Timeline

I'm a failure at blogging...

I have accepted this fact. I think about blogging often and what I want to say, but I rarely seem to get here with that information.

Since I have about 4 months worth of info to get through, I figured I would do kind of a picture timeline catch-up from the spring/summer.

As most of you know, Ryan and I spent the summer in Nashville where Ryan did an internship at a law firm downtown. I spent my summer helping CCC (the preschool where I used to work) move from one building to a much nicer one down the road.  I had so much fun spending time with all of the ladies at CCC and it was a perfect way to work through the summer. Not to mention, I really enjoyed getting to spend time with this little chunker. Meet Paisley Lane Weakley. I miss her terribly.

We had a great summer and this blog post is really only skimming the surface of all the fun we had with friends and family.

We will begin in:

May  

 

On May 21st, Mom and Dad flew to Denver to spend a couple of days with us before we made the journey back to Nashville. We took them many places, but none were as memorable as our day at the National Park. This was taken at Bear Lake. The lake and the trails around it had about a 6 foot base of snow around them so that made for a slippery trek around.



I adore these people.

This guy is alright too.



So Dad was stepping back to take a picture for us and found himself buried waist high in some loose snow. I'm surprised as hard as we were laughing that I was able to even take a picture. It was pretty hysterical.



These are the foot/leg prints dad left in the snow.

 

Another indicator of how high the snow actually was in May.



 Moving on...

On the evening of May 22, a couple of days before we headed back to Nashville, Dallas got back from a school trip to China. He texted Ryan and told him to get on ichat....little did we know it was to tell us that he had just PROPOSED TO LANDIS! What a wonderful surprise! Since Dallas teases me incessantly, I didn't really believe it at first. After we realized that they were telling the truth, I went into full surprise/joy/tears mode. This picture is only slightly embarrassing...



  

Here is the happy engaged couple!





Here they are showing the ring to Bill and Jill. Please note Bill's wild hair.

That brings us to July?....Somehow I can't find any pictures of anything from June. June was a very fun and busy month though! I'm sure someone has pictures, but I don't have any on my computer so I will note some fun things I remember:

Simmons Family trip to Atlanta over Memorial Day

Babysitting Andrew Parnell - what a cutie pie!

Oh! Here is something I do have a picture of:

Some of the Simmons crew got to go hang out with this guy one day!

Keith was doing a run-through of his upcoming tour for "friends and family" and we got to go! There were only about 200 or so people there so we stood in the very front. It was pretty fabulous.

July

Ryan and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary with a weekend trip to Denver.

Beautiful Breckenridge! Ryan and I spent one day walking around Breckenridge during our Anniversary weekend. It was such a gorgeous day and the scenery was pretty amazing as well.

My first concert at Red Rocks was a memorable experience. It is so beautiful there and if you look closely, you can see it is storming in the distance over downtown Denver.  The Avett Brothers were pretty awesome as well.



Another cool view from our seats at Red Rocks.

This is an ice cream place that Ryan and I stumbled upon in downtown Denver while we were walking around. I thought it was so charming and fun.

New York City Trip

Long story short, Landis and I were trying to get tickets to Regis and Kelly and sent many letters and postcards requesting them. We had kinda given up hope that we would get any tickets until Landis got a letter in the mail on July 12 saying we had two tickets to the August 1 show! We immediately planned a quick overnight trip to NYC! We made a list of all the things we wanted to do and see in our brief trip and made sure to make a stop for dessert at Serendipity. It did not disappoint.

This is us in line waiting to get into the show. We were able to walk over to the studio from our hotel early that morning, Starbucks in hand of course!

Here she is in all her glory....I believe this is when she was telling a hilarious story about being mistaken for Heidi Klum in a donut shop.

Josh Groban was her co-host since Regis was out. He was pretty dreamy and even sang to the crowd during a commercial. It was pretty incredible.

 We almost got yelled at for taking this picture because they were trying to clear everyone out and we were trying to stay to meet Kelly and Josh.

After 2 hours of waiting after the show and lurking Kelly's driver until he picked her up.....WE GOT TO MEET KELLY! She was headed to spin class, how perfect! She was so nice and friendly.  She must've known how much we love her!

We were running short on time after waiting so long to meet Kelly, so we took a bike tour of Central Park to make note of all the spots to visit in the future. Our guide was a jokester but he told us all about all of the stars who live in New York and showed us all of the famous movie spots.

The fountain behind us is famous for many reasons, but it seems fitting to mention that this is the fountain that Santa's sleigh hits on the way into Central Park in the movie Elf.

After our whilrlwingd trip to NYC, Landis and I headed to the airport to catch two flights to get us to the Simmons in Kiawah, SC. We ended up delayed there for about 5 hours longer than expected and more Laguardia chaos than we bargained for, but we made friends with a pilot and a couple of families along the way. It was quite an adventure.



I was pretty happy to see this guy.



The Simmons Ladies with our yummy root beer floats and milkshakes.

One of my favorite parts about the Kiawah trip was daily bike rides with these jokers. The Captin is as fast as the wind on a bike!

If you couldn't tell, it was REALLY hot.

We were so blessed to get such a busy and fun summer with so many people we love! We are settled back into our apartment in Denver and Ryan started classes this week. We are not wasting any time getting back to our Colorado Adventures. This weekend we are headed to camp at Great Sand Dunes National Park. Should be fun!

Wes and Kristin Meeks

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21

Two weekends ago, Ryan and I ventured back over to the south to go to be a part of Kristin Thomas and Wes Meeks wedding. I mentioned it in this blog as something I was looking forward to and it is hard to believe it has already come and passed.
Kristin has been one of my dearest friends for so many years now and I was ecstatic about being a part of her wedding and her story.


I'd like to introduce you to Mr. & Mrs. Wes Meeks. I love this picture because their joy to marry each other is so apparent. I took this at their rehearsal on the lawn where they would get married the next day.

I got to be the one who tied the bow on her dress!

Kristin and Wes reconnected (they had known each other when they were much younger) when Ivy was about 6 months old. Kristin, as I vividly remember, wanted nothing to do with any kind of dating. Wes did not relent though. He says that he knew he was supposed to be with her and I believe him. I remember when Kristin first told me about Wes and how they were kinda dating. I remember wanting to tell her to be careful, but something stopped me. Kristin is like a sister to me meaning we have been through various break-ups and hard times together. I wanted to protect her, and know she was in good  hands.  I have always felt this way with Kristin, but something about Wes made me feel very peaceful. It was as if God was saying, "Hey, I've got this one. Trust me."  And that is what I did. The Lord had such a beautiful plan in the works for Wes and Kristin and the 3 beautiful children between them.

These precious boys are Wes' boys. On the left you have Landon, the kind-hearted oldest brother and on the right you have Tristan, who is a very charming little mess. These boys adore their little sis Ivy and they all act like they have always been together. It is priceless. Like I said, there is a beautiful story being written here.

This is my personal favorite picture of these 3 little rascals taken this winter after a snow day in Chattanooga.

This precious little girl is Ivy Jewell. She is Kristin's gorgeous two-year old firecracker. This was her fairytale dress for the wedding and she looked perfect in it.

This is Landon with Ivy at the rehearsal dinner. This picture is not staged at all. She just walked up and he grabbed her hand and started talking to her. Precious.

I had the pleasure of making all of the flowers that the bridesmaids wore in their hair, the flower for Ivy to wear, and a flower for Kristin to wear at her reception. I also did a little artwork for the reception that I will show a picture from in a little bit.
The weekend was such a blessed event as so many people got together to bless these two people and the beautiful family they were creating.

The place where they got married was amazing. It is called the Fillauer Lake House and it is a historic old house with a large lawn, tons of trees, a lake out in front, and a barn that seems to be right out of an Anthropologie catalog. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.


You will notice that I am the third bridesmaid from the let who can't get it together at this moment.




This is the front of the barn as you are walking in.



This is inside the Fillauer barn. Please note the doors fastened to the walls on the left.  It was gorgeous from the lighting to all of the items you would find hanging here or there. It had so much personality.

I thought this cake was so neat looking. It was different flavors on different levels and it was all fabulous. Yes, I did try both kinds. Delicious!

This is the back of the barn where it opened up to more seating outside

I love this picture. I made the flower that Kristin has in her hair for the reception.

This was the area where you walked into the barn to sign the guest book.



This is the painting I did for Kristin and Wes for the reception. Kristin had seen a similar idea to this on etsy with this same quote and wanted one like it for her reception and to later put in their home. The colors ended up fitting very well into the rustic feel.



I wish I had gotten a better picture of all the kids that day, but they were running around having a blast being kids. I did get this one of Ivy walking around probably trying to avoid the swarms of people who wanted to talk to her and pick her up. She was a champ to put up with all of it. Especially at the independent age of 2.

 

It is hard to believe that it has been 10 months since we were the ones getting married. Time flies.

Another very special part of this weekend was getting to travel with my parents to Chattanooga. They love Kristin like their own, just like her parents treat me the same. Dad served them their first communion together in the ceremony, something he was very honored to do.

It was so fun to have mom and dad with us during the weekend even if the majority of the time we had together was in the car or with lots of other people.

Ryan and I spent Easter Sunday with his family. It was wonderful for all 8 of us to be reunited to eat Sunday lunch after church, then all fall asleep for an afternoon nap in the Simmons living room. Those are the moments I really appreciate being so far away.

This last little picture actually has nothing to do with this post, except to share a painting I recently did. I haven't done much painting at all for several months, but I was asked to do this one to contribute to a silent auction. I asked mom to help me pick a quote and I love that she picked one from Bittersweet. I've converted her and dad now too. This quote represents such a wonderful life motto.

I hope to write more next week as we prepare to spend the summer in Nashville!