Barca

Forgive us, for it has been 10 days since our last entry.

And it will be another 12 'til we post again. We're headed out it about an hour to catch a plane in Tulsa, then Detroit, then Amsterdam, then Barcelona. We're kind of making this an official one-year anniversary trip and staying in Barcelona for a couple nights before we meet up with K's parents for a cruise. Barca to Livorno to Rome to Naples to Mallorca and back to Barca. Whirlwind.

We're stoked! We've been prepping for this trip for many, many months now and it's finallllyyy here. Layne's bringing her cam, natch, so we should have some splendid pics for the post-trip update. First site on the list to see, the Sagrada Familia:

Have a great rest of August--we'll catch up with you on Labor Day!

first of forever

Today marks our 1 year anniversary. What a wonderful, fun, exciting, the best year of our lives it has been.

First, we are showing a couple {ha!..more like a lot} of pictures from our amazing wedding. Then we will get into some highlights of our first year.

Now, a recap of great highlights from our first year as a married couple:

--Last semester of school. We married a semester before we graduated college. It was something we had never thought we would do--we always thought {and Layne's parent's always said 'you're not getting married in college'} we'd marry after we graduated. But God has his plans. He showed us that marrying before was what we were supposed to do; it just all fell together. We already knew we were following Kyle and his job after school and we had a place to live during our last semester and first year of marriage {big ups to Jerry and Melissa} so we could save on rent. Such a fun semester but waaay crazy because it was our last semester and therefore had so much crap-ola to do. Whew, glad that it's over.

--College graduation. No more school. Enough said.

--Charlie Day Culhane. We both are huge animal lovers and we already rescued a cat together {George!}, but since we were finally married and ready we wanted a dog. So we found the absolute cutest dog in the entire world and snatched her up. Been such a fun, eye opening experience having her. She's our first child.

Her preferred sleep position started early...

--First Christmas. Christmas is one of our favorite holidays: Family. Cooking. Baking. Laughter. Celebrating Our Savior.

--Colorado Vacation. Charlie loves the snow. She will play frisbee in the snow until she drops. No joke. We would throw it to her and after a while her paws would freeze over...but she didn't care. She wanted more. Weird dog. We probably will have to move up there sometime in our life just for her sake..

{did we mention she loves the snow?}

--El Dorado Royale. Took a nice relaxing weekend vacation to Mexico.

--Leo Arthur. Our cute godson was born.

--Wedding celebrations. Eric & Sarah. Cam & Nic. Landon & Catherine. Hugh & Jess.

--Hanging with the friends. McNellies Centennial Club. Waltz on Wild Side. Fassler Hall. Memorial Weekend.

--Date nights. Going to Driller's game.

You can find me in St. Louie...

This past weekend was a doozy. A fun doozy. It was the celebration of Hugh and Jessica's wedding!

Friday we woke up bright and early {4:30a} to drive to St. Louis. Right when we got there we split ways to get with our respective wedding party teams. Layne and all the other bridesmaids went to the bridal luncheon at Jess and Alicia's loft. It was so yummy. Afterwards we moved the last minute wedding things and went to the hotel and hung out in the girls suite. Kyle went straight to the hotel to meet with all the other groomsmen. The had planned on going to tour the brewery, but wedding deets take over all too easily. Moving all the great details always take longer than expected. So instead, they helped move all the stuff and then just hung out and drank some beers in the mens suite {this was probably better anyways}. Layne came to hang out with the boys for a little. They were obviously getting bored because they made up a regular basketball-type game by throwing pretzels into a cooler. But it was fun as always.

After getting ready for the rehearsal we carpooled to the beautiful basilica. We rehearsed and had some fun. Then we went to dinner at Charlie Gitto's {Bauman's "favorite nice restaurant"}, cocktailed it up {while scarfing the great fried ravioli} and watched the amazing video Jess' big made. So good, nary a dry eye in the building. Jess' cousin drew pics of all the wedding party. Layne couldn't tell which was the real Kyle it looked so realistic. We also got some sweet shades to wear the next day. On to dinner, which was great, of course and listened to some good speeches from Jill and uncles of the groom. After the dinner we went and met up with all the other friends at McGurk's. Great bar that is crazy huge. It was like a Chi-O and Kappa Sig reunion/formal. Finally around 1, we decided it was a good idea to get the bride and groom home for their big day. Landon and Catherine were great and took us and the bride and groom back to hotel.

The couple.

Saturday was the big day. 7am wake up call for the girls to get breakfast. Layne was in the girls' suite by 9am getting ready for the wedding. Jessica and her great parents had gotten all the bridesmaids personalized robes and cute coffee mugs from anthro. The soon-to-be bride came back from her hair and makeup appointment looking oh so pretty. She had the absolutely best veil and dress. So her. So perfect. At 11 the photographer was in taking the gettin' ready pics and then it was off to the cathedral at 11:45. Kyle and the boys had it easy. They didn't need to really be ready until 12. So they just all hung out and kept Hugh calm {which they did a poor job at, apparently}.

Bride getting her dress on.

Once to the cathedral we had to put up an awesome screen in the women's bathroom to hide the bride. It was the only place for the girls to go and wait {it wasn't as bad as it sounds}. So at 1:30 the ceremony began and by 1:35 {happy} water works were in progress for Layne. Such a great ceremony and beautiful couple. It ended at 3ish and the wedding party went straight onto the bus while the newly married couple and family were in taking pics. Once they were done they came onto the bus and we went to the reception. {Chandler Hills Vineyards}. It was about a hour away, but it was great because they got buses for everyone. Once to the reception the wedding party took some pics and then rushed around to set up all the amazing details. Vintage-ness was everywhere and it was awesome. Layne absolutely loved it all.

Right before the ceremony.

6pm rolls around and the guests start to arrive! Wedding party was upstairs hanging out, drinking and trying to figure out how we were all going to dance while they were arriving. We all were going to dance differently, but then we all decided to do "The Hugh" and "The Jess" dance {they each have a dance they have patented}. We ate, drank, listened to some great speeches {go Mr. Johnston!}, watched the firsts dances and fireworks. Yes, fireworks. Layne was extremely happy and a little jealous. She always wanted fireworks at her wedding, but last summer the burn ban was on so it was a no-go. Then the dancing started...and thats when the real fun began. All we remember was that we all danced so awesome and so hard that everyone, yes everyone, was drenched in sweat. It looked like we had all gone swimming in our wedding attire. So it was fun like we said earlier. Back on the bus and straight to the hotel where we went right up to bed. {Hey it was a long day/weekend, so we didn't need any excuses}.

Forever rooms.

Sunday morning was boring compared to the day before. Woke up, ate the necessary buffet, talked with friends and.... saw the newly married Mr. AND Mrs. Hugh Thompson, IV. They left Monday morning bright and early for their Jamaican honeymoon. We are jealous of them. We said our quick goodbyes to them and got on the road, back to the furnace that we call our home. We were the first to leave St. Louie for a few reasons: a) We hate driving home. Because that means the vacation is over. The sooner we leave, the sooner we will be done driving; b) We had to be home for our indoor soccer game at 5:15--which we barely made. Pulled up to the house at 4:30, changed, got our cleats and headed out the door. Got there in time to stretch and get the game plan; c) We missed our Charmander and Zoe. And last, but most definitely not least d) It was Layne's mom birthday! We missed the lunch celebration, but we will make it up to her soon.

So all in all, it was a great weekend and one that we will remember forever. Congrats to our great friends Hugh and Jess! We're so excited to have another couple in the young-and-married club, if you can't tell.

PS - we caved this weekend and each got a twitter, layneculhane and kyledculhane. Get at us.