Love at The Ranch: We Embark

I'd been looking forward to this day for quite some time. The Wednesday before the wedding when we would sausage our stuff into my car, drive for seven hours through the mountains of Northern New Mexico towards Denver, and finally unite with a few early-arriving bridesmaids and groomsmen.

Over the past year, I'd done most of the trips to Colorado for planning on my own. Mr. CB often had to work and so spending some time alone with him on this adventure was definitely a sweet spot. Our dogs with friends, our goldfish with other friends, we were left to our own devices. No distractions.

We left around 11 am, having started the packing process and dropping off of the dogs and fish around 7 am. Yep. It took quite a bit longer than we expected. But given how much we had to bring with us, it didn't surprise me. And, we were both fairly relaxed and excited.

At this point, I'd finished all of my DIY projects. There were only a few last-minute things that needed finishing: picking up gifts for our parents/grandparents/officiant, finishing the out-of-town bags once in Colorado at Bridesmaid Georgia's condo in Boulder, and double-checking the calligraphy as it had been sent the day before to my bridesmaid's condo.

Heading north, we stopped at a Nambe shop, a store that sells hand-crafted goods often made by Native Americans. We got my parents the Cascade Frame which uses Nambe's signature alloy. Mr. CB's parents have a few heart-shaped decorative items around their house, so we contributed to this collection by getting them the Love Plate. For our officiant, my uncle, we got an alloy Christmas ornament with turquoise in it and an etching of Kokopelli, the spirit of fertility.

After that, we marched on making it to Denver about an hour after we were supposed to. We picked up Bridesmaid FSIL from the airport along with Mr. CB's best man. This is where Mr. CB and I parted ways. I went with Bridesmaid FSIL to Bridesmaid Georgia's condo to meet up with my two MOHs. Mr. CB zoomed up to the mountains with his best man where he texted that it was snowing like crazy.

The girls and I made it to Bridesmaid Georgia's, stuffed homemade granola into the out-of-town bags, drank wine, played with Georgia's 10-year-old golden retriever and got giddy about the upcoming days. Having my two MOHs from California, my FSIL from NY and Georgia from, well, Boulder, it was so fun to have everyone together.

Around 11, we nodded off to sleep. Mr. CB on the other hand (as I found out the next day) was up until 4 am, hot tubbing and catching up with is best man from NY.

The next day? We pick up my dress and head out for a bachelorette party in Denver (aka "Menver")...