Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Cheers to Mr. and Mrs. Dadakis!!

We spent last weekend in Chicago for the wedding of Cassie and Alex Dadakis. We had such a wonderful time and were so fortunate to both be able to be a part/make it to the wedding. I have plenty more pictures, but I have a meeting in 15 minutes and the Van Zandts arrive tonight. Look for updates on life next week!

Congrats ... just married! :)
The Way You Look Tonight ...

Monday, July 20, 2009

A Busy Weekend!

Hi friends; we're still here! This weekend was another quite busy, but super fun weekend for us. Friday night Tyler went fishing with a family that we adore, I could not go because I was helping cut fruit for a friend's wedding on Saturday, but I know there will be more fishing time in the near future.

Saturday we attended Courtney and Eli Rushing's wedding and it was beautiful. Courtney and Eli are servants of the Lord and prayerful in all that they do. The ceremony was sweet and the reception was quite fun. We left the wedding and Tyler dropped me off at a baby shower for a friend on post -- we laughed a lot and just enjoyed celebrating Sharon and the Painter baby who will arrive in the next few weeks.

Sunday was quite fun. Tyler helped with sound at church so we arrived early, then attended the service. We went to a little Italian restaurant for lunch before going to our old house to gather our FINAL LOAD of stuff to bring to the new house. There wasn't too much, just some odds and ends in the garage so it wasn't too bad. We then went to a few furniture stores and ended up at Pier1 where we got a few new things for our house. We are fervently getting ready for our first visitors in just a week and a half!! :) For dinner we made homemade pizza and then hung out on the sofa to watch Army Wives, exchange foot massages, and enjoy our separate flavors of ice-cream; Bella passed out squashed between us.

We hope you're all doing well. Sorry for a rundown of events, but we are doing well and loving life up here. Next weekend Cassie and Alex, two dear friends from Wake, are getting married in Chicago. Fortunately we both get the opportunity to attend and cannot wait to see all of our God is Gooders ... oh so soon! :)

A moose on the side of the road on the way home from the commissary. We couldn't stop, but I was fortunate enough to get a picture. You can tell that Tyler was driving, you can imagine that Bella was startled, as I was quickly grabbing the camera ... I LOVE seeing the wildlife here.
Hanging with Bella.
Snuggle time for Bella; foot massages for G & T.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Finally, the Candy Parade!

So google has now let me post pictures -- so weird. Anywho, the pictures from the July 4 parade are now posted. I apologize that this has taken so long to post, but we've moved and had shoddy internet for the past week. I hope you enjoy and Happy Belated 4th! :)

The Navy ROTC boys from a local high school.
This reminded me of Theodore's tricycle ... Dad, you want to buy him this one?! There were lots of old, supped up tractors; old, proud men drove them through the parade. This guy liked to do doughnuts in the middle of the street; it was cute.
These ladies reminded me of my Mom and her group of friends. One day they will romp around in red hats instead of tiaras.
And ... this is what my Daddy needs, a canopy over his tractors.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

As promised!

I'm working on uploading the pictures from the parade ... so far i've gotten two error messages. I'm going to keep trying.

Tyler and I waiting for the parade to start.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Eklutna Lake

The past few weeks have been quite busy for us, but we've had tons of fun! This weekend was a four-day weekend for Tyler and it was wonderful! Here is a rundown of what we've been up to: Thursday we secured housing for our new home, yes we're moving again, and ran errands around town for that, then we went to a cookout at our friend's house. Friday Tyler had to go into work for a few hours, then we went to Eklutna Lake for the afternoon with Bella, grilled steaks and corn for dinner, then went to see fireworks at midnight. Today we went to another cookout, then to a parade, then to a baseball game! See, we have been busy! We are so fortunate to have friends and things to do around here, but unfortunatley I only had enough memory space to include pictures from the lake, check back tomorrow for pictures from the parade!

Eklutna Lake is so blue and the surrounding mountains are beautiful. We travelled only about 20 minutes to get to this sweet escape!

Bella ran around all afternoon at Eklutna -- she loved the water, running space, and just being outside with us!
Bella pounced in the water -- she splashed and jumped around, it was super cute!
Our sweet family!
This eagle, not a bald eagle, but still an eagle swooped over us and then perched itself on this branch for a good ten minutes -- it was really neat!
I do not know these young girls, but I thought they were too cute in their bikinis and rainboots!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Happy Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July! We are so thankful for the military personnel and their families and the sacrifices that they all make. I have been frustrated this week by the news surrounding Micheal Jackson's death; a soldier died here at Fort Rich around the same time and the White House isn't taking moments of silence for him, people are not mourning publicly or committing suicide because their life simply cannot go on without the soldier; yet, without the soldiers and their sacrifices, life would be drastically different for us, all Americans. It saddens me that our freedom is taken for granted by so many day in and day out. I admit that I was one who blatantly took freedom for granted, but now I see the sacrifices made daily for my freedom and my independence. I normally do not do politicalish talk, but this incident has really frustrated me this week.

On a different note, below is a wonderful cartoon written, drawn, by our sweet friend William Warren. He is quite the cartoonist; a man who stands firm in what he believes and has the wit and talent to turn it into cartoons!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Our Trip to NC!

Our trip to NC was so perfect and wonderfully timed, we were in need of some family lovin' and old friend conversation and fun!! I was on the east coast for 10 days and Tyler was in NC for a week. We so enjoyed seeing both of our families, old friends, and celebrating a new marriage! Below are just a few pictures of our adventure at home!

All the ladies with the groom! I got to celebrate Cassie at her bachelorette party in Atlanta. I never knew how wonderful an all girls weekend can be -- YAY for seeing my favorite girls! :)
These are our friends the Larrabees. We got to meet their newest addition, Cullen, and just hang out. Although we did not live in the same city very long, we became fast friends and we miss them quite often!
After the rehearsal dinner we went to Foothills, our favorite bar in Winston, and our very favorite bartender, Cha, was there! It was so fun to see him and catch up.