Alana's 1st Birthday

Since Nathan was studying quite diligently, the weekend before the bar I drove up to Baltimore to see Kjerstin and Nick and meet baby Bridget now that they've moved to the east coast! We're so excited to have them closer! Bridget is almost exactly one year older than our baby will be and we're sure they will be best friends. ;)

Although I did have to call Nick to ask him to parallel park my car on their street and I did get Kjerstin lost driving around Baltimore, ;) the visit overall was wonderful. They live in the cutest apartment right down town and Kjerstin's eye for decorating along with her Pottery Barn/Williams-Sonoma discount over the past two years has made it quite lovely. :) Sadly I got no pictures of their apartment or their cool street.

The trip to Baltimore coincided with my niece Alana's 1st birthday party.  Kjerstin and I share Alana as a niece so she and Nick were going up to Lancaster for the party and I was able to ride with them. It was great to see Chris, Kate and Alana again as well as most of Kate's family and my mom, Em and Caroline. Alana had a double birthday party with her cousin Thomas (turning 2). It was a Robin Hood/Maid Marian themed party, thus the fancy party hats and little Robin Hood that you see running around.

Can't you tell that Bridget and Alana are cousins? We'll see if our little girl gets the same chubby cheeks and big beautiful eyes. :) Both Alana and Bridget preferred chewing  their party hats to wearing them.

There were lots of party games, tons of delicious food and somewhere around 30 people at Chris and Kate's for the party.

On the way back to Williamsburg Kjer, Bridget and I stopped by Annapolis to see our good college friends Laura, Tiffany, and Hannah. Tiffany now lives in Texas so we of course had to all get together while she was back east for a few weeks. Laura hosted a beautiful brunch at her apartment.

Her apartment is on a farm consisting mostly of hens and sheep. The sheep were hilarious and got so excited when we went down to visit them

I was of course very glad to be back in Williamsburg with Nathan, but it was a very fun girls weekend and gave him time to study without me interrupting every hour asking if it's time for a break yet. ;)

Flying Squirrels!

We've wanted to go to a Richmond Flying Squirrels game ever since Drew came back raving about them (and especially his Flying Squirrels hat ;)) as has the Youth Group. We were finally able to go mid-July with the YG. It was a sweltering night with I'm sure at least 110% humidity, but we still had a great time. Sadly the Squirrels lost, but they kept it an interesting game!

The park is pretty small so all the seats are great. I think the boys mostly watched the game and the girls mostly stood in line for food, however everyone enjoyed it, so that's good. ;)


Nutzy, the Flying Squirrel mascot, even came up and visited us - definitely a highlight. ;)

We missed Drew and Rachel a lot, but are glad they gave us such a great outing idea!

Dress like a cow day!

So every July 9 Chic-fil-a has a special promo day and if you dress like a cow, you get all your food for free! Our friends Josh and Jessica called to see if we wanted to join them and this year we decided to try it. Last year I thought it was too silly and wouldn't dress up. We ended up going to Chic-fil-a anyway last year and then I felt really silly when we were the only non-cow people! :) Laura joined us on our adventure, sadly Daniel was already in AZ.

Nathan was the typical Chic-fil-a cow and I was an Oreo cow. We had to wear our sunglasses in all the pictures as our ears were taped to our them. :) (Baby Girl is poking out a bit here too! :))

All of us cows back at the Lewis' afterwards. :)

Birthday Bowling!

Emily, one of my youth group D-group girls turned 14 this week (as did Erica - Happy Birthday Emily and Erica!!). Emily's birthday party was at Williamsburg Lanes and she was kind enough to invite me as well. I was given some grief for not posting more on our blog so here are some pictures from bowling, compliments of Erica. :)

Jamie and I - since the bumpers were up by this point I probably got more than a 1 on this shot. ;)

Me with Lizzy, Jamie, Hannah and Erica...

Emily the birthday girl is in the back. Sadly I didn't get any pictures with her...

Here is their vision of what I will look like in a few months... :)

Summer Fun

Most of our summer has consisted of Nathan studying and studying... and studying for the bar and me entertaining myself with pilotes, working, reading about babies and hanging out with girl friends. However, it hasn't been all work and no play by any means. :) We've had several weddings (and more to come!), a camping trip, visits from friends, afternoon trips with friends, and spontaneous 4th of July parties.  Sadly we didn't get any pictures of of 4th of July party yesterday, but below are pictures of some our other summer highlights! (Warning: This is a very long post, but it's mostly pictures :))

Graduation started off our summer. I realized we only posted one picture below so here are a few more. 

Us with Nathan's mom - she flew down from Alaska to surprise him for graduation! It was a fun surprise. :)

Us with my parents and Emily, Caroline and Katie:

With our wonderful law school friends, Steve, Liz and Sam and Drew and Rachel - we miss them so much!!

Law school friends and other great friends, Goggins and Hargroves, who came to support the guys on their graduation.

Celebrating with the best cake ever!! :) (from the same bakery that did our wedding cake)

Amanda, One of my best friends from high school got married the same weekend as graduation. We were so glad that we were able to get up to her wedding as well! Amanda was one of my bridesmaids and it was so fun to be a part of her wedding too! It was a lovely wedding, she was a beauuutiful bride and we can't wait to visit her and Andrew in Maine!! :)

The bride arriving with her father in the pick up :)

Bride and bridesmaids

The wedding was in an old historic church.

Finally MARRIED!

Sisters!

In early June we went blueberry picking with our friends the McHenry's and their adorable baby, Margaret.  I was a bit more like Sal than mother and definitely ate more blueberries than I picked (what can I say? Baby Girl wanted them :)), but thanks to Nathan's dedication we ended up with quite a nice few to bring home. 

Ferry ride back from Surrey

Mid-June we met up with the VanStempvoorts for some camping in the Shenandoah Valley. The thought of saying goodbye at graduation was horrible, so we were glad to have this trip planned just a few weeks later! Plus, we had to get it in while baby and I could still sleep on the hard, lumpy ground. The weekend was wonderful - not too hot, relaxing, good food, good fellowship, hikes, games. 

Here's Nathan and I along the Appalachian Trail

Sam was pretty much delighted with the whole weekend from swinging in Nathan's hammock to drooling apple juice all over Steve's head for a majority of our AT hike. ;)

We had a huge camp ground that was big enough for both tents, Nathan's hammock, the picnic table and fire pit AND bocce ball. :)

This may have been what Liz, Sam and I did while the men packed up the tents and loaded the car. ;)

We ended the weekend trip with a beautiful (but very steep and hot :)) hike down to a waterfall. I may have limped the next 2 days but it was well worth it. :) It was a wonderful trip and we hope to do it again before they move even further away!! :)

We go for months without seeing Hillsdale friends and then get to see several all at once! Already this summer we've seen so many with more visits scheduled in the coming weeks! Laura Calderone and Hannah Mahan met me for a lunch a few weeks ago, Paul and Kathryn Mueller spent the night on their way through last week, and I got to spend the whole weekend with LeeAnne last weekend! Below is what happens when LeeAnne and I spend too much time together... trouble! ;) LeeAnne was able to bring her fellow camp counselor, Andy, with her as well. We had a great time with everyone.

Most recently our Williamsburg friends, Collin and Margaret, got married! The wedding was gorgeous - every little detail was thought of and there were so many little Margaret touches throughout. I don't think we've ever seen a smilier couple. :)

 

This is how Collin looked the whole time.  love this picture. :)

Margaret was about the same :)

Mr. and Mrs. McMillan!

Cutting the cake - I loved her flower choices :)

First dance... The reception was outside at the Alumni House. The weather cooperated perfectly and it wasn't too hot or too muggy. Also, rumor has it that all the fancy tissue balls hanging from the ceiling as decoration were made by Margaret and her mother!!

I loved the varied center pieces - all very whimsical, earthy, and lovely.

We were so happy that we could be there to celebrate with them!