dog days of summer

it was such a sweet time to go the new jersey shore - a welcome break from the heat, but so much more so...an amazing celebration of mark and lauren. the love that they have for each other and the joy that they shared with everyone around them was so refreshing to be around - like taking a long cool splashy drink of water. such an emotional weekend. as matt put it 'you'd have to have a heart of STONE to not cry!' a full weekend of events - a picnic on the lawn of ocean grove overlooking the beach with the bridesmaids, a brunch at the castelli tenthouse, a beach day with the wedding party, a southern bbq rehearsal dinner on the open air porch of the B&B (complete with made-from-scratch guacamole, corn chowder, ribs, blueberry tea and an ice cream bar to top it all off!), and the wedding day! beautiful pictures on the beach with our pool party blue dresses and parasols - they are going to look amazing! the wedding itself was so mark and lauren - second story of a pier house with open windows to see the ocean and hear the waves on the clearest, bluest wedding day imaginable. lauren was radiant, and mark was beaming. hours on the dance floor and an amazing lunch and cupcakes/candy, followed by a sunset after-party on the beach with s'mores, a bonfire, sparklers and games in the sand. such a sweet weekend...so many beautiful details and wonderful memories and being so so happy for mark and lauren and their joyous life ahead.

we were so busy i forgot to take pictures- i'll post a link when they are ready, but here are a few of micah of course, and some scattered wedding weekend pictures!

the 4th of july

for the first time since 2006, we got up to the lake for the 4th. there was so much to celebrate - the first year of having kids around, all being together again, but mainly mark and lauren! we had a shower for lauren, and it was so much fun to have her family out for the weekend. as usual, we ate all day long, grilled at night, long bike rides and walks, sat on the back deck under the leafy trees, swam off the dock and cruised around in the boat. the weekend went too fast, and seemed to go even faster since we were in a different room every night! there were so many sweet moments to the weekend - laughing so hard i wet my pants on two different occasions, our family service on sunday morning with quiche and monkey bread and steaming coffee, the early morning time micah and i spent with holly and cora (and a HUGE cup of coffee!), the feeling of watching sunset from the front porch when everything got quiet, and the first jump in the lake off the dock with matt, and seeing the sparkle between mark and lauren. unforgettable times...