2 weeks of happy marriage.

disclaimer: very long post ahead.
Well, Bryce and I have been married two whole weeks and have managed not to permanently harm or damage one another yet, so I'd say so far it's a success! No, but really, we've had an excellent couple of weeks. It started off with a beautiful (and perfect, in my opinion) wedding day, which I'll blog about later with pictures.
We stayed at the Portland Waterfront Marriott on our wedding night, and had a pretty awesome view of the Willamette River and waterfront...see below.

On Sunday morning I came to the sad realization that I had completely forgotten my shoes at my parent's house. All I had with me were heels and slippers...woops. I put on my heels and Bryce and I headed down to our brunch cruise on the river.


We were both so tired on the cruise, that most people would probably have been shocked that we were brand spankin' newlyweds. I spent most of the time staring out the window, Bryce spent most of the time eating or staring as well. We hardly spoke to each other except to ask questions like "do you want to go to the upper deck?" Our server asked us if we were there for a special occasion, and we told her that we had gotten married the day before. She later asked us, "so...did you guys party hardy last night?" Pretty sure she was convinced that we were hung over. Rather than tell her that in fact, no, there was no alcohol in our systems, we let her think what she wanted. I think it ensured speedy orange juice refills ("just relax, hydrate and eat, guys"). It was great.
I think after the cruise, we both got a little boost of energy. We were going to meet my Dad at the airport to pick up my shoes before we headed down the Gorge to Skamania Lodge, but had a couple hours to spare. We hit up all the awesome shopping near the airport (i.e. chair-comfort testing at IKEA, and movie- and snack- purchasing at Target). Shoe pick-up was successful, and off we headed down highway 84.

This is the view from our room at Skamania Lodge. It's a pretty classy place, with the golf course and everything. Bryce and I felt a little bit, uh...under dressed(?) as we walked in with our Target bags full of granola bars, oreos, and princess fruit snacks.
Monday was QUITE the adventurous day. We discovered the beauty that Stevenson, Washington beholds. Seriously. It's the best town ever. Population of about 1,200 people, and equipped with everything you could possibly need.

I snagged this picture from Wikipedia. It's a picture of main street, where we spent most of our time. Seriously, on the right you have Subway, where we had lunch, then two doors down is a Big River Grill where we had dinner, and an ice cream shop in between the two where we had dessert.

After lunch, we went down to Stevenson Landing, basically a small dock. It was really windy...and then we watched a train go by. Off to Multnomah Falls!

Bridge of the Gods

Horsetail Falls

Trail to the top of Multnomah Falls

At the top

if you look close, you can see little Honda all the way down there in the parking lot.
We ventured back to Skamania, hit up Stevenson for dinner and ice cream, then watched "10 Things I Hate About You". A classic.
Next morning my parents drove out our gifts from the Tualatin reception. We loaded up the Honda, and headed off to Provo. Did I mention that in our first week of marriage, we drove nearly 2500 miles? And did I mention that one of my friends (eckhem, michelle, eckhem) doesn't know how to write a "J" backwards, so we drove those 2500 miles with "Lust Married" written on the back of our car? CLASSY.


We were in Provo just for one day, which consisted of unpacking, laundry, repacking, opening gifts, applying for reverse pell grants. Oh yeah, and the best best best thing ever...homemade cookie monster. YUM. Justification: still our honeymoon, we can do what we want.


Next morning (uh...Thursday now) we got back in the Honda and ventured down to San Diego! Along the way I explained the entire storyline of Les Miserables to Bryce while listening to the soundtrack...and then we talked about baby name themes (you know, like cities, bible names, animals...dolphin, beaver, etc.)
We spent Friday relaxing with Bryce's family and exploring Balboa Park.


Saturday was our open house. We slept in, sat in the sun, got ready for the reception, and enjoyed it. My parents were there, along with some other family, and a few friends from Provo even showed. While getting ready, Bryce grabbed my camera and began taking picture after picture of me taking my hair our of hot rollers. This is the last picture he took, where I give him the frustrated face that says "okay I'll smile for you because I love you, but please stop what you're doing right now".

After sacrament meeting on Sunday morning, we drove back to Provo, concluding the very long series of road tripping around the west coast.
Since Sunday we've been busy setting up our apartment (pictures to come, hopefully). Bryce is back to work, I'm job hunting, and we're enjoying being married to each other very much indeed. Doesn't hurt that it's been beautiful weather.