Quick Stopover in Denver

The morning after the wedding, we headed to Denver to see my mom and celebrate my stepbrother, Seth's, birthday. I spent most of the night taking pictures of my adorable niece, Zoe. With her big brown eyes and wild blonde hair, she is going to be such a heartbreaker! Seth better watch out!

Happy 4th and Wedding in Cheyenne

Rod and I carpooled with our good friends Joanna and Clem and their dogs Sasha and Illy to Erin and Sam's Fourth of July Wedding in Cheyenne. Sasha and I cuddled up in back while Clem listened to his bar review courses.


Although I was pretty stressed about our wedding at this point. I would not have missed Erin and Sam's wedding. Erin and I have been friends for nearly eight years now. We actually met in the locker rooms at the HPER after she had finished a swim and I had, had my first kayak rolling session with Rod. I recognized Erin as one of the new 1Ls. After that we hung out at bar review and started mountainbiking together. She is so much fun and an incredibly happy and nice person. That same year, I was a teaching assistant for a Legal Writing class and Sam was one of my students. He was so nice, but pretty quiet. It wasn't until he started dating Erin that I saw his wild side. :) Erin, Sam, and I care a common love of travel and sushi, so we get together (less frequently than we would like) to share our stories.

The wedding was so beautiful. It was at Erin's parent's house in Cheyenne. Erin looked absolutely stunning! And you could see from the looks on their faces how in love they are. The ceremony was both emotional and entertaining. The Judge performing the ceremony was quick-witted and couldn't resist sharing the story of how Erin and Sam had forgotten to get their marriage license until their rehearsal at 4:30 the day before the ceremony, when the office issuing licenses closed at 4:45 that day. They had bolted from the rehearsal and made it to the office at 4:43.

They also managed to work the Declaration of Independence into their vows. The ceremony was followed by a delicious BBQ, loads of beer, music, dancing, and, at the end of the night, fireworks in the distance.







Since, Joanna, Clem, Rod, and I were camped out in the backyard (within stumbling distance), we were recruited to help put together all the last minute details. It was really reassuring to me to see how the complete chaos in the morning turned into such a beautiful wedding in the evening. It gave me hope that I may just be able to pull it off myself. :)

For their honeymoon, Erin and Sam are taking an 18-month biking trip through Asia and Eastern Europe. I am so excited for them and can't wait to read about all their adventures.

It's Official

Thursday, before leaving for our friends´wedding in Cheyenne, we made a quick trip to get our marriage license. After confirming that we were not married to someone else (despite popular belief, we frown on polygamy in Utah)and that we were not cousins, it was official.

Ten Years

Wow . . . my head is spinning with the events of the last week. I cannot believe we are married! We are on our honeymoon now. While I wait to see all the pictures (and of course post them for you), I thought I would try to catch up on all the things that happened that I was too busy to write about because of all the wedding planning. I left off with my ten year reunion . . .

I can't believe it has been ten years since I graduated from high school! Before heading to the reunion, Carley and I (and our significant others) met Courtney and her boyfriend Noah in their room. We were having so much fun catching up with each other that we almost forgot to go to the reunion. We were one of the last people to arrive (but the first to hit the bar according to the bartender). After dinner, we sent the boys to have some male-bonding time while we caught up with our classmates.

It was nice to hear what everyone had been doing. As for me, it is hard to believe that ten years has passed, but I feel like I have crammed a lot into them. I have visited 23 countries, lived and studied in two of them, have two post graduate degrees (JD/MBA), have worked for a United States Senator in D.C., a Utah Supreme Court Justice, and am working for one of the best firms in SLC. And now I have met (and married) the man of my dreams. I can´t wait to see what the next ten bring.

After the reunion, we headed back to Court´s room to flip through all the pictures she brought, reminisce about the last ten years, and to enjoy the beautiful view of the greenbelt . . . that is until we got the sprinklers turned on, on us at about 1 a.m. Just like old times!

I'm a rising star

Click here

A Family Shower

The last weekend in June was my ten-year reunion. During my trip home, my mom and sister threw me a shower for the Tomchak-Reeder side of the family and my friends still living in Idaho. Most of the people at the shower I had not seen in years. My Aunt Julie came all the way from New Hampshire. Her youngest, Melanie, and my cousin's oldest, Kaylee, were instant friends.

Sheralin-lin Hamberlin (now Summers) also came even though she had three kids waiting at home. I haven't seen her for over five years!






It meant so much to me that all of you took time out of your lives. It was so fun to see everyone.

Girls Poker Night

Kimmie is the hostess with the mostess. I have never been to her house where she has not had every detail planned to perfection. Last week, she invited a bunch of us girls over for poker night. Much to my surprise, she whipped out the mojitos and peni (sp?) as soon as I arrived.

It was a theme that ran throughout our evening. :) It was such a fun way to spend a Monday night.


DeeAnna Hafen* and Kim Strand enjoying their drinks.



Kara carefully examining her cards.

*Names have been changed to protect identity.

Girls just wanna have fun

Before I got sick (or as I was getting sick), my wonderful friends from law school through me a very fun (naughty) bridal shower. There was a long list of distinguished guests, including the infamous Peter Pecker. Despite being the only male at the party, he was a good sport. He was an active participant in the ring toss and dressing game, but couldn't quite hack with American Idol karaoke. Instead, he just hung out downstairs by himself, startling whoever ventured to the kitchen for a drink.







Nici and Mellie put some much time and effort into this incredibly fun shower. Thanks you guys! And thanks to everyone who came. It was SO fun.

Rod has been sick . . .

And now I am too. On Friday night, I came home to find Rod sleeping fully clothed, half on the bed, half off. He stayed like that until 10 when I woke him up to make him take his medicine and see if I could get him to eat.

By Saturday night (in the middle of a bridal shower my friends were throwing me), I was barely able to stand. I stayed in bed almost the whole day Sunday until it was time to take our groomal photo shoot(groom + bridal = groomal and, yes, I know it is bad luck, but if we are relying on luck to make our marriage last, we are in BIG trouble). I know I should have re-scheduled, but honestly we have no time. Rod and I will be out of town the next two weeksends. I could stand for two hours, right? Wrong. I was fine for the first hour, but started to get woozy after that. About an hour-and-a-half into the shoot, I fainted! Luckily it was a shot where Rod had his arms around me and caught me before I "hit the ground so hard [I] bounced", like the last time I fainted. Instead, I just slowly crumpled to the ground. After a few minutes of resting on the ground (yes in my dress), I tried one more time to take a picture. My legs refused to hold me up and we called it a day. I'm so disappointed that I didn't get to take full advantage of our truly talented photographer. I have been looking forward to this shoot for SO long!

I guess it is better to get sick now than three weeks from now, but it is still VERY BAD TIMING!!!

Wedding Weekend: Restaurants and Attractions

Here is a link to a map with directions to all the important locations for the wedding weekend. Also, if you are coming from out of town, there are links to some restaurants or other places you may want to check out if you have time. The map is password protected. If I haven't sent you the password, please email me and I will send it to you.

Father's Day Pool Party

After brunch, Rod and I headed over to Dave and Inga's house to help celebrate Dave's first father's day. Rod and I both went to law school with Dave and have been friends with Inga ever since she moved here. Their son, Gabe, is one of the happiest babies I've ever seen. He had so much fun playing in the pool. Dave grilled up some chicken and chorizo and made us some killer margaritas.It was such a nice break from all the wedding planning.

A lovely brunch

Even though it was Father's Day, all of my book club friends gather together to throw me a beautiful bridal brunch. Seth, an unofficial book club member, made a truly excellent breakfast: mushroom quiche, leek quiche, waffle bar, fried polenta with salmon and capers, pasta salad, and fruit of every imaginable variety (even lychee).

It was beautiful and so fun to spend time with my book club friends. It is hard to believe that I started attending book club approximately four years ago not knowing anyone but Kelly. They all pitched in to give me the (COOLEST) gift basket of all the things Rod and I will need to start cooking Asian food. Rod and I have been toyinng with the idea for awhile, but didn't really know where to start. Seth, Kelly's husband, used to be the chef at Wahso (our FAVORITE restaurant). So he was the perfect person to show us where to get started. We cannot wait to try our our new gadgets and ingredients! Thanks guys!