waaayy too much for one post...

...so we'll make it two.
first up. leslie's wedding. we were in colorado last weekend to see leslie and steve get married and it was wonderful. we have a pathetic number of pictures so let's begin by apologizing for that...

but the trip was sure an adventure. we left friday morning and met up with laura belle at the airport, who flew in from seattle...the three of us rented a car (daniel and i's first car rental), saw the first snow of the winter, and drove the three beautiful hours to buena vista.

leslie and i were on the same young life team while i was in college (and she was a fresh graduate of clemson) and we lived together my senior year. then about a year and a half ago leslie felt drawn to colorado and settled in at the tiny town of "bv."

buena vista is adorable and tiny and has some great restaurants and shops. lb, d and i got to stay at leslie's house (now les and steve's house) and take care of their puppies. we settled in and relaxed and family members and the bridal party and les and steve were running in and out all day. we walked around a bit and then headed over to the rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner—yummy, yummy breakfast.

saturday lb and i went to a super-fun pajama brunch for leslie and then shopped with our friend victoria. then daniel, lb and i went to a cute bistro called mother's to eat lunch and play board games. (i know, all of these would have been great photo opportunities in hindsight...)

we showed up for the wedding saturday night and everything was gorgeous...lots of green and white and christmas lights and candles and absolutly beautiful. it was a stunning wedding and an amazing reception...

...and then the trip took a turn for the worse. there was much talk about how bad the weather was gonna get that night and how it would be a disaster in the morning and so we decided, with our friends bart and victoria, to drive back to denver after the reception, while the snow hadn't had time to harden and freeze and turn to ice, while there were still several cars on the road, and while the snow plows and salt trucks were still on the roads—rather than leaving at 4 am.

but it got worse earlier than we expected and so we left the reception early and got on the roads early, with bart and victoria following. a grueling 5 hour drive later, we arrived at our friend's drew and natalie's and stayed up for a couple of more hours talking with them. then we woke up super early to more bad roads, drove everyone incredibly slowly to the airport, and arrived in what we thought was just on time to catch our flight. little did we know.

first, the guy at the check in couldn't find our flight. not our tickets on the flight, but the flight itself. then once he found it we realized we were about 20 minutes early, so maybe the one good thing the entire trip. we made it to our gate and waited. the plane was delayed. it was coming in from salt lake city, which is where we were going, and was delayed...so we waited.


once we got on the plane, we realized we were going to make it into salt lake city about 5 minutes after our connecting plane left. super. well, we had to gate-check our carryon rolling bags because they were too big for the tiny plane we were on. when we arrived in salt lake, our connection plane, while all the way across the terminal, was still there. but, apparently a little pink tag that daniel attached to his carryon had fallen off, and while we fought the attendant, he wouldn't let us take the bag. after another 5 minutes, assuring a missed plane, he told us that he would have to put the bag on the connecting plane for us...the plane we would surely not catch. super.

so we ran to our connecting plane's gate anyway, and of course missed the flight. we then waited in several lines for a while before being told that we were confirmed on a flight 10 hours from that time, but high on the waiting lists for two flights between.

we got some lunch and settled in. didn't get on the first flight, but by some miracle got on the second. a mere 8 or 9 hours in the salt lake city airport. horray.


however, in denver we had decided we had to cancel a youth group christmas party for that night...not because of our flight disaster but because of weather in portland. super. but at least the party didn't go on without us...

oh. and did i say that the temperature in denver the morning we left was -5 and the jetway in salt lake city was like -20. at least we were inside all day. so that's something...

and we got home safe! several, several hours late but with lots of snow on the ground in portland :)
(our street the next morning...and you can't tell, but the road is essentially ice.)