Official Date!!!

I would have to say last weekend turned out to be very productive! Holly and I managed to find the location for our wedding (we officially reserved the date yesterday), book a photographer for that day, and purchase both of our wedding rings! First off...the date - August 1st. Hey, when you want to get married in August, why wait till later in the month when the 1st is on a Saturday?! Besides, the 1st will be an easy anniversary to remember. I'm just kidding - there is NO WAY I would forget my own anniversary, no matter what the date!!! You do believe me, don't you sweetie?!

The location: Lake Natoma Inn in Folsom. They are having a really good "All-Inclusive Wedding Special" that includes the ceremony and reception locations, buffet catering, no-host bar, champaign fee, set-up, clean-up, etc. That makes it much easier to plan things, especially since I live so far away and can't always be around to help with the planning. There are a couple of choices for ceremony and reception locations, and here's some photos of the ones we chose (click for larger versions):

Ceremony site - these tables and chairs will be gone and replaced by white chairs.

Panoramic of ceremony site - the building on the far right is the reception room.

Reception room

We've also been working on getting places booked for the honeymoon too, especially since places book up fast over the summer. We are planning on staying a few days near Yosemite (already booked), and then a few days near Tahoe (still looking for a place). There's nothing like a trip to the Sierras to get away from the nasty summertime heat in the central valley!

Here's a photo of the rings:

Holly's wedding and engagement rings on the left, and my ring on the right.

Getting this stuff taken care of has been a huge relief to us since it is a lot less we have to deal with in the coming months. Still, we have plenty to do!! Save-the-date cards will be going out soon, we still need to find the entertainment, get a cake ordered, etc. Oh by the way, Holly found her dress already and blogged about it here.

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Awesome "Adventure" Drive

On January 19th, Holly and I took advantage of a holiday we both had off work and decided to take a nice drive through the Sierras. *WARNING - weather geek talk ahead!!!* An unusal stretch of sunny weather (big ridge of high pressure parked over the west coast) meant we knew we would have fair conditions for the trip, plus the roads would be clear of any snow and ice. However, the snowpack in the Sierras is nothing like what it should be this time of year, thanks to the ongoing drought conditions in northern California. OK, enough weather talk for now....

I picked up Holly from her place in the morning and we headed on out toward Jackson. After a quick stop at the grocery store, we caught Highway 88 in Jackson and headed east. Here is the first little turnout where we stopped, probably up around 6000-7000 feet in elevation (notice it was a comfortable, mild day, despite all the white stuff around!):

We continued up the hill and stopped at another vista point, which I think was somewhere near the summit (up around 8000 feet). Here's the view from up there - notice frozen Silver Lake down in the valley:

Can you say, "cutie pie"??? :)

We headed up the hill further and stopped briefly at Hope Valley. We had hoped to drive down Blue Lakes Road to Upper Blue Lake, where Holly's family likes to camp, but as we were afraid might be the case, the road was closed for the winter. We mosied on over and caught Highway 89 and headed north and hit Hwy 50 at Meyers. We drove east and crossed the Nevada line and came back and stopped at a couple places on the south end of Lake Tahoe, which is gorgeous in the winter time!

Sledding fun at Tahoe:

I was really impressed how this photo of a seagull came out, with its wings spread against a pretty cloud background:

Next, we drove down 50 over Echo Summit and through Kyburz, and took Ice House Road north to Ice House Reservoir. (This was my first time driving on Ice House Road, and I must say I was proud of myself! If you know how steep and windy that road is, you'll understand why!) The lake was pretty, but again, there is not nearly enough snow up there.

My mom posts regularly about her adventure drives with my dad, and I wanted to post about mine with my sweetie! (Although, technically this wasn't an "adventure" drive because we planned ahead of time where we were going.) I'm looking forward to a lifetime of these drives through the hills with my girl too! When can we go again, Sweetie?!

http://www.outdoorsphotos.net/blog