Whirlwind Wedding Weekend

This past weekend we headed to Iowa with Brandon's family to celebrate the wedding of his cousin.  We loaded up in his dad's truck and made our way north on Thursday.  We only drove to Lincoln, NE (boo Huskers!) and stayed the night there.  Then, we got up and hit the road again Friday morning.

Once we got to Rockwell City, we hit the ground running!  Aerial had asked me to arrange her wedding bouquet and her bridesmaid bouquets so once we got settled in the motel, I got started.

Aerial was fortunate enough to use lilies from her parent's neighbor's garden!  I really wasn't sure what I was walking in to knowing we were using flowers right out of a garden, but I was extremely surprised with the quality and size of the lilies.

While I was putting the bouquets together, Pam and Ashley put together all of the centerpieces (I didn't seem to get a photo of this).  I was so appreciative of their help as the bouquets took me a little longer to arrange than I had planned.

While we were busy with the flowers, Brandon and Craig found entertainment of their own - mopeds and a motorcycle!!  (Hoping to get a photo of this soon!)  Brandon had so much fun on the moped, that he pretty much rode it around all weekend.

After we finished with the flowers, we all tried our luck on the moped as well.  Pam was first to try it out...

Next it was my turn...

...and this is about all I could do - sit there and hold it up.  I didn't make it very far when I was actually driving it.

Since I couldn't ride it very well, Brandon decided to go find himself another lady!

His grandma wasn't so sure about the whole thing!

Later in the evening, Ashley got in on the moped action, too!

We went to the rehearsal dinner Friday night and then helped set up for the reception, as much as we could help.

Saturday morning, we had a casual bridal breakfast for Aerial.  It was a special time to toast to her as she began her marriage and a great time to meet her bridesmaids.

After breakfast, we headed back up to the reception site to put some final touched on the decorations and to wait for the cake lady.

Around 3:30, I had to go up to the lake, where the wedding was being held, to replace a few flowers in the bouquets.  It was a pretty warm day and they had started pictures around noon, so the flowers were a bit droopy from being in the heat for so long.  But, in my opinion, they still looked beautiful!

(that is me holding the bouquet)

The wedding location was very pretty, and we were surprisingly not too hot!  Here are a couple of shots of some of the family before the wedding started.

Justin wasn't able to come on the trip, so Ashley was Roger's date.

Here is the beautiful bride walking down the aisle!

Here is a view of the lake from where we were sitting.

After the wedding we headed to the reception and the rest of the night is history.  The bridal party did the cutest choreographed dance and it was such a surprise!  I was really impressed with the guys' moves!  We did a lot of eating, a lot of laughing and a lot of dancing at the reception!  We really did enjoy ourselves and I think the pictures will speak for themselves! 

Here are the girl cousins taking a break from the dance floor.  I think us girls pretty much danced the whole night!

And the guys....well, they did a lot of this!  But, to their credit they also danced more than I thought they would!

(Brandon's cousin Brad who is getting married in 2.5 weeks)

Brandon seems to have found himself another lady again!

Here are Pam and Craig on the dance floor.  I tried my hardest to catch a smile from Craig ;)

Brandon and his aunt Anne cuttin' the rug!

Here is the whole group gettin' down!  I'm pretty sure the Running Man, Lawn Mower, Sprinkler and any other dance move you can think of were thrown down that night!

Finally, I got to dance with my husband :) ....

...And my father-in-law, but by the look on his face, I'm not so sure he thought I was a very good dancer!

And finally, here are all of the cousins (plus Aunt Donna) gathered for a picture with the bride and groom. 

Its funny to think that we will see everyone again in a couple of weeks after not seeing each other for a couple of years.  But, the beauty of family as that you can always just pick back up where you left off.


So, there you have it - our whirlwind wedding weekend!

Catching Up

We were out of town all weekend for a wedding and have been busy ever since we got home last night.  I'm playing catch up at work today and have Bunco tonight, but I will be sure to do a weekend recap soon!  We had a lot of fun and are pretty much exhausted, but it was worth it.

Also, I'm desperately missing my puppy :(  Coming home without him just wasn't the same, but he will be home tonight!!

Thursday Things

It's been a very busy week in the Brungardt household.  Between crazy work schedules, evening commitments, household chores that have been put on the back burner and gearing up for another busy weekend I haven't had much time to sit down, let alone blog!  So today, it's just a random list of things:

• Our office held a U.S. Senatorial Candidate Debate this week.  Whew!  I've never been so glad that I'm not involved with politics beyond my job.  The debate was very informative and I do enjoy learning about the political arena and how things work, but I don't like all of the personal attacks.  I definitely know who I am going to vote for and I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on most of the issues.
• It has been a scorcher here this week and I'm sure it has been that way for most of the state.  Good thing we picked this week to plant a few new flowers and a new bush...NOT!  The other evening I was outside watering around 7:30 or 8:00 and I was sweating and getting eaten by mosquitos.  I definitely did not like that.
• Speaking of watering... After I finished watering, I was walking back to roll the hose up and noticed half of a baby bunny body on our new patio!  Then, I remembered how Koby was not too interested in coming back in the house earlier that morning.  Then, I was horrified!!!  Surely Koby didn't kill that bunny.  I mean, he's just a little thing and I don't think he has much of a hunting instinct.  And, surely I didn't let him lick me that day and then, I got sick to my stomach and promptly called Brandon.
• And speaking of Koby...he is spending a few days at my parent's house "in the country". So far, he and Hank, the cat, have become pretty good friends. My mom told me she let Hank in the house last night and wherever Koby went Hank went and vice versa.  He's a lover!
• I haven't had much time to cook this week (or much desire) so I sent some of my famer's market produce home with my mom.  Needless to say I haven't tried the new recipe yet either...
• My summer women's Bible study ended last night. I've really enjoyed this study about the characteristics God desires in his leaders. I hope I can find another study to do this fall. It is kind of refreshing to be surrounded by other women because I like to hear their perspectives and thoughts.
• I'm doing flowers for a wedding this weekend and I'm nervous!!  I'm confident in my skills but nervouse about the flowers holding up in this weather.  Send good vibes my way if you think about it :)

Well, that is a quick update.  I will be back soon!

Famer's Market Finds

Yesterday, I visited the farmer's market.  I needed to pick up some produce and I walked away with produce and more!

I got all of this for just $16!!  This proves that shopping local really is worth the extra time and most often the quality is better.

I got three squash, four tomatoes and one cucumber.  We had one of the tomatoes sliced up on hamburgers last night and I put the cucumber in a pasta salad.  I'm saving the squash for this recipe later in the week.

I also got this little gem - a mini strawberry rhubarb pie!!  Yummy! Yummy! Yummy! 

We finally planted our last area of the backyard and I got three of these pretty Lantana plants...

...and three of these pretty pink plants.  I think they are called Summer Snap Dragons?? 

Can you believe I got all of that for $16??  I just love the farmer's market!!

4th of July

As I mentioned, we spent the 4th of July at Tablerock with my family and my mom's sister and her family.  This is always a fun weekend to relax, spend time on the lake, spend time with family we don't see much throughout the year and to watch really fun fireworks!

On Friday, we went to Eureka Springs, AR for the day.  We haven't downloaded our pics yet so I had to steal these pics from Natalie.  And the only picture with most of the group in it is this one:

And as you will notice, only "Bohns" are in the picture since we were standing under a "Crazy Bone" sign.  Very funny on the in-law's (Brandon and Natalie) part!  Eureka Springs is a quaint little town with lots of unique shops and pretty buildings.  As you can see, the guys were thoroughly enjoying our time there:

Brandon took several other pics while we were there so I'll have to post those another time. 

On Saturday, we spent time on the lake, but the weather was a little yucky so our lake time got cut short.

That evening, we grilled the biggest steaks I've ever seen for dinner! 

A few of us were eating outside on the deck while the rest of the family (including my dad) were eating inside.  About half way through dinner, Brandon gets up to go inside.  He opened the refrigerator, trying to look normal as he looked for A-1 sauce for his steak.  Well, my dad happened to notice Brandon was looking for something and asked him what he needed.  Brandon tried to play it off until my dad realized what he was looking for.  As you can imagine my dad was apalled that Brandon wanted to doctor up his steak with A-1 sauce!!  And, as you probably can figure out, beef families don't keep A-1 sauce around.  This became the joke for the rest of the weekend!!

Sunday, we spent more time on the lake but cut it short again to get ready for the big 4th of July celebration.  Off and on in years past, my mom has bought us all festive 4th of July shirts, but this year, we all got MATCHING 4th of July shirts!  So, here we are for our annual 4th of July family picture (Natalie made the girls' adorable dresses so they wore those, but they also had shirts).

(we were re-enacting an engagment pose)

(this was the result of Natalie saying "Brandon, were you looking for A-1 sauce?" ha ha ha!)

Here is the one we were actually going for!

My aunt's family didn't quite get in the spirit this year, though:

If you think we are crazy dog people, they had SEVEN dogs at their house for the week compared to our family's four! 

After dinner, we headed down to the shore for the firework's display, courtesy of some neighbors.  We all got together and ate homemade ice cream and other desserts while we watched the fireworks show!

(this was only a sampling of the fireworks!)

(This is my cousin's daughter)

It was sure hard to get back into the swing of things when we got home on Monday.  The lake is such a relaxing place (most of the time) so we definitely take advantage of sleeping in, leisurely mornings, no make-up, etc.  It's not looking like we'll get back down there this summer, but we're hoping to make another trip in the fall!

Out of Town

We have been out of town for the past few days and I took today off to get a few things done around the house.  I will have a fun 4th of July post soon, complete with pictures.  But for now, I must get to the grocery store and tend to laundry...fun day off, huh?!?!