A Beach Wedding!

I'm back. Mike and I made it home Wednesday late afternoon, after an 8-day trip to beautiful Gulf Coast Florida for my brother, Jason and his fiancee, Kerby's wedding. (only about 3 1/2 of those days were actually spent in Florida, the rest of the time was spent travelling)...

Here are some (well, lots of) pictures & highlights...

• The beautiful wedding on Santa Rosa Beach, of course! It was an absolutely picture-perfect wedding...

The bride with flowergirls and ringbearer (Josiah & Katelyn on the left)

Bride & groom during wedding

Wedding Party (I think Jason is stretching his face muscles)

Bride & groom with Mom, Dad & Grandma

The kids having fun after the wedding - Caleb was covered in sand

Wedding cake

The reception at the Hatmaker rental home

• The gorgeous house that Mom & Dad rented for the special weekend complete with an infinity pool that "dropped off" into the ocean. Just sitting in the house with all of the French doors open to the deck and the ocean breeze coming in was wonderful. The pictures don't do the house justice - I mean, it could have easily made it into a Better Homes & Gardens magazine...


The view off our back deck



Mike in the "infinity" pool nearing sunset

• Being there with family to celebrate - Mom & Dad, my siblings, my niece and nephews, my grandma, great Aunt Wanda, aunt, uncle and cousin - some of whom we don't see very often - we are so glad all of you were there...


Sorry, Keith, you were so busy being a photographer that I only have this funny one



Can we say that Caleb loved the sand & the water? - so cute to see him "reaching out" to the waves

• The "extra" time Mike and I stayed on Sunday at Destin to enjoy the beach a little longer - we took about a 5-mile walk along the beach and then just relaxed trying to "soak in" as much of the beach as we could - ahhhh, priceless...

• And, the adventure of our 1st Amtrak trip. (A little fun thing was that Mike's aunt & uncle waved and held up a sign "Hi, Mike and Jen" as we went by in Maryland - unfortunately we passed them so quickly the video didn't turn out very well.) We did get to see some great fall leaves in Eastern and Central PA on our way home as well. We enjoyed it and would do it again, although if I had the choice between taking the train or spending an extra 2-3 days on the beach...I'd pick the beach...

The sunrise on the 1st day of our vacation driving on I-80 in PA

The beautiful fall colors back in PA returning home

Congratulations, Jason & Kerby! This was a precious time for you both, but it was also a special memory for all of us!!!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

This will be posting as we are on our way to Florida for my brother Jason's wedding... Most of my family is flying...and my mom and dad are driving (they are retired and just may decide to take a side-trip on the way home)..and Mike and I are taking the train... We've talked about taking the train somewhere before, so we decided to take this opportunity to try it. It will be a long trip - the most of 2 days getting there and 2 days to get home, but we are hoping it turns out to be an enjoyable adventure. (I hope we have some views out our window like in this picture at some point, maybe on our way home) I have a few things scheduled to post while we are gone, and hopefully I will have lots of pictures and thoughts about our adventure to post when we return home...

Our Family Vacation to Gettysburg

We got home yesterday from our vacation to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

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We were there over the Independence Day weekend and got to experience the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

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There were about 13,000 reenactors there for the celebration. We had tickets for the reenactment on Saturday. It was awesome! The field was permeated with Union and Confederate brigades, horses and canons. There was an added realistic element of fear when one of the horses got spooked and ran full speed across the field without its rider. These soldiers really are serious and also make sacrifices to do this - they stopped the reenactment a couple of times for medical emergencies - it's very easy to get dehydrated and suffer heat exhaustion in a head-to-toe wool uniform. It really makes you appreciate the high price that some have paid for our freedom. My videos did not turn out as well as I had hoped because I was not able to zoom in enough but there are some good videos on YouTube if you search under "Gettysburg 145th reenactment".

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They also had a "living history" area where the reenactors really live like they did in the 1860s. I loved talking with the reenactors - you really get to learn a lot. I learned about the Sanitary Commission, the Christian Commission and how they first started embalming the dead soldiers, just to name a few things. We also attended a Tent Revival church service on Saturday evening.

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Monday and Tuesday Mike went golfing with my dad and my brother. You can see the back of our house at the edge of the golf course in this picture. We stayed at a rental home owned by Dale Gallon, a local artist who does civil war paintings. Mom, Kerby and I went into town, walked through the shops and toured the Shriver House while they were golfing.

Other highlights from the week include:

-Getting our pictures taken in period clothing with Mom, Dad, Kerby and Jason (Mike looks so cute as a soldier boy)

-Touring the museum at the new Visitor's Center (excellent!)

-Taking the auto tour and stopping at Devil's Den and Little Round Top and watching the kids climb on the rocks and the canons

-Adventure golf, billiards, Charades, the dice game, Uno, and watching Josiah and "Poppa" have pretend battles with Josiah's soldier men

-Driving around Adams County and visiting a winery and some orchards (I got some cherries and made a yummy pie yesterday)

-And, of course, just spending time with my family and having fun with the kids...

This is all of us together in the house: