Exciting Weekend Ahead

Alright, well it has been super crazy lately so I haven't been able to do any blog posts. This had a super busy week, but this weekend will be very fun! My grandparents will arrive tomorrow and my aunt Dana Saturday for my bridal shower. Kristen has been so awesome planning this bridal shower, and it's just a reminder of what a great and caring friend she is. I am very fortunate to have her helping me with everything. She is a very busy person too, yet she makes time to go on flower appointments and go shopping for decorations for the wedding. Last Sunday she came with Zach, my Mom and I to the appointment and shopping trip and then out to lunch and we just had a ton of fun. She fits into our family perfectly. Except for the fact that she didn't see Austin Powers until like 3 weeks ago. That's an issue.

Anyways, I am so so excited for the bridal shower and having my family in town. I will make sure to post pictures :) Then, on Sunday, Zach and I have a cake tasting which should also be fabulous. We will also get to do plenty of packing that night because we fly to Reno bright and early Monday morning to visit for a week. I feel like such an adult logging travel hours and driving a rental car on a corporate account.. so foreign to me. But, we have some great apartment buildings to check out, and have even found a few houses that we would love to rent if they're still available in June. 

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a long time, but at the same time I have been trying very hard not to wish time away or be anxious for anything. I want to enjoy every single day I still have here. Every now and then I think we are so crazy to move to Reno, because we have such a great and perfect life here. Why leave that? But... it looks like life will be pretty great in Reno, too. 

Two Months From Today

I will have been living and working in Reno for a week. I bet you were expecting something about the wedding, but at this point moving to Reno and planning this wedding have turned into one beast. I feel like the craziest bride ever because I have done hardly any planning because I'm just too overwhelmed with how much there is to do. So, not only to help myself figure it out, but also to give you a window into my crazy world, I figured I would lay out my schedule and then list what we have left to do. I will leave out the fact that Zach and I work 5 days a week, and are on an overtime schedule right now...

This weekend: Zach and I both work Saturday (extra OT for me).

Sunday we are hoping to schedule cake tastings

Next weekend: My bridal shower is on Saturday, so we will have family in the entire weekend.

Monday Zach and I will fly to Reno to visit for the entire week to make sure we like it.

May 5th/6th weekend we will still be in Reno finding an apartment building hopefully.

May 12 and 13th we will have to fit some wedding planning in, but its also Mothers Day. Have to make that good since I won't be seeing my Mom as much anymore! :(

May 19th Zach and I work.

Next weekend is Memorial Day weekend. If we don't have things planned by then we are in TROUBLE.

Weekend after that is the wedding. Not a lot of time.

So, the wedding is June 3rd... and we have to be in Reno working on June 11th. So we will have the week after the wedding to move, unpack and get ready. In case people aren't a nervous, emotional wreck on their wedding already... it'll be the last weekend I am living on the east coast with my friends and family.

What are we thinking??? I don't know. Why am I still sitting here just watching TV when I have so much to do?? Also don't know.

Things left to do: My shoes, Zach's shoes, bridesmaids and groomsmen get to pick their clothing, pick music, get more decorations, figure out flowers and arrangements, figure out our wedding vows, cake tastings and selection, figure out the rehearsal dinner... and it goes on but I can't think about it right now.

Okay, vent session over.

Cross Country Road Trip, Take 2

There are about 300 things I have been meaning to blog about because I have had a great couple of weeks, but the whole concept of moving to Reno has overtaken that. Those blogs will come eventually (maybe) but tonight will be the basic plans we have for our road trip out to Reno. The hope is that we will be able to go at a time that my parents can come. Kristen is also hopefully coming, so we will have a fun group and lots of drivers! 

Day 1: Drive to Chicago

We may leave a night early and sleep somewhere outside Chicago to spend more time there. Chicago is a destination I have always wanted to go to (unlike most other stops along the way) so we want to make sure we get to see a few sights. Millennium Park looks incredible, I certainly want to touch one of the great lakes, and there are some great parks that have a lot of history from the World's Fair way back in the day.

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Day 2: Drive to Omaha

We probably won't get to Omaha until late in the night, because Chicago will take a lot of time. If we get there in time for dinner, we will certainly go to the Old Market area. It is on the National Registry of Historic Places (or whatever) and seems to have great restaurants. I am actually super excited to go to Omaha (something I never thought I'd say..). 

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Day 3: Drive to Laramie

After Omaha there is Medicine Bow National Forest. Looks AMAZING. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of anything in Laramie, so we will take our time exploring this part for a few hours. We won't mind getting into Laramie later at night and just waking up and leaving the next morning. There were so many impressive pictures of this forest, it was hard to choose.

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Day 4: Drive to Salt Lake City

I found out when we drove to California that I loved Utah (another sentence I never thought I would say). Salt Lake City has always seemed amazing to me. I am not Mormon/religious (but I do love Sister Wives) but it seems like an interesting city.

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Thanks for the collage, Wikipedia...

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Day 5: Arrive in Reno

I could probably write about 50 things that have us excited about Reno. I probably will one day. I considered putting up a picture of Lake Tahoe, because we can't wait to be close to that, but I wanted to do something actually within Reno. Before this whole thing started I didn't know a single thing about Reno. I probably thought it was some little town in the middle of the desert, but I'm not really sure what I thought because... well, I didn't think about it. I have found out that it is actually in the mountains, filled with ski resorts and golf courses. It has the Truckee River downtown, which people apparently kayak on a lot. It has great views and is a fairly short drive to a lot more than just Tahoe. We're suppperrr excited (and still scared).

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This is the Truckee River and a waterfront park where people watch the kayakers, or at least that's what google is telling me.

We're Moving to Reno?

Well, it isn't 100% yet, but Zach and I are most likely moving to Reno this summer. As most of you know, our company opened an office in Reno and we've been hoping to go eventually since we heard. We didn't initially plan on moving for at least a year, but for many reasons it appears that we will probably going in June, or July at the latest. I haven't wrapped my head around it entirely, but it's starting to sink in (more and more as I write this, actually..). We have yet to visit Reno, that will probably happen in May, but we would have to hate it for us to not go, and I can't imagine that happening. I think the main thing that will shock me is that its a much smaller city, and I've never lived in a small city. 

How do I distract myself from the scary part and remind myself of the awesome part? Planning the trip out there. Hmm, seems like California all over again. So far, the drive out there seems amazing. Shockingly, going all the way up to Chicago is actually the fastest route. I've always wanted to go to Chicago, so we plan on taking a few hours to explore. We will also end up going through Iowa City, Des Moines, Omaha, Nebraska, Wyoming and Salt Lake City (!) before getting to Reno. There are a few great places to stop on the way, including a town called Little America, and another called Wells. I'm sure Wells is pretty great. Even though by the time we go I'll technically be a Boyd (that just started sinking in as well). So far I'm super excited for Millennium Park in Chicago, the Old Market area of Omaha, Medicine Bow National Forest and Salt Lake City. 

I'm super excited for the road trip part, because we had SO much fun on the road trip out to California. So, here are a few pics from that trip:

New Orleans

BBQ in Austin, Texas

Missions in San Antonio

Sedona, AZ - one of our fave stops

Bryce Canyon, UT

Zion

Finding Flowers

I'm sure everyone agrees that flowers can make a huge impact on a wedding. That makes them a huge part of wedding planning (especially since they aren't cheap). I have found a bunch of ideas I love, so I can use these as inspiration. We don't really have a lot of areas that need decorating at our location, so I don't know how many flowers I'll be able to incorporate, but I'm loving these ideas nonetheless.

Baby's breath is super affordable so you can use a ton of it and still get a great look:

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I have also been loving pink flowers lately, and anything that looks super soft:

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This entire arrangement reminds me of Villa Blanca - a crazy gorgeous restaurant in Bev. Hills owned by Lisa from RHBH

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And then pink flowers mixed with blue, LOVE it!

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I also visited Longwood Gardens this weekend, so I'll be posting more flower pics very soon, I'm sure!

Registry Gems

Through all the craziness that comes with planning a wedding, I keep forgetting that people will give us presents! It is so weird/exciting to think of all the goodies we might get. We made our registry forever ago, but we still love every single thing on there, and have added a few more fun things along the way. I wanted to show off some of the random things we have on there, because we definitely added a few things that aren't your typical registry item! We also tried having a few items on there that aren't from huge department stores. Plus, a few of them were things I didn't know existed before we made our registry and they're just too cool not to mention.

For starters, I found "fairiy doors" on etsy. They are just little vinyl things you can apply to your wall above the molding (or wherever you like) and it looks like a fairy's entrance to the room. Ridiculously awesome.

Another thing I have been loving are the cute new options for measuring cups and spoons. Anthropologie had a few great options.

I also realllly thought it would be fun to get a Wii, so we could play Just Dance and use Wii fit. It is one of the things on our list that I have a feeling we won't get (which is totally fine), but it would be so fun!

For another "small business" find we have this great driftwood wreath:

I thought this would be great in a guest bathroom:

Making the registry has definitely been fun!

Blueberries and Cream Puff

Wednesday was my manager's birthday, so we all made treats to celebrate! I made a blueberry and cream tart because her husband told another one of our manager's that her favorite fruit is blueberries. I had made this once before and loved how light and summery it was, so I thought it was perfect since we're already getting such warm weather. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (8oz), thawed

1 egg

3-4 tablespoons sugar

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup heavy cream

zest of a small lemon

about 2 cups blueberries

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 and roll out the puff pastry as much as you can. I use one of my flexible cutting boards, sprinkle some flour on it, and roll out the pastry on there.I usually make it so that it fits my cookie sheet pretty well width wise. Then I put parchment paper over the pastry so that I can flip the cutting board and dough over onto there; I find that easier than lifting (and usually breaking) the dough. Use a butter knife to score a border around the edge of the dough. You want to leave about 1 inch of space for the "crust." My edges are never straight, but you want to score the edges in a straight line. Sprinkle about 1 tbsp. sugar onto the edges/crust pretty thickly, and then sprinkle some of the middle of the dough as well. Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes; it should get pretty crispy but definitely not burned. 

While you wait for that to be done, but the cream cheese and heavy cream in your mixer and beat until smooth. Then add the lemon zest and 2 tablespoons sugar and continuing beating until smooth again. That's it for the cream portion!

When the pastry is done int he oven, it will be really puffy - don't be concerned! I was the first time. Take the butter knife and cut through the top layer of the pastry where you scored it before it went in the oven. Push the middle square down so that the middle of the pastry is flat. Let that cool completely before you spread the cream mixture into that middle portion. Then, add the blueberries and you are done!

Rolled out, with straight lines scored.

Once it is out of the oven, you can cut through and push down the center like this.

The cream mixture! Doesn't look like a lot, but it goes far.

It doesn't have to be pretty when you spread it out, because you won't be able to see it.

Just try to make sure its fairly evenly spread.

Add the blueberries!

Done :)