Hey friends! I hope you are having a great summer. Sorry for the lack of posts; turns out that I needed an even longer break from doing all the things 🙂 This summer I wanted to focus on rest and being intentional with what I devote my time and energy to, and unfortunately the blog wasn’t one of them. But for the rest of the year, I promise I will post at least once a month, if not more, so I won’t leave you hanging again!

Matt is back in school doing rotations, so our summer felt a little short, but we made the most of it in the two months we had off! I thought I would share a few highlights.

Anniversary/Birthday Trip to New York City

Visiting New York has been on our to-do list since we got to Virginia, and we finally made it happen in May for my birthday and our 5-year anniversary! We took the Amtrak train from VA to NY, which was great because it was cheap and allowed me to continue working on the trip. Several of our friends had moved from CA to NY, so it was a blessing to be able to reconnect and have them show us around the city.

We had some amazing food – from pizza tours to New York Bagels to a fancy birthday dinner, we ate so. much. food. But it’s ok, because we walked almost all of it off going to the various NY sites. We went to the Met, Natural History Museum, Times Square, Central Park, Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, 5th Avenue, and lots of places in between. Sadly, Broadway was closed, but it gives us another excuse to go back 🙂

One of my favorite parts was finding a designer dress in the sample rack sale for only $39 – it was a great birthday present to myself 🙂 Thanks to my hubby for planning a great birthday trip!

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Family Reunion in Oregon

Soon after New York, we went home to Oregon to celebrate my grandpa’s 90th birthday! We had 20 people from my dad’s side of the family, and were still missing a few cousins. I’m so grateful for my big crazy family and that most of us got to be together for the first time in about 5 years. It’s been that long since Matt and I were home in the summer, and it was an extra treat that we could be there for the 4th of July. We did a lot of fun things with family: paddleboarding on the river, bowling, the farmer’s markets and a big dinner at my house. I’m thankful that Matt’s family is close too – we got to celebrate our niece’s 13th and 16th birthdays and spend some good time with his family too!

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Starting a Summer Bible Study

Towards the end of May, I felt God putting it on my heart to start a summer Bible study where we didn’t do any kind of plan or curriculum but just read the bible and talked about it. Since a lot of churches don’t have community groups over the summer, I wanted to a way to continue to grow in God’s word with the women I know, and bring them together to connect with each other and God. So I started Haven bible study, and invited the young women I knew in the area to study 1 Corinthians at the park every other Saturday morning.

It was such a blessing to be able to meet with these women to grow in our relationship with the Lord! I was challenged to think more deeply about scripture and apply it to my life, rather than just read it to check it off my to do list. I was reminded that Bible studies don’t have to be anything super profound – all you need is friends and the Bible!

Wilmington Beach Trip

One group of close friends all decided to move away this summer (how dare they!), but thankfully we were able to meet up at the beach for a weekend in Wilmington, NC. We had been talking about a girls trip for years, and I guess everyone moving away gave us the kick we needed to actually plan it. We stayed at an adorable Air BnB close to the beach, and enjoyed getting sunburned tan, watching chick flicks, and relaxing together before spreading out across the east coast. Thankfully two of them are still fairly close, so hopefully we can get together again before too long.

Busch Gardens

Another thing that has been on our to-do list for a while was visit Busch Gardens! Virginia doesn’t have many amusement parks, but this is the biggest one and only few hours away. Thankfully, our friends had two free passes so we got to go for free! I was SO excited to finally go because I LOVE roller coasters. Even though Matt doesn’t love the crazy twisty ones like I do, he was a really great sport and went on all the ones I wanted to go on. I had an absolute blast with every twist, drop, and loop-de-loop. I hope we can go back again soon!

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I hope you enjoyed my summer recap. I would love to know what your summer highlights are!