Florida

I realized the other day that Andrew and I have not taken a single trip to Florida since we have been married 'just because.' We have taken many trips, but they always have been tied to an event or special occasion. We've never gone solely for the purpose of having a vacation....until now. :) 

We had a WONDERFUL and very relaxing week at home. Our days were mostly spent enjoying the beautiful Florida sunshine, spending time with family, and catching up with friends. I personally loved getting to spend every day with my husband... it's not very often that I get to do that. :)

We flew in late friday night. Traditionally, my dad takes me to Starbucks first before going home. But since it was closed by the time we got in, we had to wait until Saturday morning. This is what was awaiting us when we walked in the door from the Starbucks crew. :)

We spent a day over at the beach. Andrew and my brother, Bryce, had a lot of fun taking the paddle boards into the ocean and surfing. They waves were too big for me to even consider trying it... so I sat on the beach and watched the boys. And played frisbee with friends. 

Don't know what a paddle board is?? Well here's the answer to your question! These beautiful things are paddle boards. They are very similar to a surf board, but are longer so you can stand on them and balance. 

Like so... 

My dog is awesome. Like seriously, awesome. Yes, she really will sit on the front of the board and ride around like a happy little puppy. She loves it! I love watching people on boats and jet-skis do double takes, and people on shore point as we paddled by. My dog really is the greatest dog ever. :)

Andrew and I went on a mini trip across lake butler one day.

My genius dad put his iHome speaker system in that little yellow bag with my iPod attached to it. So as we paddled, we could also listen to music! So cool! 

It was hottttttt! So we randomly took breaks in the middle of the lake and thanks to a waterproof digital camera, we could document our trip, even from the water! Technology these days... what will they think of next?

We paddled all the way across the lake to an island just off the opposite shore called, Bird Island. It has a sand bottom almost 20 ft out because of all the boats and people that come there. 

Another break

Many evenings were spent out on the dock with our lines in the water. There's just something relaxing about fishing. 

A summer storm coming across the lake.

"But I trust in Your unfailing love my heart rejoices in Your salvation.

 I will sing the Lord's praise, for He has been good to me."

Psalm 13:5-6

Oh hi.

I have a blog? I forgot. My bad. :)

Our summer has been so full and busy, I just haven't had time to sit down and blog about it. Let seee... since I last blogged, we went out of town for work at least 5 more times, I went to Florida, attended 4 weddings in one months time, was the 2nd shooter at two of those weddings, drove from Florida to Nebraska with my grandparents, with a stop stop in Birmingham, AL to see my cousin and her husband, went to Virginia and met my littlest niece for the first time and helped pack up Dan and Bethany's house, drove cross-country from Virginia to Nebraska, had my family in Nebraska for 10 days over the 4th of July, as well as having ALL of Andrew's family together in Nebraska for the first time in a very long time (lots of fun times together)... went out of town for work again, traveled to the Lake Itasca Music Festival with Andrew's family, and now, we are spending some time down in Florida with my family. Whew.. I told you we've been busy! Plus, Andrew has been putting in 40+ ours a weeks (since this is his slow season ha!) while also working on school, AND putting in 10-15 hours a weeks going out and checking my family's farms. Luckily, I get to go with him for those hours. :)

Here's a few pictures from the summer...

On our flight from Omaha to Washington DC.

We flew in to DC at night. Dan and Bethany picked us up, took us out to dinner, then took us on a mini tour around the capital. It was SO pretty at night! 

We brought Dan and Bethany HOME to Nebraska. Everyone was thrilled to have them back for a few weeks. :)

This little girl was never lacking for attention. :) 

 The last of the 4 weddings in June. Rachel was such a radiant bride! 

 Such a sweet moment.

 Mr. and Mrs. Alan Busenitz.

 My family. <3 p="p">

 Dan and his brother's played in the 3 on 3 tournament on the 4th of July. They played awesome and were so much fun to watch. They ended up taking 2nd. 

 Andrew participated in the strong man competition again this year. The last even was a bus pull, which he pulled 28 ft. What a beast :)

My brother was in the pie eating contest again this year to try and defend his title Pie eating Champion! He won his preliminary round, but fell short in the final. Next year... 

Singing on the 4th. 

My in-laws were honored as the grand marshals of the parade.

Precious little Arianna was worn out after such a full day. 

 Shooting skeet with my family.

Love that guy! <3 p="p">

 We went out to Chances R one night.

And went on a tour of the University of Nebraska Athletic complex. Which was totally awesome. Here, we are standing in the media room, where all the post game interviews take place.

Andrew headed out in the corn field to work on a pivot. 

 Oh, there is never too many pictures of this little cutie! :)

 Last weekend we were in Minnesota at the Lake Itasca Music festival. Look for details from the weekend on the family blog.

There you go... a Super summarized version of the past few months... I could write TONS more... but there are places to go and people to see. Stay tuned for an update from time this week in Florida. :)

Work vacation

We took off driving Friday night with the car pointed west-- our destination? Bridgeport, Nebraska. A tiny little town, at the foot of the Nebraska Sand hills. :)

 Andrew and I started work first thing Saturday morning. The boys were headed out with all of the supplies needed to complete the job, but they would not arrive until 2 or 3 pm. So Andrew (and I helped! :)) started getting the field ready for the irrigation system to be put in. There are so many little things that have to be done before anything can even begin! ...it's amazing.. my husband is amazing. :)

Once the boys arrived, things went into full swing, and even more so than usual as we were trying to beat the rain that was predicted for later that evening. Around 5:00 pm... this was the scene...

These two pictures
were taken at the same time. One I took out the passenger window, and the other out the driver. It was SO cool to see the storm growing, and getting darker and moving towards us. It was a very bad storm, it had hail, tornado's and 60+mph winds with it. But the Lord was gracious and the storm split down the middle, and basically went around us. (We saw that happen too. Instead of being east and west of us, it was north and south.. and we could SEE it moving around us. So cool. God is good!) We were able to get everything done we needed to that day. :)

Sunday we took the day off... and after devotions and watching my awesome Church online, we set out for some adventure. :) Our original plan was to go somewhere in Wyoming or northern Colorado, but These two rocks were about a mile from us, so we decided to climb them instead, and we are SO glad we did. It was totally amazing.

 

 The Big one is Courthouse Rock and the smaller on is Jail Rock... we climbed both.

We took on Courthouse rock first.

 Half way up... Jail Rock.

 Stopped for a pictures with my man half way up. :)

 Annddd then we made it to the top.. which had the most incredible view!

 The boys I got to hang out with all weekend. They were such good sports... even when I held them up from being able to scale the rock in 5 minutes. I tried my best to keep up but when I couldn't, they were nothing but supportive... such gentlemen. :)

 This guy makes me feel like I'm on top of that rock every.single.day. Being his wife makes me smile. :)

 There were lots of bumble bee's at the top... but don't worry, they were the friendliest little things. This one just hung out on Matthias' arm for a good 5 minutes. :) (notice the bee of his forearm)

After climbing Courthouse, we climbed Jail rock.. but I didn't bring my phone with me for that one... It was much steeper (If you can't tell from the picture above) and required a lot more actual climbing, but it was loads of fun!

Monday Tuesday and Wednesday were full work days. The girls came out to help Monday and Tuesday, and everything was finished by Wednesday evening... Andrew and I were the last to leave on Thursday Afternoon after doing a few last minute things and making sure everything was finished. :)

 Tuesday evening, Andrew, Josiah and I went and climbed Courthouse rock again because Josiah wasn't there to do it with us Sunday. Climbing it at sunset was even more amazing that climbing it the first time.

 You can hardly see it in the pictures, but Chimney Rock is to the very right of the bluffs. It was much bigger in real life.

 

My God is AWESOME! 

 

I took so many pictures of the sunsets while we were out there. They were incredible and SO vibrant every night! This was the sunset Wednesday night. I have never seen the sky those colors before. It was so beautiful and lasted for so long. I was reminded of the verses that I shared below. There were so many times over the week that I just stood in awe of my God and His creation. It is truly beautiful.  :)

 "Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world 

stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it 

stood fast."

 Psalms 33:6-9