Hey, hey, hey! I’m back from our travels. How was everyone’s weekend? I hope fabulous. I look forward to being back to normal blogging and being able to visit you all. I also look forward to being back home with my darling girl and my kitchen. I have no problem eating a few heavier meals over a vacation, but it never fails to leave me craving the best stuff afterwards. Onto the rest of my recap, shall we?

I left you with the wedding rehearsal, but no recap of the wedding. Let me remedy that. The ceremony filled the room with love. The emotion expressed on the bride’s and groom’s faces spoke volumes. And the worship included within the ceremony displayed the firm foundation of their relationship. I love watching weddings and feeling like my own becomes reaffirmed.

Here are a few of my favorite shots of the wedding. Aren’t my friends just glowing with love? 🙂

Look at those smiles!!!! I’m incredibly happy for them. Seeing my close friend marry a woman perfectly suited for him brings me so much joy. I had tears in my eyes when I saw his face as she walked down the aisle. They will no doubt enjoy a long life of love together. Love them both!

After the beautiful ceremony, we had a brief break back in the hotel room before heading to the reception. The reception venue overlooked a small lake and boasted amazing decor. It somewhat reminded me of our rehearsal venue, except at a lake instead of the mountains.

After the cocktail hour, we moved to the main hall for a seated dinner, toasts, and then dancing. The meal started with a Caesar salad and a roll with an asparagus garlic spread.

Then, the main course came out. Filet with potatoes and veggies. They simply brought out the meal without asking how people wanted their meat cooked. Pink does NOT suit me.

I tried to force it down, but around 2/3 of the way through I made a mad dash for the restroom instead. From there the night was downhill. Shortly afterwards, the cutting of the cake came.

I needed food because I had nothing in my stomach at this point and had a slice as soon as possible. I ended up feeling worse and getting a headache from having just sugar in my stomach. It tasted fabulous, but not so sure it was worth it.

I had to leave not too long after that. I felt so terrible! I wanted to be there to celebrate with them as long as possible. We headed back to the hotel by 10 and I immediately crashed. I’m happy I got to see the first dance, cutting of the cake, visit with them, and enjoy some other good company though.

Fortunately I woke up feeling better on Sunday. I took my time getting out of bed and getting ready to be sure. Then, knowing I still felt up to it, we headed out towards downtown Philly after another complimentary hotel breakfast. The trip started off a little rocky thanks to some bad directions, but we found our way. We started off in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Of course, we had to complete the obligatory Rocky climb. I didn’t pose like all the other people though. Haha!

After checking out the views from the steps for a bit, we went around back of the museum to visit the Azalea Gardens and Boathouse Row. What a nice area!

Then we decided to head down Benjamin Franklin Parkway towards 18th street to visit Rittenhouse Square and have lunch. It wasn’t too long of a walk, but it worked up my appetite. We had to search for a place to eat because apparently 1:00 on a Sunday equates to brunch around that area. Everywhere was serving eggs, eggs, and more eggs, I wasn’t in the mood for breakfast so the only decent looking option in the area was a pizza place.

A very good pizza place at that. We decided to share a medium spinach, mushroom, and onion on whole wheat. I liked that the the veggies stole the show. There was very little cheese and sauce, which tasted perfect with such flavorful toppings.

Lunch took longer than expected, so once we finished we had to take a quick walk through Rittenhouse Square and start heading back to the car to leave in time to get to visit Peter’s friends for the night. That didn’t stop us from taking a pit stop for some fro-yo. I have eyed all your fro-yo visits for some time and knew I needed a taste of my own. I picked up a mix of vanilla and watermelon flavors with some strawberries, blueberries, and a few M&Ms on top. Soooooo good!

It topped off our quick Philly day trip perfectly. Then we headed into West Chester to finish out the night visiting some friends we haven’t seen since our wedding. I don’t know them as well since it is a friend Peter used to work with, but I really enjoyed the company. I wish we had had more time to visit them. The few hours we did have to share a dinner with them in their home, play with their daughter, and sit and chat were wonderful though. And that about wraps it up. I really missed Makenzie, but this vacation felt more special without her. I joked that we could almost call it our “babymoon” vacation to get away and have fun before having the next baby. We had a great time…

• What was the best part of your weekend?
• What is the longest road trip you’ve taken? Was it worth it?

As usual, I took yesterday off blogging. Weekends are always busy and I like having the break one day a week. It revitalizes me. I do admit to seriously missing all of you though. I haven’t been able to visit other blogs to comment and connect. Blogging and the community has become such a huge part of me that I feel like something is missing when I don’t have adequate time for it. Weird how that happens. I also want to say a big thank you to all of you who continue to visit me and leave little messages of kindness even though I am not able to return the favor these few days. It makes my day.

I guess it is now time to recap all the wedding fun. Friday afternoon we headed out to the wedding rehearsal. The rehearsal took foreeeevvveerrrr because my friend just graduated from seminary, his fiance is a pastor’s daughter, and they have 3 pastors involved in the ceremony. Needless to say…it’s an intricate wedding.

It was hard for me to even figure out when I was supposed to go up to complete my reading for the wedding! Don’t I look confused? Haha!

We still had fun though. My pal Thomas donned a “Game Over” shirt as a joke and Jen says “Greeeaaattt!!” And don’t worry. In the picture he was trying to look like it’s the end of his freedom. He’s smiling on the inside.

Once the rehearsal was over we headed over to this cute little Italian place for dinner. They served the best bruschetta I have ever eaten out on the patio. I savored two pieces while mingling.

Then came the toasts and dinner time. I served myself a plate with a roll, some Caesar salad, a small bit of grilled chicken, and a veggie primavera pasta.

All of it tasted amazing, but was a bit heavy on my stomach. That didn’t stop me from getting dessert though. Creme brulee cheesecake. Love in my mouth.

Not the rapper Kilo kind though. Anyone remember that dirty song? I remember singing it in 8th grade on the way to a competition and our cheerleading coach suddenly catching on and giving us the hugest lecture ever. I don’t even think I knew what it meant then. Hahaha.

We left shortly after that. We didn’t want to because the conversation was flowing with the new friends we made at our table. The bride laughed because about a month after she had planned out the seating arrangements, 3 of us let her know we’re pregnant. I’m four months and the other two are three months along. We all have 2-3 year old little girls too! How funny is that?

I knew we needed to get back to the room, though, to get a decent night’s sleep. You bet I slept like a rock! In the morning, after taking advantage of lazing in bed together for a bit without Makenzie, we hit up the hotel’s “fitness center”.

I think you can gather why I use quotations. Not a weight in sight and some pretty sorry cardio equipment. I hopped on the elliptical.

The thing squeaked like crazy and either had too much or too little resistance. I decided to up the resistance and do a shorter workout. That way I could make the most of it and leave without a brutal headache from all the squeaking. I worked up a good sweat and covered 2 miles.

I needed fuel by that point and free always sounds good. We ate the complimentary breakfast. I picked up a Belgian waffle with pb + maple syrup and a banana.

Saturday morning, I got this post started and searched things in the Philly area. Then we visited downtown Doylestown for lunch. I opted for BBQ because after smelling it I couldn’t resist.

It wasn’t too good though. I couldn’t even eat the potatoes. We killed time before the wedding by walking around the cute little town.

This post has gone on long enough now. I’ll stop here and recap the wedding and our fun in Philly tomorrow. That’s right! Peter’s friend ended up not being able to get together until after 3 instead of wanting us over by lunch. Since we had extra time to kill, we managed to visit the actual city for a great afternoon. Once again, thanks for the love and comments. I promise to visit everyone soon enough. I always feel odd receiving kindness without giving it outwardly in return.