mike and melissa: October 2009

Three good things happened last week:
1- We had Fall Break. Coming from BYU- land of holiday-less, grinch-like scheduling- made this even more spectacular.
2- We went to Pittsburgh to celebrate our freedom from school/work.
3- We decided to use our camera for the first time in our marriage. (I am horrible at taking pictures. Fact: Every single picture on this blog was taken by someone else. In fact, I still have pictures from my mission on my camera. Not out of sentimentalism, but because I haven't taken hardly any pictures since then. I got home TWO YEARS AGO. Pathetic. So we decided to end this photo-less streak by taking lots of pictures of our cute niece and nephew.)

Pittsburgh is awesome. We started off our gnarly week with a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese where Mike dominated Deal or No Deal. Seriously. He got the best case. I'm so proud, babe.

Bethany and Claire driving

James and Claire in the kids obstacle course thingee

Then we went out to the best Chinese food restaurant I've ever been to. (Judging from the look on Claire's face, I'm not sure she was as big a fan as I was though...)

We also went through "The Tunnel" (if you've been to Pittsburgh you know what I'm talking about) and went up the Incline. Mike and I took Claire and met Bethany, JS, and JJ at the top. The Incline is this wicked cool tram-like doohicky that takes you up this huge hill and offers a really amazing view of the city. I'm not sure if Claire or Mike and I liked it more.

See, told you the view was amazing.

We also went to the Allegheny Cemetery. Mike and I love cemeteries. I know it's kind of morbid, but cemeteries are some of the most peaceful places I've ever been. We walked and drove around and looked for the oldest person buried. That award went to Commodore Joshua Barney- born in 1759. WOW.

A constant source of delight was how stinkin pretty Pittsburgh is. Really- it's gorgeous.

Also, it's actually Fall there. Pittsburgh didn't skip autumn and go straight to winter in South Bend fashion. Notice the blue skies and be jealous. I am.

AND we went to COSTCO!!!!!!!!!! We have no Costco out here, so I was ecstatic to go. We even got dinner there- which may or may not have been equally exciting for me. Gotta love those Costco hot dogs and huge pizza slices.

Another night of fun was dedicated to pumpkin carving!

Mike kept calling it our "Love Pumpkin" since this is our first Halloween together.

Mike's self-appointed job was to separate the pumpkin guts from the seeds, which he then baked and ate. I was told several times that the point of pumpkin carving is to get to the seeds. This meant the "carving" part of pumpkin carving fell to me. I did the best I could.

Cute little JJ

Not bad, eh?

We put candles in our pumpkins and put them out on the porch, but apparently some of James and Bethany's shady neighbors aren't Irish fans because a couple of mornings later we woke up to find that someone had taken our pumpkin and smashed it on the sidewalk. Rude. (Bethany, it was probably the same people that were shooting guns when we were at the park feeding the ducks. That's my new hypothesis anyway. That or the drunk dude Mike caught stealing from the Chuck-E-Cheese counter. Or the woman who hit a kid with her car, as Mike witnessed outside the library.) So much for our love pumpkin.

We also spent a good amount of time trying to convince these brothers that they really do look alike. I can't believe that they don't believe us. Come on. Just look at them. (We had them cover their hair since one has short straight hair and the other has long curly hair. I think it adds pizazz to the photo, no? =D)

Claire looking so proud to be holding her little brother

They also took us to a famous Pittsburgh restaurant, Primanti Brothers, known for their HUMONGOUS sandwiches topped with coleslaw and french fries. I got the pastrami and mike got the turkey. I ate the whole thing- which, if you really know me, know that is a big deal.

THEN Bethany made the most fantastical caramel apples I've ever had. I got the camera about 3 seconds after Bethany brought the plate out to record this awesomeness, and this is all that was left. Tells you a little about how freaking awesome they were. (Please excuse the UofU plate. Go Cougars.)

We went to the zoo too. Usually when you go to the zoo the animals just lay on the ground and sleep while you meanwhile try to get a glimpse of their tail. Not so this time. It was sweet, man. I like zoos anyway, but I've never seen the animals so alive like they were this day. Next time you go to the zoo go in the late afternoon. The animals are so much more active.

The aquarium was totally gnarly too. We got to touch a sting ray with cheetah spots. And check out the other cool creatures we saw (Yes, I am THAT girl- the one that posts pictures of animals on her blog):

This is an animal, not a plant. You gotta admit, that's pretty gnarly.

(I am going to be a jellyfish for Halloween so I HAD to include this one:)

This lemur jumped onto the viewing glass. Sweet.

In the Zoo's pumpkin patch

One of our last fun outings consisted of taking a train ride! I think I look like I just ran into a door in this picture, but it was one of the only pictures we have of Mike and I with JJ (We would like to point out here that we are the first aunt and uncle he has met, which automatically makes us his favorite. Boo-yeah.)

The Wildes.

More Wildes.

On the train over the river

We found this old bridge and decided to walk over it.

As you can see, we definitely made up for not taking any pictures before. Go us.

Thanks guys for such a fun week! We'll be back next time we need a fix of this:

So we (and when I say "we" I mean "I") already posted pictures from the big day, but we just got our cd full of all the pictures our photographer took, and there were several on there that I thought some others would be interested in.

To be more specific, our photographer took quite a few pics of our nieces and nephews that I thought their parents would like to see. It's too bad she didn't get a pic of each of our nipotini, but she did get quite a few:

Evie

The Sophinator

Tee-rav (AKA "Havoc")

Little Jake

Kate

Tavia

Evie

Z-Bomb and Uncle Jake

Claire

Anne

The Fearsome Foursome

Rocky

Emma

Don Carlos

Ben

Rocky

Evie

Emma

Some of my favorite people of all time:

Sugar and Spice...

Snakes and Snails... just kidding. I love these boys. We tried so hard to take a picture of these kids all jazzed up in their suits, but turns out asking 8 boys ages 5 and under who haven't had naps or eaten dinner yet is just too much to ask. However, the resulting photo is pretty awesome. All the other pictures make our wedding look like it was peaceful or something. In reality, it was pretty great- but it was also extremely crazy/stressful/caused-several-melt-downs-by-yours-truly/etc. I think this photo captures that chaotic side of it all in a really endearing way. In fact, this just might be my REAL favorite picture from our wedding. So here's to you, boys. I tip my hat to you.