Home From Paradise

I am both happy and sad to say that I am home. Happy for safe travels and a safe return, sad for…well, not being on vacation any more. I now must slink back to my cubicle and reluctantly don the headset that I was so far away from these past 10 days… >insert sigh here<

Our trip was wonderful! We drove straight through the night from Denver to Las Vegas. This was my first time in Vegas…well, technically I’ve been there before, but I was under-aged and only driving through so it hardly counts. All I can say is “wow”. What a bazaar and sad, depressing place. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we had a blast there and enjoyed every minute of it; but the overall atmosphere is one of overwhelming brokenness and sin. SO, what better place to get married, right!? (hmmmm…) We got married the first day we were there. It was really fun actually. We picked a chapel and made an appointment and that was it. When we got there we met with the man doing the ceremony. He asked us a few questions and prayed with us (I know, you wouldn’t expect that in Vegas. I was surprised, too). He was actually a very sweet old man. The ceremony was brief, to say the least. I loved it though. It was intimate and personal and just what we wanted.

Here’s us outside the chapel right after (consider this our wedding picture)…

Here’s the view from the room we stayed in at Treasure Island…

We had about a day and a half in Vegas to play and explore. I learned how to play blackjack, and amazingly we actually won $125! Woohoo! We spent a lot of time just walking up and down the strip gawking at everything. It really is a whole different world there. Fun for a weekend, but not in a million years would I want to live there.

After that we headed over to Santa Monica, CA. When budgeting the trip, we decided that this was the place to cut corners and save a little. And let me just say, indeed we did. The place we stayed in was like something you don’t even see in movies. I wish I had taken more pictures of it. I mean, I’m seriously talking like holes in the walls, brown water from the faucet, and missing-a-bathroom-door kind of shady. It was amusing though, we took it as an adventure and managed to laugh it off. Other than the hotel, the Santa Monica time was great. We spent one day in Hollywood, and then another at Santa Monica beach. We swam in the ocean for a while, then spent the rest of the day roaming the pier. To top it all off, we ate at a pretty amazing restaurant on the far end of the pier by sunset. AMAZING!

Finally, for the remainder of the trip we headed up to Crestline, CA. This is a small mountain town where Jason was actually born and grew up in. It was my favorite part of the trip. After Las Vegas and Hollywood, a little nature away from the city was extremely refreshing. We spent most of our time there relaxing with no agenda. We strolled up and down the main street to look at all the shops, we hiked, and we read on our balcony that overlooked Lake Gregory. This is where we were for the 4th of July. Unfortunately, their firework show was cancelled due to a fire ban. But they did still have a 3 day festival thing complete with a chili cook-off, a beer garden, and a parade!













On the way home we stopped in Vegas for a few more tries at blackjack. Note to self: Quitting while you’re ahead = excellent advice. We lost $120. In the end that still left us with a net profit of $5, so hey… could be worse!

Thank you so much for those of you that were praying for us and our safety. Everything was so great and went so smoothly (which clearly must have been a gift from God, because the things we do never go smoothly, ever). I’m so grateful that He blessed us with some much needed relaxation and pretty perfect together time.

Oh yeah, and I’m a wife!!! Woohoo!!!