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 

Sweeney Todd

Last night, Brad and I had the chance to double date with these fine folks:

 Say hello to Dave and Elissa!

We had tickets to a production of Sweeney Todd, which was part of the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at DeSales University. The show featured the incredible Dee Roscioli, who we got to see perform last month, and really was outstanding. Before the show we enjoyed a picnic on the lawn, which is apparently a tradition with theater-goers of these productions. The show was great--and only runs until July 1 (so if you're in the Lehigh Valley, you should definitely check it)--and the company was even better. We had a great time and spent most of the night laughing. Thanks for a great night, Dave & Elissa.

Now, Brad and I are off to a concert. Catch you later this weekend!

Blessings,
-Nikki 

A Day With Friends

Earlier this week, I was able to spend an entire day with some folks who are absolutely incredible. Kathy and Lydia are up from Nashville for a few weeks, and Lauren made the trip to the Lehigh Valley so that we could all spend some quality time together.

 Strike a pose!

We spent the day laughing, catching up, playing, and eating. What a blessing!

Double Date Night + Memorial Day Weekend

We've been really busy this weekend--and unfortunately, I don't have many (read: any) photos to document our travels. Here was our weekend, in a nutshell.

Friday: A double-date date night with some great friends. We had a delicious dinner at White Orchid, played some intense miniature golf (and boy, do I wish I had some pictures of that!), and finished off the night with ice cream. Absolute perfection, and tons of laugh.

Saturday:  We were up early to volunteer at a local 5K, spent some time getting Brad's car fixed, and then headed to Lancaster to attend LCBC and see Nick get baptized. We spent the rest of the evening celebrating and catching up with great friends before heading back to the Lehigh Valley.

Sunday: We started the morning with a run, and got caught in the rain about halfway through the run. We were already soaked, so we finished our run before heading back home. We got cleaned up, Brad prepped a salad for lunch, and we headed to Brad's mom's house for a picnic and some pool time. We spent the afternoon in the sun before heading home to spend the rest of the night relaxing.

Monday: It's only a little after 11:00 a.m. on Monday, and our plan is to spend the majority of the afternoon at the pool.

Happy Memorial Day, and thank you to those who served!

Blessings,
-Nikki

Easter Weekend

Brad and I had a busy Easter weekend. Here are some highlights from our adventures:

Dying Easter Eggs! This was take two of our date night adventure. Take one didn't go so well (FYI: there is no TCBY in Bethlehem, and EuroYogurt is NOTHING like Menchie's)

 Post-Easter Egg coloring adventure AND workout Saturday

 Before heading to Brad's Grandfather's house for an Easter meal

 Saturday also included a trip to Sweet & Sassy with this cutie

 The spa area, just for little girls

 Before her haircut

 Picking out the nail polish color

 The manicure

 After her haircut!

Dressed for Church on Easter Sunday

...and a picture of sweet little Lydia that Kathy and Jeff sent, just because I'm a proud aunt. :)

Until next time,

-Nikki

Happy Easter!

"Nobody knows what we're for only what we're against when we judge the wounded
What if we put down our signs crossed over the lines and love like You did
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours"

- Jesus Friend of Sinners, By Casting Crowns

We hope that you spend today celebrating with friends and family. Happy Easter!

-Brad & Nikki

Weekend Shenanigans

We were lucky to be able to start our weekend a little bit early and head to Hershey early on Friday afternoon. After a (not) quick (enough) trip to the outlets (Brad's idea), we met up with the wonderful Tony and Lauren at Fenicci's of Hershey for a delicious dinner. We were able to spend some time relaxing and catching up before heading over to the Giant Center for a wonderful concert.

We saw Lindsay McCaul, Royal Taylor, Matthew West, and Casting Crowns! It was a great event, and we certainly enjoyed the company. 

We debated staying overnight in the Hershey area so that we could catch up with some other friends on Saturday (heyyy Jessica and Nate!), but it didn't work out quite like we had hoped. We ended up driving back to the Lehigh Valley after the concert. It made for a late night, but we didn't have too much planned for Saturday, so it worked out pretty nicely.

After a morning trip to the gym, a trip to the Emmaus Bakery (seriously--if you've never been there, go. Now.), a stop at the Lehigh Valley Homebuilder's Show (hi, Jake!), and a short trip to Allentown Farmer's market, we planted ourselves on the couch for the rest of the evening. We played some Wii Jeopardy and enjoyed a lazy evening at home.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early to volunteer at a local 5K. We had a great time with some nice folks before heading to church for our weekly Sunday School Class. After class we made a quick trip home to unload some groceries, and were able to spend a bit of time in the afternoon celebrating a friend's birthday. We were able to squeeze in a trip to the gym (seriously, walking lunges will be the death of me!) before making a delicious dinner of salmon, quinoa, and Brussels sprouts. Another round of Jeopardy and an episode of Cupcake Wars rounded out our weekend.

Any guesses as to what is going on here? I'll fill you in this week!

Friday Date Night

Since Brad and I both spent part of last week traveling, we needed to spend a couple of evenings this past week catching up. We decided to make Friday night out "official" date night, but we were luck to be able to spend quality time together on Wednesday (after Brad got home) and Thursday.

We spent late Friday afternoon in a park near the house, and I was able to play with my new camera. We enjoyed the spring-like temperatures in March and got some photos of the flowers blooming.

 

After our walk we headed to Paese Mio for dinner, where we ran into our friends Andy and Andrea. We headed home to enjoy an episode of Jeopardy and and episode of Psych before calling it a night. After all, we had an exciting weekend to look forward to! More on that tomorrow.

Until then,
-Nikki 

Trip to Nashville

Brad was very lucky to be able to have the chance to attend a conference in Orlando for most of this past week. Since he was going to be away, I figured that this was the perfect opportunity to head on down to Nashville to visit the Cain Family.

After a very early trip to the airport on Saturday morning (thanks, Brad!) I landed in Nashville just after 9:00 a.m. Kathy picked me up at the airport, and we were off! We headed back to the house, where this little cutie was waiting:

We made plans for the afternoon that included lunch and a trip to the playground (and later, a nap):

Saturday night was girl's night, and Kathy and I headed to a local winery with some of her friends. The girls did a fabulous job packing a delicious dinner, and we enjoyed food, wine, and great conversation.

Sunday included a trip to church, followed by my first ever visit to Costco. We had lunch at the house (Lydia was asking for capers, so we had chicken with a caper cream sauce. It was fantastic!). While Lydia napped, Kathy and I headed out to do some shopping. The goal: a hat and sunglasses for Lydia.

 Success? I think so!

Sunday evening included dinner and a trip to Menchies (if you live near one of these, I'm jealous). We finished up the evening with a movie before heading to bed.

Monday morning included a trip to the Nashville Zoo. You have to check out these pictures!

I had an absolutely phenomenal time with the Cain Family (although right now I am realizing that I don't have any pictures of Jeff--sorry Jeff!). We had the chance to catch up and spend quality time together. Lydia is one of the smartest children I have ever met (seriously, she's brilliant!). She can speak very well for only being almost two years old--Lydia was asking her mom for quinoa, and knows that the man on TV who does the weather is a meteorologist. She can spell her name, recognize letter, and count in Spanish. Can you tell that I'm a proud aunt? :)

I'll fill you in on the rest of the week later!

Blessings,
-Nikki