3rd Anniversary!

My how the time has flown!  Ryan and I have been married three whole years!  I can't believe it.  I mean, I can because we are shooting for 60 years together, but it's hard to believe it's been three already. 

We celebrated by going downtown Chicago for Monday night and all day Tuesday.  We got to our sweet hotel, Hyatt Regency, around 8:00pm, checked in, walked around downtown, came back and rented the movie Soul Surfer.  It was a fun and relaxing night.  The next morning, Ryan went out and got us Starbucks and Einstein Bagels.  We each had a Dutch Apple bagel which is cinnamon swirl with applecrisp on top.  SO SO delicious.  I can hardly wait to have a reason to have another ;)  For lunch, we walked to the Hancock Building and ate on the 95th Floor Signature Room.  It was really cool!  There were hardly any other people up there, the food was delicious, and the view was spectacular.  The day was sunny and clear, and we had a good time counting all of the rooftop pools and gardens.  (By the way, I would really like to hang out on a sweet rooftop in the city someday...I read about one in a book and now it's on my bucket list).  We spent a little over an hour up there reminising about all the crazy things that have happened in the past three years, and how incredibly blessed we are to have each other. 

After lunch, we walked back to the hotel and Ryan left for an appointment that I will explain later.  He was going to be gone for an hour or two, so guess what I got to do?  Shop the Magnificent Mile!  It's kind of funny because I was watching The Real Housewives of New Jersey before I left, and the lady was talking about how she goes shopping once or twice a week and spends a couple hundred or a couple thousand dollars.  I was excited just to walk around on a beautiful day and maybe spend twenty!  I ended up buying the worlds cutest dress at Forever XXI, and changed into it shortly after I left the store.  Summer is coming to and end...I had to make sure I wore it more than once!  I hung out in Millenium Park for a while, looked on a map to figure out where Ryan was, and walked that direction.  (I actually got a compliment on my dress on the way!)  I found a Borders and hung out until he was done.  I ended up only being there for about 20 minutes before he walked in (a little confused by my change of outfits).  We got another round of Starbucks (great day) and walked to Buckingham Fountain and back to Millenium Park where the CSO was practicing.  They sounded SO GOOD!  We found a bench and listened for a while.  By this time, I had walked about 8 magnificent miles, so my legs were getting tired.  We had to stop through Naperville on the way home, so we left the city around 5:00.

Overall is was a wonderful trip!  It was awesome to spend time with Ryan, know that Parker was having a blast with his grandparents and great aunt, get a little time to myself, and just reflect on life and how thankful we are that God loves us and provides for us more than we could ask for.

I actually just read about last year's Anniversary and laughed out loud.  I've had this blog for a little over a year now!  Do I get a gold star or something?  Thend (Short for "the end")

The Rest of July

The rest of a July was a total blur.  After Ryan got home, we said goodbye to our little apartment.  It was definitely bittersweet.  Bitter because brought our first baby home to there, we love Naperville and we had not found another place to live.  And Sweet because it was getting super crowded and we were going to be spending a lot more time with family in the next few weeks. 

Our small group came out to my parent's house for a day.  We rode horses and 4-wheelers, went swimming, and went to the corn boil.  It was a great day had by all!  They want to make it an annual thing.

He loved the corn on the cob!  I think he had 2 whole ears!

The next day was my 24th birthday.  Finally old enough to be married with a child! ;)  My parents gave us money to eat at Texas Roadhouse - my fave!  It was great to go on a date with Ryan.  I love spending quality time with him!  We also did a little shopping.  I got a few new things to teach in, and I got a SUPER cute dress for Gentry's wedding.  Then we came home to funfetti, ice-cream-cone cupcakes.  My mouth melts just thinking about them!  It doesn't get much better than that for a birthday cake.

"Done with Leukemia" Party

Like I said, we also attended Alaina's "Done with Leukemia" party (along with 190 others).  The day was hot, but the party was perfect.  There was a bouncy house, sprinklers, sno-cones, cupcakes, and other treats.  They also collected a few tables full of toys for her to bring to the Children's Hospital in Madison.  The day before the party, we were helping get things set up and were watching the slideshow Nat had put together.  In the background, a song by Laura Story was playing.  While watching this slideshow of her treacherous journey through chemotherapy, Alaina was singing word for word, "What if Your blessings come through raindrops?  What if Your healing comes through tears? What if 1,000 sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near?  What if trials in this life are your mercies in disguise?"  I had some serious goosebumps and tears flooded my eyes.  My prayer is that she can really meditate on those words in the years to come and continue to grow in the understanding that God healed her and deserves all the glory.  Praise God for my healthy 6 year old niece!!

BWCA

Ryan headed to the Boundary Waters for the 10th time the week of July 14-20th.  He went with the husbands of our small group - Dan Haskell, David Martinez, Lucas Knapp, and Nick Borst.  Before he left, he bought a new sleeping bag, fishing rod, and hammock tent.  The tent takes 2 minutes to put up, and is really cool.  It came in handy, too, because they got 8 inches of rain in 4 hours their last morning and he stayed dry!  He said it was one of the best trips of his 10 years and is already looking forward to next year!  As always, I did not look forward to him leaving and not being able to communicate for a week, but I love that he gets to go spend time in the great outdoors with his BFF's and his Creator. 

Ryan, Dan, David, Lucas and Nick

The Hammock Tent

Dan's first time fishing.

A double rainbow right after the 8in of rain.

Meanwhile, I stayed at my parents for a few days.  Parker and I played with cousins and relatives, went swimming, and rode 4-wheelers.  We also attended Alaina's "Done with Leukemia" party - along with 190 others.  (More about that in the next post).

For the remainder of Ryan's trip, Parker and I stayed in Yorkville with Joei, Kate, Katie, and Angie.  Even though it was over 100 degrees each day, we still managed to have a great time =)  We had some deep conversations and some hard laughs!  These friends are truly a gift from God! 

Parker, Josiah and Ella waiting patiently for their daddies to get home!









4th of July

I'm going to pretend like it's the 5th of July (as opposed to the 17th of August) and write this like it happened yesterday =)

The first week of July has been a blast!  On Friday, Ryan and I went to the Phil Vassar concert at Naperville's Ribfest with our friends from church, Nathan and Coral Svec.  I LOVE outdoor concerts!  The weather was perfect, we found a good spot for our blanket, and I sung almost every word to each song.  After the concert, we went downtown to Red Mango (yummm) and then back to Nathan and Coral's new apartment.  Parker was staying with Nana and Poppo for the night, so we decided to live it up and stay out until 1:00am!  haha.  I was really excited about sleeping in, but I ended up waking up at 7:00.  That always happens.  We went over to Jake and Andrea McNamara's for a yummy breakfast and helped them move the boards of their deck.  It was kind of fun doing some physical labor again.  I haven't done any "work" since before I was pregnant.  It reminded me of being on SERVE trips again.

At 10:00, Ryan and I went to look at a few houses.  We had looked at a few earlier in the week and were pretty discouraged because they were in bad shape.  Today's houses were all very nice.  They each had their pro's and con's, but our hopes are up for finding a nice home in our price range.

(I never know how long I should make these posts....should I start a new one all about the 4th, even though I already titled this one "4th of July," or just make a super long one?)

Super long one...

On Sunday, July 3rd, we headed from Stillman Valley to Yorkville to visit our friends.  We love hanging out there.  We talked for a while, went swimming, made pinapple-teryoki burgers for supper and had HUGE smores over the fire.  The Knapps just put in a sweet new patio with a fire ring, so we got to test it out.  We were able to see some fireworks in the distance, which is always fun =)

Monday afternoon, Mom, Dad, Mike, Deb, Ryan, Parker and I all went to the Morton Arboretum.  We biked around for a while, ate a picnic lunch, and explored the rest of the Arboretum.  They have a super sweet kids garden, a hedge maze, and a tree that is covered with yarn - kind of like a doily.  We had a great time exploring and joking together.  Parker loves when you hold his hands and walk now, so we did a lot of that.  He also loves riding on Daddy and Papa's shoulders.  He was smiling and laughing all afternoon.

That night we went to Westmont to meet up with our friends from church.  They were camped out at the top of a huge hill surrounded by a huge park.  We played on the playground, played some football, cooked out, and got to know everyone a lot better.  It was the first time we had hung out outside of small group, so we officially crossed over into the friends territory =)  Parker did really well staying up so late!  He got a lot of attention since he was the only kid.  He snuggled on me for the first part of the fireworks and watched in awe.  It was so fun to watch him and see his face light up with each firework.  Since we were at the top of the hill, we could see about 4 different firework shows.  It was really neat.  Parker started to get a little fussy after about 10 minutes, so Ryan stood up with him and he fell asleep in his arms!  He woke back up for the grand finale, but was out like a rock the rest of the night.  It was a perfect day!