Weekending and a Little Bit About Life Lately

For those of you who know me well (and even those of you who don't know me well, but are getting to know me through this little old blog I have going on here), I am pretty sure you have realized that life for us has been a whirlwind recently.  While I wouldn't change things for anything, every so often I wish we had a little bit of a chance to breathe and just enjoy being married and spending time together.  The past two weeks we have been on the go CONSTANTLY and life doesn't look like it is going to slow down any time soon.  But as everyone keeps telling me, now is the time for this... we are young (well I am approaching the big 3-0, but apparently that is still young), we don't have kids, we have the vacation time (well M does... working in the restaurant business I can take off whatever days I want, I just don't get paid if I don't work), and we have the ability to do things like travel, visit friends, go to weddings, etc.  I just worry sometimes that with our busy lives somehow other parts of life are going to pass us by.

These past two weekends have been filled with weddings as well as celebrating our very first wedding anniversary... so enough with me being a bit stressed and a bit of a Debbie Downer (sorry, I am just pretty exhausted from working a 17.5 hour shift yesterday... yes I was scheduled 17.5 hours... and I think my body is just in shock from sheer exhaustion)... on to all the amazingly fun stuff that has been going on in our lives recently!

On October 17th we got up fairly early (well early for the girl that got home from work at 3am) to head up to the Finger Lakes to celebrate our anniversary along with the marriage of one of my sorority sisters, RG, to her soul mate, MK.  Along the way to Auburn, NY we made a stop in Ithaca to hit up Ithaca Brewing Company to get our anniversary weekend started right.  Of course I got a beer flight so that I could maximize my tasting of beer and we had a delicious lunch as well.  We also got some stickers and key chains from the manager as they had overheard us talking (& toasting each other) to our first wedding anniversary!

This is how my hubby feels about being married to me for a year!

After a delicious lunch and some even more delicious beer, we headed to our hotel to relax for a bit, to grab some dinner and to get a good night of sleep before RG's big day.  Of course on Saturday we needed to find something to do until the wedding, so we did what any normal Bucknellian would do.  We grabbed a greasy breakfast at the local diner and headed out to visit a few wineries/do some wine tastings before the wedding ceremony.

The only redeeming thing about the one winery was the orange and blue rocking chairs which of course as Bucknellians we had to sit in for pictures!

RG's wedding was simply amazing.  The ceremony was adorable... I am pretty sure that the flower girls stole the show (sorry R... but they were just so cute and they walked down the aisle to the frozen song) and the bride looked absolutely STUNNING.  Plus it was obviously amazing to get to see RG marry the love of her life!  It was great getting to be with so many Bucknellians and Chi Omegas who I love dearly and don't get to see nearly enough as we live all over the East Coast.  We had such a great time drinking and dancing the night away... I hadn't had that much fun in a long time!

Beautiful setting for a wedding!

You May Kiss the Bride!

Chi Omega sisters at RG's wedding

Sunday was M and my One Year Wedding Anniversary and we had a day full of visiting wineries and breweries planned to celebrate it.  We got our our trusty Senaca Lake Wine Trail map and headed out to start visiting some wineries.  We spent the day just driving up the lake stopping at whatever wineries we thought sounded interesting.  We ended the day with a wine tasting at the Belhurst Castle Winery and then we had a delicious anniversary dinner there.  After dinner we headed back to our hotel to enjoy a Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA (this was what we drank the night we got engaged) along with the top tier of our wedding cake.  I have to say, the wedding cake after being frozen a year wasn't the best, but it also wasn't too terrible.

Diner at the Castle to Celebrate One Year!

Monday we were up bright and early to head back out to visit some more wineries and breweries.  Monday we met a couple who was celebrating their anniversary just like us... only they were celebrating 30 years together!  I wish that we had gotten a picture with them as it was so awesome to see how in love they still were and how much of a great time they were having.

Tuesday came too soon and it was time to head back to reality for a while.  We got home Tuesday night and it was off to work for me.  The only good thing was that I only had 3 more shifts of work to get through before we headed to Camden, NJ and the Battleship NJ for JR & MM's wedding on Saturday.

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day for a wedding.  It was sunny, fairly warm and clear skies all around.  M & I made it to the wedding a little early which meant we had time to take a bunch of pictures on the battleship before the rest of the guests arrived and the ceremony started.  The ceremony was simply amazing.  JR and MM have been together for as long as M and I have, so they have been dreaming of this day for such a long time.  It was amazing to see how well it all came together and I loved all the little details that JR included in the ceremony... from lighting the candles to represent all of their loved ones who are no longer with us, to passing the rings around so all the guests could bless their marriage, to the blending of wine to signify their unity in marriage.  It was just all so them.  After the wedding we all headed over to Adventure Aquarium where we partied with the fish and sharks for their reception.  We managed to take lots of pictures with the sharks in the background and also had a TON of fun with their photobooth!

  

Sunday it was back to reality for me with an entire day filled of work.  Then today M leaves for the UK for a week for work.  While I will miss him sooooo much while he is gone (I don't know how all you military spouses do it, having your loved ones deployed... I am freaking out about 1 week, and you have them gone for months at a time... I seriously commend you for that.  And I am also so grateful for your spouses who have dedicated themselves to serving and protecting our country), I know we have a bunch more fun stuff planned when he gets home... celebrating the 30th birthday of a bunch of my friends, my 30th birthday, Thanksgiving with M's family, Mexico for my cousin's wedding, and whatever else we can fit in in between.  November is going to be another whirlwind of a month, but again, I wouldn't have it any other way!

Today I am linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston and Meghan at Champagnes and Suburbs for their "Weekending" link up!  Head on over and check out both their lovely blogs and see what everyone has been up to this past weekend!

What did you do this weekend?