As I write this new post, I am in a brand-new, even more exciting, wonderful place than I was when I started. This isn’t just about a day in the life of Emmy… now it’s about a day in the life of Dustin and Emmy. It’s not just about me anymore, now it’s about the Wilcoxs. I am no longer the 21 year old girl wondering if I would ever find the man of my dreams. I am now a 26 year old woman married to the man of my dreams, living life as someone’s partner, best friend, companion and true love.
March 31, 2012 was one of the best days of my life. Our wedding was better than I ever imagined it could be. It was perfect! The look in Dustin’s eyes when he saw me for the first time in my dress and when he said his vows, spoke right to my heart. We were surrounded by our absolute favorite people in this world- our parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, best friends, family friends, co-workers, mentors- and we felt truly blessed, supported and loved. It was the best way to start the first day of our marriage! Our pastor did an amazing job marrying us in a ceremony that truly represented us. The food was delicious, the dance was so much fun, the reception was a blast! Everything was perfect! At the end of the night I started crying because I didn’t want the day to end! It was one of those few times when everyone I love the most was in one room, at one time, having fun together, and I didn’t want them to leave.
For that day forward everyday is a new adventure! We honeymooned in Playa del Carmen Mexico at El Dorado Royale, a gourmet, all-inclusive, adults only resort! We had an ocean view, Jacuzzi suit room and we basically spent all seven days relaxing on the beach! We dinned on delicious food, drank fabulous drinks, watched some amazing shows and even spent one evening getting a couple’s moonlight massage on the beach! It was a wonderful honeymoon and perfect way to unwind after planning our wedding in just 5 months!
We started some home improvements to our house before the wedding by re-doing our bathroom and re-painting the master bedroom. When we got home from our honeymoon we hit the ground running and continued working on our projects. We put new wood floors in the master bedroom and hallway (thank you to my Father-in-Law for helping with that project!), we re-carpeted the living room and purchased new bedroom furniture. Once we finished getting everything into place inside the house we began the big project of re-doing our patio area and investing in new patio furniture. That project took us almost two months to complete! In all of our work we truly bonded! We literally put blood, sweat and tears into these projects but it all paid off and everything looks and works great!
Other than home improvements, we spent many of our weekends celebrating with our friends and family! We had seven weddings in 2012, including my sister’s, which meant we were able to catch up with friends and family, from near and far, celebrating at bridal showers, bachelorette/ bachelor parties and weddings, and we wouldn’t have had it any other way!!
This past fall we also started our own tailgate, right next to the infamous Krysl Family Tailgate! We partnered with our friends, Nick and Heather, to put together a little place for our friends to hang out with us on Husker game days! It gave us something fun to look forward to on the weekends.
In November, my Grandma Thelma, who had turned 86 in September, decided she wanted to celebrate her big day by taking the whole Padilla side of the family to Florida over Thanksgiving. My parents, siblings and their significant others, my aunt and uncle, cousins and Grandma, and Dustin and I spent 5 days in sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida in a beach house right on the canal! The house had a in ground pool and hot tub, but that wasn’t the best part! The best part was that the house was big enough for us to eat a traditional Thanksgiving feast right there! My favorite memories from the trip were splitting an order of frog legs and alligator bites with my Grandma (try everything right!), seeing the look on her face when the waitress surprised her with a hot fudge sundae at Bubba Gump Shrimp and sang for her, because we were celebrating her birthday, playing games as a family every night, and just spending time talking and catching up. It was a wonderful trip and I am so happy and thankful we were all able to spend that time together!
In December, Dustin and I took another trip to Mexico, but this time we went with our friends, Stephanie and Jeremy! The price of the trip was a steal of a deal and the perfect way to warm up a bit during the cold winter! Steph and Jer are a bit more adventurous than we were during our honeymoon and talked us into doing an all-day sail boat excursion. I have to be honest, I was very nervous about the idea, especially after having a little panic attack on our honeymoon when I attempted to snorkel (that’s a story for another time!), but I knew that I need to put myself out there, be open minded and just relax and have fun. For some reason (I am sure from watching too many lifetime movies) I just kept thinking that we might end up stranded on this boat in the middle of the ocean or that one of us would get sucked underwater by a tide current and end up drowning. That is far from what happened. In fact, it was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip! We spent the day realizing and sailing in a beautiful bay with only 6 other people, besides the crew. The crew members were friendly, fun and entertaining. Sailing was relaxing and the view was amazing. At one point they stopped the boat for about an hour so those who wanted to could snorkel (with a guide and a life vest in tow) and I was able to just hang out on the boat. After the break, it was back to sailing and they took us to this little island with an all-inclusive restaurant bar, a beautiful beach, shops for shopping and a place where you could hold a little cat-shark! We spent the rest of the afternoon on the island and then headed back to the mainland just in time to see a spectacular and breathtaking sunset!
Another highlight of the trip was discovering a little lagoon about a mile from our resort. On our honeymoon we got up early almost every day to watch the sunrise, walk the beach and search for seashells and we did the same thing on this trip, which is how we discovered the lagoon. We knew Jer and Steph would love it, so we took them down there, after Steph and I convinced the resort to let us use some snorkeling gear, so that we could go snorkeling and swimming in the lagoon.
At night we always went to a nice dinner together, watched the shows and chatted around a table at the bar. Because Christmas was just a little over a week away, the whole resort was decorated for Christmas, which was really cool. It was a great trip and awesome way to kick off our holiday season!
Our first married Christmas was a lot of fun! We spent December 22 with my siblings, their significant others and my parents, exchanging secret Santa gifts, playing games and having fun. We made my parents a cool gift with all of our photos in it, with the word ‘love’ spelled out of maps with our towns marked on them. The saying on the gift said, “Close together or far apart, our family’s love is always in our hearts!” They loved it and it was very special!
On December 23, we spent the day with the Krysl family at my Grandma and Grandpa’s house and spent the evening with Dustin’s sister and parents. On December 24, we celebrated Christmas with the Wilcox family and then we spent December 25 at my Grandma’s celebrating with the Padilla side and ended the day at Dustin’s Grandma’s house. It was a busy few days with lots of driving, but we are fortunate enough where everyone lives close enough that we are able to pretty much see and spend time with all of our family members over the holidays! It was fun and the perfect way to celebrate that special time of year!
We wrapped up 2012 celebrating New Year’s Eve with friends! 2012 was an amazing year for us and we are looking forward to seeing what 2013 brings!! We are very blessed to have eachother, our family, our friends and our little puppy Chole girl!
My goal is to keep this blog up to date for two reasons, 1) so my friend Helen has something new to read :) and 2) life moves so fast I want to be able to reflect on it and look back to remember it all!
To you and yours, lots of love and (a little late) but best wishes for the New Year!
Love,
I was born a Husker!! Being born in September meant I "watched" my first game when I was 6 days old!! Ever since I can remember my family has had season tickets to the Husker football games, which means for as long as I can remember my family spends home game Saturdays during football season tailgating! If it's an away game, we get together at someone's house to watch the game. When I started college at UNL my family's tailgate became the gathering place for me and all my friends. When I graduated and was on the road traveling for AXiD my friends would call me and ask if they could go to the Krysl tailgate even though I wasn't there. The tailgate is known for the good food but more importantly the great times with great people. We even have our own little tailgate mascot, BobToBob, who has over 100 friends on facebook! Football season brings together two things I love- Husker football and tailgating- while bringing together the people I love to spend time with! If you are ever in the area be sure to stop by and say hello!! GO BIG RED!! 
