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

One Year of Wedded Bliss

Can you believe that we've been married for an entire year! What a great year it's been! We've had so much fun together and are looking forward to many more years together.

Happy anniversary to the love of my life.

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!

Randomness

Things around here have been busy! After a relaxing Memorial Day by the pool, the last few days have been a blur. Brad's been working really had, as evidenced by this note I received in the mail late last week:

Thanks Kevin! This is proudly displayed on the Nelson refrigerator. And on a totally random note, look where I found McGee last night:

What is he wearing? Those are the groom Mickey Mouse ears that Jen sent home from Disney World with my mom, dad, and brother when they were there in May. I have bride ears, too. Don't worry, there will be a picture soon. Thanks Jen!

Speaking of that, we're rapidly approaching our one year wedding anniversary (can you believe it?!?) and are incredibly excited to be celebrating our anniversary here:

More details later. Enjoy the weekend!
-Nikki

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

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to some of the best moms that we know. Thanks for loving us, supporting us, guiding us, helping us, and always being there for us. There have been a lot of changes over the past year, but thank you for being loving and understanding throughout our lives.

Love you lots, see you soon!

Love,
Brad and Nikki

Birthday Weekend Recap

Brad's birthday weekend officially kicked off around noon on Friday, when I stopped by his office with some cake. We already had plans to meet for lunch, so why not have dessert first? Unfortunately, I don't have any photos, but the cake was delicious.

After cake and lunch, we headed over to the Wheeler's apartment to help them pack up their moving van. They're off to start a new adventure in Virginia, and we're very excited for them. We're also going to miss them a lot.

After we helped pack the moving truck, we headed home for a quick shower before heading to watch my first ever lacrosse game.

One of the guy's from Brad's office, Brian, helps to coach a local high school lacrosse team, so we went to check out a game. It was pretty interesting, and it was great to spend some time outside on a beautiful Friday afternoon.

After the game, we headed to That's Amore in Bethlehem for dinner (thanks for the gift certificate, Northwestern Mutual friends!). We started with fried mozzarella...

 I had angel hair pasta with shrimp, scallops, crab, and topped with a crabcake:

 Brad enjoyed pasta with veal-wrapped shrimp:

...and we both had enough left over for dinner on Saturday! Speaking of Saturday, we spent the majority of the day at the Philadelphia Premium Outlets. Brad loves to shop, so that was his choice of activity for the day. Because I was such a good sport (I really don't enjoy shopping as much as he does), I finished up the afternoon with this:

Do you remember the time that we went to Target and somehow ended up with an iPad?  Yea, this shopping trip was kind of like that. Brad was able to find a hoodie, gym shorts, socks, and new shoes (I had to talk him out of buying cologne, since that was one of his birthday presents). My big purchase? Five mini-sized bottles of hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works. It's strange how things work out, isn't it?

The rest Saturday was pretty low-key, with leftovers for dinner and a movie on the couch (hey, at least it wasn't Jeopardy, right?). Sunday morning (Brad's actual birthday) started with a trip to church, but Brad wasn't feel very well and we came home after the service. After some extra allergy medicine, a nap, and lunch, he was feeling better. We took a trip to the gym and snuck in another nap before heading out to dinner.

We had made reservations at the Glasbern Inn, a local farm-to-table restaurant. We had a delicious meal together and celebrated Brad's 31st birthday.

The restaurant and the grounds were beautiful, and the food was delicious. Approximately 80% of the food that they serve in the restaurant is from their farms and greenhouses, which is really impressive! We each started with a salad, and then split this appetizer of meats, pate (I didn't eat any of that!), nuts, bread, and some kind of fruit foam:

I had chicken with vegetables, mashed potatoes, and huckleberries:

 Brad went for the pork tenderloin and pork belly:

We also each had dessert, of which I apparently failed to take a picture. We strolled around the grounds for a few minutes after dinner, and even managed to catch a glimpse of these guys on the way home:

Overall, it was a great weekend. My apologies for the longer-than-normal post. There was just too much that I had to mention!

Until next time,
-Nikki

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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