Vacation #1

Right when school let out (actually a day after to be exact), the family headed down to Tampa for the wedding of one of my brother's longtime friends. We stayed in the hotel that they got married at so we were able to enjoy a walk on the beach in the morning followed by breakfast on the beach. After a quick change, we were able to go downstairs to the wedding. Can't beat the view!

All of the family together

As soon as we got done (except for Daniel, he had to stay longer since he was in the wedding), we headed out to the beach to soak in as much sun as possible on this unfortunately short trip.


Look how cute the hubs is!

Made a friend on the beach. I have a serious problem with birds and this one wasn't going away. He did remind me of the bird from the Pigeon book series although I clearly know he's a seagull.

After hours at the beach and by the pool, we had to find some local ice cream. It was delish!

The next morning was the day we had to go home (told ya it was quick!) and my parents offered to pay for Mark and I to go parasailing. Mark and I had gone years before separately, but we were so excited to go again and take it all in.

I didn't put any pictures in of us high in the sky because we were just tiny specks. That had us up between 500 & 600 ft. It was so beautiful and peaceful up there! We could see the entire bay area and it was the perfect way to end our trip to FL.

On the way out, we saw this while walking down the beach and I just had to get a picture! Doesn't it look like a postcard???

We had a great time. I'd love to go back again and stay much longer!

Mr. and Mrs. Hurst- June 5, 2009

Oh my gosh, the highlight of my summer was Em and Chris' wedding! As I've stated before, Chris is Mark's best friend and obviously E is mine. This wedding was a dream come true for Mark and I because we know how happy our friends are and as we joke, we always have a built-in double date.

I was a little too busy the day before and the day of to take pictures, but I am including some of the pictures from the rehearsal and wedding taken by the photographer, Mary Lashbrook. You can look at her other photos here.

The rehearsal was at Talon and the dinner was supposed to be at Jacobson Park where we'd eat Fazoli's and play wiffle ball. It poured that day, so we moved it all to church and it turned out great! Here's some pics of all of us playing ball.

Glen was the champ when he slid into home!

I was speechless!


The wedding was at Talon and it was the most beautiful day! The clouds looked like cotton candy and there was a cool breeze throughout the ceremony. At one point, this flock of geese flew in V formation over the ceremony and it was just breathtaking looking over the lake. The wedding was so personal and so unique and it's just so obvious how much they love one another! I just absolutely loved it and cried through the entire thing! It was so great to look over and see my amazing husband on the other side and it reminded me what a lucky woman I am to have married such a wonderful man 5 years ago.

I will say that it was unfortunate for Jen as she stood in an ant hill for the entire 40 min ceremony. At one point, I looked over and she had approximately 15 red ants crawling all over her legs and through her toes. Yikes!

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Hurst

I'm also including a couple videos from the wedding that my brother filmed and edited as the videographer. I'm telling you, he has a gift! So great!

This first video is the beginning of the wedding.

This second video is during the song and the unity art done by Amy Cranfill. You can see the geese about 35 seconds into this video.

April-Bachelorette Party

No excuse for how lazy I've been, just haven't had time to blog. But I thought I'd highlight the last few months since SO MUCH has happened!

I'll start with E's bachelorette party. I planned a trip to Cincy because it's her favorite city and I centered our trip around a Reds game (because my girl loves her Redlegs). We enjoyed a Reds-Braves game (even though they lost) and a night at Hofbrauhaus and Jefferson Hall for some fine dancing. Here's just a few pics from the night.

Our bride-to-be.

I made the shirt and Erica made the hat.

Allie, Erica, and Em

Jen, Diva B, MJ, and me
taking the bus over to the game

All of us with Mr. Redlegs

Em brought us all gift bags and in them, we each got a gorgeous ring!

Here they are in all their glory. Note that E's shines the brightest!

Wedding Coming Soon...

This weekend, since Em was feeling on the up and up, we were able to work on some of the wedding stuff. The project of the day was to prepare the centerpieces for the tables as much as possible.

Em is using glass jars that she got off freecycle.org and filling them with all sorts of stuff. We had a little hot tub party for all the jars as we waited for most of the adhesive and labels to get soft. We transported, soaked, peeled, organized, and prepped 57 glass jars yesterday.

Here is a preview of what one may see at the wedding.

The bride-to-be hard at work!

On a side note, my dress is paid for in full and I am awaiting it's arrival in the next couple weeks. I can't wait to see how good they look!

47 days and counting...

Bridal Shower

So, my mom and I had the honor of throwing Em her very first bridal shower. Many moons ago, Em and her mom threw a shower for me, my family, and all sorts of friends from church. This shower was a way for us to repay the favor!

I really enjoyed getting all of the food prepared as well as buying shower prizes for the occasion wth my mom. Because of Em's intense love of all things game related, I created a game based off Scattegories. I came up with 30 categories (10 questions for 3 rounds) that centered around weddings/married life/Emily and Chris.

We also played a game where people got points for each item they had in their purse. There were some regular items on the list and some not so regular. All of these things were things that I have seen one time or another in Em's purse. Some of the funny ones were a snack, a highlighter, a deck of cards, and nail polish.

Lastly, we played a game-or I should say Em played and we watched-where Emily had to answer questions about Chris. Chris had answered these questions previous to the shower. For each answer that Em got wrong, she had to chew a piece of bubble gum. She did pretty well, but still managed to accumulate quite a wad by the time we were done.

Overall, we had a great time with a great turnout. Em got some great gifts for around the clock (the gift theme) and was a beautiful bride-to-be despite enduring through what would later be revealed as a double ear infection and laryngitis. Such a trooper!

The super cute plates and napkins

My cupcakes matched the plates and napkins

The whole spread

She'll probablykill me for this one, but the bride-to-be with a ton of gum in her mouth. At least I got the kind she liked.

Opening gifts

Me, Em, and Erica

(2 out of the 3 bridesmaids)

Em and I

With our moms

The happy couple

4 Years and Counting....

Today is mine and Mark's 4th anniversary. It is so hard to believe that we've been married for 4 years, but it is so neat to go back and look through our marriage. There have been ups and downs, but I can say with 110% of my heart that I married my best friend and my soulmate. God has blessed me with the funniest, kindest, most unique man. I am so proud to call him my husband.

I thought I'd commemorate the last 4 years with pictures from each of our anniversaries!

This one was actually from our honeymoon in the Maya Riviera. We had such a great time together and we were just embarking on our new life together. We're such babies in this picture!

We spent our 1st anniversary in Gatlinburg in a great cabin for 2 nights. I remember how exciting it was to reach the 1 year mark!

We spent our 2nd anniversary in Cincinnati. We went to the Melting Pot (this was before it was in Lexington). We had a great time together!

For our 3rd anniversary, I suggested staying in Cincinnati again and getting tickets to the Bengals game (Mark was happy to oblige). We stayed on the river and went to the Hofbrauhaus on Saturday then the game on Sunday. This was one of my favorites to date!

This is obviously not from our 4th anniversary, but I thought I'd include it since it's a picture of our family to date. This year, Mark and I will be going to Cincinnati again (do you see a recurring theme???). We plan on spending the weekend away from work and school to just enjoy each other's company. We're planning on hitting up some museums (we realize that we are geeks...), staying the night at the Hyatt Place (an anniversary gift from my parents), and going to church at our favorite church which just so happens to also be called Crossroads. My brother goes to this church and Mark and I try to go at least once a month. We're going out to eat together tonight before watching the Bengals-Steelers game. I think the best anniversary present would be to see the Bengals win...I'm not holding my breath.

Who knows what will happen in this upcoming year. I'm excited already to start our 5th year!

Congrats to Jason and Karen Ragland!

One of Mark's friends from high school got married this weekend and we were honored to attend.

(Don't let the knife deceive you...they are happy together!)

I absolutely LOVED the cake and thought I'd post it on here for Ami who enjoys creating and decorating cakes. It was very yummy too!

I had so much fun with Mark during this wedding. At the reception, we had our own little table and I know I loved just spending time and laughing with him.

The night before, Mark and I needed to purchase a gift. We could not find a registry so we ended up creating our own gift basket for the happy couple. I started getting ideas and Mark helped me out a ton. We decided on a wine basket with glasses, ice bucket, corkscrew, candles, napkins with rings, and a nice bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz to top it off.

Here's a picture of our final product: