Liz and Daryl’s Wedding

Friday morning we got up early and drove from Kansas City up to Ames, Iowa.  The drive was really pretty and other than a little rain in Des Moines, we had no problems on our way up. 

Once we got to Ames, we got settled into our hotel and then Liz, Suzie (Liz’s older sister) and I headed out to get our nails done for the big day.  That night we had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  The rehearsal dinner was at this restaurant on the Iowa State campus up on the 7th floor and it overlooked the entire campus.  It was such a beautiful view!  After the dinner, all of us ladies headed out for Liz’s bachelorette party and had an absolute blast! 

The day of the wedding we started the morning out by getting going to get our hair done and spending some girl time together.  From there, we made a quick stop by the hotel to pick up our dresses and then were off to the church! 

The ceremony was beautiful…I, of course, cried my way through it…After pictures at the church, and then on the Iowa State campus (which is GORGEOUS, by the way) we were off to celebrate at the reception. 

Congrats Liz and Daryl—Best wishes for a lifetime of love and laughter!

Visiting in KC, MO

My childhood best friend Liz got married this summer to a wonderful man named Daryl.  The wedding was taking place in Ames, Iowa and for the sake of cheaper airfare, we decided to fly into Kansas City, spend a day with friends and Shane’s family and then drive up to Ames for the wedding. 

Thursday, July 22, we flew to Kansas City.  It was the first time Trevor had been on a plane and he did really well.  There was so much going on that he was distracted and entertained the entire time, so there were no meltdowns—which I was very worried about.

Once we landed in Kansas City, we were greeted by Shane’s parents and brother and sister-in-law.  We visited while we collected our luggage and then everyone headed to our friend Todd and Sarah’s house a few minutes away.  Everyone just enjoyed they day together watching the kids play (Todd and Sarah have a 2 1/2 year old son, Aiden).  It was nice to visit with everyone.  Later in the evening, Shane’s family left to head back home, while we stayed the night at Todd and Sarah’s house so we could rest up for the next part of our trip. 

Here are some pictures of the day in Kansas City, Missouri: 

 

Traveling, Traveling

Usually, our summers are pretty low-key as far as traveling and vacations go.  For the past two years, they have entailed a week at the beach in North Carolina as our “big hurrah,” and weekends here and there at my parent’s in NoVa and with my family in CT.  Nothing over the top…..its better that way. 

This year however, (and I still don’t understand how it happened) our low-key summer activities ended up being magnified times ten and then getting crammed into a two and a half week time period.  Everything we did was amazing, but wow—where did the last two weeks and a half weeks of my life go?

I will try to catch up on everything in the next few posts in the next few days…..shouldn’t be too hard…seeing as our camera died the day we returned from all our travels.  At least it lasted through though, right? 

Any suggestions as to a good replacement camera? 

Triple Trouble

Last Saturday we met up with Mandy, Paul and their adorable twin boys, Caleb and Lucas, at the NASCAR Grill in Hampton.  After dinner we walked over to Bass Pro with the boys so they could check out the fish.  It was so nice to have the three boys together! 

Trevor-Sized Dog

Trevor loves to play with our two dogs at home, but since they are both much larger than he is, the playing is often short-lived.  For the 4th of July, we hung out with Andrea and Chris; swam and grilled out over here and then went back to their place in the evening to watch the fireworks from the top of their parking garage. 

Andrea and Chris have a pug named Gizmo.  Trevor LOVES Gizmo.  He always wants to play with him when we are there and this time, he decided that he was going to take Gizzy for a walk….Too cute!

4th of July “Facelift”

I had every intention of this post being a “Father’s Day Facelift,” but projects around here never seem to get done that quickly.

Father’s Day weekend we started giving the front of our house a little facelift….just to make it look a little better/fresher/newer. 

So, we started by painting the porch and eventually moved on to painting the shutters and doors.  We finished our project last night—just in time for this post (because, I must have a clever title to the post, right?…..). 

House before:

House after:

We painted the porch a nice, bright white to match the rest of the railings and posts and did a deep navy blue on the shutters and doors.  Swoon.

Shane is very proud of what he calls “his little piece of America.”  (I am super proud of the outfit he has on—haha!)

A Trip to the Beach

Last Monday, Shane got off of work at 10am, so once he was home and we were finished with lunch, we all headed out to Sandbridge to go to the beach.  Trevor wasn’t a huge fan of getting into the water, but he loved hanging out under our big umbrella and playing down in the sand with his toys!

I will take this opportunity to celebrate that there are only 26 1/2 days until our beach vacation in Kure Beach, NC.  YAY!