Joyeux Noël

Oh, how I LOVE the holidays. I love Thanksgiving meals (yes, plural), Christmas trees and twinkle lights and wrapping gifts with pretty fabric ribbon. Patrick and I were both pretty lucky this year despite the economy (I mean, hell, we both kept our jobs!)- he had his biggest month in sales, and I got a bonus and a raise. We knew we were pretty fortunate and tried not to take it for granted.

We spent Thanksgiving in Santa Maria with the Carmichael fambam, since they (minus us) were planning on spending Christmas in Virginia. I was totally expecting a blowout family fight, since Patrick had warned me that the last time Thanksgiving was spent at his parent's house there was a war- but nothing happened and the whole week was relaxing and fun! I made a 'Williams-Sonoma' pumpkin pie (my first pie ever... well, the filling... since the crust was premade! Moo hahaha!) and it turned out really well. Earlier that day, on a last minute trip to the market with my mom-in-law and sissy-in-law, we ran into Patrick's very first girlfriend... very, very interesting. And I will say nothing more!

I am really going to miss spending Thanksgiving right on the beach in Oceanside with the Carms. It was a tradition when Patrick's grandma, Joan was around, and it was really special. We would spend the day riding beach cruisers right along the water, then head back for dinner and football.

I got Pat a PS3 and some clothes, and he got me a Canon 10-22mm super wide angle lens and a Canon speedlite flash. Yea, he loves me :) And he supports me in what I would really love to do for a career- photography. He believes in me much much more than I believe in myself... Ah it makes me get all teary eyed!

We are also totally loving a stereo/ipod system that one of my best buds Olivia gave us! We'd been using a crap clock radio for about 3 years now so it was a perfect gift! Thanks Liv!

We also were able to catch up with some old friends throughout the month. Our friends Nick and Eileen recently moved to Coronado and introduced us to the best burgers we've ever had, at a place called the Burger Lounge http://www.burgerlounge.com/. It's $8 for a burger and totally worth it. How I lived in San Diego for most of my life and never came across it, I will never know!

My brother was once again a shining star in this year's church Christmas play. I think he always does such a great job, and you can tell he totally loves the spotlight. I can't believe he's 9 now. He loves having a load of responsibility given to him and getting rewarded for it. I took pictures of all the children throughout the play and came away with some of my favorite shots ever.

We also went on a holiday cruise with one of Patrick's customers, Doche Dental, and watched the Parade of Lights. It was our first time and I had a blast. It's crazy to think how much work would go into decking out your boat in full on twinkle lights! It was also really cool to see what the San Diego 'holiday' skyline looks like at night from the water!

Christmas Eve was also our goddaughter Sienna's 1st birthday, so we stopped by Richard and Chrissy's house before heading to the church service. I can't believe how much she's grown. She's a beautiful baby and we're glad to spoil her! Now when we have a child of our own... we'll have to talk about that! For her gifts we got her a Christmas/birthday dress, diamond earrings (totally Pat's idea, and yes, they're real!), and I put together a photo book of her first year (which apparently was a real hit!).

A few days after Christmas Pat and I went to Coronado to test out my new lens and flash, and got some really great shots. There were monks visiting the island and I totally approached them and took a picture with them!

I am a quarter century old now...

Birthday time. My old roommie Meggie and I were born a day apart, so it's nice to celebrate our birthdays together with the old UCSB girls. This year we went nostalgic and met up at Buca di Beppo (on Meggie's real birthday, Nov 1). I don't really remember how the food was (but I do remember it used to be MUCH better), but I do remember how great the company was!

Some of us pitched in and got Meggie a pair of white wayfarers, which she loved. Kristi and Amanda, in their support of my artistic endeavors, got me a ton of paintbrushes, canvases and paints- I could have cried that made me so happy... or maybe that was the alcohol! I also got some lovely gift cards which I of course spent only days later. One of of my fave gifts was a giant bouncy ball Meggie gave me... which has liquid and glitter that swirls on the inside. AWESOME.

Later in the night, due to tradition, Kristi and I took our 'bench picture' :)

The next day, on my real birthday, my family went to lunch at Karl Strauss in Carlsbad (minus dad, recovering from surgery) and my sister gave me more paints (YES!) and my mom got me a Burberry scarf! I almost peed my pants I totally wasn't expecting it. I'd been wanting one for years and it was really really nice of her to get it for me. It's cashmere and has coral (my fave) in the plaid!

THEN the next weekend, Patrick surprised me and took me to Palm Springs! The first day we got there the weather was totally gorgeous and just hot enough. The first hotel room we were given was totally creepy and ghetto, but we saw an opportunity with a spooky lamp to take some really great pictures. Then we complained about the room and got a new one, which was totally different and remodeled compared to the old one! His parents also came to Palm Springs as they were going to spend a whole week there, so it was really great to see them and go out to dinner.

Wouldn't it be great if everyday was your birthday?

Halloweenies

My oh my how the time flies... I totally dropped the ball so here I go with all the catch-up!

Halloween was totally awesome and totally heartbreaking at the same time. Patrick and I were invited to a Halloween/30th birthday party (the weekend before Halloween) of a friend of his that works in one of his customer's offices. We spent the whole day of the party (last minute, classic us) looking for things to put together Harry Potter and Hermione costumes. I was rooting for us to be Mario and Luigi but it was too hard to find overalls and far too late to dye them. No, I didn't want to be one of the princesses because I really wanted to wear a mustache! The costumes worked out well. We splurged on a $30 Harry Potter scarf for Pat to wear since we couldn't find a tie in the appropriate colors, and got him a black cheapo cape onto which I stitched a paper cutout of their school logo (sorry, didn't read the books.. it was more of Pat's thing) that we printed at home. At Target we found a little boy's Harry Potter costume cape for me, and picked up some official wizard wands and round spectacles for Pat. i curl the holy heck out of my hair to give it that 'Hermione' Poof... but of course it falls into perfect waves by the time we get there... leaving me to look like some cheapo school girl who couldn't come up with a better costume. But oh well, there's unlimited sangrias. So far, so good.

We get to the party and whoa nelly is it amazing! Yetzina, the birthday girl, had turned her backyard into a crazy gothic looking party. There was a huge tent set up with long tables and huge candelabras and portraits of people that changed into monsters at just the right angle. Why this girl isn't an event coordinator full time I have no clue. She nailed every detail!

Ok... so insanely long story short (since I know you're reading this waiting for the heartbreak part), we meet these people, another couple who are totally nice and great to talk to... but then after a while Patrick and the totally beautiful girl hit it off and spend most of the night just sitting there talking about evvvveerrrrrryyythinnng... and I feel pushed off to the side and ignored (oh cmon, he's my husband, a little attention puhlease!)... so of course I get upset about it but don't show it until we've left and the whole weekend turns into a huge fight (on my part, yes, I'll admit that now) because I felt like Patrick basically fell in LOVE (ok, like) with someone else. Ok guys, you should've seen her... freaking gorgeous! And smart! And really in the end, I couldn't even dislike her! But, once my 3 day anger spree settle, Patrick was able to convince me that he simply thought she was interesting and didn't realize that her husband and I weren't really part of the conversation. I forget that men can't multitask. And I forget that I totally overreact about things that involve a tinge of jealousy. Oops.

2008... So Far

The year has really been great so far, so I thought I'd recap...

Each month so far has been filled with some great memories. We kicked off the new year in Santa Maria, so we hiked to Lizard's Mouth in Santa Barbara and spent some time at Avila Beach. I went to Vegas with my good bud Kris and met her friends- that was a blast! Our roommate (who is moving out next week, sorry to say, but YAY!) celebrated her 30th birthday with a really fun kickball-sloshball party. Patrick and I also spent a day in Coronado with our wedding photographers trashing the holy heck out of a $20 wedding dress I found on ebay!

In February Patrick turned a quarter century old :) We spent his birthday weekend in Puerto Nuevo, Mexico and had a total blast exploring baja and got a little surfy surf in... unfortunately that same weekend my grandmother suffered from a stroke and we lost Patrick's grandmother to cancer (not to mention my entire family had the flu and right after we got back I came down with strep throat!!).

When March came around my grandmother had started recovering rapidly so we finally celebrated her 75th birthday at mom and dad's house (her stroke happened the day before her bday in Feb). Christopher's hockey season ended and we spent a day at the zoo... By the way if you live in SD you should totally get a zoo membership... hello?! Unlimited skyrides!

Somewhere within these months Pat and I got a 'new' car- a dark blue BMW 330ci (convertible). It's my baby and to this day I still have no name for it. I'm looking for suggestions, and the name has to start with a 'B' (my 4runner was Betty, my Mustang was Bella)...

April and May were full of pre-wedding events, and some big family news! I was the lucky bride-to-be that had 2 wedding showers, one in San Diego and one in Santa Maria (both in April). In May we had my bachelorette party here in San Diego. My favorite part of the night was dancing my tush off in the limo bus! The big family news was that my Dad got his M.B.A! Soooo super proud of my pops!

June of course was wedding month! When Father's Day rolled around I took some great shots of our goddaughter Sienna for Richard. Wedding week was lots of fun. My cousin Katy threw me a lingerie shower which was a blast. I also had a fun sexy photoshoot with my wedding hair-and-makeup gal, and spent some time at the RB Spa with my bridesmaids. When we got back from our honeymoon in July we spent some time at the racetrack in Del Mar, and also with our good friends Richard, Chrissy, Porsche and Donnie (it seemed like we were beginning to live at Pala Casino!).

Last month we spent some time at Balboa Park with Chris and Cheryl, and went to the Natural History Museum. Chris got to see the dinosaur skeletons and a really cool water exhibit. Chris finished yet another season of ice hockey, and our Spaniard friends (the Bisbe Family) visited us in San Diego! We (the Carmichaels, ma and pa included) took them all over, and my fave part of the weekend was the cruise around San Diego bay! K the end!

Honeymooning in Maui & Kauai

We had a BLAST on our honeymoon, which we spent half of in Maui and the other half in Kauai. Kauai was a little more up my alley since we stayed in a far less touristy area- Kapaa. I think it's safe to say we got a good balance of relaxation and adventure on the trip... not to mention the delicious cuisine we experienced. If you're ever in Maui, do yourself a favor and try the Mahi Mahi at Lahaina Grill, and the Shrimp Dynamite at Sansei! On both islands we were lucky enough (thanks to my in-laws) to stay right on the water with unobstructed views and roll around in Jeep Wranglers.

My fave part of Maui was our adventure on the Hana highway. We got caught in an early morning downpour while the top was down, but that didn't dampen our spirits (get it?! Wah, wah, wah). The banana bread from Wailua was the best we'd ever had...we hiked to a waterfall called Wailua-iki and had the whole place to ourselves...and we experienced for the first time together the true fear of being shanked in the middle of nowhere (hiking to the Blue Pool... which was nothing but a trickle!). I went crazy with the digital SLR over the sunsets (how can you see sights like that and doubt that God exists?!) and was glad to have purchased an underwater case for my little digital camera for our under-the-sea adventures. We're looking forward to the next time we can surf the days away in Lahaina and swim with the sea turtles (and maybe next time I won't find myself rescuing any families on floats and swimming them to shore ;)).

Kauai was insane. Since we stayed on the east end we were greeted by sunrises instead of sunsets. We hiked to beaches where no one else was around (definitely recommend the Secret Beach), splashed around in lava pools, and found the best sushi restaurant in existence. My favorite part was definitely hiking to and then jumping off Kamapua'a Falls. Patrick was definitely more daring than I was and didn't even think twice before jumping! We also had the pleasure of boarding a catamaran and sailing to the Na Pali coastline, and on the way we saw dolphins playing (and mating!), and a great view of the ‘forbidden’ island of Ni’ihau. The Na Pali coastline was like nothing we had ever seen before- teal water crashing against towering sea cliffs, views of gigantic sea caves and waterfalls next to the ocean. The captain then took us to a place to snorkel and there were fish everywhere!

Needless to say, our honeymoon was a pretty good way to start our married life together!

Wedding Media!

Click here for our wedding slideshow (the larger version):
http://buddyblueshoespresents.com/MirelleandPatrickPhotoStory.wmv


This wedding video was shot by my cousin, Kevin Tablizo. He's Canadian. :)

Just Married!

Click on the 'Just Married!' above to link to our wedding website!

On June 28 Patrick and I finally made it official. We had been dating for half a decade before he proposed in April of 2007 as the sun was setting on Torrey Pines State Beach. The wedding day was everything we hope for, and boy did we work our little tushies off preparing for it! We like to think of all our DIY wedding projects (all stationery included) as 'team-building'!

We tied the knot right on the beach in La Jolla and it was amazing- the weather was perfect, the waves were crashing and the music (we had a guitarist and violinist) was the bomb-dig :) The guys and the sponsors walked to 'Waiting in Vain' (the Annie Lenox version), the girls walked to 'Hear You Me' (Jimmy Eat World), and I walked (with mom and dad!) to 'Only One' (Yellowcard). Leave it to us to not want any traditional wedding music.

I can't even begin to describe how excited I was at that very moment that I was walking down the aisle to marry Patrick. Seriously- when I walked out with my parents, it seemed like the entire world (well, beach) stopped for us. All I heard was the music and the ocean and all I saw was Patrick...

The reception was a blast. We had a great time dancing the night away with our family and friends, then we departed for our afterparty after running through a sea of sparklers!

Pics were taken by the wonderful folks at Studio Z (www.studiozimage.com)!