My Favorite Sounds

Last weekend was filled with all of them. Wedding bells on a Saturday afternoon. The clack of sexy high heels on concrete. The swish of a beautiful white dress as is sweeps down the red carpet of the church isle. The wedding march. The words, "I do." Marching feet of the saber guard on the front steps of a church. The smack of a saber and the call of "Welcome to the Air Force!" with cheers from a happy, loving crowd of friends and family. The pop of a champagne cork. The click of a camera shutter. The tink of glasses after a toast. The laughter of old friends as they relive memories. The words, "I have missed you!" from friends you have not seen in a while.

Our good friend Nate Call married the beautiful Chole May last weekend in Bloomsberg, PA and we were lucky enough to be there to witness it. Not only were we happy to see them tie the knot, but we were also able to reunite with several friends from our last base, Columbus, MS. Most of our friends have now moved on to different places, but when we get back together, it's as if we never left.

We all came together on Friday for the rehearsal. The rehearsal dinner was at the Irondale Inn, a bed and breakfast set in the hills of Pennsylvania built circe 1835. It was part of the Underground Railroad and is said to still be haunted by a civil war soldier. It was a great setting for such a gathering. The guys all celebrated their reunion with drinks, stories and eventually even song and dance! The ladies, on the other hand, were lost in conversation, catching up on moves, kids, plans, and life changes. This celebration went well into the night at the local pub and late night food joint.

Saturday morning, the guys picked up where they left off - at the bar. Eventually they got ready at the Irondale Inn. Iron the party shirt - check. Get dressed with help from your wife at times - check. Metals polished - check. Flask if full - check. The whole day was beautiful! Chole was stunning. The church, gorgeous. The saber guard, flawless. The weather, perfect! The reception, rowdy.

All things about this weekend were great. With only a little setback - the DJ and lights in the tent blew the fuses. We were left in the silent darkness, but only for a short time. This crowd was resourceful! The Escalade in the parking lot was backed into the tent to provide music and the party went on!

Thanks to weekends like this one, we are reminded of how lucky we are to have friends like these. Thank you to the Calls, Higgins, Dreyers, Krajiceks, Griffins, Fennells, Jones', Pooh, and Jamie and Fuhrers (we missed you guys!!) for letting us be ourselves and loving us anyway! Special thanks to the Mays and Calls for an awesome weekend! Can't wait for our next excuse to get together!! We love you guys!!

Warning: there are a ton of pictures!! So get ready!!

Nicole, Joanna and I

Stephanie Jones, Joanna Dreyer, Chole Call, Tish Krajicek, Me, Nicole Griffin

Krajicek, Mike, Jones, Fennell, Dreyer getting into their song and dance.

Saturday AM visit to the bar.

Party bus

Pooh, Higgins, Jamie with a large bottle of vodka

CAKE!!

Kelly caught the bouquet and Zach caught the garter.

Will they be next?

Party shirt time!!

Mike and Nate: "I love you man!"

We miss you but are so happy for you! Congrats!!

Taylor Cousins Come for a Visit

My dad's family is huge! Currently, there are 75 official aunts, uncles, cousins, and spouses! That makes for some crazy holidays and gatherings. I LOVE having a big family. There is always someone with a good joke or story. You are guarantied to have enough for basketball, eucher, or any game for that matter. There is always something to talk about. But, there are times when it is difficult to really spend quality time with them. That is why I was so happy to have my cousin Pat and his wife, Katheryne, and three beautiful girls, Katelyn, Sophie, and Margaret, down to stay with us for a few days! It was awesome to have time to sit and chat and to explore the surrounding areas through a kid's point of view.

Of course the first thing they noticed was Rusty! He was a constant source of entertainment and did very well with the girls. It was a great opportunity for him to socialize with kids. The next thing on the list was the playground and sandpit directly behind our house. After taking the slide for a test ride and scaling all obstacles, they had to check the natural attractions. The sandpit held their attention until a hike through the woods trumped all other options. I have lived here for over 7 months and that was the first time I have ever been on the playground or through the woods that are less than 20 yards from us!! What great adventures!!

Sophie was digging in the sand like Rusty does.

Margaret had a runny nose, but isn't that what your shirt is for?

After exploring our direct surroundings, it was time to check things out at the local beach. Now this beach is on the bay so there are few waves, no people, and lots of creatures! These girls found all of them!

Pat and Katheryne enjoyed some time on the pier watching us explore the coastline.

Sophie found a shell. The humidity is doing amazing things with those curls!

Margaret shows off seaweed. She was a little fish swimming in the water!

Katelyn and Sophie found a few hermit crabs and are waiting for them to come out of their shells. Some times they'd start crawling down the beach!

Katelyn had a crab leg. I told her that we could cook it for dinner but she wasn't so excited about that idea.

For dinner, we got to eat at the Treasure Ship or more specifically, Hooks Grille and Grog! You should check out this place, it looks like a huge pirate ship! So cool! This guy was the host waiting at the door. He was all too eager to have his picture taken with us. We still had a great time though! Are you kidding? We were in a pirate ship!!

The second day of the visit started out very rainy. We were worried we would have to skip the beach and go bowling. Thankfully it cleared up by midday. We headed for the base beach and spent the entire afternoon swimming, jumping through the waves, exploring the tide pools, and building a huge sandcastle village!! I didn't take my camera with me but hopefully Pat will send me some pictures later.

That evening Mike took us to the flight line to show us the planes! The girls got to wear the cool headphones.

The nose of the plane is just a little bit taller than Margaret. Thanks to Dad, however, she got a closer look. We even got to climb up to look into the cockpit!

Sophie takes her turn.

Katelyn

Pat

The Taylor family and Mike with an F-15C.

We spent the rest of the evening grilling out, eating on the patio, and chatting the night away. It was so nice to have some one-on-one time with each of the girls and with Pat and Katheryne. I am so grateful for these two days with them!

Thank you, Pat, Katheryne, and girls, for making a few days out of your vacation to visit us! Thank you for exploring all these new areas of base with me! Finally, thank you for the opportunity to hang out with you guys! We had an AWESOME time!! Have so much fun in Disney and can't wait to hear all about it!

Chicago with the Girls!

It is a Taylor women tradition to celebrate the marriage of a sister with a weekend trip some time after the wedding. We have done this for each of our sisters and this time it was Laura's turn! Laura and Kevin got married on June 13th this year. It was a beautiful day but we didn't want the celebration to end! So, all the Taylor sisters, Catherine (our future Taylor sister), Shannon (Laura's Koke sister), and Momma Taylor all went to Chicago for the weekend. We all went for a run or walk, got mani's and pedi's, did a little shopping, tried on bridesmaid dresses, watched football, and ate and drank like it was our job! What group of girls can combine these events into a perfect weekend? Football and shopping? Beer and popcorn by day, wine and salmon by night? We are certainly a unique breed but we all love to spend time together!

Laura, the bride, loves Shock Top! Don't we all?

Shannon puts up with these crazy Taylor girls!

In the heat of the Notre Dame vs. Michigan game, Julie gives her husband, Paul, a play by play because he is at a wedding. Laura is laughing at the thought of Paul standing in the vestibule of the church getting the plays from Julie. The Irish lost and I'm sure that Paul's evening was ruined. Us girls, however, only let the disappointment slow us down for an hour or so.

Katie and Mom love watching football with the girls!

I had an amazing weekend with you girls! It was a perfect way to spend time together, celebrate this awesome time in Laura's life, and to share more moments together. I hope that I am able to make it to the next Taylor girls weekend after the next Taylor wedding in July!! Catherine - Thanks for giving me a chance to be a part of your wedding planning too! I love the dresses and can't wait to see it all come together!!

Back Home Again In Indiana

After our trip to Orlando, I flew straight home to Indianapolis for a short week of visiting with friends and family. I wasn't sure when or if I'd get another chance to come home before we move to Japan. It was important to see all of my favorite people because after we move, who knows when we'll be back!

Tuesday, I was lucky enough to make it over to Dayton to visit with Michael's family. I had lunch with Aunt Denise, cousin Emily and Maggie, and mother-in-law Michele. Afterward lunch, Emily, Maggie and I walked around the Greens for a quick photo shoot.

Maggie and Aunt Denise hold hands while they walk to "Gymbee" (That is what Maggie calls Gymborie - Her favorite store!)

Maggie loves the camera!!

Emily and Maggie - So cute!

Tuesday night I had dinner with a great friend, Lauren. We stayed up way too late chatting and catching up. Wednesday, I had breakfast with a college friend, Alissa. That afternoon, I met Jenny, my marathon partner, for a run. Our marathon is right around the corner, and it was great to finally run together. Friday we did our longest run ever! 20 miles! It went surprisingly well for having run for over 3.5 hours!

To see our training progress, check out our marathon blog at

http://lankylegsrunning.blogspot.com/

Wednesday night I got to spend the evening with my girls from high school!! Jenny, Christie, Sara and Gretty were all there to share food, wine, laughter, and lots of memories! I also got to meet the newest members of the high school group!

Meet Jasper - son of Sara and Grant!

This is Cooper - son of Gretchen and Phil.

Oh these boys are sooooo cute!

Thursday I had a great evening visiting with my family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents were all there to wish me well on our future move to Japan. When you are surrounded by so many people that support you, the feeling of gratitude and love is overwhelming! Thank you so much to all who were there. I truly loved spending the evening with all of you and will miss being able to do that while we are overseas. Just sorry that I was so busy talking that I didn't get the chance to take any pictures.

Life has been busy!

We have been doing so many fun things lately that I feel like I can't keep up with the blog!! The last 2 weeks have been filled with a week long trip to Indy and Chicago, a visit from my cousins, and another trip to Pennsylvania for a wedding. I hope that these next few posts don't seem too overwhelming, but I would like to share all of our recent adventures with you!

Ready?! Here we go!!

Celebrating our 1 year anniversary

Mike and I celebrated our one year anniversary over Labor Day weekend in Disney World. As a splurge, we even stayed at the Polynesian! It was great! We had gone for a few days over the Fourth of July weekend and tried to see everything we could see. So, this weekend we narrowed our list of things to do down to our favorite parks and places. Saturday, we started at Hollywood Studios for a few rides, the scenery, and some food.

I enjoyed the Rockin' Roller Coaster featuring Aerosmith.

Mike liked the chilly dogs.

Saturday afternoon we headed to ESPN Zone to watch some college football. We only got to see the first quarter of the ND game because we had to rush back to the Polynesian for the Luau. It was a great show with awesome all you care to enjoy food and drink. We made sure to get our money's worth. We finished out the night at the Board Walk dueling piano bar. It's a good thing we don't have any pictures to document this part of the day because we really enjoyed ourselves!

Sunday we spent the day at Epcot going around the world.

We tried to get a shot in front of the arch at Japan but the lady who took the picture obviously didn't understand the instructions. Apparently, "Please get the whole thing in the frame," means cut out the top! Mike even braved sushi for dinner!!

Off to China to try out some merchandise!

Mike's favorite place was by far the Rose and Crown in Great Britain.

They had an awesome beer selection.

I found other cool things in Great Britain.

There was an afternoon rain shower that rolled in. We took advantage of this time out in the pub. Afterwards it made for a beautiful sight! That is China and Sweden across the pond.

We had an awesome time exploring Disney together and celebrating a whole year of marriage. It was a great opportunity to talk about our memories from this year while doing our favorite things - traveling, eating, and drinking.