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what is one to do when one's friends uninvite them on the trip that was supposed to be happening that day?
if you are fortunate enough to have the best parents in the world like me, then you just hop on the next flight home and celebrate the occasion in even better company and fashion.
while in zona, we: packed in as much quality time with family and friends as possible; squeezed in a bit more summer on the family boat; ate at our favorite restaurants in the world: pita jungle & mint thai cafe; attended our dearly missed home church; remembered why we miss living there so stinking much.
i made the mistake of jokingly calling ryan this. don't worry, i already know how mean i am. but i guess i feel like i can joke like that since i always gush about how much i love my husband. it's really no secret how great i think he is. it's just that he's getting so old.
today just so happens to be his birthday. and we are thrilled to be spending it in arizona with some of our best friends, obviously my super rad family, and of course, the birthday meal TRIFECTA. seriously thank you, joe.
i'll share pictures of our unbelievably last-minute yet incredibly special trip later this week. but for now, i'll reflect on our celebration last year that involved a canoe, a legit picnic basket, and fancy glass goblets.
happy birthday to my gem of a husband [whose work was so kindly featured here recently]. i really could not be more proud or in LOVE.
prior to nashville dropping 50 degrees in one day, we had a beautiful, sunny saturday that was too hot to enjoy without some sort of water involved. so we took the whole bernal clan down the harpeth river c/o canoe music city. the last time we went was on ryan's 25th birthday almost exactly one year ago and it was just as peaceful and relaxing as we remembered. we keep missing the "prime" season for canoeing around here so i'm starting to wonder if rapids even exist in nashville?
the rest of the labor day weekend was spent eating delicious food [surprise, surprise] and antique shopping. we are becoming so spoiled we don't know what to do with ourselves without our beloved parents or siblings around. it's a good thing the holidays aren't too far away.
last year over the labor day weekend, we traveled to lynchburg to celebrate my lovely friend leslie's marriage.
i still can't get over the fact that the two of us have been friends since we were in diapers. all the way from our throwing-books-in-the-pool stage through undergraduate school at liberty. & as if we weren't keeping it real enough, we both got engaged and married in the same year as each other.
i guess at this rate, we basically HAVE to plan our childbearing years around each other's timelines.
boy, do we know how to show our company a good time. last time my parents came to nashville, they helped us paint our entire house. then ryan's mom and sister come down and spend a whole weekend packing our entire house. fast forward to my parent's most recent visit, where they landscaped our entire yard with us. it's a good thing nashville has great, local restaurants and shops :]
i know i'm not biased or anything, but i seriously think i am the luckiest girl alive to be raised by such loving, giving, fun, Godly people. i am so thankful for the time we had together and am praying that one day we won't be separated by so many miles.
a few weekends ago, my dear friend leslie came to visit. she had the luxury of sleeping on our air mattress and memory-foam topper, nestled right between the drums and the guitar filled closet. while we may not have the ideal studio setup and certainly not the most conducive guestroom, we are thrilled with our new home in our adorable neighborhood and cannot wait to have more visitors
::come visit us::
we packed her one fleeting day with everything we love about nashville so far-- its quirky little festivals (tomato fest), its delicious restaurants (silly goose & burger up), and its bike-ability (i think i just made that word up). we had a really sweet time, filled with sincere conversations and a vitamix or two. i feel extremely blessed to have a lifelong friend like her.
on a side note, ryan and i attempted writing a song together for the first time and it was surprisingly challenging but really fun. now that we have a home with a makeshift studio, we are working towards ryan's lifelong goal of recording a full-length album and pressing it to vinyl. and when i say we, i mean ryan bernal, ryan sullivan, and michael christmas. i haven't really contributed much so far.
it's been over a year now, and i finally feel like we are starting to feel a little at home in nashville. it may have something to do with our adorable green home # 3, the first house that we can actually start unpacking in. but mostly it's due to the few, yet incredible friends that the Lord has brought into our lives recently.
exhibit A: julia & stephen are expecting their first little one and we were blessed enough to be invited to their celebration of nico's upcoming arrival. we brought along our camera to snap a few photos & it's a good thing we did because the gorgeous farm setting perfectly complemented their adorable decorations and attention to detail.
