There are no words to describe the love that these two have for each other. This day could not have been any more perfect and Brandon and I were blessed to be apart of it. Ben and Liz had an eventful day on June 4th in Denver. Liz and her bridesmaids got ready at the beautiful Brown Palace. After that she rode in style with her dad to Alamo Placita Park where Ben got to see his beautiful bride for the first time. After taking as many photos as we could possibly squeeze in, we headed to Denver Community Church for their "I-do's". Their ceremony was both elegant and simple full of tears of joy and laughter. After the ceremony, we headed to the most beautifully decorated reception location, The Mercury Cafe. This place was magical and was the perfect spot to celebrate the night away. Instead of cutting a traditional wedding cake, Ben & Liz cut the ribbon off their Oreo cake that sat underneath two superhero Corgi cake-toppers. Why you ask? Because why NOT!? For those of you who don't know Ben and Liz, while they don't have a dog YET, they are obsessed. So much so that Liz joined Instagram purely for the puppy pictures. The fact that they love Remi the Berner as much as I do makes me love Ben and Liz even more than words can say. I've never been to a reception that was filled with SO, SO many home-baked with love-cookies. Liz's mom and dear friends from all around the U.S. made and brought cookies all the way to Colorado to make this reception absolutely perfect. And to top it all off, they even had ice cream from the one and only Sweet Action Ice Cream. Now this was a wedding after my own heart :) Liz's mom also made the beautiful bouquets and the day ran smoothly thanks to the wonderful Cherry Bomb Events. The love that this bride and groom have is contagious ... I don't think I've laughed as hard as I have on both the day I took Ben & Liz's engagement photos and on their wedding day, and they made my job E-A-S-Y! Ben and Liz, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for letting us capture the beginning of your marriage. Wishing you all the best and lots of laughter ahead!

Let me just start this post by showing you a picture of what it looked like here in Colorado on Tuesday.

Yup, that's right. On Tuesday it was nearing the 70's ... sunny and beautiful. The grass was green and spring was in the air. During work, I actually went outside to warm-up during my plan time because I was cold inside! Brandon and I took Remi on a walk in short sleeves after I got home from work. Remi rolled around in the grass and played fetch and it was a perfect Spring day.

Now, I shouldn't be shocked by any means because blizzards in Colorado can happen without any warning and it's not uncommon to get a spring blizzard, but when the news informed us that we were on a "blizzard watch" for Wednesday, I said "Yeah right, there is no way". Being a Colorado native, I should have known better, but even Tuesday night and early Wednesday it was WARM! We actually slept with the windows OPEN all night!

Wednesday morning my phone rang at 5:30 waking us up and when I saw the number I knew that we either had a delayed start or a snow day! The later came true upon answering so I immediately turned off my alarm and tried to fall back asleep, but Remington wasn't having it. When we got down stairs and let Remi out, there was only about an inch or two of snow on the ground. In fact, we thought "what the heck" and proceeded to take the pup on a walk around the block!

Side note: Remington is getting spayed on Monday so we had her pre-surgery appointment scheduled for Wednesday morning at 8:00 a.m. Since I now had the day off, I decided to tag along and only after getting in the car did we realize that we couldn't drive anywhere! For the first time ever my Rav4 was stuck and on our street of all places! Without us even realizing it, it had dumped at least 8 inches of snow or maybe even more in the two hours since we had been up and it was still coming down pretty heavily! So we called the vet, rescheduled her appointment, and hopped back into our PJ's! Brandon was supposed to continue building our neighbor's fence which he started earlier this week, but due to the storm, he decided to take the day off as well. It was so nice to have the day off when my handsome hubby was around!

Brandon had made us breakfast burritos first thing in the morning so by nine we were hungry again. Given the gift of time, I whipped up some home-made pancakes. Brandon thought it would be fun to make giant pancakes so that's what we did. We put both giant pancakes on top of one another, smothered them with butter and syrup, and topped them with fresh blueberries. While the giant pancakes were cooking on our new gas stove, I sat in our new breakfast nook, watched the snow fall outside, and sipped on a warm cup of coffee. Oh, how I love a forced day off to relax and enjoy the little things! Two forks, one plate, a mound of scrumptious pancakes and I was one happy lady!

Another side note: Brandon and I moved into our house last July and since then we have been living in a kitchen that was straight of the 60's with minimal cabinet and/or countertop space. The cabinets were small, a gross shade of brown, and STICKY beyond belief. We were so thankful to have even bought our first house and we had absolutely no right to ever complain about the kitchen, but we knew it was on our very long list of homeowner's to-do's. So, near the end of January we decided to gut the whole kitchen, tear down a few walls and the ceiling, add on a small breakfast nook, and two months later, it is finally resembling a kitchen again! While it's not finished completely, we have brand new cabinets, beautiful marble countertops, a vaulted ceiling, a cute and bright breakfast nook, and incredibly nice new hardwood floors. We have all new appliances (except for the fridge) and we are so in love with our new kitchen. We (and when I say "we" I really mean "Brandon") are now putting the finishing touches on (backsplash, toe kicks, window sills, baseboards, a final coat of paint, etc.) and are waiting for our greenish/blue/dark teal island to arrive. When it's completely finished, I will post some before and after pictures. I am so blessed to have a husband who did and is still doing all the handy work, a mom who has helped us design the kitchen, and a cousin who installs beyond-gorgeous hard wood floors. I am a happy chef over here ... oh wait, I don't cook, that's Brandon's specialty. :)

After our delicious 2nd breakfast, we headed out in the snow to play with the Remperson (AKA, Remington Estelle Gayle). Oh man, she LOVES the snow. We couldn't get her to come in all day and by the time she did come in, she was soaking wet and her fur was filled with tons of little snow balls matted within every millimeter of her.

Brandon kept measuring our snow fall throughout the day ... in the evening we had 15". He also had to keep knocking off the trees and the Comcast cables.

After so much playing, we came inside, lounged on the couch, and took a nap. What else is there to do on such a lovely day off while the weather is frightful outside?

At 4:00 Remi had a playdate with Harvey from next door. They are best buds. To see a couple of pictures of Harvey when he was an itty bitty pup click here!

While the fur babies were playing, the neighbors and us discovered that we both made crock pot meals for dinner so we decided to have a crock pot feast for dinner at their house. We headed over with our spaghetti squash pasta and they provided delicious french dip. It was all yummy to say the least. We are SO lucky to have neighbors that we like, get along with, and have dinners with. Can I get an Amen!?

After that we headed home and snuggled into bed. I was already sleeping with my kindle in my hands when my phone woke me up yet again, but this time at 9:30 p.m. last night. Same number as this morning. Ummm what?! "This is a call from the Cherry Creek School District to inform you that all schools will be closed tomorrow, Thursday, due to inclement weather." Hallelujah! I turned off my alarm and drifted off to sleep now knowing that I had another day off.

This morning, Brandon, being as sweet as he, got up with the pup and let me sleep in until 7! Seven! That never happens! It was a miracle! While yesterday was more eventful, today was such a nice day catching up on things I normally only get around to on the weekends (laundry, cleaning, sweeping the floors). We shoveled the driveway with the help of my dad and hung a new blind in our nook with the help of my mom. Brandon finished building a fence, I worked on my blog. We took Remington to the vet and we played outside in the sunshine and snow. Now Brandon is at Easter practice at church and I'm just hanging at home. I think I'll read my book, finish my laundry, and reply to some emails.

Needless to say, it's been a wonderful two days off. Now it's back to work tomorrow (which I'm glad about because my first graders and I need to change out the apples in our mealworm habitats and make sure our milkweed bugs have enough water to make it through spring break ... good ol' life science for ya), and then off for a week for Spring break. Not a bad couple of weeks if I do say so myself.

There you have it. That's been life lately, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

IMG_2749 from Emily Ann Photography on Vimeo.

P.S. if you think this post was long, just imagine how lengthy they will become when I have actual human kids, not just fur-kids. Yikes ... you still have a few years [at least], but you may want to brace yourself for them now!