Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Tim Lane

Both Michael and I have spent the majority of our lives growing up on the West Coast, so it's a bit surprising that neither of us have spent much time traveling to or visiting Washington State.  But last weekend, we had a wonderful reason to travel to the Pacific Northwest because we were celebrating the marriage of our dear friend Tim & Janelle Lane!  The little love birds tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony in Italy, and invited all their friends and family to join them in Spokane to celebrate when they returned from their dream trip.

I was overly excited to travel to Washington state for a few reasons:

1.  I've never been there before and I'm always eager to travel to places that are brand new to me
2.  We haven't seen Tim & Janelle since OUR wedding in April, so we couldn't wait to hug the newlyweds and celebrate their nuptuals.
3.  Autumn is supposed to be a wonderful time of year in Spokane.  Anytime I can see the season unfolding through the lush trees covered in beautiful colors, I get excited

4.  The Twilight series is based in Washington (not Spokane), but being that Halloween is only a week or so away, I was feeling a bit vampire-y and had hopes of seeing dreamy werewolves

Michael with the life size giant rhino at the
entrance of our hotel

 Ok, so I didn't see any werewolves and I didn't get any photo ops with the Cullens but it was our own little adventure.  Let's just start with the hotel.  Per Tim & Janelle's request, we booked a room at the Davenport Tower in Spokane....this place was amazing.  The walls were covered with ceramic elephant heads.  All the upholstery in the lobby was leopard print.  There was a real stuffed tiger lurking above the hotel bar (he died of natural causes...don't worry).  And the lobby was covered in oil paintings of rhino, elephants,

cheetahs & parrots.  Our actual room didn't disappoint either with the lavish animal print bedding and chaise lounge complete with ostrich skin pillows.  I felt like I was at Disneyland!  This was probably the best deal we've ever gotten on any hotel and it was awesome.

We joined Tim & his lovely new wife for lunch at a festive place called the Elk. We were able to take a scenic route through the outskirts of the downtown area to enjoy some of the beautiful trees that were vibrant shades of red, orange & yellow!  And later that evening we all got together to celebrate at a welcome dinner with the family.


But I think Saturday was the most eventful day of the trip!  We all woke up for a group breakfast at none other than the Safari Grill!  The fueling up was absolutely necessary because we packed into vans to head over to the indoor race track with some go-karts!  I've never been go-kart racing, and I'll admit I was a bit timid the first few laps, but it was a blast!  I was one of only a few other ladies and the boys had no qualms with passing me up or ramming into my little car.  But once I got the hang of it, I was speeding around those turns with my wheels squealing and my hands shaking on the steering wheel.  It was really tons of fun, and a little bit of an upper body workout.  It takes some strength to navigate around those tight little turns!!!!

Tim & Janelle's reception was at a beautiful historical mansion in Spokane that was surrounded by tons and tons of statuesque trees.  The evening was full of love for the happy couple as well as delicious festive beer and wine.  And after the lovely party, the crew headed to the dueling piano bar downtown where our party took over the venue by demanding only 80s metal from the pianists.


The bride & groom were so sweet as they danced on the stage in front of the venue. We wish them every happiness and are so glad we could make the trip up to Spokane to celebrate with them.