Just Between Us... : Montage of stuff and pre-wedding playtime!

When Bryce and Kales got married, I was right in the thick of it, helping her make plans, carrying out her decisions and brainstorming with her. Its very different when a son gets married verses a daughter. I'm not complaining, just observing. I enjoyed both experiences a great deal and have so many wonderful memories that are entirely different from each wedding.

When we arrived in Florida it was with the idea that we would just be available for Matt and Lindsay and there to help however we could. John was Matt's best man and Ryan, Aaron, and Bryce were his groomsman so when they got up that next morning after we had gotten there that previous night they had to get up and drive back into Pensacola to make sure that their tuxedos were the correct length and size. John and I got up and he and I, Matt and Ryan all ran out to the Winn Dixie store to get some groceries. I was shocked at how much more expensive groceries were there! We got our stuff and headed back to the condo so Lu could have her breakfast and we could all have something to eat and then the guys all headed out for their fittings. Us gals decided to stay at the condo and relax and let Lu recover from the previous day of travel that ended up being something in the neighborhood of a 24 hour day when you include time changes and things. We had a great morning getting settled, resting, and waiting for the guys to get back. The previous night when we had arrived, there was water flooding in from the sliding glass door that led outside to a small deck that overlooked the Santa Rosa sound (a body of water that almost surrounds Navarre Beach or the Santa Rosa Straight. A beautiful view to say the least. Here is a shot of it for your viewing pleasure:

Yes, it was simply gorgeous! We so enjoyed this view although it was chilly enough and windy enough that we never did go down onto that beach. We did, however, visit the beach a couple of times! On the first morning that we were there, John and I woke up early and just started talking and enjoying the fact that we weren't in motion any more. John suggests that we go for a walk so we jump up, throw on our walkin shoes and head out. This community of Navarre is primarily made up of giant beach front homes, condos and apartments. Its an exclusive community. It was also ravaged by Hurricane Ivan (IDK if Katrina had much impact on this part of the beach) and many homes were completely obliterated and many are just plain empty here on this little island. As John and I walked we pondered all the different style of homes and all the things that you talk about when the landscape is so different than what you are used to. We came upon this Gulf front home that was MASSIVE....I can't even begin to describe its massiveness but it was big. One thing I have always loved to do is look in the windows of empty homes so we walked up the winding cement stairs to this house, this mansion, couldn't see much so decided to walk around the back so we could access the beach. We are lucky here in Oregon to have publicly owned beaches because many other parts of the country do not have that priviledge. Yes, we were trespassing, but wait, it gets better!!! John walked up to the garage door and it was open! So, of course, we walked in. Oh my goodness!!!! Winding marble staircases, a carved marble fireplace that was so elegant and beautiful and immense it was unbelievable, matching marble counters and kitchen hood, glass tile for the HUGE showers, a 4th story master bedroom straight out of House Beautiful and so much much more. Giant 10 foot solid wood doors, mahogany or walnut in color and beams that were also constructed of some typed of dark hard wood. WOW!! I so wish I would have had my camera!!! It wasn't even close to being finished, the elevator hadn't been put in yet, yep, I did say elevator, but the rough outlines of what we saw were incredible. All with a million dollar ocean view and in the path of any Florida bound hurricane that comes along! We left there and finished our walk but what a gorgeous place. I want to mention that all the houses on this little "island" have their first floor as the garage and many many of them are built on stilts or with ways to let the hurricane winds try to pass through and around.

Anyway, we kept ourselves busy with all sorts of fun things all week long, here are a few more pictures of some of our pre wedding antics......

I don't really know what they were doing right here but Alexis caught them on camera. I have forgotten how we got them to stand there but as you can see, Matt was being the groom! hahahaha!

This was Alexis' bed! We moved all the beds around to make sense of the whole layout and had to put a bed for her in the living room, it ended up being extra seating. I have no idea what was going on at this moment or what they were looking at! By the look on Matts face, someone was talking.

Both of these pics were taken at the mall. We went shopping with Matt and Linds, they needed a few more things for their honeymoon cruise so we tagged along. While there, John started to get a migraine and Aarons throat started hurting a lot more than it had. I think they were having allergic reactions to shopping!

We had breakfast with Lindsay, her mom and Brooke, one of her bridesmaids out near where we were staying. While trying to find the restaurant, we came upon these cutouts and of course, had to stick our heads through the holes. Man that sun was bright! Check out my amazing bod! Kales wanted to be the guy! haha!

I love this guy so much! He is such a rock and so much fun to have around. This trip he seemed to really come out and just be one of the guys and many many times we would end up laughing at something completely funny that he had said or done. I am so thankful for him in our lives. I love this picture, if you look at their expressions, they are exactly the same! Lu was such a trooper, she ended up with a double ear infection and possible strep throat but despite a high fever was still her sweet little self. Once, when I gave her some juice, while she was very sick and b4 she went to the dr. she was shaking she was so feverish, she looked up at me after she had had her sip and said, "tank too, baby dirl" Thank you baby girl...Kaylee cried!

Alexis put one of our pedi shots on her facebook and titled it the best and most expensive pedicure I ever had...Lexy honey....make it my first and I'm right there with ya! She took this shot of us. Thats Brooke and Terry in the last two chairs. Notice my shirt? Yep, I found a store called lucy!!!! hahaha!

For part of Matts bachelor party the guys went golfing. Lexy and I took shots of them as they were getting ready to head out. They had a great time messing around and we heard many funny stories about their adventures on the greens when they got back. I shall have to have John get on here and tell the one about Ryan, it will have you rolling it was so funny but he tells it better and knows the details so I will ask him to tell it for me. They came home from golfing, we had done the pedicure thing, and went down to the clubhouse of the condo place we were staying at and played poker and drank soda and ate chips until midnight. About 3 am John rares up in bed claiming his chest was on fire! He had the worst case of heartburn ever! Fortunately I had some pepcid that I gave him and that remedied the situation.

Alexis took this pic of Aaron and I standing together at the home of Lindsays aunt and Uncle. We attended the rehearsal dinner there. Yummy shrimp, potatoes, corn on the cob and other goodies....All done fiesta style!

Um....well, this is self explanatory.

Tomorrow, or later today, I will put more rehearsal and wedding pics on here. Alexis took her new camera and got some great great shots....oh...one last pic....Matt and Linds, with Aarons help, bought our girl a case for her camera, this is a pic of her getting her gift from them!