The Groom-To-Be peeks in on the bridal shower.

, originally uploaded by Victoria Shade.

I love, love, love this picture. Right place, right time, and the lighting was even kind of cooperating. And you all already know how I feel about bokeh, so the focus on him and the blurry background...it makes me go "yay!"!

My friend Mara is getting married in a few weeks, and her bridal shower and bachelorette party were Saturday. Her maid of honor, Amber, was completely rocking the shower, and in my role of bridesmaid I just did whatever Amber asked and took whatever opportunities I spotted to help out. The rest of the time I was - you guessed it - taking pictures.

This was during the gift opening portion of the bridal shower. Franco, Mara's fiancé, appeared in the corner of my eye. Quite the surprise, since I wasn't expecting him, but I ran with it and started snapping away. He ended up going into the room and hanging out for a bit before giving Mara her wedding gift - a spinning wheel. Mara's done knitting for years now, and thanks to Franco's gift she will be able to make her own yarn! I may not know much about knitting, but Mara was so happy that she did a little dance, so this must be major.

Congratulations and best wishes, Mara and Franco! I am so very much looking forward to being in your wedding in just a few weeks.

Honeymoon: Want to be on the plane, not looking at it.

, originally uploaded by Victoria Shade.

And the honeymoon recap officially begins! We went on a fantastic two and a half week honeymoon a little under a year after we got married - and let me tell you, it was a nice way to do it. Although we both could have used a bit of a break after the wedding, we would have been too strapped for energy and money to enjoy the vacation the way we were able to be waiting until the right time for us.

And we did it right, all the way. We booked a 13 night Royal Caribbean cruise that took us from Copenhagen, Denmark all the way to Athens, Greece (including a stop in Tunis, Tunisia, so Rob can now say he's been to Africa!). Our ports were:

Copenhagen, Denmark
Amsterdam, Holland
Brugge, Belgium (port was Zeebrugge)
Paris, France (port was Le Havre)
La Coruña, Spain
Málaga, Spain
Tunis, Tunisia
Valleta, Malta

Now be honest with yourself, have you ever seen as diverse a cruise itinerary as that? I certainly haven't. We jumped on booking our reservation. We usually had a day at sea inbetween ports, so we had time to rest and relax before gearing up for the next stop. We traveled from Northern Europe through the Mediterranean without having to focus on travel logistics so we were able to simply enjoy our ports.

It was a beautiful honeymoon. And some of that you will see as I go through posting our photos highlighting the trip.

This particular photo I took at the Orlando International Airport as we were waiting to board our first flight of the trip. Rob was looking out the window at our plane, giddy in his own quiet way. I was channeling my giddiness by documenting the moment.

Taken on a Nikon D40.

Photo originally taken on September 12, 2009 at Orlando International Airport in Orlando, Florida.

Photo posted on October 22, 2009.

The power of the sound of a baby whining.

I love dooce's blog because she's funny. (What can I say, that's all I ask for from my entertainment people, make me laugh. Now!) Her second baby is now four months old, and boy, dooce is even funnier when she's sleep deprived, but she's also mean-spiritedly aiming to give you seizures and make you prone to violence by listening to a clip of said four month old baby whining.

I was playing the audioclip on my laptop, and my husband, who was 1) on the other side of the house and 2) raiding in World of Warcraft with 3) his headphones on, jumped up from the computer to check on me because he thought I must have been in pain or having a nightmare.

That is the power of Marlo's whining.

Oh dooce, your blog posts even lead to funny times in my own home. You are GOOD!