Our Second Anniversary

This past Monday (June 25th) Adam and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary. I'm so thankful for the past two years with my amazing husband and am trusting the Lord for many wonderful years to come! I love you, my sweet Adam!

Adam really is a gem...he surprised me with this lovely bouquet of flowers and a sweet card!




To celebrate our special day, we drove down to Washington D.C. for some sightseeing. Here I am at Smithsonian's American History Museum. They have a really neat exhibit about all the Presidents' wives. I managed to get a pic with Nancy Reagan :)



Since 1900, all the Presidents' wives have donated their inaugural ball dresses to the museum. This one was my favorite. It had so many intricate details.


This is Michelle Obama's inaugural dress :)


Loving the old cars!


My handsome hubby next to the trains...



Washington Monument


We checked out Chinatown while we were in D.C...


This sign was on one of the buildings in Chinatown. Kinda creepy!


By mid-afternoon, Adam and I were exhausted, so we decided to hang out at a Starbucks for a while. Here's our view from the Starbucks sitting area. It was fun to people-watch! :)


We met up with Tim and Julia Haskell for dinner!


The White House


This guy has been camping outside the White House for about a year now in order to protest all the nuclear and environmental issues.

Alice in Wonderland Tea

"The Queen of Hearts hereby summons you to the Mad Hatter's tea party..."

This past Saturday I held a Mad Hatter's/Alice in Wonderland Tea for some friends. We had a great time wearing our big hats and sipping tea! I tried to incorporate some of the elements from Alice in Wonderland as well. Can you spot them in the pictures? :)





Like my "mad" hat? :)








I wrapped little Hershey chocolate nuggets with patterned paper and then packaged them for favors. I used cards for place markings.

Dinner at Olive Garden

We got to have dinner at Olive Garden with my immediate family, as well as my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins! Good times :)

Hershey Park

It was so fun to have my family here with us last week! We were able to go to Hershey Park together one day.

On our way to the park!














It was a BLISTERING hot day, so after lunch we decided to get out of the heat and take the AIR-CONDITIONED chocolate factory tour :)








What a good excuse to kiss! ;)






Adam and my sister, Beth, get along great!
They have similar personalities, so I'm sure that helps :)


My cousin went on this CRAZY roller-coaster!




Bumper cars!


The view from the Kissing Tower :)




The end to a great day!

Grandpa's 80th Birthday

This past week my Grandpa Van Riper turned 80! We drove up to New Jersey to celebrate with the family...



Happy Birthday, Pop!


In the years to come, I always want to remember my Grandpa this way - telling stories while we all gather around him and listen attentively. He's a great storyteller!


No birthday celebration is complete without ice cream. The girls thought Adam needed 2 cones because he is so thin! Haha...Just kidding...he's actually just holding a cone for someone :)




My sister, Anna, was experimenting with random photo shots. Think this one is random enough? ;)


With my Aunt Lois, my mom, and some of my sisters...


Love my sistas!


My parents


My Grandpa and Grandma Van Riper