Birthdaversary? ... Annibirthday? ... Weekend Fun!

We had a wonderful time celebrating our first anniversary and my 30th birthday, both of which took place on August 15... sorry for the delay in posting this. Aaron and I went to a Brewers game on the friday before our anniversary, which was a lot of fun, especially since the Brewers won 11-2 against the Astros. We had pretty good seats, and actually watched a fan catch a foul ball in his beer holder that was shaped like a giant fist! Amusing. :) Here are a few pictures from the game -

Up close and personal with the racing sausages ~

The view from our seats ~

Then we stayed the night in Milwaukee and spent our anniversary wandering around the Milwaukee zoo.

Mama orangutang and her baby ~

Lazy bear ~

Hungry giraffe ~

Sleepy leopard ~

Curious elephant ~ I think this one wanted to come over and say hello!

We had a lot of fun at the zoo, but we both agreed that seeing bears, moose, caribou and other animals in their cages wasn't nearly as exciting as seeing them in the wild... like when we were in Alaska last year. :)

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Then on Sunday, we had a family gathering at mom and dad's to celebrate... actually, I think our anniversary and my birthday were just a good excuse to get people together and eat a lot of yummy food! :) We had so much fun, laughing and catching up with friends, and of course, eating. We took a few good pictures, but the best one has to be of the "baby" bumps! Amazingly enough, at 19 weeks, I'm still the smallest one! :)

Fun times! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family and friends to celebrate with! Here's to many more years of fun, friendship, and celebrations!

This time last year...

As we look forward to celebrating our first anniversary, I've noticed that a lot of our conversations start with, "this time last year..." For example: this time last year, my family had just learned the exciting news that my sister was going to have a baby, and we were making sure everything was ready to go for our wedding. Actually, on this very day last year, the girls and I were enjoying a day of pampering... massages, getting nails done, etc. Friends and family had been arriving from out of town and we had our rehearsal dinner at Lou Malnati's (where we'd had our first date 3 years earlier). That was followed by a fitful, if not altogether sleepless, night due to the excitement, anticipation, and (I'm sure) nerves about the next day's events. :) Now, here we are one year later, looking back on what we think was a perfect wedding day, watching our family (both immediate and extended) grow, and wishing we had another reason to get everyone together again! Time sure does fly!

As we've reflected on this past year... all the fun we've had, good times and not-so-good times, memories made, etc... we know we have a lot to be thankful for! There is no doubt in my mind that we would not be where we are today without God's hand being constantly at work in our lives. He has healed us, challenged us, grown us, and made us into who we are today. And the best part is -- He's just getting started! :)

This has been an incredible year! Not perfect, by any means, but definitely incredible. At this point, we have a lot to be thankful for as well as a lot to look forward to. And we're excited for all that God has in store for us in the years to come!

I thought I would add a few pictures from our wedding to finish this entry off... enjoy ~

...and away we go...

Just think - if I had a dollar for every time someone told me I needed to start a blog, I would be off to a good start on a college fund for our kids! :) I realize it has taken me a bit longer than some to jump on the blogger bandwagon, but having experienced how nice it is to be able to peek in on out-of-town family and friends through their blogs, and watch as changes take place in their lives, I've given in. And with baby #1 on the way, and plenty of out-of-town family and friends of our own, this seemed like as good a time as any to start blogging. So... away we go!

Truth be told, until now there really haven't been any "blog-worthy" events in our lives that would have made having a blog worthwhile. And we could still probably win some sort of prize for the most boring blog content! I'm sure that will change in the next few months... along with my size... and at the very least, I hope you'll get a kick out of watching me transform into what I'm guessing might look something like a female version of the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man. :) But regardless of how interesting (or not) our life turns out to be, you are welcome to be a part of it.

So, I guess that's all for now. Welcome to our little corner of the world (wide web). We look forward to sharing snapshots of our life with you... a life filled with Indescribable Gifts! :)