The Stream

Wedding Pictures

2009-11-15T20:02:00.001-08:00

Pictures from the wedding and honeymoon are finally up! Click HERE for wedding pictures and HERE for honeymoon pictures.

More pictures, but not wedding pictures

2009-06-08T10:01:00.001-07:00

Please enjoy these pictures from us at the zoo, the aquarium, and some baby pictures from our wedding slide show. As the title of this post indicates, we don't have wedding pictures up. We're still waiting for everyone to send us their pictures, so we can go through and sort out the best ones for posting. If you have some pictures of the wedding, please send them to us. We setup "meganandhunterphotos" at gmail.com, or send them to us some other way :) Look for wedding and honeymoon pictures soon!

I've had 17 fish!!

2009-05-29T23:26:00.001-07:00

And liked 16 of them. Who knew?

Wedding photo

2009-05-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a preliminary photo. Except a few hundred more when we get back.

Food Tour

2009-05-19T18:37:00.001-07:00

We just got done with an EXCELLENT food tour of the "hole in the wall"
type places in Hawaii. If you're planning a trip soon, their website
is www.hawaiifoodtours.com.

Wedding

2009-05-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

There's a wedding Saturday, and it's ours!! Wahahahahaha

Wedding Story

2009-01-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

So far, all you have is Megan's side of the story. Since I was there too, I thought it would be worth sharing my experiences.

My version of the proposal starts about 5 months before the actual date (sometime in January 2008). I wanted to design the entire evening from scratch, so I started making a list of everything I needed. The first thing I needed was the ring. I decided to design one from scratch. So I created a 3D model in SolidWorks and had a ring designer create a wax mold from that design. After a few iterations (and final approval by me and Greg Simon, one of my groomsmen) we had it sent off to be injection molded, polished, and to have the diamonds inserted. the shape was a reverse figure eight that wraps around the back of the ring. Inside the two circles were two smaller diamonds, and sandwiched between the ends of the eight is a larger center diamond.

Once the ring was taken care of, I needed to know what KIND of proposal Megan would want. I'm very glad that I went through this step, because she had some very specific ideas about what she DIDN'T want. So after about a month of subtly snooping around, I discovered that she absolutely didn't want it to be in a public place, she didn't want any other people around, and she wanted lots of time afterwards to bask in the glow and celebrate. In addition to those criteria, I have never been a fan of the kind of proposal where they know it's coming for hours and hours beforehand (ie the scavenger hunt, the weekend getaway, etc...). So armed with this information, I composed a list of about 15 proposal ideas. Some were good and some were horrible.

I eventually came to the decision that I wanted to have a catered dinner for two in an art gallery downtown. That way I could surprise her, it would be private, and we could hang out for a couple hours for dinner, dancing, etc...

After calling about 12 different places, I decided on Gallery 1261. It had a large area, and moveable walls (so we could block people from seeing in and separate the chef and small kitchen in the back). Also, the artwork on the walls was very nice (no paintings of people getting killed, starving, or running around naked - which was actually an issue in some of the other galleries) which was a plus.

After I had a location, I called a local catering place and asked them to come up with an unforgettable evening. We designed everything in a lengthy series of meetings: the candles, flowers, linens, tables and chairs, music, food, wine, champagne, photography, parking, timing, etc... The whole time I was living in constant fear that Megan would discover my ruse and the whole plan would be ruined. Luckily enough, she never found out and was perfectly surprised when the big day came.

The "ruse" to lure her downtown is courtesy of Andy Halladay (one of my groomsmen). He fabricated a fictitious concert at Gallery 1261 and provided us with an invitation, a flyer, and a few carefully placed calls and emails. The plan was foolproof...but maybe a little too foolproof.

Megan was so oblivious to my secret goings-on that she actually invited a few of her friends that were visiting from Utah to the concert that night!!! Luckily, they weren't able to go, but I was fairly horrified that my plan would be ruined.

So the day of the proposal (June 21st), Megan and I went downtown early to investigate the local farmer's market. We had planned to the gay pride festival, but because her friends were in town, we joined them at the local greek food festival. The food there was pretty unbelievable (in a good way) and we both ate our fill.

After those excursions, the group we were with decided to go to a movie. It was the remake of Get Smart - which was pretty silly. At that point, I had prepared a secret note to give to Megan's friends, saying "I'm proposing tonight, the concert is a fake, please don't come". But it never came to that, as we all parted ways after the movie.

Megan and I changed in the mall bathrooms (don't worry, it was a fancy pants mall) and headed off for Gallery 1261. At this point, I started FREAKING OUT. My blood pressure was through the roof and my heart had to be at least 130! The entire drive down I was completely flushed, nervous, and sweaty. Megan says she didn't notice, but I felt like I was going to give it away right there.

Eventually, we arrive at the gallery and park in the space I had secretly reserved right out front. There wasn't anybody around, and as we walked by the windows, Megan said "I don't see anyone, what's going on". I said I didn't know, but maybe they were all in the back - and with that we walked inside. As soon as she saw the table with the flowers, candles, and heard our song (the look of love), she said "oh my god" and I dropped to a knee and proposed". Neither of us remember exactly what was said, but afterwards the chef said it was very romantic ;) We were both shaking and completely out of breath, but she said yes and we had a celebratory dance before dinner. She actually said "okay" and I had to prompt her to give me a YES, but I still count it!

After an epic two hour dinner, we did some dancing, some romancing, and drove home and started calling people. The next four hours were a complete blur of talking on the phone, getting congratulations, and jumping up and down singing "we're getting married, we're getting married!" Eventually we calmed down, but it was a great evening. And with the exception of what was SPECIFICALLY said during my proposal, it's one that we will never forget!

Unsilent Night

2008-12-13T09:14:00.000-08:00

Check out Megan and me in a fun piece of performance art by New York compser Phil Kline. It's called Unsilent Night and consists of carrying boom boxes around downtown Boulder, playing some pretty, ambient music.

New Videos

2008-11-02T12:31:00.001-08:00

There are some cool new videos of recent concerts on my other website, hunterewen.com. Check it out!

We are horrible at updating!

2008-10-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

Hello all you beautiful people,

We apologize for being so horrible at updating!!

Hunter is no longer in Lexington, at least not until the 24th of Dec ;-)

We are both working, living, and enjoying our lives in CO.

We just got back from a trip to Steamboat Springs, CO...it was surprisingly lovely and we'll be putting up pictures at some point.

We are also getting ready for our fantastical (and early) Thanksgiving dinner. For those of you going "ew..more green beans, watery sweet potatoes and dry turkey" prepare to drool in envy. We're doing a VERY moist turkey...overnight in a brine and continue to add liquid throughout cooking! We're also doing oven fries, creme brule, pie, fresh baked bread, spiced apple cider, stuffed mushrooms, and many other yummy treats.

And of course we're getting ready to celebrate MY BIRTHDAY!! I'll be 25...a quarter of a century has passed..feel free to send gifts and cards showing how much you love me ;-)

Finally, we are also preparing for our LAST anniversary together as a dating couple...coming up on November 16th.

We hope everyone is doing well,
Megan

In Lexington

2008-08-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

I'm in Lexington until Monday. Give me a call if you want to visit :)

The Upcoming Election

2008-08-29T10:31:00.001-07:00

I know we've kept this fairly polical free so far but I just wanted to give a brief description of my view on all of this.

McCain just announced his VP, gov. Palin from Alaska. The demographics I think are what attracted him to this person:
Female
Young
2nd Marriage
Anti-abortion
exotic (state anyway)
bluecollar background (husband at least)
down syndrome daughter
military son

I have to admit, he picked a good person to pit against Biden (whom Obama annouced last Saturday).

I am personally not interested in the majority of McCain's political views and thus will not be voting for him this fall...electing instead to give my vote to Obama. However, I know that people all have the right to pick whomever they want (at least...people over 18 who have registered). With that in mind, I'm asking you to vote...for whomever you want but do vote for one of these two people and exercise your right to let your voice be heard.

That said, don't forget that your congressmembers can also change laws and consider writing to them on important issues.

Some issues to get you started:
coverage of hearing aids for people 18-65
closed captioning of some type for movies, theater, and other public venues
funding for education AT ALL LEVELS
basic health care for all Americans
funding for research, regardless of moral feelings
the right to choose for women (there will ALWAYS be a grey area, don't limit someone)
ending the war (or at least restricting it to less than 1/2 a billion a year and minimal troops)
gay partner rights...as Obama said, everyone should have the right to visit a loved one in the hospital! (Remember, all religions preach love...and love (between consenting adults) is never a sin.)

have a great day everyone!

Trip to India and Paris (2)

2008-08-17T11:24:00.000-07:00

Here's part 2...

After we dropped off our purchases at the villa, Urvi, Anant and I drove into Bangalore's semi-downtown area (the city is a sprawling mass that takes more than an hour to drive across due to traffic and size). For those of you that don't know much about the city..briefly it is India's third most populated city and is known as the equivalent to California's Silicon Valley in terms of having LOTS of IT centers (you know all those times you call Dell or someone and talk to that Indian person...yeah you're probably calling here!). Check out more about the city here: Bangalore.

The first thing we did in the city was find parking (that was quite difficult, we ended up paying for it on a driveway) and then go to an ATM. They lock the ATM inside of a room and you have to swipe a card to get in so that beggers cannot. I withdrew more than the average salary for a month for the country (ie about 5000 Rupees) and we headed off to go shop. We went through higher scale clothing stores (I bought a shirt at United Colors of Benetton) as well as trinket shops. Always we had a crowd but here the begging was not as prevelent and I was mainly left alone.

For lunch we went to a fairly upscale Chinese restaurant (did you know that the best Chinese food in the world is supposidly found in India? yeah I didn't either). The food was excellent and each dish was unique and not like you'd find in the United States. We were also appriciative of the air conditioner found in there since it was the equivalent of the mid 90'sF outside.

As we walked around, I saw LOTS of people, cars (Tata is a popular brand there...for everything not just cars), autorickshaws (see the pictures, they are yellow and very small) and COWS. Traffic was also extremely tight (think rush hour all the time with an average speed of about 15-20 km...I'll let you do that conversion math).

After a brief reprise on a side street, we plunged back into the people with a visit to the Nandi Temple. We paid a few rupees and went through the special line for quick entrence. Before going in, we washed our feet (although they were dirty again before too long). No pictures were allowed and cameras were left in the car but it was very beautiful with a central courtyard containing a very tall post with a gold statue on top. There were then smaller "mini temples" with individual gods as well as the central building. Inside, the walls were covered in murals showing various poses and stories of the gods, mainly of Ram and Ganesha. It reminded me very much of an old Catholic Cathedral if you've ever been in one. We made our way to the front alter, where we made an offering to the gods of food and were blessed. Behind us, a large crowd of people were praying. After the blessing, we stepped to the side, people rang a bell, and then covered their faces in smoke from a candle, much the same way Catholics dip their fingers in water and make the sign of the cross. At the very end, because we had paid to come in, we received a blessed flower from their "priest" (to put in the temple at home).

At the end of the day, because we tried going home in rush hour, traffic was beyond description. The best I can say is that it took us 2 hours to go home and if I had tried driving, we'd be dead. The cars all moved very very slowly but as there is no respect for lane markers, you would have just a mass moving along, with darting to get into any open spots. Cars were maybe 3 inches from the bumper as any larger spots meant someone would move in. Although the city is fairly wealthy and thus there were lots of cars, motercycles and moterized scooters were the most prevelent and they added to the traffic mass.

Once we finally made it back to the villa, Urvi's mother and their servent made dinner and we ate a very good meal while watching cricket (the national sport and it drives them wild). I went to bed fairly soon after supper.

*SPECIAL TREAT- May 16th ...two days in one post!*

The next morning, we woke at 8:30a and had tea in the garden. I should emphasize how rare gardens are, reserved only for the wealthy, and Noni was careful to take good care of it herself. We were driven to the "mall", which was three stories of various shops. We bought food there but they were out of water and, as we didn't think to bring any, I was quite thirsty. We did buy several liters of water at the store while there though, in preperation for our trip. I quickly realized carrying toilet paper around is a must and luckly was able to purchase one yellow roll at a store for use. I also bought another work shirt.

When we were ready to leave, we rode home in an autorickshaw which was very bumpy and smelled odd because there were no doors so the pollution came right in. See the pictures for me in one!

Once we arrived home, we packed for Karala, had supper, and went to bed fairly early.

Stay tuned for my trip to God's Country!

Megan's Trip to India/Paris, Part 1

2008-08-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

As promised, I'm finally getting around to typing up my adventures. I kept a journal while in India so I'll type it up, along with other memories and additions.

Here's part one!

At 8:20p on May 13th I finally left Denver and flew on British Airways. I had a great seat in the aisle with tons of leg room, next to a man and his son, Alex. The flight was very very long and we were given supper and breakfast.

We arrived in London at 12:45p their time. I made my way from the plane, through security, and back towards my gate. I stopped to look at some Duty Free shops until I realized I was running late for my flight so I quickly made my way to the gate. Once again, I was able to pre-board (perks of a hearing loss, woot!).

We left at 13:20p London time for India. I sat next to a couple who gave me lots of tips and advice. Because I was in the front of coach, I had plenty of leg room but the seat arms didn't come up so sleeping was a bit of an experiment in yoga.

We finally arrived in Bangalore, India at 4:30a their time. I made my way through customs easily but the people in front of me did hold up the line and after all that travel you can imagine I was a bit cranky. Once I got through, I made my way to a phone booth and called Urvi. Her father answered and said she was on the way. On stepping out of the booth, I was approached and told I should pay for the call. Having no money, I told them no and moved away. I stayed against a large column and waited until I saw Urvi. Thankfully the airport was very small and people had to stay outside so I was not crowded until I moved out. Once outside however, it was very hot and VERY VERY crowded. People everywhere were shouting and we slowly made our way to the car where Urvi's brother, Anant, was waiting. He drove us to the villa and after a quick shower, I went to sleep.

I woke a few hours later, around 9a, showered again, and had tea in the garden. At that point, I met Ak (Urvi's papa) and reaquanited myself with Buddy (the dog) and Noni (Urvi's mum). We had a good breakfast after slight initial confusion where they offered me cereal (meant for the dog usually) before having a hot breakfast. This was my first experience with no sweets for breakfast...instead it is what we in the United States would think of more for lunch.

After breakfast, we went to Fasta's and I purchaced some clothing. The store had lots of fabrics, both made into clothes and household goods as well as just cloth the person could buy to make their own clothing. With no a/c, it was warm but fans kept it reasonable (at least for me!).

*that's all folks, stay tuned for more!*

Stupid Signs

2008-08-02T14:32:00.001-07:00

So I'm starting to take pictures of stupid signs, posters, banners, etc... that I've seen around town. You can find the continuously updated set here.

Proto's

2008-08-02T12:22:00.001-07:00

We're at this cool restaurant called protos in downtown Denver! Pizza is delivious. Photos to follow

Posted with LifeCast

Some videos

2008-07-15T11:18:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone. There are a couple new posts over in the Treehouse with some cool videos of me. Enjoy!
Hunter

Pictures!

2008-07-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

We've gone through and tagged tons of pictures, as well as uploaded lots of recent ones. Check out our adventures at The Rosebush.

Canada was tons of fun, very relaxing, good weather and lots of great food.

We're now spending a lot of our time working on wedding plans as well as future educational plans.

We're also enjoying the show Good Eats on the Food Network channel and have made popovers and truffles after seeing those episodes. Both turned out very good.

News Update

2008-07-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

I'm back from Canada and just getting the pictures ready for your viewing pleasures. Expect them in the next few days!

As a special bonus, I'll also be posting pictures of our visit to the Renaissance Festival! This is something everyone must experience at least once! (Hint: the S on S is especially cool, check out Hunter enjoying one!)

Off to Canada

2008-07-02T21:39:00.003-07:00

We'll be in St. Jovite for awhile, enjoying the crisp Canadian air... More pictures as events warrant,

Hunter

Yikes!!

2008-06-23T20:53:00.001-07:00

I'm feeling very loved right now. Right after Megan sent that email out, everyone started visiting (which is good). Then they went over to my site and started downloading music (which is also good). Bad news is that MeganAndHunter.com shares its bandwidth with HunterEwen.com. And, like a kid in a candy store, I used up all my allowance for the month. The problem has been corrected, and hopefully it didn't cause you all too much pain and consternation (though we already received 12 email complaints, so at least a few of you were annoyed).

Also interesting to note: we didn't receive any complaints from the CompEs, CompScis, or webmasters that we sent the link out to :) Maybe they're more forgiving, or maybe they're still compiling their lists of mistakes... In the meantime, enjoy the site while it's up!

Engagement, Places We Went

2008-06-22T16:46:00.001-07:00

Here's a list of links to places Megan mentioned. I'll have my side of the story up soon :)

Denver Farmer's Market

Greek Festival

Teavana

Gallery 1261

Fancy to Fantasy (catering)

The Proposal

2008-06-22T16:02:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited!!!! Last night (June 21st, 2008), Hunter proposed to me and I accepted. For those of you that want the minute details, read below.

***********

Our day began with a trip to the Denver Farmer's Market (tons of fun and lots of yummy samples). A friend from Salt Lake City (Lisa Chamberlain) then called and invited us to go with her and some friends to the Greek Festival. Since I love Greek food, that wasn't a hard choice and after a quick trip through the Cherry Creek Mall to pick up some travel sized hand sanitizers for Hunter from Bath and Body Works, we drove a mile and a half or so to the festival.

We parked and walked up the hill to stand in line and pay our $1 entry fee. The day was quite hot so after getting some money exchanged into "coins" (for food), I watched the Greek dancers while Hunter got our water out of the car.

We then met with Lisa and her friends and got some food. Hunter had roasted chicken on a pita with Greek spices...quite good. I had Kalamari that was freshly breaded and fried with a squeezing of lemon...very very excellent and filling.

We then all decided to go to the movies (Get Smart with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway). We initially agreed to meet first for gelato but only Hunter and I ended up going there first. We grabbed some pomegranate flavored and refilled the water bottle before driving quickly to the theater. We sped walked half the mall before being told the movie was 15 minutes later than we thought. That gave us time to get a fork for the gelato before meeting up with the other half of the party.

The movie was fairly amusing and overall a good time (even if Hunter lost the tickets in his pocket and we only had the receipt to prove we bought them...they let us in).

Afterwards we said goodbye to Lisa and friends and walked around the mall for about 2 hours. I picked up some things from VS and we got more tea from Teavana (amazing tea place, highly recommended by us both!). Around 6:30p we got our nice clothes out of the car and changed in the mall bathrooms. I wore a dress originally bought for our Las Vegas trip last year (see pictures at The Rosebush) and Hunter wore a light grey suit and yellow shirt.

I was under the impression still that we were attending a performance of a piece written by Hunter's friend, Andy. It was supposed to start at 7 and luckily we got to the art studio (Studio 1261) with no bad traffic and found a perfect free parking spot.

We walked up and it looked dark as we passed the window, which was my first trigger that something wasn't as it seemed. We walked through the door and I spotted a table set up with flowers. No one else was visible and by that point I was pretty confused. Hunter led me in a little further and then started a speech along the lines of "We've been together now for 5 years, 7 months and 5 days..." at this point my mind went "uh-oh" and I kind of blanked out for those of you that want the word-by-word of it. At the end, he went down on one knee and popped "the question" ... "will you marry me?" I said "okay" and he said "say yes" so I said "yes".

We had pictures and champagne (Hunter hired a caterer for the event) and then promenaded around the studio for a few trips before sitting down to supper. The menu was selected by Hunter in consultation with the caterer and went as such:

1st: cantaloupe compote with blueberries and whipped cream (excellent start)
2nd: bread with honey butter (three kinds of bread, all good)
3rd: braised lamb chops (melt in your mouth amazing!)
4th: intermezzo of lemon sorbet with mint (perfect)
5th: mojito chicken with a mix of edamame and corn as sides (very very good on the mushroom and jasmine rice bed)
6th: meringue cup filled with cream, kiwi, blueberries and strawberries

Along with the food, we had a very good Cabernet Sauvignon (vintage 2004 from Chateau Ste Michelle), water, and of course the champagne.

After the excellent supper and more pictures, we packed up and drove back to begin calling people.

I hope you are as excited as we are, please check out the pictures at The Rosebush and check back for more updates!

India and Paris Update

2008-06-22T15:37:00.001-07:00

The pictures from India and Paris are finally up. Please check them out on our new photo page here.

Almost Ready

2008-06-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

So the website is about 80% done. There still aren't any links from page to page, but that's coming as soon as I end up in front of a computer with Dreamweaver on it for an hour or two. Stay tuned; there's more to come!

Hello!

2008-06-11T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hello visitors! Welcome to our website. This blog will be shortly updated with details from my trip to India and Paris! Continue to check back for that and other exciting news.

Success

2008-06-11T12:47:00.001-07:00

Hey, welcome to our blog.