back home, did about three crunches then laid on my yoga mat while I watched The View.

Yesterday, I pulled into the parking lot of Corepower Yoga with every intention of going in. My phone rang and I decided I'd rather chat with Keeley than put my body through contortion in a hot room.

While on the phone with her, I decided to pick up a little mini container of ice cream.

This morning, I decided to write thank you notes instead of attending yoga.

Maybe I'll start the diet tomorrow....

Love in Longville

This past weekend one of my favorite couples around tied the knot. You may remember from pics that Bry was a bridesmaid in my wedding a few weeks ago~!

Bryana has been one of my best friends since first grade. We were on our way to Oxbow park with our classmates and I was all ready for the day in a zoo-themed sweatsuit. Everyone made fun of my outfit- but not Bryana. She sat by me  on the bus and didn’t make fun of my outfit. That was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. She moved away in fourth grade, but we remained penpals. Bryana invited friends and families to share memories and toasts at the rehearsal dinner, and I had fun embarrassing Bryana by reading aloud some of the letters she had written to me over the years. The last letter I read was one she had sent me about Dan when they first dated in middle school. As she said then and will say now, “he’s sweet, funny, romantic and very attractive.” (-;

The two of them have grown up together, completed college and Master’s Degrees together, and are about to embark on their careers up in the Northwoods together. They are such a great couple, it was evident throughout the wedding weekend that they are a perfect pair. My favorite example took place during the gift opening on Sunday. Dan's friends play a game where they hide bottles of Schmirnoff ice and if you are the unlucky (or lucky, depending on your perspective) person to find the bottle, you have to take a knee and gulp it down. As Bry and Dan opened their gifts from the groomsmen, sure enough there were two bottles of Schmirnoff Ice in the package. Like champs, they took a knee and gulped it down!

Bryana's ceremony was extremely personal. Dan's grandmother played the harp during the prelude, his sister played the flute during the unity candle and his mom played the violin as we processed. Katie and I also sang "Take me the Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson as Bryana walked in, we had to fight back tears as we sang.  Instead of lighting a unity candle, Bryana and Dan's parents poured lake from their respective lakes into a small bowl. Then the maid of honor and best man placed the rings into the water for a blessing before the vows. Their vows were so sincere and meaningful, as Bryana struggled to say her vows through tears of joy, I took a look out into the crowd- there wasn't a dry eye to be seen. To top it all off, her uncle was the officiant and their dog, Shadow, was the flowergirl.

Bry grew her own sunflowers for the big day, they were beautiful! They lined the stairs from the cabin and some were taller than the cabin itself. One of the bridesmaids, Kenora, was talented enough to make them into beautiful bouquets! Kenora also made all the adorable signs in the pictures below. We nearly had a disaster on the dock during photos, but luckily no one got wet (well, except the groomsmen who had to repair the dock before the ceremony!)

The rain held off, but Bry had an umbrella just in case! She loved the umbrella so much that when it fell off the pontoon into the lake she sacrificed her whole look by instantly dropping to the floor of the pontoon and reaching into the lake to grab the umbrella, typical Bryana.

After the wedding we hopped on pontoons, one for the groomsmen and one for the bridesmaids. We had fun tossing the football back and forth and dancing. At one point some of the groomsmen pretended that they were hopping on our boat to mix and mingle the parties, not wanting to be left out, some of the girls hopped over onto the men's boat. At the last second the boys hopped back onto their original pontoon with a cooler of beer from the ladies' boat in tow. Scoundrels! Luckily, I was one of the girls that hopped onto the boys' boat!

When the pontoons pulled up to Patrick's, the whole crowd was waiting to greet us as we processed in from the dock. In the mayhem... the keys were lost and in the middle of dinner we noticed one of the pontoons was drifting from the dock. When some of the groomsmen went out to save the day, once again, they realized there were no keys!

The speeches, dinner, conversations and dancing were all wonderful. One of the highlights was watching Travis dance in a bucket.... It's a family tradition that if a younger sibling marries before the older sibling, the older sibling has to dance in a bucket because they are "washed-up".

Anyway, I'm rambling, but take a look at the pics of Bry's perfect day!

You can see the bowed dock, the flowergirl, Bry's cute little accessory and some of her flowers!

Bry and Dan at the rehearsal

Our friend Tessa did most of the hair, she is so talented!



Had so much fun dancing to the awesome band Wildwood!



Dan's groomsmen made their invites which I turned into a candle. Bryana and some coworkers made those adorable wine bottle centerpieces out of hot glue and spray paint. Bryana and Dan made little articles about each member of the wedding party so guests could put names to faces and read about how Bry and Dan knew each member of the party. She also had a mason jar for a honeymoon fund, smart girl!

Pontoon ride!

Some of the decorations, Kenora made the bouquets and the ceremony sign, my little sister and I made the Cook*Ryan sign and Bryana grew the sunflowers!

Bahamian Rhapsody

As you know, Drew planned our honeymoon as a surprise for me. I had no idea where we were going until we reached our gate in Atlanta. Drew was relishing the surprise- giving me useless hints and false tips.  We finally reached our gate and, much to my embarrassment, I had no clue to which country the city of Nassau belongs.

However, the surprises just kept coming from the moment we landed until the moment we left.

The first two nights we stayed at The Graycliff Hotel, the oldest INN in Nassau. The mansion was originally built by a famous pirate of the Caribbean- John Graysmith. The mansion has been many things over the years, during the Revolutionary War the grounds served as naval headquarters for the US Navy. Following the war the home was turned into a private inn; the home was then purchased by British royalty and served as a home away from home for British Royalty until the ownership turned over again in 1977 and the mansion was turned into an inn once again. The hotel is also home to the first pool built in the Bahamas, a humidor, a wine cellar and a chocolate factory.

To be honest, stepping into the Graycliff feels like stepping into the pages of The Great Gatsby-it belongs to another era in almost every respect, from décor to service. Our first evening at the hotel, we enjoyed a bottle of champagne by the pool and some chocolates made in-house.  The pool has a beautiful mural painted on the floor, which hopefully you are able to discern from the picture. As we headed up the grand staircase to our room, we passed the owner sitting next to a man whose sole job is to sit and roll cigars from tobacco leaves all day. The owner gave Drew a hand rolled cigar and said “now, go to the patio and there’s your evening” with a thick Jersey accent and a directness you normally associate with movies.

The next morning, Drew told me to wear a swimsuit and a sundress. I willingly complied and blindly followed him to the harbor. “Swimming with dolphins” has always been on our bucket list (yes, we have a typed bucket list)- but no more~! We went to Blue Lagoon Island and partook in a dolphin experience. I have heard of many dolphin experiences and I truly think this must be one of the best. The dolphins seemed to have plenty of room to swim and play in the ocean, not in tanks,  and many of them are rescue dolphins of some sort. We were able to feed, kiss, rub, and dance with the dolphins. The highlight was the “push” at the very end; the dolphins push you with their nose as you outstretch your arms and “fly” across the water. It was wonderful!

Nets separate the dolphins during the day. We had two male dolphins with our group; however, just across the nets were two female dolphins with another group of tourists. The dolphins were so cute, they often risked a “time-out” from their trainer to swim over to the net and stare at the ladies for a while.

After the dolphin swim we were able to play among the cliffs and rocks on the island, lay out on the white sandy beach and sip on some rum drinks.

Jake and Stormy looking at the ladies.

Lost my swimsuit in the bahamas... )-:

That evening, we went to the five star restaurant at the Graycliff- the only five star restaurant on the island. We opened up our wine menu and obviously, we ordered a $200,000 bottle of wine from 1727. We didn’t find the wine to our liking so we had the sommelier take it away. (-;

This was probably my favorite evening of the trip. We hung out in the lounge while a woman sang and played piano. Three French ladies were also enjoying the music while simultaneously living up to every single French stereotype. They were beautiful, snide yet sweet, a bit bossy, and as charming as can be. They requested French song after French song, and when she did not know any of their requests they began to sing their favorite and told her she really must learn it.

The next day the biggest surprise of the trip awaited. Drew kept mentioning that he “didn’t know what to expect” and that we needed to bring our own alcohol. We went to a private dock where sailboat excursions pick up and drop off their clients; naturally, I assumed we were taking a sailboat excursion. There were signs for a yoga retreat pick-up and drop-off, but as Drew has only gone to yoga with me a handful of times, I wrote that off immediately.

I really didn’t believe it until we actually got on the boat to go to the yoga retreat.

Drew had my mom buy me a few new yoga outfits and he packed them in his bag. He also packed both of our yoga mats in his tiny suitcase, a feat I’m still quite impressed with. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by this sign:

You can imagine my initial concerns. The daily schedule looked like this:
6 am- 8 am: mandatory meditation and satsang (chanting in the temple)
8 am- 10 am: mandatory asanas (yoga on the platforms)

10 am: brunch

Noon: optional workshop

4 pm -6 pm: mandatory asanas

6 pm: dinner

8 pm- 10 pm: mandatory meditation and satsang

So we arrived during the “free-time” window in the afternoon and enjoyed the beach. The beach at the Ashram is everything you’d imagine a beach in the Bahamas would look like. At 4 we dutifully went to yoga at the platform on the bay. It was really fun despite the mosquitos. Thank Heavens for OFF!

That evening we went to meditation and the satsang in the temple. You have to cover your shoulders and knees to enter the temple, but Drew and I both accidentally wore shorts. It was a great experience. The next morning we went to the meditation, which was a silent walk down the beach and then satsang (chanting) during the sunrise. As Drew called it- “extreme hippie yoga”. Drew did sincerely enjoy playing the cymbal during the chanting/singing/praying- in fact, he might have enjoyed it a bit too much. (-;

Promptly following morning meditation we attended our second yoga session. Immediately after our delicious vegetarian brunch we went snorkeling with one of the members of the Ashram staff. It was wonderful because he took us off the beaten path and he threw in bread when we jumped in so we were surrounded by fish. He even let us feed the fish some bread and one of the little fishies bit my finger! The coral reef was stunning!

Up until this point we had pretty much followed the rules of the Ashram... with the only exception being a little sip of wine after the evening meditation the night before.

However, this sort of marks our departure from the rules of the Ashram. That afternoon we walked down the beach to Atlantis. Atlantis is a humongous, expensive resort. It is a little bit too mainstream for Drew and I, but boy were we glad we had the option to walk there to get a mojito  and some supreme nachos (meat, dairy and alcohol). When we walked back, I was sleepy from the mojitos and slept in a hammock- right through the mandatory asanas (Drew dutifully went). That night we went back to Atlantis, after the curfew.

The next morning we attended yoga and breakfast. Then we decided to walk down the beach (away from Atlantis) toward the lighthouse. There are only three private homes between the Ashram and the light house, one of them the former home of Nicholas Cage. The house is now in foreclosure because Mr. Cage got into a bit of trouble with the IRS. It looked like a short walk, with a short little swim around some rocks. What appeared to be a little outcropping of rocks was actually about a half a mile of rocky shoreline. The water near the rocks was quite deep so we had to swim the whole way. Those of you who know me well, know I have a serious phobia of fish and another phobia of being unable to breathe, so swimming in deep water with lots and lots of fish is a very panic-stricken scenario for me. I swam on my back most of the way so I didn’t have to look down and see what was- or wasn’t- swimming near me. It was a long, tiring swim, but when we finally reached the desolate beach on the far side of the rocks we were rewarded with our own private beach complete with a lighthouse and conch shells galore.

The swim back was really tiring because we were going against the waves and there was a storm coming in. When we finally made it, I took a two hour nap in the hammock. When I awoke, Drew took a two hour nap in the hammock. (-:

We made it through yoga and afterward we went out to Atlantis with our fellow yoga retreat buddies. One of our new friends- Fillippo- was at the retreat on karma yoga with his mom. This means that he has to work a minimum of five hours a day at the retreat.  A secondary reason he was on karma yoga was simply to learn English. I tried to teach him the word “cheapskate” but he thought we were saying cheesecake. So cheesecake became my new nickname haha.

The next morning we took off after the morning yoga session. We went to our third and final destination- the British Colonial Hilton.

The pictures pretty much say it all. We relaxed, enjoyed some drinks, soaked up the sun and swam.

Before our departure there was only one thing left to do... visit the Pirate Museum. As Drew said, he does have a weird Where’s Waldo-dressed-as-a-pirate tattoo.. we couldn’t leave without visiting “his people”.

We flew into Atlanta at 7 pm on Saturday evening. Drew thought he booked us a 7:35 pm flight to MSP, but he actually booked a 7:35 am flight to MSP. (-; So- lucky us- we spent an evening in Atlanta. We were able to check out the Olympic Centennial Park before we hit the hay.

So- now it’s back to reality. We received some really great items off our REI registry that should keep our lives interesting... We are pumped about our new hiking, camping and climbing gear!

I’ve also taken on my new project – the walk-in closet. Much to Drew’s horror, I’ve ripped everything out of the closet in an attempt to redecorate and reorganize the closet. I won’t rest until it looks like something straight off pinterest!

Om Shanti,

Closetzilla... hey, it’s always something, right?

P.S. My husband is the best. I love him so much and I'm so lucky he planned this amazing trip for us! See... I've turned into that annoying person that posts things like "I love my husband" on facebook. GROSS! hehe

Pics from the trip :

Rain at Senor Frogs on the last night... it was beautiful.

SHOPPING!

the beach at Blue Lagoon - where we swam with dolphins

Sunset at the Ashram

Drew at the Pirate museum... he's mature

The Beach Platform at the Ashram

Balcony at the Hilton

The Ashram

Hilton

Hilton Beach