always remain awesome

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

wine country century

this past Saturday was Stefan's birthday. he wanted to celebrate it by spending the day engaging in one of his favorite activities, so we signed up for the Wine Country Century. there are options to do 35k, 100k, 100m, or 200m. initially we were going to do the 100m but realized a hundred miles was a really long time to cycle for two people who haven't been cycling much lately. plus we rode WCC 100k last year and knew that it was going to be manageable.

we got to Santa Rosa bright and early and were cycling by 8:20am. the first 10 minutes of the ride was cold but once my body started to heat up, the combination of the cool morning weather and my body temp was perfect. it grew warmer as the day progressed however it was never intensely hot. the weather was perfect for a day of cycling.

the WCC is probably the prettiest ride i've ever done. right at the beginning of the course you pass an area where they launch hot air balloons and that's not something you see everyday. for the rest of the course you ride along vineyards and over a couple of bridges. the course is fairly flat, which was nice for me. there are little rolling hills and one actual hill that doesn't last more than what seemed to be .75 mile or so. the surroundings are quiet and peaceful. i felt serenity.

the Santa Rosa Cycing Club organized this event and did a great job marking the ground so that wrong turns weren't taken. their rest stop stations were awesome with fresh fruit, pb&j sandwiches, cookies, coffee, gatorade, water, chips, fig newtons, etc. there were three stops for the 100k, which seemed like one too many but i appreciate it nonetheless. at the 30 mile mark, the rest stop there had sandwiches. and i'm talking like giant sub sandwiches. at 10am, it's a little hard to stomach eating a whole sandwich but i figured i paid for it, so i may as well take advantage of it.

1:23pm, sixty-something miles later and 3 hours and 43 minutes physically in the saddle, we were done. for me, this was a perfect way to spend the day. i spent good time with my boyfriend cycling in perfect weather with beautiful surroundings. happy birthday babe!!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Steph's wedding days

in high school, i had a group of girl friends that you might consider a clique. actually you would definitely call us a clique considering we even had a self proclaimed name and everything. there were a solid nine of us that always hung out and through the years these same people have remained my best friends. we'd always envisioned each of us getting married with each other as the bridesmaids and whatnot. fast forward to last weekend, the first of our girl friends got married. she had little room for bridesmaids and there was no question her sisters were going to take two of those spots. so she chose her best friend and one of us. the rest of us girls were given duties during or before the wedding, so we still felt included.

my main duty, along with Kris, was to take photos at the rehearsal ceremony, rehearsal dinner and the morning of the wedding. i'm not the worlds greatest photog. in fact i don't even really fully understand all of the settings on my dslr and don't have a great grasp on the concepts of each function. and i don't have photoshop or know how to use photoshop to help with post processing. so i got what i got and i hope that she liked at least some of them!

this is where their wedding was supposed to be held. gorgeous, isn't it???

the happy couple. steph and eddie.

her pops, whom she has an amazing relationship with.

gorgeous Crystal Springs

Kris. the other photographer who, too, doesn't know how to fully use all the settings on her camera. hopefully between the two of us we at least got some decent shots.

i think this pic accurately depicts their relationship. he's a goof and she pretends to think she doesn't like it sometimes, but she totally does.

steph and the bridesmaids

eddie and the groomsmen

though it was raining and the wedding unfortunately couldn't be held outdoors in the lovely cliff side, it was still a very memorable wedding. they had a mutual friend ordained who spoke from the heart about their relationship and their love for one another. smiles and tears were everywhere and everything else was flawless. there was the cutting of the cake, the father/daughter dance, the mother/groom dance, the money dance and even the random speech by a drunk. the bridesmaids looked beautiful and the groomsmen handsome. but most of all the bride and groom were surrounded by love.