We've moved!

Well, kind of! To see what we're been up to, please visit the new and improved nothingbutnelson.com!

Special thanks to my sister-in-law, Danielle, for the new blog design. To learn more about her and her business, please visit lifeunconstrained.com

Birthday Celebration

Yesterday, I had the chance to spend ALL DAY celebrating my birthday. The celebration actually started on Tuesday night, when this packaged arrived at the door:

Graeter's ice cream! I received some of this ice cream as a gift at Christmas, and it is absolutely delicious.

Wednesday morning started at Shady Maple, where I had been bugging Brad to take me for the last three years. Shady Maple is an all you can eat buffet near Lancaster, with home-cooked comfort food. We went for breakfast, which was exactly what I wanted. You know that makes it even better? On your birthday, your meal is free!

We did some shopping in the gift shop, and in downtown Lititz (below is a picture of me a bear, which I promised Brad that I would post. I have an irrational fear of bears, so it thought this was hilarious) before heading to the Lancaster office.

Brad had an all-afternoon leadership team meeting, and I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon with this lady:

Lauren and I spent the afternoon catching up and doing some shopping in the Lancaster area. We had a great time, and she helped me pick out some fabulous new outfits for our upcoming trip--more on that later!

After a few solid hours of girl-time, Lauren headed back to the Harrisburg area, and Brad and I geared up for our final event of the day: a picnic with his friends and coworkers in the Lancaster office.

We had a great time hanging out and catching up. Brad even ordered a birthday cake and everyone sang happy birthday to me. It was very thoughtful, but incredibly embarrassing. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos, but hopefully some will be popping up soon!

I had an absolutely incredibly birthday. Thank you to all of those who called, sent text messages, or left Facebook messages. I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life!

Blessings,
-Nikki

Weekend Festivities

Brad and I are very fortunate to have a summer jam-packed with festive activities. On Friday, we met up with Nick and Kassondra for dinner. They were passing through town on their way back from a weekend in Vermont, and we had a wonderful time with them. They even shared their skydiving videos with us!  I didn't take any pictures, but here's a photo from one of our other visits with them:

On Saturday we headed to the Wilkes Barre/Scranton area for a picnic with my mom, aunt and uncle, and cousins. It was our first time meeting baby Miles, and we enjoyed spending time with family. Again, I didn't take any pictures, but you can trust that it was a good time. We had lots of great food and managed to stay pretty cool, even with the hot temperatures.

We made it back to the Lehigh Valley in time for a light dinner and fireworks. Luckily, the fireworks were being displayed close to our apartment, so we just had to walk to the end of the street to enjoy them.

Sunday included church, Fuse, and a Fuse Picnic. Again, I don't have any pictures, but we had a blast catching up with folks, meeting new friends, swimming, and eating.

Sunday evening way pretty low key as we geared up for the start of another week. It's going to be a fun one!

Blessings,
-Nikki 

Date Night: Ice Cream for dinner

Last night was our "official" date night for the week. After Brad was done with work, we headed over to the Bethlehem Steel Stacks to check out the farmers markets. We found what we needed, and some things that we didn't. Like ice cream. For dinner. Well, for me, anyway.

The farmer's market (with the old Bethlehem Steel factory in the background): 

 OwWowCow homemade organic mint chocolate chip ice cream. Incredible. Seriously, I ate this for dinner.

Brad mid-bite:

Apparently neither of us were very photogenic yesterday:

 There was even live music at the market:

After the farmer's market, we stopped at Horns so that Brad could get some real food (apparently ice cream for dinner doesn't quite do it for him). I enjoyed some french fries (what a nutritious dinner, right?). We ended the night by running a few errands.

Tonight we've got a double date on the agenda, followed by another weekend full of picnics. Yum!

See ya soon,
Nikki

Friday Date Night + Weekend Picnics

On Friday afternoon, Brad and I headed to the Hershey area for the Dave Mathews Band concert! I had gotten tickets for Brad for his birthday, and we were very excited about the concert. After a quick drive and a lovely (hot!) outdoor dinner, we headed over to the stadium. The band that opened for them was called The Head and the Heart, and was fantastic. Apparently Dave Matthews discovered them at a show in Seattle and invited them on tour. How cool is that?

We had great seats in the stands, close to the top. Lucky for us, there was a bit of a breeze blowing since the temperatures were near ninety degrees.

The band ended with "Ants Marching" and we were able to make it back to the car just as the rain started. There was lightning flashing during the last third of the concert, but we made it back to the car just in time.

After sleeping in on Saturday (since we were out pretty late on Friday), we headed to Brad's mom's house for a picnic. Danielle and Meredith were in visiting from Buffalo, and we spent the afternoon eating, laughing, and lounging by the pool.

After church (and a workout) on Sunday, we spent the afternoon relaxing. We headed to Brad's grandfather's house in the early evening for another picnic. The food was absolutely delicious, and we spent part of the evening hanging out in the backyard. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of either of the picnics, but you'll just have to trust that we had a lot of fun.

Until next time,
-Nikki