Summer time: Part 1

I cannot believe it is already the middle of the summer, it has flown by! We have stayed busy with working and traveling some.

 In May we ventured to Florida for Chris's best friend's wedding near Jacksonville..
a few things we learned from that trip:
-fill the gas tank up at 1/2 a tank ( we almost ran out of gas twice)
-directions are not my strongest suit even though sometimes I am confident that they are (we travelled a good distance to find a BBQ restaurant and when we got to the destination it was an open field which almost led us to running out of gas)
-in the future we will be flying to Florida, not driving

In June we took a trip to Bristol to celebrate our anniversary and visit with family. Chris and I thoroughly enjoyed our anniversary dinner at The Tavern in Abingdon, Va. We had some great conversation about the past year and the future (we highly recommend doing this on your anniversary, its important to reflect and see how you have grown and what you want for your marriage in the future). Also, we were able to spend some time with Chris's parents.

At the end of June and beginning of July, I took two trips to the Chesapeake Bay to spend some time with my family. These pictures are four years old and taken by my best friend Laura, we have shared some fun memories over the years.

My Grandpa's tractor

The view

Had to throw it in there

The rest of the summer we have two vacations planned to South Carolina in August, but until then we will be working hard in the daily grind.

A few fun things we have done thus far:

Summer spruce up

Favorite piece: framed piece of one of my favorite fabrics

Color time

Frame to Chris's outdoor table

Finished product, plans from Ana-white.com
Now we just need some chairs

Our love story

In celebration of our one year anniversary, I decided to share the sweet and sloppy  details of Chris and I's story leading up to today.

The story begins eight years ago at the YADAPP conference where Chris and I first met. We exchanged brief hellos with no inclination that we would be married years later. We stayed in contact over the following three summers as we were both staff at the conference. 

At Yadapp

Occasionally throughout the year we would catch up over the phone, Chris was always so good about calling when he was near Richmond, but it wasn't until the summer of 2007 that we met for coffee. Chris was preparing for a month long trip to Africa and I was trying to sort through life changes. As Chris was in Africa I couldn't help to think about what a strong Christian man he was and how I wanted that in my life, so I did what any crazy young girl would do and surprised him at the airport when he came back.

Day that we "offically started dating"

The rest is basically history... (don't want to bore you anymore) we had a long distance relationship for about two years as I was studying at the University of Virginia. Chris proposed on top of the mountain at Wintergreen surrounded by beautiful views and a yummy picnic.

 I moved to Lynchburg about two months later to be near my sweetie. We bought our first house six months later and got our miniature pony then six months after that we tied the knot in Winridge Manor in Amherst County.

Our wedding day was slightly toasty, but I was so wrapped up in the day that I barely noticed.. as for my guests well they shed about 10 lbs soaking up the sun. 

One of my favorite wedding details was our invitations made by my dear friend Kathleen who owns Leen Jean Studios, she makes custom invitations and offers calligraphy at an affordable price--check her out!

So.. thats us in a nut shell...