Big News (house sized)

It all started with a simple text message Martin sent Grace, “red house is great!” and six stressful weeks later, it’s ours! We bought our first home and officially got the keys yesterday. It is in La Quinta, California (near Palm Springs) and we love it! The house is 1,100 square feet on a 9,000 foot lot with awesome mountain views (because there are no ocean views out here!). It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a pool in the backyard! It is what most would call a “fixer-upper” but we call it a treasure, and a project we are very much looking forward to working on!


More "before" pictures here! Hope to see you all poolside real soon!

Happy 2009!

A new year, a new president, and a new post from your favorite newlyweds!!! So much to celebrate!

Although there is much to write (apologies for not posting anything sooner) we will try not to make this too long-winded. Just a bit of an update of life happenings since our last post which was…before the wedding (oh maybe this will be longer than we thought!)

The Wedding...

Was absolutely wonderful. We had a fabulous time, and we hope everyone that was able to make it did too. It all started with a small family rehearsal cocktail party and then the bigger family and friends bonfire/fiesta. We woke up on the morning of the wedding with just perfectly lovely weather, and plenty of time for coffee and hair appointments for the girls, and tennis with bloody marys for Martin and friends. Then after just a small glitch with the DJ, we had a uniquely perfect wedding ceremony, surrounded by those dearest to us (although Grace was a little cold!). While our guests enjoyed cocktails and the aquariums, the bridal party took pictures on the jetty, and then a surprisingly slightly pirate themed dinner party began with lots of dancing afterwards! It was an evening full of laughter and love and we appreciate the many people who helped make it happen. We actually want to take a minute here to recognize those who contributed their time and talents to make our day extra special.

Annie: made all of the gorgeous bouquets and boutineers

Laura and Katie: hosted the bonfire/fiesta

Spencer: helped make very important decisions regarding catering and registry gifts

Grant: designed all the printed materials

Jon: printed all of the cd’s and envelopes

Corina: made Grace’s dress

Louise: planted and cared for the centerpieces and other plants

Bob: helped keep Louise calm the week before

Adolfo: made the sail of our getaway boat

Mike: kept Grace calm the week before, and remembered to wear some special socks

Luke: helped load and unload the heavy things

Grandma, Aunt Debbie and Maria: helped put together the centerpieces

Aunt Sandy: Video taped the wedding

Jen, Amanda and Kristy: helped decorate the space (along with Jeff, Andrew and Dan)

Aunt Sue, Dano and Mariano: read during the ceremony

Ana: decorated our awesome cake

Damien, Scott, Augustin and Joey: moved over 100 chairs!

Josh: announced our grand entrance

Tyler: prepared a beautiful ceremony

Hillary: helped Tyler practice for weeks

Bonny and Donna: left us a surprise in our hotel room

Grace’s Aunts, Uncles and Cousins: flew in from Virginia, Illinois and Wisconsin

Julie, Cody and Matthew: our amazing photographers…you can see their work at http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/Wedding

So after brunch and a nap the next day, we headed off to our honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas, where we ordered lots of margaritas by the pool. And then we came back to real life!

Real Life

Real life has been just fine actually. There were just a few cold days here in the desert, but now its back in the 80’s. Which we really appreciate after a weekend trip to New York in December – it snowed! But we still had an awesome time in New York, we went ice skating at the Bryant Park rink that Grant has been working to design the past few months http://www.thepondatbryantpark.com/ He also did all of the design for another ice skating rink on the pier – http://www.thenewseaport.com/icerink Unfortunately we both came down with the flu right before Christmas, but still spent a nice time with our families in Orange County. We skipped our annual New Years Eve party (for the first time in 8 years!) and we spent the night partying in San Francisco with Jen, Jeff, Spencer and Sierra.

And speaking of Spencer and Sierra, we are already excited for their September wedding! And along with it, we are excited for Kristina and Darren’s wedding and Josh and Nicole’s wedding this coming fall. I guess we had a good idea!

Our little Lola is doing great, she is just about 10 months old and nearly full grown we think. She is learning to stay near us when not on the leash, but we just discovered she is sleeping in our bed when we are not home! She goes on really long hikes with us and she loves to climb on the rocks. We took her to the snow for the first time, and she was a little nervous at first but then she loved it. There are pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/LolaInTheSnow

In other news, business is slowing down for Martin just a bit because of the economy, but that has given him the opportunity to revise their marketing plan…he just redid the company’s website and it looks great! www.topstoneworks.com. Grace is still working at Alaska Airlines, but finally made the decision to start grad school! She is in a teaching credential/masters program for special education at Cal State San Bernardino that now has a campus down the street in Palm Desert. We’ve been thinking about buying a house, but it is hard to tell if that is a good decision with the economy right now. So we are hopeful that our new president will help make that more of a possibility (along with the other magical things he can do!)

So that's the latest and greatest from us. Thanks for taking the time to read our humble little page on the worldest of widest of webs. Hope you enjoy the pictures! Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009!

Love,

Martin & Grace