Summer Love

We all know that I love my job as a social worker. I gratefully get to do what I love 10 months of the year by serving the youth and families in our county but I ALSO get to do some other things I love to do the other 2 months of the year...relax and enjoy the sun! Having a summer break is such a blessing! I get time to hang out with my friends (most of which are teachers and are on my same schedule)and do things in Boone that we love, I get to go to Wilmington, and have a great vacation with my husband!

My favorite part of course is spending that quality time with Nic. He works so hard during the year (well we both do) and we both are blessed that in this season we have some free time at the same time! In July he has some time off and this year he had a two week period where he could escape from work. Normally we travel in doses but this year we really felt the blessing of our vacation and decided to take the whole two weeks.

Don't get me wrong it has been an AWESOME year for us this year but it has been a year of hard work. Work for both of us has challenged us more this year than usual, we are still pushing and growing our Mentor Program, we bought a house (which sounds exciting but the process is a lot of time effort worry and work,and we searched for a new church. Like I said...all things have been good this year but they have taken a lot of our attention and strength and I would have to say that we were very ready for our vacation :)

We went down to Wilmington for a week and enjoyed the beach, family, and friends. We love spending time here (if only UNCW had a football team... ;)) We were there for the fourth of July so it was crowded but we are smart enough to know when and how to beat the crowds. We had a blast!

After our time at the beach we left Piper at my parents house and we headed to Charleston to go on a cruise! We decided to take a cruise to celebrate our anniversary and treat ourselves with something exciting and new. It was awesome! We learned that cruises are not the most relaxing vacations because there is always so much going on to watch or participate in but it was entertaining none the less. And you can not beat that big blue ocean. I enjoyed going to the islands, we went to Nassau and Freeport, but I could sail on that sea forever.

We went actually on our cruise for our anniversary because Nic had to work that day so we just went out to a dinner and a movie in Boone that day. I must say I can not believe it has been 2 years since our wedding. Time truly flies. But I also must say that I am so proud of my man and the couple that we have grown into and continue to grow into. Life with Nic is wonderful. I am so blessed to live and share life with a man of so much passion and wisdom. Everyday I get to experience God's joy through him and that is honestly the truth. I loved him we started dating (yes I knew I loved him before he was my actual boyfriend :)), I loved him even more when we got married, but even to think of how my love has grown and changed since then is amazing! I love him more today than ever. I am so blessed by the strength he provides and the way we so gracefully walk through life together. We still have challenges but when they are placed in the light of our relationship they always seem a little less scary.

I love my man and I am so thankful for our refreshing summer and so excited for all that is still left in the year 2013. It already feels so full :)

With Love...