Caleb went overboard! Literally!

Thursday, at CIY, we had our morning session and then our small group to discuss what we learned...and then we got ready for WHITE WATER RAFTING!! Unfortunately while we were off campus the other leaders and I got a text from the university saying the campus we were staying at for the week (Lee University) was on lockdown due to the shooting in Chattanooga. Which was pretty scary, since we were out and about only 25 minutes from there. We obviously let the parents know asap, but luckily a few moments later we got a message saying the shooter was captured and we would be safe. SO we were able to enjoy rafting to the fullest with no worries at all. Between all of us we had a total of 3 boats!

We did what was called "the superman", where two of us hung off the side of the boat, and one in the middle during one of the hardest rapids. We rafted on the Ocoee River and the rapids were level 4 (out of a possible 5). That's me in the purple shorts holding on for dear life. I had to hold my nose because right before this picture I ATE a ton of water, and I'm pretty sure it got in my brain. SO as annoyed as I am that I'm holding my nose in almost every photo...I just had to! ;)

Right after this we passed a giant rock in the middle of the river and I see MY HUSBAND holding onto it! I literally freaked out. He accidentally fell out of the boat during a rough spot and another boat had to pick him up. Luckily he listened to the instructions of the guide just in case anyone DID fall out so he handled it like a champ and walked away with only a couple small bruises. Still, it was both hilarious and terrifying. Glad he's strong!! ;)

My brother wore a GoPro on his helmet (he's the one in green) and got some SWEET video footage, too!

& I love this shot of Caleb (he's in the front) on the boat!

We were on the river for over an hour. Our guide intentionally flipped the boat a few times, threw us out, backflipped off the back of the boat, etc... its one of my new favorite memories ever! I'm so glad Caleb and I got to experience it together, even if we were on separate boats. There was a rapid called "Broken Nose" that our guide made us sit in for about 5 minutes while the water just poured over the whole boat. It was amazing, ha!

BEFORE rafting though, we had a little time to play around in the river.

We stopped for a quick dinner on the road then cleaned up for that evenings session, which was amazing, as usual.

Then we went back and finished off the pizza rolls. SO many pizza rolls.

I can't explain what these kids taught me this week. Funny that I'm one of the "leaders", yet they taught ME so much. I laughed, I cried, and worshipped my heart out. God is doing some amazing things with this younger generation, and I can't wait to see what their futures hold!!

All in all? The week was incredible and I pray that we can make it back next year. I think Caleb and I realized just HOW important youth ministry is to us during this trip. Caleb has always felt lead to teach high school age kids, whether that's in a public school or church setting. It's so fun watching him lead them, it makes me a really proud wife.

Happy Tuesday, friends!

We're alive!!

I'M ALIVE! I had fully intended on posting regularly last week, despite being out of state...but life happened. I know that that happens sometimes, so I just decided to not get bummed about my lack of blogging prep and instead just unplug for the week...& let me tell you, it rocked.

For those of you who didn't know, Caleb and I were able to volunteer for a CIY (Christ in Youth) camp last week in Cleveland, TN at Lee University. To say it was amazing, inspiring, and unbelievable would be an understatement. We had the BEST time getting to know these kids on a deeper level, being challenged spiritually, and laughing more and more every day. The way the week was structured was perfect. Breakfast around 8AM, morning worship/sermon after, discussion after that, lunch, free time, dinner & then the night worship/sermon, then we'd finish out the night with small group and breaking down the nights message and what the kids took from it. Then we spent most nights telling hilarious stories, making up new games, and just enjoying time together.

We left for TN on Monday, after a group picture, of course!!

Ignore the fact that I'm shorter than most of these kids.

We got there with a little time before dinner, then had our first session and stayed up entirely too late. I taught the girls how to do the worm, and we sang karaoke for hours.

Tuesday during free time the boys entered a basketball tournament and a few of us went to cheer them on!

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing each others hair... and taking more silly pictures.

That evening rocked. We were able to sit near the front row so we had amazing seats during worship. My brother and I had a really cool moment during it that I'll forever treasure. There is something so amazing and freeing about holding someone while they go through something, both literally and figuratively. I'm so thankful for him!

Wednesday was probably my favorite day (other than Thursday, okay so all the days were great). I got to lead small group discussions and it had a lot to do with encouragement. As a group we encouraged each and every person in the room and it was just incredible. We all walked home with a letter about ourselves, each and every person wrote something sweet about everyone. It was so neat!

A few of us decided to dress up a little nicer for this night -- and that was fun. Most of the week is spent in comfy sports clothes  so it was fun to get a little dolled up!

BUT! My favorite "God moment" of the week took place on this evening. During the message there were a few "invitations" and the worship that evening was extremely emotional. I discovered a few things about the group of kids I work with and while some of the stories broke my heart, it made me realize what a difference I could have in their lives. THAT is worth every stressful moment of ministry. Every doubt I had ever had thinking "am I even making a difference?" faded away within an instant. I'm literally almost in tears just remembering the moments as I prayed with these kids, holding them while they experienced God's presence. It was overwhelming, and SO amazing! Our God is so good!!!

I'll be back tomorrow with how we spent our free time on Thursday and spoiler alert - it was awesome. Can anyone say white water rafting!?!!? ;)

5 reasons my week rocked.

1. Finally burned my favorite candle. I got this as part of a birthday present YEARS ago & wanted to literally save it forever. It's like pineapple & mango goodness, but we finally decided to burn it and oh man, it was everything I dreamed it would be :)
2. I helped myself to one ice cream cone this week. It's been too long. Mint cookies and cream, yes please.
3. Babysitting little Charlotte this week. Before we fed her, we took her outside to rock on their new back deck furniture and she. was. OUT! Like a light. It was so much fun spending time with her. Nora was at VBS and we were her "surprise" when she got home late that evening. We are so happy to have those little girls in our life!
4. GORGEOUS sunset on the way home last night from....
5... our spontaneous trip to the movies! We each accidentally wore stripes, got charged a student discount, got free drink and popcorn refills... so excuse the insanely cheesy smile, but we were so happy to have a date night out!

Honorable mentions:
-Booking another 2016 wedding! Yay!
-Figuring out why my photos were blurry & fixing it!
-Getting an unexpected, uplifting email :)
-Making it to Friday!!!

We've had a busy, but fantastic week. Tonight, my Erin and I have some awesome plans in the works and I can't wait to recap it all next week. Can't wait for our wedding tomorrow (#14 of the year)! I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Fixing the blurry photos!

Guys! Remember a few weeks ago how I griped and complained about the significant changes in photos uploaded by Blogger? I thought I was going a little crazy as some of you said you hadn't noticed much. Then, a few of you said you HAD noticed, and gave me some suggestions. I didn't feel like any of them were making a significant difference though, and it was super frustrating!

Well, last night while editing some wedding shots, I knew there had to be an answer of some sort, and I think I FINALLY found it! I'm no HTML whiz by any means, but in the coding there is a second section with "s640" written in (at least for the photo size I was uploading). Well, if you double that for high-res files...you get CLEAR IMAGES (by putting in "s1280" or higher)! I see totally clear uploads now! I feel like my blogging game is back, baby!

I know, I know, way too much excitement for a Thursday morning but I had to share my little find because a few of you said it was something you had also noticed. I feel like I can finally share more images from weddings and not nitpick my every post!

ANYWAY!

I found this random shot when going through our 4th of July wedding and thought it was kinda sweet. This bride was such a fun girl and I love that Caleb took her bouquet so she could fix her shoes. Such a gentleman :) 

My discovery has made me want to share more random DSLR images that I've been holding on to (since I didn't want to upload them all blurry), so here's a little random photo dump from my personal life through the lens of my Nikon.

During a recent engagement session, a bride-to-be wanted to show me their save-the-date. It started out as a joke from her soon to be SIL and then they decided to keep it and actually use it! Is that not the coolest?! They are riding a SHARK. Ha!

A couple favorites from a recent wedding... get ready for your jaw to drop. She's stunning!

A fun shot of the ladies from the 4th.

Caleb and one of the sweet little babes from church!

That's all I've got for now, but I'm very excited, as you can tell! I hope everyone has a fantastic Thursday!

Confessions: Random July Edition

Confession: I'm insanely excited to see what Amazon has up their sleeve for"Prime Day"! Not that I need anything, but its always fun to look!

Confession: whenever I actually wear something to a wedding that's halfway decent AND super comfy, a mirror selfie is definitely required...

the 4 is for the 4th of July... #duh

Confession: I watched this video about 7 times last night. Chris Pratt running in high heels. Bah! Did that not just make your Wednesday!?

Confession: this bride's pair of gorgeous heels for her wedding day cost her over $200...but I can't say I blamed her.  Okay, real talk. I've never spent over $60 on a pair of shoes, but these could change my mind!

Confession: I think my husband should try out for our church's worship team to sing or play guitar. Or, just serenade me more. That'd be fine, too :)

Confession: I'm kind of obsessed with Blake Lively & she could be one of the most adorable celebrities ever.

Confession: I have a not so healthy obsession with my laptop's photobooth.

Confession: I also have an obsession with my many, many excel documents. #notsorry

Confession: Caleb and I still have not solidified our Fall vacation plans. We need a beach in our lives asap! We're going to Tennessee next week with our youth group for a youth conference, but we'd also like a week off to relax near a beach...so if you find good deals, pass them my way.

Confession: Facebook is annoying me lately. I'm mainly sticking to Instagram because its more fun to stare at this adorable hedgehog all day long...tell me you clicked that link.

Confession: I'd pay a lot of money to watch my wedding day like a fly on a wall. Beginning to end. Hands down one of the most amazing days of my life. Thanks for the photo, Erin ;)

Confession: I have no plans tonight and I fully intend to flop in some sweats the second I get home. #noshame

Enjoy your day, friends!!

Our Fourth of July weekend!

Our long weekend consisted of photographing two weddings, little sleep, and lots of fun. Honestly it was such a great weekend, but I'm absolutely exhausted right now. I haven't been this tired in a really long time. Ever feel like you need a weekend to recoup from your weekend? Yeah, that's me right now...but I'm so thankful for all the fun we had!

Thursday evening we headed to Caleb's brothers place to hang out with his family...we had a blast setting off fireworks and hanging out on their front lawn for hours just laughing like crazy.

Friday I got an early start to the day and headed out to photograph the first wedding of the weekend! We knew a few of the guests (as well as the bride) at the wedding so we knew it would be a really fun, relaxed day! The bride even invited me to Chipotle with her bridesmaids for lunch! Talk about awesome?!

One of the gals from the youth group was there and we had a blast taking a few selfies and dancing the night away (yes, its a great job that I have)!!

& of course, a bride & groom selfie!

We got home, cleared off our memory cards, got a few hours of rest and did it all over again the next day!

This lovely couple hired Razzi's to come and put on a special fireworks show JUST for their wedding, so it was awesome getting to see a whole fireworks show for the fourth, even while we worked! They had multiple favors for their guests like USA cookie cutters attached to a bag of soft baked cookies (nom!!!), american flag flip flops for the tired feet on the dance floor, a photo booth and adorable Ohio shaped koozies.

Sunday, we got breakfast with Caleb's parents before they headed back home to Arkansas, heard a great message at church, then headed to Columbus to see a few friends for a bit!

I hope everyone had an awesome, fun & safe weekend!!!

Hello July!

Its July?!?! WOW! Here I am saying it yet again, time is flying. I honestly can't make a big list of goals for July, or even talk about the ones I failed at in June...I underestimated how busy we'd be with weddings and volunteering and time just got away from me!

I've got a lot on my plate this month, so I'm going to take it easy on the long list of goals and instead focus on smaller, more realistic weekly goals! Caleb and I started this in our household last summer. Every Monday, one of us would write a weekly goal on the fridge that we wanted to accomplish together in that week alone. It was always so fun challenging each other and keeping each other accountable, whether that be with a "no spend week" or a "no pop" week. It was a fun way to do something TOGETHER, and we loved that. So this week? My goal is for us to read more.

Caleb and I both love to read...so much! It's sad that sometimes we're so busy we don't make as much time for it as we should. It's too easy to flop in front of the TV after dinner and binge-watch The Office (tell me we're not the only ones!), but instead, we want to start dedicating a couple nights of post-dinner time to diving into our new favorite novel. We were sitting in our guest bedroom on Tuesday night and realized just HOW many books we've bought together since we've been married. I saw dozens that I bought that are just sitting there, collecting dust (gasp! I know!), so we've decided to make this more of a priority, and that makes us happy!

I'm excited to implement weekly goals into our lives more. We have two weddings to shoot this weekend so while its not much of a free-weekend, we are lucky to have some really awesome clients to work with!! I hope everyone has an awesome holiday weekend planned!!