Ellie's Birthday

Long over a month ago, we celebrated Ellie's GOLDEN birthday! Most of her family was gone, it was during the week so Troy wasn't around, and so we went over to her house and made homemade pizza for dinner. Because that's what Ellie wanted to do. :)

It was just Shelly, Me, Larissa, Ellie......and Seth & Adam of course. Kendra and Ellie have the same birthday, but Kendra was on vacation and wasn't able to celebrate with us. :/

I made Ellie a deep dark chocolate cake with mocha frosting. Talk about rich, but she loved it! We didn't have candles, so we used little tea lites instead.... but hey, it worked!

Adam & Seth... these two are goofs. They really should just become brothers they're together so much.

We just hung out and did our usual. Nowadays our new "usual" involves Ellie going off and talking to Troy while we do our own thing. :) I gave her Dutch Blitz for her birthday, because that is a game we HAVE to have when we go to visit her in her new home.

Speaking of Ellie... yes, the wedding is in 7 days, but the busy weekend starts in 5. I can't believe it's actually here. I make it sound like it's my own wedding. It's hard because I wish I could just live with her for the next week before she moves, but family IS more important, and I'm sure it's even harder on them...so I've gotta let them have time with her. *sigh* But it's killing me! :)

I said something tonight to Ellie about, "well this is your last weekend here with us in IL...." Troy then informed me that she WILL still be living in IL. Ha, I never think of it like that. I feel like she's pretty much just going to be moving to the moon.

But we've already got some weekends planned of when we're going up there. Yay.

So I'm super excited for the weekend... but it will definitely be bittersweet. I'm thrilled I get to go to Mexico two days later, so I have another thing to look forward to. Then it's reality and time to get back to school. :/

Sorry for my dramaticness, I'm not usually this bad... :) And I'm half way being sarcastic for some of you who don't really know my humor. :)

....Oh, and I will be posting about Montana, but I'm still trying to catch up from last month. :)

Lindsay & Will

On a surprisingly not too hot of a June evening, Lindsay & Will were married. They were married in the backyard of a gorgeous historic house. It was such a small but beautiful wedding!

The Bride & Groom

Wes & Laura having fun in the car the couple drove away in.

Just some guys hanging out

I was honored to be asked by Lindsay to take care of the music for the wedding. Ever since I was little she told me "you're playing the piano at my wedding!" But since it was an outdoor wedding, we had to go with the violin. I certainly did not want to play a solo, so I asked an old orchestra friend to play with me.

I've played the piano at several weddings, but never the violin. Rehearsal didn't go too well as far as timing, but everything went very smoothly at the actual wedding, thank goodness! Except for the fact that is was terribly humid and it was making our notes and strings sound terrible! I was not nervous at all, which I was kind of glad for!

Taking their vows

The beautiful lit up tent in the backyard

Will & Lindsay & her little cousins. :)

Linds has always done tons with us... especially when we were younger. She had us over for sleepovers wherever she happened to be living....even in the midst of college she would take us to her ISU apartment with her, she took us ice skating, swimming, rollerblading, let me help as a "teacher" in the classroom.....and so much more that I'm probably forgetting. And then as we got older it turned into shopping trips to Chicago, and just a girls movie/pizza night. Sooo fun.

If you're reading this Linds, thanks for being such a nice cousin and not treating us like annoying little girls, even though we were most of the time! :)

They are so cute together!

Laura & Johnny were Flower Girl & Ring Bearer

Jenna, Bryce and Jamie with the awesome long sparklers!

Congratulations again, Lindsay & Will. It was an honor to be a part of your wedding weekend: attending the rehearsal and dinner, playing the violin, and waitressing the tables! I love you guys!!

Countdown

15 DAYS until these two tie the knot and Ellie leaves us all forever.

17 DAYS until I get to see this girl, and many other adorable children...
...and stay in the beautiful land of Mexico....
...and visit this lovely lady for 10 whole days!!

27 DAYS until my Golden Birthday :)

30 DAYS until I have to go back to this place again for a hectic semester...

Ok Summer, you can slow down a bit now! You're going way too fast!

Beautiful Montana

I have just spent the last 9 days in the absolutely beautiful Glacier National Park. My family got to go with Phil & Jessica's family and stay in a couple different cabins kind of near the park.

I've got all sorts of adventures to share with you! So... stay tuned. :)

Just a few random pictures to start.... the pictures don't even show the beauty or massiveness of it. After going to Glacier, I would sooo rather go to there than Colorado. :) Except the state of Montana isn't really that great outside of Glacier.... that's the only downside.

Youngest to the oldest lined up at Avalanche Lake

I will be posting lots more about the trip... I was just trying to pick a few out with different scenery's!

Summer Happenings

I'm still trying to catch up on all my summer happenings! I have been taking way more pictures than I normally do! Probably because I'm doing a lot of fun activities. :)

One night after VBS, Jenna, Adam, & I went to Logan's Roadhouse. Note to self: Do not go an hour before they close! You'll get cold, leftover, re-heated food. Ah, well, it was still fun.

Speaking of VBS, I taught the preschool class with Elise. The class was full of energetic little boys, but it was so much fun!

One morning, Kendra, Ellie, Mom, and I all went strawberry picking. It was a verrrry hot day, so we had to get up super early so we wouldn't die of heat. :)

It was very entertaining to pick with these 2 girls. They made the time go by way faster.
They'll make such great future homemakers! :) Hahahaha.
Our picking for the day... it was very rewarding! But... that afternoon instead of helping stem the strawberries... we all went to the pool. :)

Although I don't technically take piano lessons anymore, I was in my piano teachers piano recital because she asked me to. Because the recital was just a day after I finished my mini-mester I sure wasn't very prepared. At all.

Mrs. Schupp with all of her piano students.

And as usual, here we are at the Blend after church. It's become a routine of ours. Except Kendra's missing from the picture because she was on vacation.

I've got lots more photos from all my events to share with you eventually! So stay tuned! :)

Adam's 20!

In June we celebrated Adam's 20th birthday. Wow, he's just getting so grown up... no longer a teenager! :)

Adam is seriously one of my best friends. In fact, he just got back from a 6 day vacation and it was seriously so bored around here without him (you can make fun of me all you want... but it's true)! We pretty much do everything together, especially on the weekends with friends and young group.

Present time--I got him a watch for his birthday, but somehow my dad ended up with it and Adam chose a different one.

Bridget LOVES Grandma...
... and Grandpa
The 4 of us siblings

I love summer evenings when our family just hangs out.