Tuesday, August 17, 2010

On The Move...

After a week and a half back in Delaware to wrap things up with work and spend time with friends, Ron and Brian from Clark & Reid Executive Movers came with a massive truck to pack up all of our things for our big move to Chandler, AZ. Just when the last box was loaded on the truck and we were all set to hit the road ourselves, we noticed that the A/C in my car had randomly gone out... With a record heat wave racing across the South, two cats to bring with us, and a strict schedule to keep in order to make it to San Diego for groomsman duties in TJ's wedding... Everything about that spelled disaster.

After 36 hours of weighing every possible (sometimes crazy) option and going back and forth with car mechanics, I finally took things into my own hands and patched up the leaking A/C low side line with some crafty (MacGyver-esk) engineering (for about $60 in 6 hours vs. $1200 and 2-3 days to fly in a part from Germany according to the car guys!) and we finally hit the road running about a day and a half late. We were so lucky to have two great friends in Steve and Jessie who were more than hospitable in allowing us to stay with them while we sorted through all that mess. Despite the stress of fixing the car, our extra couple days at the Koellhoffers was tons of fun, filled with good food, beer, wine, and many intense games of pinochle.

On a wing and a prayer, we were on the road by 8:15am on Tuesday morning! It became our mission to make that wedding despite being so far behind in our plans and with a daunting 2,400 miles ahead of us just to get to Phoenix! The three days that followed were an absolute blur of yellow and white road stripes as we blazed a trail from Wilmington, DE to Nashville, TN by the first night, Elk City, OK by the second night, and actually made it to Chandler, AZ by 7:30pm on the third night! We had hoped to make a couple stops along the way to check out a few states that we hadn't experienced yet, but were limited to what we could see out the car windows as we raced our way across the country. We promised ourselves to be back someday with a little more time to soak in all that the south has to offer.

The 3 straight 13 hour days of driving definitely took a toll on our sanity at times, but we still managed to have some fun and take in the countryside along the way. With only one minor freak-out from Charlie to start off the trip, the two little monsters quickly got into the routine and it appeared that they ended up loving their time in the car as you can see from the pictures we snapped along the way:


Upon arriving in AZ we quickly found a Target to get an air mattress to sleep on in our new (empty) place, AND the largest celebratory margaritas we could possibly find!
We then set up camp and caught some Z's before we were off to SD early the next morning.

We arrived in La Jolla with only 65 minutes to spare before the wedding bells would be ringing. So we threw ourselves together, took a shot with the gang, and piled in cars to get out to the church. After an awesome night celebrating with great friends, Laura and I decided to keep the party going and head to Vegas for a weekend of well earned fun. We made some last minute plans on the road in Texas to meet up with Laura's brother, Ryan, in sin city instead of heading home to an empty house to wait for the movers. As you will see in our next post... that proved to be a great decision!

Honeymoon

After all the wedding festivities it was off to the Maya Riviera region near Cancun, Mexico for 10 days at the Excellence Riviera all-inclusive beach resort for some much needed R&R! The drinks and meals were plentiful, the weather was great, and the activities were lots of fun. We did lots of sailing in the gulf, played enough water volleyball to wake up with sore shoulders, swam with dolphins, and sipped down many spiked coconut cocktails. Here's a little snapshot into our awesome stay at Excellence:
Our swim-up suite view
Sailing off into the Gulf
Great beach weather
Honeymoon dinner for two at Chez Isabelle
Awesome evenings
Caribbean water and the softest white sand imaginable
Hibachi!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Our Wedding Story - By Haley Sierra Photography

Welcome everyone! As our very first post, Conor & I wanted to share this video with you all.  My friend Haley put this together for us.  She is an incredible wedding photographer whom we were lucky enough to have as a guest at our wedding.  I (Laura) met Haley about 4 years ago thru our mutual friend Amanda.  Over the years, Haley & I have become very close friends.  Although I don't get to see her very often, all times that are spent with her are filled with fun memories, lots of laughs, and many many pictures.  She was a part of our rehearsal dinner, late night photosession of Amanda & I, and a night before the wedding sleepover at the Davenport.  Her work is beautiful, and I am so happy that she was a part of Conor's & my big day!

Please look her up if you are interested: Haley Sierra Photography!