We made it official!

On saturday October, 2nd 2010 we officially became Mr. and Mrs. Willson!

First off, on Thursday before the wedding Shane's whole family and his friends Andrew, Cassie, Trent, and Ashley all came out to celebrate our wedding with us. It was so much fun having them all here in Michigan, we had a blast! And I finally got to show them where I live and the beauty of Michigan. Thursday night was our dress rehearsal and with the sunset and perfect weather it was beautiful outside.

Saturday morning all the girls headed over to Waldenwoods in Hartland, MI where the ceremony and reception were both going to be held and just hung out and slowly got ready. We all got our hair done, talked, my mom and I got our make up done, and they also served us lunch. The hall was absolutely beautiful inside, but the weather outside, not so much. It was about 40 degrees and raining. No sun in sight, which was a bummer considering the ceremony was suppose to be outside by the lake. But everything turned out perfect and most importantly everyone stayed warm and dry.

I wasn't nervous at all the whole day. I think everyone else was nervous for me. Right before the ceremony started I headed outside to get into the horse drawn carriage. It was super cold and misting but I pushed through that because I was about to marry my best friend. We pulled up to the doors where I would walk through and after Sophia sprinkled flower pedals on the floor (with help from her dad, tyler) my dad walked me down the isle to Shane. There were so many people and the hall looked amazing. The ceremony was short and sweet and after it was done the bridal party headed out to take pictures. We danced the night away and everyone had a blast. So many people came up to us and told us it was the best wedding they've ever been to. After the reception we headed back to the hotel where everyone was staying and we had pizza and drinks.

The next morning we hung out at the house with everyone and opened presents and cards. It was such a fun weekend, i didn't want it to end.

.....but the wedding stuff wasn't over yet. 2 weeks later my whole family headed out to Utah for our wedding reception out there. It was on October 17th at Shane's family's church and it was beautiful as well. His mom and family did such a good job decorating. And bonus, I got to wear my dress again ;)

We have been so busy with everything lately and now things are finally starting to settle down.

Shane and I and our friends from Utah!

Reception!

Ceremony

Summer Fun

As the summer came down to an end my family and I took one last trip before I started my junior year at college. My step dad, brother, and Shane were in Tennessee two weeks prior to our trip working their butts off. My mom, lil brother, lil sister, Cali (our dog), and I headed down on a Friday to meet them in Tennessee. The next day we started our road trip. We first headed up to North Carolina, through Virginia, up to D.C., to Maryland, and through Pennsylvania.

We drove through the Rocky Mountains (which I think is Utah and Michigan mixed. You have the mountains, but also all the green). We camped out in North Carolina and went white water rafting one day then headed to Virginia to visit the Arlington Cemetery (where my great uncle clay was buried and a recently fallen soldier from my home town)

It was such a neat experience, but extremely hot. It was hard to enjoy when it was 90% humidity, hot, when you're sweaty, and have to walk for a long ways. The next day was D.C. We saw the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Smithsonian Museum, and all the tourist things. Half way into the day it decided to storm really bad and well we were doing a lot of walking so to say the least we got soaked!

Our last and final destination of our trip was Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

did the car tour on the battle field, but sort of rushed through that since Shane and I wanted to walk around town. The town was so cute and so many cool little shops. I could have spent a whole day walking around.

We wanted to get a victorian picture taken and to our surprise it was a legit place. The place we went to dress you up in basically the real clothes (not the cheap costumes like the tourist old western pictures you'd get) and took the picture on a wet plate with the old fashion camera. We even had the stands that held us still since it takes around 18 seconds for the picture to take. They did my hair and everything for it also. The picture turned out really cool and looks for real authentic.

Later that night Shane and I went on a haunted tour through town. It wasn't very scary and of course we didn't see anything, but it was cool to hear the different stories and some stuff about the history. The next day we headed back home. It was a fun trip, but each place needs about a week to thoroughly go through and enjoy.

Our Wedding Shower!

Friday, July 16th we had our wedding shower in our back yard around the pool area and it turned out beautiful! The weather was absolutely perfect considering the day before it stormed really bad and the day after it rained all day. The food was really good, I guess the cake was awesome (I wouldn't know because i'm not a huge cake fan), the people were great, and of course the presents were amazing. Thank you to my mom, aunt diane, and step mom for putting it all together and everyone else who helped get ready for it. We're so thankful! :)

St. George

Every year Shane and his whole family go down to St. George, Utah for a weeks vacation. They rent condo's and go boating, shopping, golfing, you name it. I've been lucky enough to be able to go with them the past two years. Shane and I left Michigan July 1st and returned back July 12th so we were in Utah for about a week and a half. St. George was very hot and dry, but I'd take dry heat over humid heat any day. This year we went boating a few days, shopping a few days, went to Red Robin for Reggie and Brad's birthdays, the movies twice (Eclipse with the girls, Grown Ups with the boys) and hung out the rest of the time. I have a million pictures, but heres a few from the trip! We had such a blast!

Shane's cousin Hayley and her husband Josh met Shane's family and I to get some ice cream at Kraves.

Payzlee and I tubing

He's pro in my eyes

Sparklers

Little kids at heart

Plane ride to Utah!

Over the bridge

Since Shane has never been out of the United States before and has the passport to do so we decided to head to Toronto for a long weekend. My mom's childhood friend Pam lives in Canada so we tagged along for the visit. We left Friday morning and what was only suppose to be a 5 hour trip turned into an 8 hour trip. We got stuck in really bad traffic, but we finally arrived at our destination. While my visited with her friend for the next day and a half Shane and I ventured downtown Toronto and hit up some site seeing. It was a busy town all hours, but very

fun. We mostly just walked around town and shopped. Many stores and gift shops, which were bad for my wallet. We thought it would be neat to go to the CN tower thats overlooks the city so we made the long trek over just to be disappointed. It was almost $60 a person to go up to the tower and well we didn't feel like spending an arm and a leg so we just admired it from the ground.

We headed home on Sunday morning so we were home in time for my cousins birthday party. It was a fun get-away weekend and Shane's first time out of the states.

Ice Princesses

We sure had a busy weekend. On Friday we went to go taste test our cheese cake for our wedding or at least thought we were going to be able to taste it, but turns out we didn't get to. At least we have the cake ordered, which is another thing we get to check off the list. Shane and I headed up north for the night/ saturday. I had to move some things from my apartment to the cabin so I needed some muscle so thats where Shane came into play. Saturday I had my first competition to coach. My girls skated awesome! They both got 5th in compulsory and one got 2nd for her program and the other got 5th. They were so darn cute! It was weird being on the other side of the boards though. Shane was there to watch also and to be my video/photo guy.

Meghan and Paige Schutt...My first private lesson students :)

Meghan skated to Taylor Swift and Paige skated to Miley Cyrus Hoedown throwdown and she of course put a smile on everyones faces.

On a side note...only 165 days until Shane and My wedding!!!!! I'm SUPER excited. Everything is starting to fall into place and plans are in order. We got a lot done this weekend. Shane and I figured out all of our reception music and let me tell you, it's gonna be epic! It's going to be so much fun, I can't wait!

Shane's Arrival to the Mitten

Shane and his parents arrived in Armada on Friday March, 5th. It took them a couple of days to drive here from Utah, but we were way excited to have them finally here. It's taken me a while to update this, but since Shane has been here I don't have all the free time like I used to have, which isn't a bad thing. We have done so much since Shane has moved here. The weekend that they got here was super busy, but a lot of fun. We had a family birthday party for Chris and I on friday night just shortly after they arrived and Saturday we went to Partridge Creek to do a little shopping and then went to CJ Barrymore's where Chris works to have dinner. Sunday morning we woke up and went to Waldenwoods (where we're getting married) for a bridal show. After that we headed to Brighton House I believe it's called to have dinner with Shane and his parents, my mom, charlie, nick, my grandparents, my dad, my step mom, and my Aunt Diane. Then it was back to the house to hang out for the rest of the night. Monday morning we had to take Shane's parents to the airport bright and early. I wasn't looking forward to that since I knew it was going to be hard for everyone to say goodbye to each other.

This is Shane when he first pulled into out driveway. Yes I'm sort of a creeper and was waiting for him, but what can I say I was excited :) His truck is being hidden by the fence, but just look close.

Since I was on my spring break that week my mom had planned a trip up to Boyne to stay a few nights in a cabin near Boyne Mountain so we could go riding and go to the water park. Shane and my whole family minus Chris headed up north on Tuesday night. On wednesday we woke up so Shane, Lexie, Bradley, and I could go riding. The weather was not in our favor that week. It was extremely warm (in the 50's) so the snow was very slushy and sticky. I think we did more pushing and walking then we actually did riding. We took a lunch break and went back to the cabin to rest up a little bit and then the kids went to the water park and Shane and I headed back to the slopes to give it one more try. It was still sticky of course, but at least the sun had gone away so it wasn't as warm. A couple hours later it started to rain, which turned into a down pour so we headed back to the cabin once again. We hung out the rest of the night and watched movies. The next day, Thursday we again just hung out all day and later on went to dinner in downtown Boyne at a Mexican restaurant. Friday morning we headed back home.

The following week Shane came up to school with me so it was nice to have him around and someone to hang out with. He also got a taste of the college life as I took him to one of my classes. (he played on my ipod the whole time)

Since then Shane has been working at Powder Cote and spending time with my family while i'm at school. Luckily, we only have to go three nights without seeing each other. Although, i think it's a good thing we only see each other a few days because it will help us gradually get used to seeing each other since we would go months with out seeing one another.

We're doing great and it's the greatest finally being able to be with one another. I wish Shane didn't have to move away from his family, but someday we'll be back out there.