Scavenger Hunt

Yesterday we had one of my favorite youth events- the Digital Camera Scavenger Hunt. This event is fun because it's very low-key, inexpensive, and doesn't require traveling! We start out by meeting at Shakespeare's Pizza for lunch, then we split up the kids and give them two hours, a digital camera, and a list of 50 things to take a picture of downtown. Some of them are just things or places downtown (a dogwood, an alligator, an indian, a bowling alley), some of them are actions (doing the chicken dance, the electric slide, blowing a bubble), and some require great skill and creativity (your group with a squirrel, a person with the same shirt, a person in uniform). Anyway, it always results in embarrassing, hilarious stories AND, since they have to take pictures of everything, it's all captured for public viewing! It's funny because youth kids are usually too cool to do something like the sprinkler on the Quad on campus. But, because it's a competition, they can't resist! So, because I want everyone to get the enjoyment I got... here are pictures from the two groups who had my cameras!

the aformentioned sprinkler...

a touchdown dance on Stankowski Field... the weakest touchdown dances ever, since all they did was spike the ball, throw their hands in the air and say "Woohoo"

A cowboy not in your group... this group actually stopped this guy driving down the road and asked if he'd get out and take a picture!

Moonwalking across a crosswalk

Pretend fishing in a fountain

Doing the Chicken Dance

Rolling down a hill

Enjoying some much needed ice cream after it was all over! :)

You'll notice I'm not in the pictures... I love being a leader! :)

Wedding Weekend

Well, Josh's best friend, Bob, got married last weekend, and Josh and I got to go to Texas for the wedding. It was kind of a funny situation, because Josh was in the wedding, so we were there for all of the wedding party stuff, and I was there, but I knew Bob, and not really Robyn, the bride, so I wanted to be with the boys, but wedding ettiquette doesn't really allow for it. But we worked it out, and I just kind of hung around and made myself useful when and were I could! I guess best to start from the beginning...

We went to the rehearsal on Friday night, and got to see the church for the first time. It was a really beautiful church. It was actually part of the Texas Christian University campus. It was almost completely white inside, except for the red carpet, and had beautiful light fixtures, great lighting, and awesome acoustics. I kind of decided to occupy myself by taking pictures, particularly of the moments the photographer wasn't there. Of course, there were a multitude of aunts, mothers, uncles, etc, thinking the same thing, so I tried to take the pictures no one else was taking. That means that my pictures are random, but I really took them for Bob and Robyn, not necessarily to remember the day for myself. Anyway... my favorite picture from the rehearsal was this one...


I tried several times before I got the two of them centered with the cross, if not with the frame of the picture! I just thought it was such a neat picture, to see the two of them ready to start this new adventure, and fitting to have them start it at the cross. I'm sure it looked much cooler when they were dressed up during the actual wedding, but I kind of liked this picture with the normal attitude and attire. Much more fitting for an actual marriage then the pomp that happens on the wedding day!

But that wedding day did arrive, and they had BEAUTIFUL weather for it! It was an evening wedding, so Josh and I got to start the day with lunch with his relatives that live in Ft. Worth. We had lunch with them, and just generally caught up, which was cool because we see them very rarely, typically only once a year. After that we headed to a mall, because Josh had to pick up his tux. Funny story about that...the guys actually went to try on tuxes the day before, and Josh had apparently measured himself wrong. When it asked for pant length, he measured his inseam when they wanted his outseam, so his pants were actually capris! Not quite the look Bob was going for at his wedding! Thankfully, the shop ordered a new pair of pants, we just couldn't pick them up until Saturday afternoon! But once the new pants were procured, we were off to the chapel! I mostly just hung out, helping where I could. My remedial sewing skills got put to good use, though, when five buttons popped off of groomsmens' vests! So I actually spent much of my downtime sewing buttons! Then I watched while they took pictures, and got a very important assignment from the bride. Robyn wanted a picture of Bob's face when she was walking down the aisle. The cool part was that I got a 2nd row seat, which was pretty sweet (though I felt like I had to explain why some random girl got to sit in front of half of Bob's family... but oh well!). It was actually a really neat experience. Everyone in a wedding turns around and looks at the bride. No one is watching the groom. But I had a job (and couldn't see the bride anyway) so I set my camera on its continuous setting, and snapped away. It was truly awesome to watch the parade of emotions on Bob's face. He went from teary to smiling to sticking his tongue out (apparently to keep her from crying) and back again. It was very cool. Not all of the pictures came out very well, but these are my favorite 3.

Nearly crying...


Almost smiling...


and truly Bob... always joking!

The wedding was very pretty, and fun to watch. The boys (Bob and his best man, his brother Brett) kept sticking their tongues out at the bride (Robyn) and her maid of honor, her sister, to keep them from crying. Meanwhile, they competely flustered the pastor, who tried to go through the vows twice, and asked Bob if he would take Robyn to be his husband... But everyone laughed, and the vows were said (always the mots important)!

After the wedding, we headed to the Ft. Worth Club in downtown Ft. Worth. We were on the 12th floor, with a beautiful view of the sunset and Ft. Worth. We ate, hung out with the other groomsmen and the one other wife-of-a-groomsman who was there. The boys even let Abigail and I tag along to decorate the car! Afterwards, we sent Bob and Robyn off to Florida with bells, which was really a pretty neat way to do it. The wedding and reception were both really neat, and I really enjoyed getting to see a friend get married. It was a very cool weekend, and I'm excited for Bob and Robyn!

Some of my favorite pictures... although they're random! :)

The first dance

Decorating the car

Josh, Elmo, and Abigail, sending them off with bells

Discarded flowers on a messy table after the party

Long Time, No Blog

Well, I realize it's been forever since my last blog... baby or otherwise. But I've been busy and tired. By the time I get home, I don't even have the energy to think enough to write a blog! But life here has been good... so it's been a good busy.

On the church front, we had Young Christian's Weekend, which is always one of the best weekends of the year. It's one of our favorite youth trips all year. I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures, which is a major bummer. But we did have a great time. Because of the whole baby thing, I couldn't ride any of the rides, so I mostly shopped and ate and walked around. Josh did ride a couple of rides, including Powder Keg. Apparently, he forgot to listen to the "Please remove all loose articles' speech, and he left his cell phone in his pocket. Well, as the man running the ride said (after Josh told him he'd lost his cell) "At 65 mph, EVERYTHING falls out." So, after taking his information and promising to "mail the pieces," we were pretty bummed for the rest of the day. BUT, God is awesome, and the next day when we went back just to check, they had not only found the phone, but it was still on and didn't have a scratch on it! So we were pretty excited, and Josh got to (loudly) tell how awesome God is to our youth in front of tons of people. So that was cool, and everyone made it home from the trip alive, so we count that as a victory. I am going to miss riding rides this year, though... I couldn't even go across the wobbly bridge!

Speaking of babies... on the baby front there have been several firsts... I bought (and wore) my first maternity clothes. I bought a couple pairs of capris to wear to YCW. They were pretty hot, since they come up to about my armpits. I bought underbelly ones, but since I don't have much of a belly, they ride a little high! Ruth was thrilled to be seen with me! Of course, since then, we've been breaking records for cold in April, so I can't wear my capris, and I'm running dangerously low on warm clothes that fit! So I also had my first wearing of Josh's clothes to school, AND my first day of leaving my pants unbuttoned and keeping them up with a belt and a rubber band! Isn't pregnancy grand?! :) Besides clothing issues, I am actually enjoying pregnancy right now. I wish I looked a little more pregnant, I want to be cute and pregnant, but I do get to eat almost anything I want, and I don't throw up (much). I'm not really sick anymore, but if I get gagged by something, it's no pretty. Josh and I are both enjoying the ride, though! :)

And, to add to the changes we're making, we have set a closing date for our house, and we are signing the contract on Sunday. We're buying the house from friends of our's from church, so it's been pretty easy. And we're getting a good deal. I love the house, I actually lived in it in college, so I'm very excited. Once we get a fence built for the dog, it'll be perfect! But it's such a huge change, and there are a lot of changes going on right about now!

Anyway, that's the update on our lives... I'll try to blog more frequently, and I'm sure I will next week, I have a doctors appointment and a trip to Texas!