Celebrating our ONE YEAR anniversary!

We are so excited to celebrate our first year of marriage today. We can't believe how time has flown by. In this past year so many exciting things have happened in our lives. We moved into our new place (Aunt Kay's house) and have enjoyed the space of a three bedroom, two and a half bathroom single family home. We added a new Walker companion- our crazy but lovable Alice. We enjoyed a month of travels and we found out we were expecting our first baby, Princess Walker! We continue to thank our lucky stars as we have been blessed with good fortune and good health.

Last night (December 4th) we enjoyed dinner at Scott's seafood restaurant in Costa Mesa. The last time we were here was when we celebrated our first Valentines Day together almost three years ago!

Today our plans include 11:30 mass, Burlesque at 1:30 and dinner with Mama and Papa Walker at 5.

We look forward to what the coming years will bring for the Walker family.

Maternity Pictures

We were so excited to take Maternity pictures! We found a photographer through excellent reviews on YELP (http://www.kristentylerphoto.com/). Our original date of November 21st was unfortunately rained out so we postponed pictures to the following Sunday, November 28th. We shot all of the pictures at Huntington Beach. Though it was extremely windy and cold we are happy with how the pictures turned out. The arrival of Princess Walker is only three months away!

Our November monthly appointment

Today we met with Dr. Schwartz for our monthly visit. April found out that at the tail end of her 24th week (24 weeks and 6 days) she has gained a total of 18 pounds. Princess Walker's heartbeat was nice and strong (our favorite part of the visit!). We were given information on the test that will be done at the next appointment which essentially measures how well sugar is being broken down and for gestational diabetes. Not a whole lot of excitement at this appointment but we always leave assured that the fetus is developing into a healthy baby girl!

Our next appointment is December 14th where we will meet with Dr. Noessen (who is the only male doctor in the group). He's not the favorite doctor we've seen so far but we are trying to be positive just in case he happens to be the doctor on call at the time of delivery. After this appointment we will then go to the third floor of the building where we will meet with a Doctor from our potential pediatric group. How time flies!

A couple interesting facts:

-Grandpa Mason has added another girl to his brood- the oldest is April and the youngest will now be Princess Walker. Grandpa Mason has four daughters and now, two granddaughters!

-Princess Walker's pediatric group is the same group of pediatricians that both her Mommy and Daddy went to when they were youngsters.

-Princess Walker's expected due date (March 10th) is also the birthday of one of April's very good friends- Gina (not Grandma Gina).

This weekend (November 28th) we are rescheduled (from last week.. due to rain) to take family/maternity/baby bump pictures. We are excited to share these with all of our friends and family. Stay tuned :)

It's a ... GIRL!!!

THE day had finally come - we would finally find out the sex of our little bun. Countless friends and family had asked us "will you find out the sex of the baby?" April's answer was always the same, "Yes! I NEED to know so I can be ready!" So, with that it was decided, October 26 was a day that can be filed in the "most memorable moments in our lives" category.

Weeks earlier we had asked both our Mom's to be present at the ultrasound. The four of us were greeted by our ultrasound tech who took us on our journey through my uterus. The ultrasound seemed to last forever. Measurement upon organ was observed and our bun was observed to be as healthy as possible. Finally, the ultrasound tech asked if we were interested in finding out the sex of the baby. I knew this was a formality as there was no other reason to have such an audience at this particular ultrasound other than to have Mommy, Daddy and Grandmas present at first notice of "it's a boy" or "it's a girl".

Background story: the night we found out we were expecting, and before the home pregnancy test was confirmed by our doctor, Brandon had a dream about his first child. The dream was two-fold and one part was that he had a little girl. April thought that though endearing, it was a strange dream to have so soon after finding out such life changing news. April believed that whether the test was proved to be true or false, Brandon was ready to be a Daddy.

Up to this point April thought she was carrying a boy so much so that it took a few seconds to comprehend the ultrasound tech informing us that we were going to have a little girl! Both Grandma's (especially Grandma Helen), Daddy and Mommy were elated at such good news of the day - we had a healthy baby girl!

Our favorite ultrasound picture is below. Princess Walker was so excited to make her debut that she gave us what looks like the beginning of a cartwheel! If she's like her Mommy she may be practicing her yoga :)

Our Nation's Capital - Washington D.C.

Our last weekend of travels brought us to Washington, D.C. Brandon had never been and it had been many years since April's last visit so we wanted to be sure to make this one of our four stops. Although we were looking forward to this trip there was no denying the fatigue we were experiencing from three straight weekends of red eye flights across the country. Nevertheless we were looking forward to the last weekend of our "honeymonth".

We visited a number of landmarks and monuments. Among them was Ford's Theater, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and The National Mall, Reflection Pool, Lincoln Monument and White House. April's favorite part of the Smithsonian was the National Gem Collection. It was amazing to read about the history of the gems and brilliance of the stones.

We decided during our flight that this trip would be "relaxing" in that we wouldn't push ourselves to accommodate a busy itinerary. Instead, we leisurely strolled through the city, taking in the sites we would have otherwise overlooked hurrying from one destination to the next.

As life takes hold of us we are fortunate to have memories of our travels to remind us of the places we'd like to take our children when they are old enough to appreciate the history of our country. Though we were wary of traveling across the country (again) we thoroughly enjoyed our trip and finally felt the first of Fall! The weather was cool and crisp with a little bit of rain - a vast difference from the heat wave we are experiencing well into Fall here in Southern California!

We almost didn't feel like we were away from home! We met up with Deanna and watched Sunday football in Columbia Heights. We caught rain without an umbrella while waiting for the Circulator (read: city "bus"). Luckily, we weren't too far from our warm cozy hotel room.

Thank you for sharing in our journey with us!

Puerto Riiiicoooo!

Stars aligned and miraculously, April was able to take an extra day off of work. With four day weekend (vs. 3-days) we quickly called our friends in Puerto Rico to see if they would be up for last minute visitors. Quickly, our originally planned Chicago trip turned into a tropical vacation! We took a red-eye out Wednesday evening and very quickly discovered that our travel luck thus far had come to an end. Our flight was delayed almost 4 hours. Not only did we have to change our connecting flight at JFK, we almost didn't make it! We finally made it (albeit, a couple hours late) to Puerto Rico on Thursday afternoon to visit the Brennan family.

Though we slept almost the entire flight from Long Beach to JFK we were still a little jet-lagged. We caught up with Jess about island life since their move earlier this year. We decided to wait for Mike to get off of work and took the opportunity to take a little nap. That evening we visited Old San Juan (popular docking location for cruises of the Carribbean) and enjoyed really yummy Tapas. We also learned that the service isn't the same as the States but the food definitely made up for it!

The next day we got a little bit of a late start thanks to the time change. When we finally got on our way Jess brought us to Espana- a nearby bakery. There were so many desserts to choose from, we decided to try a melange! Baby Walker was over the moon. Our favorite was the quesito- we took a dozen home!

When we finished stuffing ourselves with sugary delights we walked to the beach. It was a little cloudy out but the weather was perfect. We enjoyed a nice beach afternoon without worrying about heat exhaustion. We spent most of the time searching for sand dollars. We left with 5 or 6!

Brandon also entertained himself for about a half an hour after finding a coconut. Mommy hopes Baby Walker has her Daddy's sense of imagination. Brandon was convinced he would be able to crack the coconut. He kept saying, "I can hear the juice!".

That evening Mike and Jess took us to Ceviche House. We ordered family style and the food was absolutely delicious. We enjoyed good conversation which complimented our meal well.

The morning of our last full day we woke up to a delicious breakfast cooked by Mike and Jess. When breakfast was over we headed to Pinones- a beach area in Puerto Rico frequented mostly by natives. It was beautiful! We enjoyed the water and sun along with a couple rounds of Catch Phrase!

We consider ourselves so fortunate to have been able to visit our friends in Puerto Rico. Not only did we enjoy beautiful beaches and amazing food but we also enjoyed spending time with great friends. There isn't any other way to experience Puerto Rico than with natives- we are so glad we got the "real life" experience vs. the touristy resort version!

Baby Walker visits Auntie L

Our second weekend was a much easier traveling experience. We flew out Friday afternoon ALL the way to Las Vegas. The flight was SO long (a whole 45 minutes) we didn't get to finish our drinks! This weekend we were visiting our good friend, Lindsey who is attending Graduate School to become a Physician Assistant. We definitely wanted to visit before she began her rotations and didn't want to put it off so long we ended up not being able to fly.

The first evening we went to M Resort's buffet which was AMAZING. Not only did they have a wide variety of high-quality fare (warm crab legs!) they also had unlimited beer and wine. The desserts were also incredible- between the three of us we probably tried all of them. Although April wasn't able to enjoy the alcohol she definitely had her share of crab legs.

The rest of the weekend was peaceful and relaxing. We walked around the new City Center and had the BEST gelato. Though we gambled a little we only lost a couple dollars- we're not high rollers yet!

We saw a movie that evening at a really cool family-friendly casino. The next (and last day of our visit) we lounged at the pool, had subs for lunch and watched Sunday football until it was time to get ready for our flight. A nice relaxing weekend visiting our good friend was just what we needed after our strenuous trip to New York.

Our Month of Travels - first stop, the Big Apple!

The first week of October wrapped up a month of traveling. Although we were experiencing slight fatigue by our fourth weekend out of town, we enjoyed all four weekends visiting old friends and new places.

WEEKEND #1 - September 9 - 13th - NEW YORK

Our first weekend out of town was to New York. Our red-eye flight left Long Beach airport Thursday evening. Our flight arrived to JFK at 5 a.m. and we hoped that an early check in would be possible considering our lack of sleep on the flight. Luckily, we were able to check in upon arrival and given our extreme fatigue at this point, we were ecstatic. We slept for a couple of hours before we left to Battery Park (a short walk from our hotel) for our Statue of Liberty tour.

During our Statue of Liberty tour we were able to take a tour of the pedestal. It was really exciting to see inside of the statue and next time we definitely will walk to the crown. The views of Manhattan were amazing! We also walked around the Financial District (Brandon's favorite) and got a glimpse of Wall Street and the NYSE.

The first evening we ate near Greenwich Village at an Italian restaurant called Piola by recommendation of Yelp. We ordered pasta (spaghetti pasta with a marinara sauce and chunks of mozzarella cheese), pizza and a salad. We stopped at Max Brenner on the way back to the Metro for dessert and picked up a chocolate and marshmallow "pizza". Needless to say it was delicious.


The second day we took a 3-hour bike tour of Central Park. This is definitely a landmark we would love to see in the Winter! We did the 7-mile bike loop around the entire park. The hills were tiring (for a three-month pregnant April) but it is definitely the easiest way to see the entire park! Some of our favorite spots were the Fountain, The Lawn and Jackie O Resevoir (just to name a few!).

Our Central Park tour was followed by a visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is a MSUT visit and we (mostly April) can't wait to go back. Brandon's favorite part of the museum was the American Wing. April really enjoyed the VanGogh's and Monet's but really.. the entire museum is spectacular! It's just too bad that our feet hurt so bad we cut the tour a little short (only 2.5 hours).

The rest of the second day was spent wandering Manhattan. We walked down Park Avenue, passed The Russian Tea Room, Carnegie Hall, had dinner near Times Square (which was Brandon's LEAST favorite part of New York) or as he calls it, "a tacky version of Las Vegas". It was a VERY eventful and tiring day but at least Baby Walker got plenty of exercise.

Our third and last full day of our trip was overcast and drizzly. We attended Mass at Saint Patrick's Cathedral which was absolutely amazing (another must-do). We walked around Rockefeller Plaza (directy across the street) and did a little shopping (H&M) up 5th Avenue. We had brunch at Norma's located inside Le Parker Meridien. We decided to cut the day a little short and got back to our hotel around 5pm to rest. Brandon spent the rest of that evening watching football and we grabbed dinner at a nearby sports bar. By this point Baby Walker was begging for rest..and so was Mommy!

Our fourth day in the city was also the day we flew home. We had the morning and early afternoon to do last-minute sightseeing and the Brooklyn Bridge was the last on our list. We packed up all of our things and headed to the bridge. Walking the bridge is a LOT longer than we had anticipated. We walked about half way. Next time we definitely want to walk to Brooklyn (and Metro back to Manhattan).

The trip was definitely a whirlwind and went by quickly. We are already looking forward to our next trip and can't wait until the little Walkers are old enough to enjoy the culture of New York. For more pictures you can check them out on April's facebook page.

September Appointment

Our monthly appointment was on September 20th. Approaching this appointment April was absolutely positive that she had gained at least 5-7 pounds. Because this is the first thing done at every appointment (besides the lovely plastic cup) the appointment started off on a good note with us learning that April's weight gain was only a pound.

The doctor that we saw during this visit was Dr. Reddy. She answered questions we had related to exercise and our travels. Dr. Reddy was incredibly informative and answered all of our questions in great detail. It's always an exciting moment when we get to listen to our little muffin's heartbeat!

Lastly, Dr. Reddy asked if we were interested in receiving the vaccination for whooping cough (TDAP) and the flu. Although the nurse was speedy in administering these vaccinations, April's arm hurt from the TDAP shot for almost three days! Brandon escaped this appointment unscathed (he did, however, receive his TDAP and flu shots a week later from our physician).

We scheduled our next appointment for October 26th at which time we will have our monthly OB visit as well as our ultrasound appointment to find out if we are having a boy or girl! We are so looking forward to this visit and have invited our mothers to join us.

Baby Walker Travels the Continental U.S.!

September may mark the time as the beginning of Fall (September 23rd) and end of summer...beginning of a new school year, end of vacation... However, for the Walker family, quite the opposite is true. This month (and into the first weekend of October) we will be traveling to four different cities over four weekends. How did this come about, you may wonder. One day, April was on facebook (dependable to keep you up on your latest news and gossip while providing endless resources) and saw that Jet Blue had their annual All You Can Jet deal going on. Looking into it, we found out that for $699 per person, we could enjoy unlimited travel from September 7 through October 6th. It took a brief conversation before we made up our minds- we'd be crazy NOT to take this opportunity to get some last minute travels in before becoming full-time parents. We discussed desired destinations and came up with the following:

September 10th-September 13th :: New York
Brandon sugggested going to New York the weekend of September 11th. This year will mark 9 years since the fall of the Twin Towers and conveniently, I found a good deal for a hotel located adjacent to Ground Zero. Included in our weekend itinerary is: Statue of Liberty, Central Park Bike Tour, Dinner in Greenwich Village, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Times Square, Brunch, and walking through Little Italy and Chinatown.

September 17th - 19th :: Las Vegas
We're taking the opportunity to visit Baby Walker's Auntie L while she is in Vegas for Grad School. We weren't sure when we'd have another opportunity to visit so we wanted to make sure to include this in our month long tour of the great cities of America. Of course, we've been to Las Vegas more times than we can count. However, this weekend we are dedicating to catching up with good friends and taking in the unseen sights.

September 24-26th :: Chicago
Neither of us have been to or heard much about the Windy City. However, a friend of ours lives in the heart of downtown Chicago and is assisting us with our itinerary. We are most looking forward to Hot Dogs and Pizza along with catching up with friends.

October 2nd - 4th :: D.C.
Our trip to the Nation's capital rounds up our four weekend travel fest. We have had many friends who are familiar with D.C. and we are counting on them to point us to all the right places! April has been there years ago and enjoyed the Smithsonian museums and all the typical sites. However, we are looking forward to touring D.C. together and with our little baby bump!

Stay tuned for pictures recounting all of our adventures!

Baby Walker...Baby Pisces!

As pregnancy progresses so does our curiosity. Of course the big question is, boy? or, girl? We've had plenty weigh in on their thoughts. We've had an overwhelming amount of supporters for a Mini-April. Those include Auntie Paige (April's sister), Grandma Helen's co-workers, and close to all of mommy's friends. However, the Emmsley Clan (Grandma Lani, Joseph & Kai) are hoping for a boy. The Chinese astrological calendar says that we should expect a girl. However, it also said that Baby Walker's cousin, Riley, was going to be a boy. Six more weeks and we will know!

Baby Walker will be born in the year of the Rabbit (Mommy is year of the Rat, Daddy is year of the Boar). He/She will be born to the Pisces astrological sign (February 19 - March 20). It has been fun to learn what "greater beings" have to say about our little bundle of joy. Pisces are referred to as "old souls"with a thirst for spiritual knowledge and personal growth. Pisces is one of three water signs. The other two signs that share the water characteristic are Cancer (Gigi Gina) and Scorpio (Grandma Helen, Grandpa Ken and Grandma Lani). The Astrological birth sign of Pisces is usually associated with being extremely creative, sensetive, and artistic, as well as a healthy fascination with the metaphysical and spiritual.

Aquamarine is March's birthstone (again representing the water of Pisces). The flower belonging to March is the Jonquil (also known as Daffodil or Narcissus). As you can see you can get carried away with looking into all these different signs, flowers, gemstones, etc.

Ultrasound #2 - 1st trimester screening

Friday, August 27th was our first trimester screening ultrasound. Needless to say that this was our most exciting and eventful ultrasound yet. No longer an embryo, we were able to see the profile of the baby's head as well as their foot and hand. We were also lucky enough to see the baby moving their head! The technician said that he/she was very cooperative while she took her measurements. Once the ultrasound was done we were informed that the baby is negative for down's syndrome trisomy-21 and trisomy-18. We are fortunate to have a healthy baby! Below is a much bigger Baby Walker!

Our Baby's Heart Beat

On Friday, August 20th we had our routine (monthly) visit with the doctor. We are currently on "rotation" to visit each of the doctors that work with the OB GYN group/pracitce we are seeing for prenatal (and eventual delivery) care. During this visit we saw Dr. Karen Koe who was very nice, reviewed a couple of medical items, and used the doppler (is that what it is called?) to check mini-Walker's heart beat. This is the first time we've heard the heart beating (we've seen it on an ultrasound before) and it was amazing! Little Brandon/April had a nice strong heart beat that Brandon imitates as a "woosh woosh woosh". I was tempted to ask if it could just be my stomach since it has taken to talking to me lately but I figured that would just be silly. So, there we have it... two heart beats going on in April's body.

Today, Wednesday August 25th ends the last day of our 11th week! The baby is developing from a lime to a plum as we transition into week 12 and finish up our first trimester. April has been lucky to experience minimal "pregnancy symptoms". There was no nauseau and though there were bouts of fatigue it was nothing that kept her from her normal day-to-day activities. We have been eating out more often along with more sweets. At this rate, Brandon may start to show soon, too!

Currently, we have two appointments scheduled within the next month. An ultrasound will be done this Friday, August 27th as part of routine tests. We are hoping we see a picture of a bigger Baby Walker. The next appointment is scheduled for September 20th where by that time we should be finishing up our 15th week and closer to finding out if we'll be shopping for pink or blue!

Thank you to everyone for keeping up on our little bundle of joy's progress. We will be sure to update (and hopefully include a picture) after our next appointment.

Baby Walker's "Dating" Ultrasound

Last Tuesday, July 27th was our dating ultrasound. The purpose of this visit was to find out the most accurate EDD (estimated due date). Because the embryo was only about 7ish weeks at that time the technician said that the ultrasound could not be taken trans-dermally. For all you mommies, you know what that means... fun! (heavily loaded sarcasm). The tech told us that she would be taking a few pictures and measurements and once she was finished she would show us the picture of our little offspring. When measurements were completed, she showed us what appeared to be a Baby Walker much bigger than the last time we had seen him/her and it had been less than a week! On our way out we asked if there was a new EDD. She informed us that based on her measurements the new due date was March 12, 2011 but it still varies. It looks like we will have to wait until our next appointment to question the doctor about our due date but we are estimating that at this time we have finished our eighth week and into our ninth week.

Baby Walker has finished the embryo stage and officially graduated into becoming a fetus for the rest of gestation. Our little raspberry is transitioning to a green olive (who said martini?!). Our next appointment is currently scheduled for August 20th where we will start our rotation through the doctors in our OB group. Because each doctor takes rotating shifts of being "on call" they want their patients to have met each of the doctors at least once. We believe that it will be a happy coincidence if we have Dr. Schwartz as our delivering doctor because she delivered Jack almost seven years ago!

April has had more of a sweet tooth lately which means more family walks to stay healthy and keep from gaining too much weight too soon. Our 2-mile loop through Signal Hill provides us with quality family time. Bruin is also enjoying more walks!

As we finish our 2nd month of pregnancy the countdown begins to the moment we find out if we will be adding a boy or girl to the Emmsley/Walker clan. Three months left and we can't wait!

Baby Walker's Debut - Our First Ultrasound!

On Wednesday, July 21st we had an early morning appointment to have our very first look at our "blueberry". According to the method of measurement, our original due date (and thus, our progress), was set back by about a week. Instead of the baby growing from a blueberry to a raspberry (week 7-week 8) it was just beginning it's transition from a snow pea into a blueberry (week 6-week 7). If you can't already tell, we love these fruit analogies.

The ultrasound showed a rapidly beating heart (much like a quick, blinking light.. very cool!) and a fetus that is progressing well. Our nurse practitioner said that everything looked good and we couldn't be happier.

Next Tuesday, July 27th we have our official "dating" ultrasound. This will tell us if Baby Walker wants to stick with the original due date of March 10th or the revised due date of March 17th. Whichever due date we are given at this appointment will be waht we stick with for the rest of our pregnancy.

Additionally, we learned all about the "do's" and "don'ts" of pregnancy. Of course, we had to ask which Disneyland rides we can go on for the next 7ish months. Looks like we'll be frequent passengers on the Monorail!

Here is a picture of a fetus at 7 weeks:

And, here is Baby Walker:

The Newest Addition to the family - Baby Walker!

On July 5, 2010 Brandon and I celebrated ONE year since our engagement. So much changes in such a short period of time. In one year we were engaged, married, moved and... welcoming a new member of our family! On this day nothing more special can share this anniversary other than finding out that we are pregnant with our first child!

That night we couldn't think straight. Feelings of excitement coupled with terror (maybe more for April... WHAT is going to happen to my body?!) flooded our emotions. After all was said and done we knew we would have to see the doctor to have our at-home tests confirmed.

On July 7th April met with her doctor and confirmed that there is a little Walker growing in the womb! She called Brandon and confirmed the exciting news. He had to call back downstairs from his cell phone in order to avoid disrupting his co-workers! We were completing our 5th week of pregnancy at this time and the baby was growing from a poppyseed to an apple seed!

Among the first to know was Mom (Gina), Paige, April's co-workers (Dr. Arcan, Perla & Dolores). We shared the news with April's family Sunday, July 11, 2010 along with Brandon's parents and brother. On Monday we had dinner with Aya, Joe & Evy where we shared our joy (We told April's good friend Gina that previous Saturday). Now, the great news has been shared with many of our loved ones and we can't be more excited.

The week we found out about the pregnancy Brandon had a dream that we had a girl and she had a name! We'll see if his premonition proves true! The name is on our short-list of possible girl's names and for the time being we're keeping it to ourselves. How awesome would it be to tell our little girl that her Daddy dreamt about her before we had even known she was a "she". Don't worry... we have boys' names in mind as well!

We are looking forward to sharing our progress with our family and friends and can't wait to meet our little one. Today marks the 40th day of pregnancy and the baby (or, fetus) is transforming from a sweet pea into a blueberry! Our progress will also be confirmed at upcoming appointments. We may be a couple of days/weeks (one or two) ahead or behind than originally estimated.

Our next appointment is Wednesday, July 21st where hopefully, our ultrasound will produce a heartbeat and quite possible a visible blob!

Our Wedding!

We've fallen behind in documenting our beginnings as a family. However, we're here and read

y to catch up to the present. We decidedthat what we really wanted was a simple wedding that was focused on starting our new life as husband and wife by celebrating and sharing this moment with family and friends. We decided the traditional wedding wasn't for us and we opted for a location everyone could enjoy- Las Vegas! We were married on December 5, 2009 at the Wynn Wedding Salons. We celebrated with our family and friends at our hospitality suite at the Bellagio and that night partied it up at Body English in the Hard Rock Hotel/Casino. We really enjoyed ourselves and felt incredibly blessed to have our loved ones present to make this weekend special for us.

We drove up on Friday, December 4, 2009 with Uncle Joe, Auntie Angie, Joseph, Kai, Paige, Ruben, Uncle Kaleo, Auntie Jay, Dylan and Noah. We made it into Las Vegas around noon and immediately checked into our room at the Bellagio. The hotel was beautifully decorated for the holiday season. Not too long after we checked in, our cousins Joey and Ellen from Florida joined us. We enjoyed walking around part of the strip with them. I took advantage of taking as many pictures as possible to document their first visit to Las Vegas. Ellen, being about 5 months pregnant with Koa at the time was a trooper with all the seeing of the sites that weekend!

The next item on our agenda was checking in with the Wedding Coordinator at the Wynn. While waiting for our "limo" pick up outside of the Bellagio we asked the Bell Desk if they knew where we could go to find our driver. The valet responded, "Well, that's one of the Wynn cars there." Brandon was in heaven to find that our "limo" was a Rolls Royce Phantom.

That evening, before the "Bachelorette" festivities, our families got together to have appetizers and cocktails at Kahunaville at TI.

That night the girls went out to dinner at Mon Ami Gabi (Paris Hotel) followed by a Cirque Du Soleil show "O" at The Bellagio. A quick stop was made at Bank nightclub before tucking in the Bride on her last night as a single lady!

The rest of the weekend was a whirlwind. The wedding came and went and before we knew what happened we were walking down the aisle as Mr. And Mrs. Walker. We enjoyed spending time with family and friends this weekend and could have imagined spending our wedding weekend any other way!!

Our Engagement!

The weekend of July 4th, 2009 the Emmsley Family traveled down to Oceanside to celebrate the patriotic holiday with Grandma Lani and Pop. The house was bustling with 14 of us! Friday night Joseph and Kai made signs for the Dodger game we were going to the next day. Saturday half of us got up bright and early to take the train from Carlsbad to Downtown San Diego. Brandon, Me, Paige, Ruben and Noah headed down in the later morning and made it right in time for the beginning of the game. It was about an hour ride on the train and along the way we witnessed breaking waves and the Fair at the Del Mar Racetrack.

It was a near sweltering and the Dodgers almost beat the Padres. On our way back we finally reached our Carlsbad drop-off and all 14 of us shuttled as quickly as possible down the stairs. Apparently, the doors of the train are on a strict timer and before you knew it, Joseph (who was the first out the door) was waving to us from the platform as we all got stuck on the train. Luckily we were able to have Auntie Jay pick him up and the next stop for us was the last before the train turned around to head back to our origin

al destination.

That evening I had ran out of gas and called it a night quite early. The next morning we woke up, packed our things to head to Isabel's first birthday party in Long Beach. As I finished getting ready Brandon pulled me outside where he got down on one knee and proposed! We went inside to share the news with the rest of the family. Uncle Joe didn't believe us and Uncle Kaleo didn't realize what had happened until later that day (or, perhaps the next).

We were blessed to have amazing family and friends to share and celebrate in the great news with us!