Mr. and Mrs. May

Okay, so most of my pictures are of the rehearsal (taken by Caroline) so you'll get to enjoy behind the scenes wedding pictures. You'll have to wait for the official wedding photos to come in to see the classic pics. 

Setting up chairs for the ceremony

Pastor, Bride, Groom Group Hug

Beautiful smiling bride!

The wedding program doubled as a fan. Genius.   

Me intently studying the program. Koren and I both don't look with it. Jesse was a good choice for Maid of Honor :) Couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and setting. 

After their vows the first thing Jess and Nathan did was wash each other's feet. They wanted to serve each other in their first act as a married couple. 

The Chinns! We me at their house for bible study my first two years at Tech

Feet!

 The Dress

Look at her twirl. Hat and shoes were reception additions

First Dance

Jessica and Nathan Married!

I just got home from a fun fun wedding weekend celebrating Jessica and Nathan. I squeezed in a visit home and lots of time with good friends, so the weekend was definitely a success.

Not too much to report about the Friday I was in Maryland, David and I did get our marriage license which we get to sign in less than 5 months. We also took advantage of the opportunity to take a nice walk in Downtown Annapolis. One of my favorite places period.

But on to the wedding details. Saturday morning David and I drove to Blacksburg (visits there never get old) and I helped with wedding preparations while David got to catch up with some of his friends still in town. It was a packed full day with lots of laughing, here is some of the craziness and fun that is preparing for a wedding:

This is Rachel (one of Jessica's younger sisters) and I trying to hold all of the stuff in place from some major shopping trips to ensure everyone would be well fed for the weekend

Koren being goofy with the lemonade pitcher. I was in Koren's wedding about a year and a half ago. It was so fun to spend the weekend with her and Devin. 

Rachel playing piano at the house we all stayed at. It was a very musical group and someone was always singing, playing guitar, or piano. Very nice and relaxing atmosphere.

Setting up the reception area. I loved the potted plant center pieces. 

I think this is a great picture (note: I didn't take this one but I'd like to know who did)

Crafting to make cheesecake stands

She is a pro.

A little evening celebration to have a bit of quiet time with the bride and bridesmaids the night before the wedding. 

Just realized I didn't even include pictures of Jessica and Nathan here, I'll save that for next post.

A Visit From the Owens Clan

David's parents came for a visit this past weekend. It was great to get a chance to see them and show the apartment and the area that David will be living in.

The time on the weekend went by quickly and unfortunately I forgot to pull out my camera. 

On Saturday we didn't get to see them until the evening, but we went out for a nice dinner at a Cuban restaurant. That is a must around here. 

The real excitement of their visit was a snorkeling trip on Sunday. We headed down to Key Largo and enjoyed the clear blue waters and the beautiful coral reefs in the area. 

Here are some pictures I found online just to give you an idea of what we did:

The boat looked something like this

There were lots of pretty coral reefs

Many cool looking fish

And even an underwater Jesus statue

David's mom used to do a lot of Scuba diving, so it was fun to hear some of her stories while we were on this outing. Of coarse we had to do the necessary stop at Robert is Here. I bought a big box of local mangoes. 

Can't wait till the next Owens family visit. And pretty soon I'll be an Owens myself :)

My Balcony Garden

I showed a picture of my balcony a while back, but now I have a new and improved version.

David made this table and it is perfect for holding my plants outside and generally making the balcony area look homier. 

I've never had much success growing herbs indoors, but this shady area helps me realize all of my culinary dreams of having fresh herbs on hand. 

I think I'm in love with my basil

And look at this CUTE tomato

My balcony is screened in to keep the bugs out (which is great) but not not so great when I need my veggies pollinated. I had to pollinate my tomatoes with a Q-tip and try to fool the plant into thinking I was a bee. Likely this is the only tomato I will see on the plant but I was so excited that my experiment of pollinating tomatoes actually worked, at least on one of them!

For the Love of Tomatoes

I think that most gardeners/normal human beings agree that nothing is better than a tomato straight from the garden. Every time I have a summer tomato I wonder why I even bother buying them the rest of the year. Now that the tomato plants are fruiting its like Christmas.

Here is one of the ways I've eaten my tomatoes this week

I sliced up one of my giant heirlooms and topped it with a little low fat mozzarella (fresh would have been better buy I used what was on hand).  Then I put it in the oven at 350 for probably about 7 minutes and broiled the tomatoes for another two. This made the cheese pretty and golden! Finally I topped the cheesy tomatoes with basil from my balcony and a little balsamic vinegar. 

Since the tomatoes were roasted for a few minutes they were super sweet by the end. Melted cheese on anything never fails; try this take on a Caprese salad :)

Continuation of Canoe Trip

Extracting some fishing equipment from the mangroves

This was a historical exhibit that could only be reached by boat. It was very gratifying canoeing 2 miles there. 

Something about that hat and his posture make David really fit in with this setting

Our Ship

A little boat dock area that begged to be explored and tested for strength

Loving the Wildlife

I went on a real adventure this past weekend. In my mind a real adventure has something of a Lord of the Rings-esque quality about it. And a canoe trip definitely qualifies in my book.

We canoed about 2 miles up and then back on the Loxahatchee River at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. I'm still constantly in awe of all the different animals that live in Florida, and this trip did not fail. There was of coarse the usual assortment of strange birds, and we saw quite a few gators. (Even one that were pretty sure was about 10 feet!) 

One of the little guys

Another of my favorite observations was a brother sister pair who was trying to canoe together. The parents were in one canoe (smart move on their part) and the middle school aged children were in another. The brother seemed to be having a good time slamming the canoe into his parents and into the thick mangrove area to the loud complaints of his sister who sat in the front. 

Once we were in a quieter area I paid more attention to some of the sounds of all the animals. More than once I was quite scared of some kind of large fish that plunged below the surface as we canoed on. (Seriously, it was a loud noise and I think Jaws may have been swimming with us...anyway). We heard this weird noise that could have been a breeze in the trees, but it sounded like it was coming from the water. David suggested that he thought the sound was a manatee or turtle coming up for air. I knew that there could be manatees in this river, but the water was fairly low so my expectation of seeing one wasn't even something I considered. We kept a lookout for a few more seconds a looked in the area where the sound came from. Lo and behold, after waiting for just a little a manatee nose popped up for air! The nose was followed by the little bump of its body as it dove down and a small splash from its tail. 

We canoed along with the manatee (at a distance) for a few minutes, this is its back

I was absolutely ecstatic about seeing a manatee. To me they are the type of animal you learn about, and might encounter at Sea World, but not in "real life". Seeing this guy was definitely the highlight of my week!