Summertime Pictures

Here's a few things that can only happen during the summer around home...

Mom made some sun tea

 Made some wedding signs out of 150 year-old barn siding

Played around with huge donuts at Vacation Bible School

Maiden Braids

I'm always looking for super easy and creative ways to do my hair. I'm usually at school by 7 am, so I'm all about a 5-10 minute hairdo. I found a maiden braid tutorial through one of the blogs I follow (it's becoming a part time job to stay up on all of them) and have used it quite a bit lately. Go here to learn!

One last look at Disney

Here's some of my favorite memories from our trip. It was a wonderful "last vacation" for the four of us. But not to worry, Jake's been bitten by the Disney bug, so I'm looking forward to more trips and memories to be made with him. :)

 Dad and the girls with the castle

Multi-cultural Mickey ears

Jack Sparrow and the Mad Hatter (....or, Dad and Mom)

Exploring Morocco

Best chocolate box EVER (for a Spanish teacher, at least)

Night time parade

Disney Friends

My seven-year-old self was squealing with joy during this Disney trip. Ok, my twenty-five-year-old self may have been joining along. Why, you ask? We somehow came across more Disney characters in the past week than I've seen in my last free visits combined. Too bad I left my character autograph book (which I bought when I was five) at home...

Pooh and Tigger

 Salute! Army guy from Toy Story

Snow White

 Sleeping Beauty

Ariel (she's kind of my favorite)

Belle (she's going to be Cinderella's neighbor soon with her own castle!)

Greetings from Disney!

We're back! The family and I had an amazing Disney World trip. Most definitely one of my favorites. I'll explain our trip in small chunks over this week. We really started off with a bang:

As soon as we checked in to the Contemporary Resort, music started playing and "Cast Members" (that's what all Disney employees are called) came out of the back room with balloons. We then found out we were picked to be the "Family of the Day," hand-picked by Mickey himself. :) What does this family do, you may ask? Well, we were then escorted to our new digs; a high-end room with our own concierge, and a beautiful view of the Magic Kingdom. I don't think I've ever seen my Dad so excited!

Finding out we're "Family of the Day"

 Kels with our fun concierge

 Our 12th floor lounge

 The view from our floor

 Our room

 Our balcony

 The view from our room

Be Back Soon!

The family and I are taking a trip to our favorite place in the entire world: Disney World! I won't be posting for a few days, but I'll be back soon with all kinds of pictures from our trip. :)

House of Heroes Concert

Holy moly, I had a great night last night. Miss Aud, Miss Kelly, and I headed to The 86 Club to see one of my very favorites, House of Heroes. They always put on an amazing show and are so willing to talk with fans afterward. They really make it a great experience. They come highly recommended!

Aud and I with Jared

HOH with Kelly, Aud, and I (and a photobomb!)

I'll try to post a few HOH videos from the concert very soon!

Just call me farmer Kik

We got a whole lotta wedding errands accomplished today! Mom, Grandma, and I headed to Kenwood to search for a dress for Grandma. She picked out a cute gold number that's perfect for my fall wedding. Then, we stumbled upon the best sale EVER in the men's department. Buy one, get one free dress shirts and ties for the entire wedding party and Jake. It was magical. Mad props to mom for dealing with the store in New York that had the rest of the ties I needed!

In other news...the heat index went down to a tolerable level, so Jake and I FINALLY planted our garden over the weekend. Like I said, our goal is to simply harvest a little something from the garden. We'll see how it goes, but we're feeling pretty accomplished at the moment. :)

Friends and Wedding Planning

Miss Erin and Miss Aud stopped by tonight for some wedding hair preparations (for Erin's wedding), invitation consultation (for my wedding), and to complete one of my summer goals: make a homemade pizza! We had to add some strawberries and nutella in for good measure. It was a great night. Here we are in action:

family, wedding, art, wedding...in that order

Mr. Jake and I just got back from a weekend in Dayton to celebrate my friend/coworker Hilary's wedding. Since we were in the area, we went a day early to visit with Jake's parents and little sister, Calista. We ate lots of chocolate pie, steak, and cinnamon rolls. I think I'm STILL stuffed from Teresa's cooking. This picture just about sums up our visit.

Hilary's wedding was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. It definitely had her touch all over the details. Her dress, hair, etc. looked perfect. Congrats, Hil and Rob!
We had some time to kill in between the wedding and reception, so we were lucky enough to see the Dayton Art Institute right across the street from the reception hall. We spent a couple of hours looking through the galleries; something I've been wanting to do at the Cincy Art Museum for a while now. Jake and I really enjoyed ourselves. Unfortunately, I don't have any wedding pics to share, but here's some of the paintings we found at the Art Institute.

Claude Monet

Georgia O'Keeffe

Browsing the artwork

This was one of my favorites!

Turkey Talk

Look what I found out about this guy (check the third one down)...

Yep, sounds about right. :)

Flea Market and Bluegrass

Mom and I headed to the Brookville Flea Market bright and early this morning. We always leave with something-whether we really need it or not. I brought home some peach cider, a skeleton key, and a cool wooden box I'm sure I'll find some use for. Highlight of the trip? Catching the weekly flea market bluegrass concert, complete with a spoon player. Awesome. :)

This is why I love the flea market