The rehearsal.

Rehearsal dinner was, of course, in the Whitsell's backyard, which really is like a little dream. It was a gorgeous night, with great friends, and a lot of excitement, stress, and anxiety looming over us for the 'big day'.

Everyone was just plain happy. Especially after Jocie gave us all of our Coach purses. How fancy is that?!

The favor.

So a few weeks ago, (geeze, more than a month ago now...but don't worry the wounds are still fresh), I was saying to my mom that Hadley needed a haircut. It was a breezy conversation, nothing deep, nothing more than me making a comment about my scrapnoodle of a kid. My mom counters with, 'I'll take her tomorrow.' And this is where the story gets a little cloudy...I remember saying 'okay, I want to try this new place in Bothell because it's about half the price of her normal fancy schmancy haircut place.' My mom said 'well we'll see if we have time tomorrow.' That was it, nothing more, nothing less. So the next morning, thinking about all the things that could go wrong in this scenario I call my dear mother on my way to work to give her a few haircutting ground rules, and she quickly says 'oh, don't worry about it...there is no way we are going to have time.' And then I come home to this...

They HACKED her. She looked like a mix of Jim Carrey in Dumb & Dumber and Moe from the three stooges. It was awful. Her little bangs that I have grown out for her whole entire life (wow, that's dramatic) looked like they were cut with a weedwacker. And to make matters worse, yes it's possible, come to find out my mom took her to the Main Street Hair Salon in Bothell, a place I've never seen an actual customer in...and Hadley's hair was 'cut' by a nice tranny named Belinda. Belinda?! Shouldn't that have given her a clue that maybe this 'lady' should not be styling hair in the year 2009!

Seriously people, this is the little stooge I came home to.

To top it all off, the back of her neck was SHAVED and she sported a nice, nasty, raised, red rash for 3 days. Who shaves a two year olds neck with a razor? The right side was longer than the left and the back of her hair was longer than her actual hairline, and from every single angle her hair was completely uneven. It was so awful, that after 48 hours of looking at our mangled kid, Ryan and I couldn't take it any longer and went back to our spendy little salon....

which we decided is worth every single penny. And they confirmed, Hadley pretty much had the worst haircut they've ever seen.

She's a riot.

Joke. Joke. Joke. Thanks Niamh & Finn for our future Chelsea Handler (I can only dream Hads will be as crude & witty...but she's off to a slow start).

Back on track.

What in the HELL happened to us these past 20 days? Well...here goes:

we made a picture wall.

went to the zoo.

had a fancy dinner party.

chilled with our cousins.

some had more fun than others.

celebrated the 4th.

ordered a shake and felt pretty cool.

enjoyed lake kachess.

and eachother.

drank too much.

ate too much.

got a really, really, really bad haircut. *more to follow on that one, you're not getting off so easy mom.

hung out with the coolest 'big' kid we know.

threw a shower for these lovebirds.

went camping...for the first time.

loved our time with these hooligans.

celebrated her 30th.

rode a bus.

acted absolutely edible.

finished a few books.

Got a little attitude from this sassy pants.

Dealt with our fair share of these.

Oh...and found out we are this.

breakfast of champions.

No wonder she's so smart...now this is some serious brain food. Oatmeal shmoatmeal.

we came. we saw. we rocked.

So after my first marathon, i vowed it would be my last. I told myself I had no desire to ever endure that kind of pain again. But I forgot (it's kind of like child birth, you just forget how miserable it is), and five months ago I told my best friend Sarah, 'we're running a marathon this summer'. She looked at my like I was crazy, and I told her I'd be sending her her training schedule on Monday. And five months later, we both took part in one of the most amazing experiences of our lives. All I can say is this run was indescribable, maybe it was the confidence of having one under my belt and succumbing to the fact that pretty much every body part was going to hurt after mile 18 or maybe it was having all the people of Seattle outside, on one of the most gorgeous days ever, cheering on all these runners that made a commitment awhile back, trained hard, and conquered 26.2 miles. I gotta say, I got the bug, I've found my inner Kenyan...and I can't wait to do the next one!

has anyone seen our hadley?

The other day we took a kid to the park, we thought it was Hadley, but quickly found out we had the wrong child. The little girl we brought to the park ran over to the 'big kid' swing, jumped right on, and wanted to be pushed higher and higher.

Took off her shoes and walked BAREFOOT in the bark.

Smiled and giggled on this 'scary' ride.

And went down the slide with no begging, coaxing, pleading, or bribing.

So whoever has Hadley, feel free to keep her...this kid is way more fun.