celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary

 

saturday was our 10 year wedding anniversary, and we celebrated in a really special way . . . we renewed our vows and had a party at a family friend's house!

we gathered with our families for a vow renewal in the garden followed by a party with lots of our favorite foods and the same cake we had as our wedding cake.

we threw together the whole gathering rather quickly, but it came out great.  the entire day was absolutely perfect!  here's a little video with highlights from the day.  

a friend of ours was kind enough to take photos for us.  i can't wait to share those soon!

love, laurie

ten years!

today is our ten year wedding anniversary!  holy cow, where did the last decade go?!

i'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that we were married ten years ago today and that we have been together for sixteen years now! 

we're celebrating our anniversary today in a really special way.  our family is getting together later today for a small backyard vow renewal ceremony!

ryan, you are my very best friend.  i thank the universe every single day that i am able to share my life with you.  you are such an amazing person, and i feel beyond blessed that we're bonded together for eternity.  without a doubt, you are my rock.  together, we are my favorite team.  happy 10 year anniversary, my love!

love, laurie

back to school???

third video this week?  yup, that's where we're at this week. 

my news feed is full of parents trying to decide what is going on with their kids and school for the fall.  it's a crazy time and i feel terrible for parents trying to figure it all out.  the university where i teach is doing part online and part in person, so it has been interesting trying to prepare for that!

the holderness family is keeping us entertained so much lately,  here's their latest video about going back to school in the fall.

have a great weekend!

love, laurie

blueberry recipe roundup

we picked a bunch of blueberries when we went blueberry picking on sunday!  we've enjoyed some on top of vanilla yogurt and on top of vanilla ice cream.  now we have to find some other ways to use them.  here are a few of our favorite blueberry recipes that we've made over the years . . .

- blueberry pie milkshake
- strawberry blueberry yogurt smoothie
- blueberry buttermilk scones
- vegan blueberry cornmeal waffles
- cornmeal waffles with blueberry compote
- lemon poppy seed crepes with lemon blueberry cream cheese filling

enjoy!

love, laurie

"zoom zoom"

if you pay any attention to car commercials, you likely know that mazda's slogan has been "zoom zoom" for quite a long time.  between us, ryan and i have owned 3 different mazda suvs over the years.  we have several "zoom zoom" stickers that mazda has given us with our car purchases.  i always thought it was a cute slogan, but didn't know that "zoom" would take on such a different meaning in 2020.

my work hours are consumed with so many zoom meetings for both the theatre where i work and the university where i teach.  anyone who has spent any amount of time zooming with coworkers knows that it can be both frustrating and entertaining.  i got a good laugh when saturday night live did this skit on their show back in the early spring about coworkers on zoom . . .

more recently, the holderness family came out with a taylor swift parody video about zoom.  it gave me a good laugh as i get ready to hop on yet another zoom meeting this morning . . . 

happy zooming!
love, laurie

"hypochondriac" parody

the holderness family is at it again with another funny video.  their videos are what's getting me through this crazy time.  here's their parody to "she's a maniac" about hypochondriacs!

love, laurie

blueberry picking

we always enjoy going to local farms in the summer to go berry picking.  we didn't get to go at all last year, and this year we weren't able to make it during the weeks that strawberries were available for picking.  so, we were happy to be able to get to a blueberry farm this weekend to go blueberry picking.

the first time we went blueberry picking at paupack blueberry farm, we got a bunch of berries, but the last time we visited, we hardly got enough to cover the bottom of our bucket.  so, we were really pleased to find an abundance of blueberries this year and we were able to fill our buckets full!

it was a warm morning, but the breeze was refreshing.  it was nice to get outside and escape for a little bit in the blueberry fields.  a few pictures from our picking adventures . . .

when we got home, leko had to inspect our blueberry bucket.  of course we didn't let him get too close to them, because we didn't want his fur to get stained from the berries!

love, laurie

snapshots of life lately . . .

a few photos of . . . a political event that ryan worked as a stagehand, selling tickets outside at a local dance company for their recitals (which all had to be canceled due to the stupid restrictions on indoor events now), a bird who came to visit on our porch railing, ryan's parents' cat pepper in my parents' cooler, an ice cream date after a very hot and long bike ride, and buy one get one free salads for dinner on a hot day from our favorite salad place.

love, laurie

crabby

my parents bought this stuffed orange crab for leko last year.  over the weekend, he was in a crabby mood, so i pulled out mr. crab.  (i would be crabby too if i had to wear that fur coat in 95 degree weather during a several-day heatwave. 

i had to laugh at how he had mr. crab balancing on his paws.  what a silly guy!

love, laurie

a visit from a butterfly

when we were at ryan's parents' house on friday, ryan was walking around their yard when he came upon a butterfly perched on top of a flower.  he was able to snap a few pictures of it before it flew away . . .

love, laurie