Afterthoughts

(First thought : this will be a bit of a fast forward “play by play”, mostly for you mom’s out there, we know how you like to stay informed... )

It was amazing. This is amazing. We have been SOOOO blessed beyond measure. There are too many “Thank You’s” we want to say to so many people, that we would run out of room here! Ultimately we want to say “Thank You” to the Lord God for putting so many amazing people in our lives, and that so many of those people would travel by plane, bus, and car across boarders to witness and celebrate our wedding day up in Canada! It was more special and beautiful than we could have imagined our wedding day to be, and the celebration after the ceremony was incredible! We loved it and loved seeing our friends and family there with us!

One of the things we loved about our wedding was that we were able to visit with so many of you in the few days before the wedding, as well as a couple days after as you were getting ready to go home. We took advantage of the beautiful Okanagon weather and stayed there for a week after the wedding. Then we flew to Red Deer, Alberta (Chelsa’s home town) to go to the big Lykal open house (were we were able to visit with lot’s of Chelsa’s family and friends again!), get in some Kallis family time, watch Carson play golf, and of course....take a visit to Calgary Cycle where Derek and Karyse (Chelsa’s cousins) helped us make the best choices on our brand new bikes....... which we LOVE!

By May 30th we were back in Kelowna, BC, rented a U-Haul, attached it to our brand new hitch, loaded it up, and began our search for a place to “hang our hats” (as Grandma Kallis would say). First stop (after a few washroom breaks, but I - Chelsa - don’t count those), US Customs boarder crossing. That took forever. They made us come inside. And wait. It was late. The immigration officer could not be found. Can you blame him? Once they found him, we were outta there and Tacoma, Washington bound!

After a goodnight’s rest, we began our hunt and found an apartment in Lakewood, WA, not too far from Ft. Lewis, where Ben is working this summer, in fact he just reported there today. Which means, 1. Ben can cycle to work, he has a sweet bike to do it on. And 2. Since he only just reported, we had some SWEET one on one time!!!! We enjoyed every minute hanging out, taking trips (ie. we left our car in Port Angeles, WA and took our bikes with us on the ferry to Victoria, BC Canada where we had a blast with Lindsay (Chelsa’s older sis), and learning our way around Lakewood and Tacoma by trying to find grocery stores (especially Natural Health food stores so we can get some almond butter), and places to get household items...we now have an air mattress and 2 bar stools for furniture. It’s really starting to feel like home :) Visit anytime!
We very seriously want to thank each and every person who blessed our socks off with wedding and shower gifts. We honestly can’t thank you enough, it all is wonderful and we are so grateful!

This is long enough!!!!!!!! Keep in touch! Check out our WEDDING ALBUM