Wedding weekend palooza!

I'm exhausted!!! Ashlyn is exhausted!! Jered is exhausted!! We had a four day wedding palooza in Monroe. One of my favorite little cousins got married on Friday. Well I guess she's not that little anymore, she's 24 with a 2 year old of her own! A wedding in the Ballard family means visiting relatives. We had family in from Wisconsin and North Carolina. The bride had family in from Reno and Ohio and friends in from South Carolina (I've never been called ma'am so many times!). It was a family filled weekend!

We drove down on Thurs after work and as soon as we got there we started working on wedding appetizers. Friday morning it was time to start decorating! They got married at the same place Jered and I got married. Such a beautiful venue! Once the ceremony was over it was time to make sure things ran smoothly. Jered and I were refilling waters, making sure the salad bowls were full, etc. After it was time for clean up. It was a whirl wind! I know there were lots of people that helped behind the scenes with our wedding and I just want to say another big THANK YOU!! Its a lot of work! ;)

All weekend we were up till 2 or 3 am. Ashlyn was up till 11pm a couple of nights, yikes! We went wine tasting (of course), we had bbq's, we went swimming, we had a bonfire. It was a very fun tiring weeeknd.

Ashlyn got to play with her cousin Arie from Wisconsin. They were thick as thieves all weekend. They even had a slumber party on Sat night. Arie is just 2 weeks older than Ashlyn. They're both bossy as can be but they got along great. There were only a couple of fights and tears. Mostly there was lots of play and giggling!

 Grammy and Grandpa in the photo booth with

their three granddaughters

Mommy and Daddy

 the happy couple "tying the knot"

 me with the bride's little sister Kourtney

me with the bride, Ashley

 Ashlyn and Arie having a water toast

Cheers!

 relaxing

 playing in the pool, the raft was their "island"

I love this picture of Ashlyn. She is having SO

much fun!

4th of July, Family and Fun

We had such a great week camping in Florence at Honeyman! We got over there on Wed afternoon and Ashlyn hit the ground running. She really pushed her boundaries this year. There were many trips to the park with her cousins, she ate lots of marshmallows, we walked in the parade, we stayed up late, it was pretty awesome! One of my cousins counted 161 family members. Yep, 161! Crazy, I know. All of my mom's brothers and sisters were there and almost all of my cousins. We went to the lake a couple of times, I even swam out to the dock. Jered tells me its a yearly tradition to do it at least once. We celebrated two anniversaries at the coast. My Aunt Gwenda and Uncle Louie: 57 years! and my Auntie Andi and Uncle Rick: 35 years!!

So I was a total loser and forgot my camera this camping trip. Most of these pics were taken with my cell phone or I stole them off Facebook so I don't have as many as I'd like:

 I found this one on Jered's phone. 

Him and one of his co-workers at one of his job sites

This is just a small portion of Grandma and Grandpa Lenhardt's yard.

I'm constantly talking about it and now you can see it. Next time

I'll take a picture of the garden. This is where we get all the yummy 

vegetables and fruits, baked goods etc and all of our flower baskets.

 Ashlyn's first concert: Old Crow Medicine Show at the Zoo.

It was HOT but we had a great time!

 Packed and ready for camping! We didn't forget anything!!

 Ashlyn and Paisley after the parade

I couldn't get both of them to look at the same time!

 Playing at the lake with Paisley.

 That's Krissy and baby Ivan in the background. 

The Ballard's

back row: Uncle Bob, Aunt Jean, Aunt Judy, Uncle Gary

front row: my mom, Uncle Rick, Uncle David, Aunt Gwenda and Uncle Jerry

VBS and Singles Week

SUCCESS!!!

We all did great during our singles week! Ashlyn had a blast at Grammy and Grandpa's house. She went to two birthday parties, five days of VBS, played with her numerous cousins, went swimming, shopping with Grammy and who knows what else! 

Jered and I went out every night, yep every night! We met friends downtown for dinner, met some other friends out at Edgefield one night after work, we tried new restaurants and we went to two weddings. It was a whirl wind of a week but we really enjoyed ourselves. We were exhausted at the end of the week!

I'll admit though there were quite a few times when I really missed her and wished I could give her a squeeze. She on the other hand really didn't have much time for us. We talked to her every night and she would talk for a few minutes and then it would be, "ok bye, love you!"

Here's a few pics, mostly taken off Facebook:

 having fun with Paisley at her birthday party. 

These two are little bff's in the making!

 Ashlyn in the front row in the orange dress with
her VBS class

being silly!

 coloring in class

last day of class, same orange dress :)

 at one of the two weddings we went to. In the Gorge, 

90 degrees, everyone was a little shiny!

one of our nights out, dressed to impress

 so happy to have her back!

she was TIRED after her week away

We leave Wed morning for 4th of July Honeyman camping. We are SO excited! This is our big camping trip every year. We've been "staging" in the back room for a week now with all of our camping essentials, groceries and toys. I've been WinCo, Costco (twice), Albertsons (three, probably four times) and Target (at least twice). Today Ashlyn and I baked three different kinds of gluten free cookies. We did good ol' chocolate chip but fancied it up a little with some cream cheese and cornstarch to make them really fluffy and yummy. Brown butter, oatmeal, butterschotch and toffee chip came next and then last but not least peanut butter sandwich cookies with Nutella, marshmallow cream cheese frosting. Yep, I think we're ready!