One-Year Anniversary Spent at a Wedding

On Saturday, June 26th Dan and I celebrated our first anniversary! Wow! Where has the time gone? Has it really been a year? Time sure flies when you're having fun! Really though, it has been an amazing year and I was kinda sad to see the "first year" to be over so quickly. Of course I know that with each year that passes we'll share more special "firsts" and make even more special memories along the way!

Saturday morning we were surprised to find a lovely package waiting for us at our apartment! Turns out it was a super awesome package of chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate covered chocolate chip cookies from Melanie and the rest of the Troyer family! Yikes, that's a lot of chocolate... yep, I think I can handle it. Truth be told, I am a difficult person to surprise, but Melanie managed to surprise both of us! What an amazing treat for your one-year anniversary... and yes, Melanie, everything was delicious!

Later that day we drove up to Harvard for our friend, Rose's wedding. It was a lovely outdoor wedding and they were blessed with plenty of sunshine and a soft summer breeze. The ceremony was sweet and simple. The reception had a lot of delicious food... and of course, since it was Rose's wedding, there was dancing! It got pretty hot, but no one seemed to really mind. There were still lots of guests out on the dance floor bustin' some moves!

Cutting the cake got a little messy for the bride and groom. Rose seemed to get most of the cake on her face, but of course the groom took his time carefully cleaning up the frosting off his wife's face.

Rose and I met at Phantom Ranch and grew up attending camp together as campers. While working on staff we grew really close. So it's pretty cool that we now share the same anniversary... only one year apart!

Of course, no meeting would be complete for Dan and Erik if it didn't conclude with a couple of rounds of "The Rock Game". If you can't tell by the title or by what's going on in the photo... ask Dan. He can explain this crazy game! I've got to admit though, they're pretty silly to watch. Kinda entertaining.

Yes, Dan and I did go out to celebrate our wedding anniversary... but I will post that one at a later date. Stay tuned!

Kathleen & Brad's Shower in Moorhead, MN

On Friday, June 18th Dan and I got up early to begin our long drive to Moorhead, Minnesota. I started out as our driver. Apparently we left at just the right time, because we made it to the Saint Paul/Minneapolis area [to pick up Kathleen] with no traffic issues. My parents on the other hand... well, they left a bit later then us and did not have the best luck. They hit quite a bit of random traffic along the way, including delay from an accident. I told them, just be grateful that the accident wasn't because of me and Dan.

Kathleen, Dan, and I grabbed some lunch and hit up an outlet mall while we waited... and waited... and waited for my parents to catch up. Once they did catch up we took some time to let my parents stretch their legs, but then it was back into our cars for another 3 hours! Dan took the wheel from there.

When we finally made it to Brad's house, his family had dinner all ready for us! It was amazing! Oh, and their new home is gorgeous! I'm talking, "Bus driver, move that bus" gorgeous! Seriously, I know who I'm calling when I need help designing a home. Brad's dad did a beautiful job creating such a lovely home.

Saturday, June 19th Kathleen and I took our parents out for breakfast in honor of Father's Day. It was nice to spend time together, just the 4 of us. The boys were out golfing, so they didn't mind missing breakfast.

Later that afternoon we had a second shower for Kathleen, hosted by some family friends - and soon to be real family for Kathleen. Laneil and Jenna (mother and daughter) put together a lovely shower for Kathleen at their home. The shower was sweet and personal... the food was delicious... and the weather was amazing!

One of our hosts, Jenna (who is also Kathleen's former college roommate and former Moorhead roommate and is also Brad's second cousin), read from the book of Psalm. To count down their wedding, Kathleen and Brad have been reading a Psalm each day, starting with book 150. So that day Jenna read Psalm 42.

The mother of the groom, Esther, shared a lovely devotional with the group. She shared some warm and witty words with Kathleen and her guests. Kathleen is very lucky to have such a fun-loving soon-to-be mother-in-law.

After the devotional was complete, we placed our hands on Kathleen as both mothers led us in prayer over Kathleen and Brad's upcoming marriage. It was a very special time.

You can't tell from the photos, but Kathleen had hardly any voice all weekend. Thankfully it didn't hurt her when she attempted to talk, or whisper. When it was time to open presents Brad arrived and was able to do some of the talking on her behalf. What a guy!

In the end, it was a wonderful day! Kathleen and Brad were blessed with so many wonderful gifts to help them start their lives together.

Since Brad was there, we used him to take a group photo of all of us. I did notice that there is one girl missing (oops!), but it is still a nice way to show who made it to the shower to show their support for the happy couple.

Here is also a nice photo of Kathleen and I with our mom... and no, Kathleen and I did not coordinate our outfits. Ha ha!

While Kathleen and Brad were looking so nice, I took the opportunity to take their photo so that Brad's mom could use it for their engagement announcement. They're so cute together!

Later that evening, a bunch of us went to downtown Fargo, North Dakota to hang out. It was a blast and a nice opportunity to get to know some of Kathleen's friends better as well as Brad's brother, Brent. Below is a portion of our group from that night.

Sunday, June 20th Dan and I left Moorhead in the morning so that we could stop and visit with his sister, Stefanie, and her husband, Thomas. We got to their place just in time for lunch. We ate out at Granite City and then did a little bit of shopping. We left Minnesota around 6:00 p.m. and started our drive home. I drove home since Dan had work in the morning.

Well, Moorhead may be quite the hike, but it was worth the drive! Hopefully Dan and I will be making some trips back up north in the not-so-distant future. It'll be hard with Dan going to school full-time, but it'll be worth it if we can find the time.