The Phillips: Vow Renewal in Vegas!

Nate and I met when I was 21 and he was 19. We met on a Thursday, had our first date a few Sundays later and we have been together every since. It's never been perfect, but how boring would that be!?

We grow together, we support each other's goals and dreams, we trust in God to get us through all of it. 

...maybe it is perfect. Our perfect.

On October 18th, 2013

Nate & Christina and Eric & Crystal renewed their vows in a double ceremony

in Las Vegas at The Elvis Chapel

Nate and Christina

We did not want a large, formal wedding when we got married on May 1, 2004.

We had one anyway. Lame. 

Facts of a Friendship

Crystal and I went to high school and college together

 Crystal and Eric met two months before Nate and I met each other

Crystal and I "broke up" for TEN years. We call it our divorce. It sucked.

We "got back together" 6ish years ago. Thank God.

Crystal & Eric and Nate & I got married during that ten year hiatus

Crystal and I were both sad on our wedding days that our best friend wasn't standing next to us

We needed to fix that!

Nate and I always wanted to run off to an island or find a cheesy Elvis in Vegas to make us official.

Crystal & Eric were up for the adventure and wanted to renew their vows too.

This also satisfied Crystal & Christina's need to have each other

 as "the bitch up front" (aka matron on honor, we are so classy)

We finally did it- on October 18, 2013!

Here are some of our fave photos for our 4 day Las Vegas Vow Renewal Adventure

Mr. and Mrs. R

Mrs. P

The Crew

at the Venetian- how cool are these guys?!

Crystal being beautiful

The guys being...well...them.

ha. love this one of Nate.

So cheesy-rific!

Crystal channeling her inner Elvis

Bitches up front

Limo rides. Of course our driver, David, was from Minnesota. 

And of course Eric made friends with him.

It was perfectly warm and Vegas-y

They are rarely serious.

Good times were had by all!

3 Rants and a Rave

3 Rants and a Rave!

New Segment to the blog- which I suspect will usually occur shortly after visiting Target, the grocery store or somewhere with copious amounts of children and/or crazy people. Meh, it is what it is.

Yes, I live by the mantra CHOOSE JOY! I'm trying. Every.Day.

But I also live in reality. Things bug me, things annoy me, and some things make me want me to punch people in the wrist. 

Ideally I’d like this to be 3 Raves and a Rant. We’ll see how that goes.

But today- for the first installment of this new segment:::

Three Ridic things I saw at Target over my lunch hour on Monday and then one thing that gave me hope in mankind.

THE RIDIC:

•   Hey lady- changing your newborn baby’s diaper. On the bench. Next to the automatic exit door. Your baby is screaming because THIS IS MINNESOTA, its 23 degrees out, your baby is naked and the door keeps opening- 30 more seconds and I would've taken your baby from you. Not sure you are smart enough to neither raise her nor keep her safe.
•  Two women, with carts, facing opposite directions (I know you've ALL experienced this). They are stopped, they are talking. They ignore my THREE “excuse me, please”/”excuse me, I just want to scoot past”/”pardon me, please”. NOTHING. They just look at me. REALLY?! It’s that hard to move to the side and let me through so I can get to the items I want to purchase?  I suspect these are the same people that would get furious if you did this to them. Ugh, narcissism- hard to escape it.
• Child in line in front of me wants to help his mom, well that’s cute enough. Then demands a sticker from the cashier as a reward for helping. The cashier COMPLIES (more on her later). The mother answers her iPhone and does not tell her child to 1) be polite. 2) don’t be rude. 3) be polite. The child, at NO point, says THANK YOU. Really?! Really?! He was 5ish, totally capable of this simple gesture.

THE RAVE!  

                As I unloaded my cart of Target goodies, yes of course triple the amount of what I went there to get, the cashier starts singing “Monday, Monday”.  She is SMILING! She is SINGING! She is HAPPY! Her attitude= contagious!!!  We then spent 4 minutes discussing all of the songs that she can sing on different days of the week.  She (Cheryl- North Saint Paul Target) was a pure joy to encounter.  Cheers to Cheryl for her great attitude and not letting that rude little boy change her mood. Cheers to a great customer service experience. Cheers to her contagious positive attitude!