Life in the USA

We've been in the States for a month now. So much has happened already, I can't believe it's only been a month.

Last week we took a little road trip to Dallas.

We went right after all the bad weather in Dallas. I was so happy to see this sign. I just love Texas!

BFF Amy was in town (she lives in Hawaii), and I was DYING to see her! She has a little boy and we've already decided he and Paige will be the perfect couple.

Aren't they precious??!!?!!?  It was really hard to get good pics of them... they both like to move, and are way too busy to stop and take a pic. 

Amy and I haven't seen each other in 3 1/2 years, since she got married. That is WAY too long. 

We had the best time! We all stayed at Amy's parents house and hung out, ate, and just had fun. We hung out in our pj's, went to Cheesecake Factory, Amy and I went shopping, and we watched the kids play. It was wonderful and more.  Daniel and Jeremy get along really well, which makes it easier for me and Amy to go to Target while they hang out at home with the kiddos :)

Did I mention it's hard to take pictures with children? 

Love her!

While we were in Dallas, I also got to hook up with Jen! We were both in each other's weddings, and have been friends for several years! Her little girl is just a few months older than Paige. I saw her last year, but Jen hadn't seen Paige yet. So we met at the Cracker Barrel and caught up a bit.

Isn't this cute?!?! Paige just reached over and grabbed Anna'as hand. They can't wait to be good friends!

Anna was sweet to pass this toy onto Paige. She loves it and has been playing with it non-stop. My only complaint is that children's toys that play music should all include a volume button. Just sayin. :)

That was our week in Dallas! I'll try to post soon about what else we've been up to, and Paige's 10 month post!

love

laura

Weekend Rewind

I haven't done a weekend post in a while!

Last year, Daniel and I did an 8 week intensive language class together. We had the same teacher, and quickly became friends. Our teacher has the same personality and Myers Briggs as Daniel. They are a lot alike., minus the whole Asian thing. 

A few months later, his girlfriend (our teacher's, clearly not Daniels) tutored me. 

We have enjoyed getting to know this couple over the past year, and really enjoy them. 

This past weekend, they were married! We were so excited for our friends! Except, here most of the weddings are always in the morning. So Daniel wasn't going to be able to go because he teaches Saturday mornings. One thing I might take for granted being married, is  always have a wedding date. It was very weird to get ready and go to the wedding by myself. Luckily we have a lot of mutual friends with the couple, so I had people to hang with.

Here's the groom getting ready to walk down the aisle:

Bride with her Dad (i don't think the usual custom is for the dad to walk her down the aisle)

Our friends met while teaching at a language center. The same place I take all of my classes, so my current and past teachers were all there too.

These girls are so sweet and special to me!

Daniel ended up having time to bike over to the reception. He wasn't planning on having time to come, so that's why he's not super dressed up. 

My fave face of the groom!

Us with the lovely couple!!

love

laura

Wedding Time

Wow, sorry it's been a while! I got back home here in EA very late Friday night, it was literally Saturday morning. It's taken me a few days to recover!

So...the wedding!

We spent a few hours getting ready, curling hair, doing make up, you know, the usual girly stuff. 

I haven't had my hair curled in forever, so i was pretty excited about wearing it curly! Here we are! 

Me and my mom!

Shane & Caroline were married outside, and then we moved inside the barn for dinner and dancing. It was beautiful!

It was so fun to meet all the blog/twitter friends!

Love this picture of Caroline and her dad!

BFF Amy couldn't make it to the wedding (she JUST had her first little baby!), but I was still so excited to see her parents! They are both so dear to me!

It was such a fun wedding, and really hard to say good bye! Especially not knowing when I'll see Caroline again...it was a teary good bye! But I'm SOO thankful I was able to go-it was so special!

love

Laura

Lately

Last Saturday i met up with Caroline to spend the day, catch up, and say the inevitable 'good bye.'

We went to one of our faves....Cheesecake Factory!!! yum yum yum! We both got our usual, Louisiana Chicken Pasta and split the new Reeses cheesecake!

SO, after having lunch Caroline DRAGGED me to Pea in the Pod. I.am.not.pregnant.

We walked in and Caroline started asking the sales woman about clothes for me to try on. The lady looked at me, and (thankfully!) asked how far along i was, because i wasn't showing yet, ha!!! I'm glad she didn't say i was showing even just a little! After getting thru the awkwardness of telling her i'm not pregnant and won't be in any time soon (that i know ha!), we started browsing.

We plan to start a family while we're in East Asia, and maternity clothes are hard to come by. So Caroline thought it would be a GREAT idea to start maternity shopping now. We strapped on the belly and had the best time EVER!

Who knew that preggo belly was SO much fun? I know that you don't just gain belly weight, but lots of things get bigger, but i'd be pretty happy if i could look like this whenever the day comes. The belly is supposed to make me 7 months.

This might be a weird thing for us to do, but seriously best.time.ever.

My nephews, Grant and Ethan have been here all week. Ethan still closes his eyes when we try and take a pic.

Ethan likes to play doctor. I'm not sure what he's doing here...checking blood pressure?

We went to the pool yesterday and i tried several times to get pictures of the boys, but they will not sit still! I don't have any pics with me and Grant, or me with both the boys. My goal today is to get some good pics of us.

Tomorrow is the big day! We'll go to church in the morning, eat lunch, then get ready to fly out. it's insane.

love

laura

Road Trip Day 5

We woke up  Monday morning and drove to Laramie, Wyoming to see Shelly & Matt. Shelly and I met our freshman year in college. We lived next door to each other. Shelly got engaged and got married summer of 2001, and I flew up to Wyoming to be in the wedding. That.was.10.years.ago. 10.

We hadn't seen each other since and i was SO excited that schedules and time worked out for us to see them! They have 2 really cute kids that we loved getting to know!

ummm can we say adorable?!?!

It took him a while to warm up to us, but we had so much fun when he did!

We went to Vedauwoo, which is a cool boulder/climbing/hiking place. It was getting kind of cold, but that didn't stop Daniel or Matt from scaling the big rocks!

After dinner, we played Just Dance on the Wii. Being that this was only my second time to ever use a Wii, i felt pretty good about how i did. Daniel, on the other hand schooled us and won every single game. This is my all time fave pic from the night.



Daniel and i loved hanging out with Shelly and Matt. I like to also refer to them as 'our kind of people,' -similar outlooks on life and desire for others to know and walk with Father. I love spending time with other couples who have kids, to learn from them, glean from their experience, etc...We loved Wyoming and can't wait to go back!

love

Laura

Road Trip Day 4

There are WAY too many pictures from today so i'll try to be brief. In my words, not the pics, ha!

Today is Mother's Day. It was kind of fun/strange to spend it with another couple that doesn't have kids. Don't worry, we called our mom's.

Daniel playing with Barley.

Ready to leave for church...

I love to renact senior photo moments. Chelsea was sweet to indulge me.

love this girl!

After church we headed to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. I actually went to Estes Park for the first (and only) time 10 years ago when i flew to Wyoming for my friend, Shelly's wedding. Sidenote....i get to see Shelly TOMORROW for the first time in 10 years!!!!!!!

We have had BEAUTIFUL weather this weekend in Colorado-high 70's and loving it!

The lovebirds.

At lunch in Estes Chels and I got flowers for Mother's Day.

Random, but there's this fudge shoppe called Laura's in Estes, and 10 years ago i got my picture taken exactly in this same place. Picture me without bangs and pre eye make up discovery.

After we walked around and ate our way through Estes, we drove up 10,000 feet in Rocky Mtn. Natl. Park to admire the snow and mountains.

Love this view!

Friends....!

It was kind of weird to be surrounded by snow but walking around in flip flops and shorts.

Look how high these drifts were!

We threw some snowballs and just played around for a while.

She's such a ham!

We love it here!!!

Chelsea and I are both bff with Amy. We wish she were here hanging out with us.

(it says 'hi amy')

We're sad our time with Chelsea and Dom is coming to a close. It's been so good to talk thru things in life, stuff we have in common, hard areas of life, and just goof around and have a good time. Tomorrow, we'll head to Wyoming to hang out with Shelly and Matt! We're so thankful for our friends that open their homes to us and treat us like family.

Love you guys!