(Almost) Summer time and the livin's easy...

I've been taking a lot of pictures lately, but have been outside too much to update (or do much of anything really...) Here are a bunch of days/events all smushed together.

Karen and I went bridesmaid dress shopping earlier this month, looking for dresses for Dayna's wedding and purchasing hers for ours. The contenders:

Loved the purple one (which is the actual color of Dayna's dresses... very nice), but she ended up with a duplicate of the one they got for our wedding. Good pick!

Now that my after school program is over, Raf and I have been enjoying some beach evenings lately. Here are some pictures from one such day a few weeks ago:

Another evening at the beach was not quite as nice, but the sky sure looked cool:

We lasted only about 20 minutes on this particular day...

Last weekend Heard, Haylie, and I went to the fishing pier to "fish". (I say "fish" because I sat there and read and they caught nothing.) The weather was pretty crappy at first, but it got nice after awhile. It was kind of cool to see the ocean view from the perspective of the pier:

Working on some serious healthy eating lately as well. We've been dining out quite a bit, so this has been difficult. Check out this depressing spectacle:

Here's the good side though... we also went to Pungo to pick strawberries this week, before the season ends:

Now THOSE look good....

So do these:

Haylie made us brown rice sushi and edamame for dinner last night. Apparently this is what we do on green days. Now it's a cloudy Saturday so Raf and I must go be productive for once!

Lady Gaga - Poker Face - acoustic cover - Igor Presnyakov

What a beautiful wedding... (I defy you not to get that song stuck in your head!)

Raftery has named this entry "The Wedding Blog"

These pictures are actually from our beach trip the other day. It was not so peaceful, as helicopters were taking off the entire time:

This weekend was Elizabeth's wedding. It was fantastic. The service was a mixture of Greek and English (with all parts of the service they didn't like in Greek, good parts in English). My favorite part was when the priest repeatedly wished them olive trees (children) around their table. The church was beautiful:

The reception was equally beautiful, at a restaurant in a park. The scene:

The reception itself was on the other side of the little porch pictured here. The weather was fantastic and everything looked so nice:

I got to sit with Rachel Li and Meredith and her family, which was lovely. Liz knows us well, hence our place cards:

Love it. The happy couple:

And then the Greek dancing began:

Rachel also got in on the dancing action:

Rachel was waaaaaasted:

(She was faking.) Her date, Cody, is my new favorite person. He is right now, as I write this, moving his stuff into my house in Lancaster which he is now renting. AWESOME!

Me and my old bud:

And the bride and I:

I love the early wedding! I got home in plenty of time to arrange a hang with Carrie-Anne, Levi, Julie, my mom, Greg, Rachel, and my new favorite renters Cody and Matt. We went to Quips, then checked out the house. The deal was sealed when my dining room window was wide open! For who knows how long! Crazy...

Carrie-Anne reminded me of the last visit with this photo she emailed me:

This was the moped accident we saw. The sign says "It's a Beautiful Day in Our Neighborhood". Nice.

She also sent this:

The Youngest Rider

                My name is Charlie, and I am the youngest rider on the Pony Express.  The other riders call me Young Boy Charlie, because I am only twelve years old, but I have been riding for nearly ten months now, through the blistering heat and freezing cold.  I ride six of more hours a day changing horses each every hour.  I must tell you that yesterday was my most exciting day yet.

                I was riding my favorite horse, Jennie, an excellent pinto and my last horse of the day.  We were crossing a swift stream, when my horse spotted a mountain lion.  Jennie reared up in fright, nearly knocking me off.  Fortunately, that scared the mountain lion away.

                I regained my balance, but the leather pack I was carrying fell into the stream.  That pack holds all the mail, and it is my job to pass it to the next rider.  I jumped off Jennie and ran down to the bank, looking for the pack………….

Ok. Now imagine a fourth grader reading this passage at warp speed, replacing the word "horse" with another word... one that was written on the inside cover of my high school biology book spelled "Hore". HilARious!

I leave you with the artwork of the second graders I work with. They are blabberizing some plant-related careers. Here are some of my favorites. See if you can guess the occupation: