Aaron & Shannon's Wedding

This past Thursday, Dan picked me up from class at 5 and we headed east-bound to Maryland. It was a beautiful ride as all of the trees through eastern Ohio and West Virginia were changing colors. We drove to Dan's parents house in northern MD and arrived around 1:30 am. Kat (Dan's sister) was there waiting for us! It was nice to see her and catch up a bit that night. Friday, we woke up and drove over to get Dan's cars emissions tested (because the car is still registered in Maryland, it still requires the test). But it is crazy because Ohio does not mandate emissions testing, so the closest test site in Ohio is in Cleveland (about 3 hours away)...that is why we had to wait until we came back to visit MD. Well, it was super fast and painless...so no hard feelings, Ohio.

For lunch, Gran and Pop came over (along with Aunt Barbara). It was nice to see everyone and catch up. We just hung out for the rest of the day at Dan's parents playing volleyball and Frisbee. It was super fun. Later that evening, Dan's mom left to run a race in New York. After she left, Dan's dad, Kat, Nate, and Dan and I all headed over to get sushi for dinner. It was delicious and even Kat tried some (AND LIKED IT!). We were all very proud of her :)

Saturday was Aaron and Shannon's big day! Aaron was one of Dan's groomsmen in our wedding and they have been friends since high school. The wedding was held in Susquehannok State Park in Pennsylvania. It was a chilly, breezy fall day, but the view from the wedding site was absolutely beautiful! We also got to see most of our best friends for the first time since our wedding. It was so nice to see everyone. The wedding was very laid back, so we even got to play horseshoes. We had a great time!

After the wedding, many of our friends made the trek over to Duclaw's in Bel Air. We had some great food and just had a great time catching up with everyone and hanging out a bit more. We then said our goodbyes and headed back to Dan's parents house. Dan had fun playing Wii with his Dad and brother when we returned.

Sunday morning we packed up and said goodbye to Dan's family and headed down to Shady Side. Uncle Larry and Aunt Mo came down for crabs that night. The boys did a great job cooking them...they were absolutely delicious! We had fun hanging out with everyone and watching the Orioles (even though they lost).

Monday came way too fast and we were back in the car headed home to Ohio. It was a rainy drive home, but we made it back safely. Ron was very happy to see us!

We had a great Maryland weekend! Congratulations Aaron and Shannon!

The Last Four Months

Welcome to my first blog post ever! I hope that this blog will help to keep everyone updated on what Dan and I are up to out here in Ohio. This post will be rather long because I have 4 months of stuff to catch you guys up on. So here it goes...

Well, Dan and I got married on June 9th of this year. It was a gorgeous, perfect, family centered day. We had an outdoor ceremony at our incredible family friend's house, and an outdoor reception. It was a blast and a blessing to have our family and friends with us on that day.

The day after the wedding, Dan and I helped to clean up from the evening's festivities, finished packing my stuff up in the rental truck, and headed off to Ohio. We drove straight through (well, Dan did) and arrived at our house around 2 a.m. on June 11th. I immediately started decorating and making the house our home.

Dan went back to work the following Monday and I started Graduate School at Wright State University the day after! I really just went into the office a few days that week to get ready for my research trip to Wisconsin. Yes, two weeks after our wedding, I headed up to Wisconsin for two weeks. I got to do a bit of forest sampling and learned a lot about the plant life up in WI. The trip was fun and interesting but I was very glad to get home. Since then, I have started classes and begun my preliminary research for my thesis.

At the end of July, Dan and I got to go up to Washington, near Tacoma. He had to go up there for business, but I was able to tag along. It was the best trip of my entire life! Although Dan had to work most weekdays, we had three full weekends and lots of evenings to explore the area.

The first weekend we were there, we drove around and stumbled on this amazing beach on the South of Puget Sound. It was absolutely beautiful and we had a great time just looking around and taking pictures.

We then found this amazing park! I was BLOWN AWAY by the size of the trees and how pre-historic everything looked! I was in heaven!

Later in the trip, we got to visit Greg in Seattle! Greg was Dan's best man and had just moved to the Pacific Northwest. We had so much fun in Seattle and got to visit Pike Place Market, the Gum Wall, and we even got to take a ferry ride. It was really neat to see the whole city from that perspective.

Then we explored a temperate rainforest in the Olympic National Forest. Oh my goodness! Temperate Rainforest is one of the most rare ecosystems in the whole world...and we got to hang out in one all day! The trees were so big and beautiful and everything was dripping with moss. Amazing! Later that day, we drove to the Pacific Ocean. It was the first time that either of us had ever seen it. It was really cold.

Out last big adventure in the Pacific Northwest was to Mt. Rainier National Park. We had to drive over 40 minutes on a dirt/gravel road just to get to the park. But it was so worth it! We decided to do a 7 mile hike up to a fire-look-out. The hike was difficult but soooo worth it. It was an absolute blast!

Since our Pacific Northwest Trip, things have been going well! I have been taking classes, doing lots of reading, and just going through grad school. Dan has been working, and doing the AF thing. We just started playing in an indoor volleyball league and that has been a really good time. We are going home to Maryland this weekend for Aaron and Shannon's wedding! We are excited to see both of our families and our friends!

I will have another update soon!