 |
| Launching the drift boat |
 |
| Getting on the river |
Ok, let me first say that IT DOES NOT RAIN IN THE SUMMER IN OREGON. That being said, it has been pouring non-stop for 3 days now in the middle of July… yup… what the HELL IS GOING ON? Early in the week a few of us came up with the awesome idea of floating the Willamette River on Saturday from just north of Albany all the way to the Rogue Hop Farm for Cassie and Garretts wedding, camp overnight, and then float again Sunday morning to the take out in Independence. On Friday night Kevin and I shuttled my truck to Independence for the takeout and also dropped off a dance floor at the hop farm that was ultimately never used. On the way home I noticed some ominous looking clouds passing hugging the coast range but come on, it doesn’t rain in Oregon in the summer right!??
 |
| Mischa's a boat captain! |
 |
| Seeking shelter from the rain |
Yeah, 6am the next morning I got a text from Danielle waking me out of my sleep who said she was out… and then I heard the rain… not a soft rain, but a pelting “God is dumping a bucket on the house” type of rain. After some quick texting and radar checking on my phone we (Kev, Lex, Danny, Scooter, Em and I) decided to go for the backup plan and float the 2 hour trip from Beuna Vista to the hop farm later in the day hoping for better weather. And I went back to sleep.
Upon waking up at 10am and looking outside at the clouds above that appeared to breaking up everything seemed fine… It must have just been a sun shower right!?? We all piled into the cars and headed to the put in to meet up with BD, Carrie, Mischa, Erin and Cathy in Brians Drift Boat. Scott and Danielle and I and Em were in a 12 foot non-self-bailing raft while Alexa and Kevin were in a double inflatable kayak. We put in the slow moving river under some puffy clouds but only got about 30 minutes in before the rain started… again, not a soft rain but an absolute downpour that lasted for nearly an hour. We all took out at a small beach and ran into the woods where it was a bit drier and found ourselves on an old farm road next to a field enclosed by a fence of railroad tie-thick logs. None of us could figure out why there needed to be a fence that thick! I was eating cherries that Scott and Danielle brought and was wondering if we came back to the same spot in 10 years if we would see a row of cherry trees? While we were waiting for the rain to pass Bridget, Aaron Thiel, Jay and a few others showed up to join us out of the rain.
 |
| Group beach huddle |
 |
| Cathy attack! |
Eventually we decided we needed to get back on the river to make it to the hop farm and change in time for the wedding and thankfully the rain had stopped. Unfortunately, I had been drinking quite a bit on the float and for a split second when we took out at the beach thought I had actually dropped my phone into the river but thankfully I found it at the bottom of a dry bag. From there it was off to Colin’s van where we had stashed our clothes and camping stuff the night before. We all changed quickly thinking we were late but then heard the wedding was delayed by at least an hour (a forgotten mom we heard…). During that time we decided to go for a very cool stroll through the huge hop vine field to check them out and noticed that Emily’s dress with hop vines on it was perfectly appropriate for the occasion.
 |
| Near the end of the float |
 |
| Em and I at the wedding |
The wedding was beautiful and believe it or not the weather held for the full 4-5 hours of the wedding and dance party afterward. I had fun hanging out with Elise as usual and as usual had a long convo with Russ (don’t know why I get into such long chats with Russ while I’m drunk…but he only had nice things to say about me which was great – side note: I really like Russ as my boss, I think he’s a great guy). Anyway, the night after the wedding was a bit fuzzy. I know there was amazing food and the smoked salmon that Doug had made for Cassie was outstanding as was the BBQ chicken we had for dinner. The dance party on the deck of the hop farm didn’t last very long and unfortunately none of the dance music playlist songs I had made for them got played before the official wedding ended and people moved down to the beach for a bonfire. Not surprisingly with Garrett’s friends there was a lot of drunk nudity and skinny dipping in the river with several people spending a bit more time than was probably appropriate standing in their birthday suits by the fire. I was definitely pretty drunk by this point and Emily decided it was time to make our way back to the tent in the big field next to the parking lot. When we got back we heard a whole ton of fireworks being lit off and hoped that nobody would get in trouble for it. Not surprisingly with the state I was in, I had a pretty rough night as was evident in the field around the tent the next morning… L
 |
| Dress matches background |
 |
| Smothered in hops! |
Big surprise… we woke up to a friggin’ pouring rainstorm upon us. There is nothing I hate more than packing up a tent and sleeping bags in the pouring rain! Thankfully Colin was still around to take our bags back in his van while we were forced to float the last few hours in the rain to the take out in Independence. Emily and I have been in far, far worse weather conditions, with less clothes, and under much more exhaustion than this but we could tell from other people’s faces that they were going through hell, particularly Alexa. The rain did not stop for the next two hours of our float as we followed Brian in his drift boat down the river, which seemed to be barely moving. It definitely wasn’t fun and if it had been 5 degrees colder we would have been hypothermic by chance… And for Alexa who is part Cuban, it was nearly hypothermic.. so she was not having a good time and admitted at the end that it may have been the worst experience of her life. On the upside the rain did eventually stop but only with about 30 minutes left of the float and we did get to see some bald eagles and ospreys on the trip diving for fish in the river. Our boat, not being self-bailing actually had a couple of inches of freakin’ rain water in the bottom of it.
 |
| Mmmm... food & Doug's Salmon |
 |
| Elise dancing at the reception |
After a quick shuttle to the other cars in Beuna Vista and a drive home we all gathered at our place to watch the Women’s world cup final between the U.S. and Japan. Unfortunately when I turned on the tv to find the recording I actually saw the end of the game and who won so I had to keep my mouth shut for the whole game. Although the U.S. did lose I feel that they totally outplayed Japan who seemed to have someone looking over them as all our shots seemed to bounce off the goal posts. But, for a country that just lost 25,000+ people to an earthquake and tsunami I’m glad they got the win. It was a great weekend and a hell of a rainy journey down the slow moving Willamette and boy were we happy to be in a dry bed and apartment on Sunday night. Believe it or not, we actually started a fire in the wood stove in the middle of July!!!!
This weekend Emily and I headed down to Corvallis for the much anticipated wedding of Chris Holm (Best Man in my wedding) and Paris Edwards. The plan was to stay with Jason and Jenn on Friday night after their dinner for out of town gets as well as after their wedding Saturday night. I brought all my camera gear down but left my drone at home as the weather looked too sketchy to fly… man was that an understatement. Read on…
Ashley, one of Emily’s best friends from high school was having her wedding on Martha’s Vineyard at a Yacht Club. To be completely honest Emily and I were expecting this to be a “big money wedding” because lobster was on menu, but to our surprise it was incredibly planned, amazingly beautiful, and probably even cost less than our wedding! And it couldn’t have been at a better location! Read on..
Emily and I flew home for a week and a day for two East Coast weddings. The first was Danny and Sarah in Connecticut and the second was Ashley and Matt on Martha’s Vineyard. In between we had a very relaxing week with Emily’s family, our nieces, and even a long overdue visit with Kenny in Boston. Read on…
This weekend Emily and I drove out to BD and Carrie’s wedding reception at Silver Falls. They had a very small ceremony of just family and super close friends but opened up the campground to all their friends for a night of drinking, music, dancing, and camping overnight. Emily and I always enjoy it when we have the occasion to spend time with all our Corvallis friends in one place. The only Portland people that were at the reception were Ryan and Tim who have been long time friends with Brian. 
We spent the afternoon drinking great beer, playing washers that Colin had made for the new married couple and a very cool “big-sized” game involving pulling sticks out of a basket while trying not to let the balls above them fall down - no idea the name of it. BD and Carrie had hired “Wild Hogs in the Woods” to play and they were amazing. No surprise that Jen had a little too much to drink and passed out behind some bushes, and no surprise that after the band ended the party continued around a camp fire down by the stream late into the night. Everyone seemed to have a great time and the food was amazing. On Sunday Em and I left a little early to go spend the afternoon with Chris and Paris as it would be the last time we might see them in Corvallis with them moving to Moscow, ID.
This Saturday our friends Sarah and Adam got married at the “Grange Dance Hall” (Cody and Nicole’s Barn next to their house in Shedd, OR). We drove down in the afternoon after we had a semi-successful tag sale in our driveway in the morning trying to get rid of as much as we could before our move to Portland. Their wedding was at 7 so we had time to meet up with Chris and Paris before hand to check out their new house on Kings Ave and also get some food at Cafe Yum in downtown Corvallis before heading over in the Prius. 
Their wedding was very beautiful in a barn that was protected from the rain that evening and was lit by literally hundreds of candles. The ceremony was very nice and lasted about 20 minutes with a lot of emotions. Out of the wedding party I knew Adams friend Bill and out of the Bridesmaides I knew Stacy and Nicole Younger. We saw Ben and Tiah and their boys as well as Ian, Colleen, Martin, Brian Carrington and of course Cody with Jesse who was an amazing host as was Nicole. They had about 5 long tables of deserts for after the wedding and a yummy shrimp gumbo that I helped myself too. I was a bit hungover from Josh’s backyard party the night before in Portland so it was great to get a bunch of good food in me. 
Throughout the evening there were musicians on stage playing guitar and singing, including a few Chris Holm classics and I finally got to see the Grange Hall Drifters play (Adam’s band with Bill). They were really amazing and their songs were a lot of fun. I set up the DSLR to record video from a table below so I could send Sarah and Adam the video later as a surprise as I think I was the only one recording. Adam is an amazing performer and song writer (as is Holm) and I hope to see them play again someday. We were both so happy for the two of them as they make a great couple and I have no doubt their marriage will last and little ones will be on the way soon I bet!
This past week was one of the most amazing of our lives. After 7 wonderful years Emily and finally tied the knot in marriage. We had friends and family from across the country by our sides and it was an amazing day. The weather was perfect and everyone had a really great time and all came to understand why we call the Northwest our home. This is probably the longest blog post I've ever written as I tried to capture all the memories I could from the week. Click the title to read on and scroll to the bottom of the post to see the links for our photographers blog about our wedding day and to order photos from wedding gallery. Grab and drink, take a seat, and click the title to read on, this is a long blog post.....
This weekend Emily and I made a very brief visit home to the East Coast for my cousin Jeff and his fiance Ally's wedding in Uxbridge, MA. We left on a redeye Thursday night from PDX and got into Bradley Airport at 10am on Friday. My mom picked us up and we had a really nice lunch with Em's mom and her brother Nick and wife Jen at a Red Robin nearby. We would have gone to a different, non-chain, restaurant but the Granby area had been devastated by an early fall snowstorm that snapped branches on nearly every tree that still had it's full foliage due to the weight of the snow. Her parents had been without power since the previous Saturday and by the time we got back to Oregon late Sunday night were still without power! After lunch we drove to our hotel, took naps to catch up on the sleep we missed on the flight and then had a nice dinner at a local Olive Garden before returning to the hotel for a good nights sleep.
Unusually, the wedding was at 11am in the morning at the Arrowhead resort in Uxbridge. The wedding and the reception were both held in the same building. It was a short ceremony and reception but the food was fantastic. I think that Jeff and Ally really enjoyed the photo frame that we had got them and the photos I had taken with the DSLR during the ceremony that I put on it at the reception. There was the usual cake smashing in the face and everyone signed a plate for them to keep from the wedding with best wishes.
Em and I sat at a table with my mom and Aunt Catherine and Uncle Roger. I really, really enjoyed catching up with them as they are two of my favorite people with very similar interests to mine. Emily really loves them too. Hopefully, when they move to Boulder, Colorado Emily and I will be able to visit them sometime soon. I've still yet to meet Asia and I haven't seen Cherie in many years. It was a cash bar so we didn't end up drinking like we usually do at weddings which of course prevented me from any embarrassing dancing in the light of the afternoon coming in through the windows. It wasn't really my kind of music either.
After the wedding we all went back to the hotel to change and then headed to a fancy restaurant up the street that Ann had suggested I guess. The place was packed and I almost fell over when I ordered two Double Chocolate Stout cans that cost $3 a piece in Corvallis only to have the bartender ask for $20 from me!!! It was at that point that I decided I was either not going to drink or the family was going to have to move to a different, less crowded and cheaper location. Thankfully, a few other family members agreed and we all moved down the street to a nearly empty sports bar which the Wilcox family pretty much took over for the night. 
Emily and I spent much of the night chatting with the Brockport contingent of the family that I never really had time to get to know before. My lawyer/judge cousin Chris turned out to be nothing like anything I expected. Instead of being nervous to talk to him because of his position in life as a judge and owning his own law firm I found us to have a lot in common and was super easy to talk to. He and I would have a lot of fun together if we lived close by I'm sure. Sean and Sheryl were wondeful to chat with and Mischy and Paul were hilarious all night. Chris and Howard definitely got the drunk cards for the night! Chris even called a buddy of his in Vegas to get tickets for my mom and Aunt sue for their upcoming trip. It seemed like he had connections in many high places from all the stories he was telling us. At around 11pm my mom told me she was tired and needed to leave so the three of us took off in her car with her driving. She pulled into the wrong lane immediately which gave me a little worry but I corrected her fast. 
Back at the hotel I wolfed down the leftover Olive Garden that was smelling up my mom's car before bed. I had drank quite a bit with the family and ended up with a slight hangover on Sunday morning. Emily and I watched some TV and then fell asleep knowing we had to be up earlier than the rest of the family to make our flight out of Bradley. 
We woke up to my mom calling us to get up (I wish she would someday realize I am a responsible adult and can figure out these things on my own). We met the family downstairs briefly before heading out of town and said our goodbyes. I felt bad that I hadn't had much time to catch up with Eric and Erin but Emily and I are determined to go visit them in Seattle over this winter so I figured we could catch up with them then. We ate a wonderful breakfast at a great place called the Whistle Stop Cafe in Windsor, CT before my mom dropped us off at the airport. The flight back was uneventful and actually on time so we got back to Corvallis around 10pm with plenty of time for a good nights rest. It was a super fast trip with a kind of unusual wedding but I'm super happy for Jeff and Ally and even more happy that I got to finally really get to know members of my family that I had rarely talked to before.
