It's certainly hard to believe, but Erin and I celebrated our first year of marriage last weekend! We had a fantastic, restful weekend to rest, reflect, and rejoice.
First we made a road trip up to Mount Mitchell for some fantastic views. Erin mentioned in her last post that we recently purchased a grown-up camera, so she was really excited to take it out for a spin. Despite threats of stormy weather, everything was perfect. We did have some pretty intense clouds that tried to take over, blocking some views. But they made up for it by being beautiful themselves. Here's some of our favorite pictures:
From there we made our way to Asheville where we stayed at a really neat hotel. We had a fancy room and an incredible dinner, helping us relieve that fantastic honeymoon cruise for the night!
And the next morning we drove across the street to see the Biltmore House. Any Downton Abbey fans out there? Surely this is the best way to experience that place first hand without traveling across the ocean. Some incredible history there. We got to see the house and took one of the "behind-the-scenes" tours to see a little bit extra about how the house's servants got along. Very cool. After that we got in some more camera practice in the garden. And lastly we took a tour of their winery. I highly recommend doing that with a Chemical Engineer, they ask good questions and notice interesting things. I think Erin could probably run the place. Anyways, more pictures:
So that's that folks. One year down. It really has been a fantastic time. We had a fun time over dinner talking about how the last year has been... Favorite moments, biggest surprises, hardest challenges... (If you're reading this you probably know how good Erin is at finding great questions) And even the worst of it can't pull a smile from my face. Don't get me wrong- our first year wasn't a fairy tale. We do live in the real world. All the little novelties that come with marriage don't last, and we find fewer as time goes by. She gets cranky. I get selfish. We don't always agree and we don't always know what to do about it. But he truth is, no matter how rough things COULD have been, we would still be happy to honor God with our commitments. That is all we want. Which means that the last year has been a perfect example of "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine."
We're excited to see what year two holds!
First we made a road trip up to Mount Mitchell for some fantastic views. Erin mentioned in her last post that we recently purchased a grown-up camera, so she was really excited to take it out for a spin. Despite threats of stormy weather, everything was perfect. We did have some pretty intense clouds that tried to take over, blocking some views. But they made up for it by being beautiful themselves. Here's some of our favorite pictures:
From there we made our way to Asheville where we stayed at a really neat hotel. We had a fancy room and an incredible dinner, helping us relieve that fantastic honeymoon cruise for the night!
And the next morning we drove across the street to see the Biltmore House. Any Downton Abbey fans out there? Surely this is the best way to experience that place first hand without traveling across the ocean. Some incredible history there. We got to see the house and took one of the "behind-the-scenes" tours to see a little bit extra about how the house's servants got along. Very cool. After that we got in some more camera practice in the garden. And lastly we took a tour of their winery. I highly recommend doing that with a Chemical Engineer, they ask good questions and notice interesting things. I think Erin could probably run the place. Anyways, more pictures:
So that's that folks. One year down. It really has been a fantastic time. We had a fun time over dinner talking about how the last year has been... Favorite moments, biggest surprises, hardest challenges... (If you're reading this you probably know how good Erin is at finding great questions) And even the worst of it can't pull a smile from my face. Don't get me wrong- our first year wasn't a fairy tale. We do live in the real world. All the little novelties that come with marriage don't last, and we find fewer as time goes by. She gets cranky. I get selfish. We don't always agree and we don't always know what to do about it. But he truth is, no matter how rough things COULD have been, we would still be happy to honor God with our commitments. That is all we want. Which means that the last year has been a perfect example of "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine."
We're excited to see what year two holds!
