Our new home in WA......

As promised....here are just a few pictures of our new home! Everything is unpacked and things are put away, however we still need to get curtains up and get all of our wall decor hung on the walls in each room. It is a work in progress.

I have a confession.....well, 2 actually...

I have 2 confessions....one about me and the other I'm making for Kyle! Here we go!

First off, on our drive out west, and only hours into the trip might I add, I couldn't take it......................I had to dig into the tightly sealed, frozen top layer of our delicous, strawberry wedding cake! I know it is "tradition" to let it sit in your freezer for a year, but seriously who does this?? Okay, so maybe the majority of married couples out there do, but not Kyle and I and not with my insane, crazy, sweet tooth addiction that I have. I get it honest....between my dad and I, I'm not sure who consumes more sweets on a daily basis! So, I did it, I sat the wrapped, bagged, bagged again and wrapped again cake in my lap while driving through the state of Missouri and I started to open it while Kyle in the background said "Are you really going to open and eat it?" "Seriously, Rachel" "You are!"......and I did! Let me pause and say Brooklyn if you are reading this I'm sorry....thank you so much for at least preserving the cake until our return from the honeymoon! :) It was just as wonderful and delicous as I suspected it would be. The icing was perfect and the cake still tasted of fresh sweetened strawberries! I enjoyed every bite of it. Kyle even tasted a bite of it....maybe not on the first opening, but one of the days on the trip he did eat a little, but honestly I did consume most of it. You are probably shocked that I didn't consume the entire top layer in one sitting, but be shocked because I didn't. I took what little we had left each day into the hotel with us and put it in the fridge until I had taken the last bite on Saturday. Yes, the life of the trip was 5 days and the cake life was 4. There was a close call one morning when we were getting in the car to leave the hotel and I freaked out because I forgot the cake.....no worries I ran back in and saved what was left. Call me guilty......but, I see it as not letting impeccable, scrumptious cake go to waste! :)

Confession #2 on Kyle's behalf:

Day 2 or 3 into the trip.....I really can't remember.....but, we were making the long journey across I90 from one side of South Dakota all the way to the other and Kyle's lead foot finally caught up with him! Kidding.....actually Kyle is one of those people that refuses to go 5 miles over the posted speed limit, while I on the other hand like to push the limits and go as far as I can without getting in trouble and go at least 10 miles over the posted speed limit. Maybe all Kyle's speeding tickets from his younger years have made him a little more cautious, but that's what makes this story even better.....the cautious, careful driver gets the ticket and not the one that drives fast and also encourages her husband to do so. So, back to the story at hand.....basically while driving from one side of SD to the other on I90 the speed limit stays a steady 75 miles per hour across pretty much the entire state until you get to the 10 or 12 mile speed trap (or how the state produces it's revenue) in Rapid City, SD and it drops to 65 mph! It all happened so fast.....we were about to stop our driving journey for the day and we realized that we were about 5 miles or less from our hotel. Then all at once Kyle is messing with the GPS and the speed limit changes and we miss the sign! So, one of South Dakota's finest pulls out and turns on the blue lights and we decided it might be a good idea to pull over. The cop comes up and Kyle starts to explain the story and the... what we thought was nice cop... told him to just get out of the car and follow him. I said to the cop don't you want to see proof of insurance and the registration on the car?....he said no, not necessary. I thought SWEET Kyle is getting out of his speeding ticket like I usually do! So, Kyle sat with the cop in his car for the longest 10 minutes ever and the cop told him that the speed limit changed and 1 mile in he still had not slowed down and that this is just what happens.....you get a speeding ticket and you pay it....no big deal. Kyle was fined 122 bucks for going 80 in a 65 which was 75 just 1 mile prior....go figure! Might I add, I think the cop was slightly bitter....he confessed that he just received a speeding ticket about a month and a half earlier when he was out of his jurisdiction and he had to pay it. So, all of you wondering out there....policeman really can get speeding tickets as well. So, I get a picture of Kyle with his speeding ticket and we literally drive to the very next exit, 1/4th of the mile down the road where our hotel is located and pull over for the evening! Good thing Kyle won in his fantasy sports league b/c that will be used to pay his 122 dollar contribution to the state of SD!

Our Stuff Arrived!

Here we are with the moving truck full of our stuff! Yay it is here! I've never been inside a truck this big so I asked Billy, our truck driver of course, if I could get in up front and take a look around.....he said yes. So, the truck has 2 beds, a kitchen area with a microwave, a bathroom/shower, and of most importantly a t.v......who knew????....not me. After looking around I asked Billy if he would take our picture inside the truck so here are a few picks of us inside. Kyle got to be in the drivers seat of course so you can easily see him and if you look hard you might just see me in the picture as well. The neighbors were probably glad when the movers left b/c 2 neighbors were slightly blocked in for most of the day. :)

Our first post!! :)

Today is the first day....(of hopefully many to come)....that I'm making a post on our new blog! Since most of our family and friends are many, many miles away and even several time zones away I thought it would be neat to start a website and try to keep in touch with everyone by posting pictures and stories of our, what I seem to think is, pretty exciting life out here on the west coast! I've been procrastinating ACTUALLY posting and telling you all about this site for oh about a month now.....so hopefully I won't wait another month to write to you all or upload a picture! Kyle is not completely sold on this whole "blog thing".....YET....but, maybe just maybe he will stop thinking it is silly and you will get a post or two from him as well. Otherwise, I will be writing to you on behalf of my hubby and myself. Well, for all of you that don't know yet we are officially and finally out here on the west coast in Vancouver, Washington. We are on the north side of the Columbia River which puts us in the state of Washington instead of Oregon where Kyle was living up until March of this year. We are about 8 miles from downtown Portland, Oregon and overall we love our location. Pictures of our new home will be posted soon. We spent 5 days driving from Nashville, TN out here to Vancouver, WA and made many, many random and not so random stops along the way! Well, let me stop here and rephrase part of the above statement.....KYLE spent 5 days driving and I spent 5 days entertaining him and being an awesome roady (sp?)! I love Kyle for lots of reasons and one more reason to add to the list would be that he was the driver 100% of the time across the United States........maybe because he fears for his life when I'm driving, I don't know, but that is not the point at hand now is it!! All this to say, we arrived here in Vancouver on April 10th and the big moving truck arrived with our stuff at 7:20 in the morning on April 13th! I've spent the past week unpacking, cleaning, and making our home a reflection of Kyle and I!! Well, if you ask Kyle he thinks the only reflection of himself in this house is in his man cave room and one cabinet high above the refrigerator in the kitchen where he keeps his precious kelloggs cereal bowls and plastic cups from every sporting event that he has ever attended in his life. I'm trying to wean him off of drinking out of plastic bowls and cups and introduce him to crystal glasses and glass/ceramic bowls. Ha! All in all married life is awesome and we just thank God for each other and this journey that Kyle and I are on together!