It has been a Ruff summer.

I'm not saying this is the reason that I am in the process of becoming a teacher. It's not even in my top 3 reasons that teaching is a great profession. But in mid July, when its as hot as it gets in Washington, it sure is nice to be able to pack up the car and venture around the PNW with no worries about time off and missed work. 

With our wedding and honeymoon, the summer of 2013 has already been good to the new Ruffs. :) We spent a week planning and preparing for our wedding with our closest friends and family. Then we got MARRIED. We enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing trip to Vancouver Island, and then ate our favorite foods and ordered drinks at the pool in Mexico. We were so blessed to have such a great multi-destination honeymoon, and we made lots of memories (most important part of vacationing to me!).

After we'd been home for a week from Mexico, Aaron and I packed up The Silver Bullet (my name for his car) and headed east to Spokane!

This trip was especially nice because I didn't have to sleep alone in the guest room! :) Okay no but seriously, we had so much fun!

Aaron's sisters (and mine!) really hit it off at the wedding. We thought it would be fun to take them out on a sister date while we were in town. We went down to Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane, rode some rides and of course visited the giant red wagon slide. I don't know if the girls were as excited as I was about the slide. ;) Ella and I went on a stomach turning miniature roller coaster. Thankfully neither of us had eaten right before the ride.

Anyway, we followed up all the park fun by going to Red Robin. The girls drew pictures of Aaron and giggled their way through a dinner of grilled cheese and spaghetti.

A few days later, we had dinner with almost all of the Ruff family. We had a panini party, which is the most brilliant of all dinner parties. In usual Meagan fashion, I didn't take any pictures of how nicely Laura had everything set up, or my delicious grilled cheese and turkey and pesto sandwich--pressed to perfection. That's also due in part to the fact that I let the kids play on my phone all evening. I'm a total sucker to any kid that crawls into my lap and sweetly asks, "Maggin, can I play on your phone?" I can't help it. Being called 'Maggin' gets to me. 

We had a really great night eating and laughing and looking at wedding pictures. If only Spokane and Orting weren't so far away!!

We also got a chance to go shooting with Aaron's mom and step-dad. Phil and Ruth have been taking different classes, basic gun classes and defensive classes. It is crazy what they are learning, but I'm thankful for it. Phil taught me what to do, how to hold the gun, how to stand, etc. I'm really terrible at remembering which kinds of guns we shot. They all have number names and I just don't do well with that. But this picture is from my first round. Pretty good for my first time, right?

We spent a few days at the Spokane River, and one day went out on the boat all afternoon. Don't let this picture fool you, it took a good 45 minutes of putting down the river for Alexis to smile. But once we were at it for a while, she had a lot of fun. I enjoyed it because fast tubing freaks me out. :)

Aaron and I each finished a book in the couple days that we spent lounging on the beach. It was SO NICE.

At the end of our trip, we had a baby shower for Aaron's cousin Sarah. Ruth threw the shower, and it was amazing. Straight out of pinterest in the best way possible.

The girls of the family, pre-baby shower!

All the cousins before baby Ward makes his way in there. :)

A quick shot of Charlie, Mitch and me! Their cuteness has power over me. Don't tell them.

After almost two weeks in Spokane, we drove southwest to Portland for a Five Iron Frenzy show. We priceline-d a "3-star" hotel downtown, and it was a little sketchy, but that didn't ruin our fun. We ate at Pine State Biscuits (TWICE, because it was that good), Voodoo (because you have to at least once) and Fire on the Mountain Wings with our friend Wayne.

The Reggie... yup.

The night of the concert, we didn't eat dinner. So after the crazy ska show, we ventured to a place called Mississippi Pizza.It advertised that it was open late, and we were SO GLAD. They had a live salsa band and fresh pizza at midnight. Aaron was pretty much in heaven. And besides my giant hair, I was too.