Mr. and Mrs. Matthew William Lowe

This past weekend Ben and I traveled up to Raleigh, NC for our friends' wedding. Ben and Matt were pledge brothers and Matt was also in our wedding. Ben was one of Matt's 15 Ushers (see Ben isn't the only person who had a huge wedding party)! He and Callie had been dating all through school, so we all always hung out with each other. It was a great weekend seeing all the boys from college again, and all their girlfriends (luckily we are ALL friends), whom we hadn't gotten to see in a while.

The Rehearsal dinner was at a restaurant, the Angus Barn... a perfect locale considering the fact that Matt is a pure hunting and fishing kind of country boy...Matt's Groom's CakeDeer Ice Sculpture The wedding ceremony and reception were beautiful. We had a great time dancing and there was even a fireworks show near the end of the night! Swift, Hieb, Ben, and BrentThe boys and their women!Our roomies for the weekend

Awesome Fireworks Show!All the AUBURN boysCallie wore her mom's wedding dress and veil... the garter retrieving It was a great weekend and we wish Matt and Callie much happiness and many blessings in their new life together!!!!

up close and personal

I have just been looking over and editing some of my wedding pictures this weekend and found lots of new favorites when I zoomed in, cropped, or made them black and white. Just sharing a few.

rehearsal dinner dancing

in the battlehouse lobby

on the battlehouse balcony

"i think i'm ready now"my glowing bouquet! i LOVED the simplicity of iti think i should send the color version of this shot to the makeup lady!

closeup of the altar... like a garden!

our fantastic wedding partyfirst dance...pure happiness

my cake

***All pictures by Samantha Alday Photography***

Hurricane Blue Angels

We had high hopes for a fun fun weekend out on the water, watching the Blue Angels Air Show, swimming, and having a good time with friends.... I think we achieved this, but in a different way than we planned!

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We took Ben's new boat and had Garrett & Holley, Katie (we missed you being there Jody!), and Harper, Ben, and I on board. We packed all kinds of food and snacks, drinks, a big island float, and were ready for a long day! Basically, once we got to the Pensacola Bay, tied up with William's boat, hopped in the water and started swimming.... the BOTTOM dropped out of the sky and a full blown thunderstorm attacked us. We all huddled down on the floor of the boat, as close to the center console, without touching metal, as we could get... but escaping the rain was impossible. It felt like needles all over our bodies. Lightning was striking all around us, constantly, seemingly hitting things all around us. Ambulance sirens were going off, but we had no idea what emergencies they were going to. A few of us actually were shocked a few times, but we weren't sure what it was from. We were all scared to death, but what could we do? There were hundreds of other boats of all sizes out there with us, in the same position, with nowhere to go to escape. One direction was straight into the storm, and the other was going with it, which would mean we would have double the storm front. I think when it started we thought it would "blow over" soon... but that turned into over an hour with no end in sight. Ben kept wanting to pull anchor and drive home (close to an hour away), but by staying put, we were surrounded by other boats, with metal higher in the sky than we had. Also, I think that it would have been impossible to navigate through the whiteout, needlepoint rain, and misery. Anyway, we eventually were able to head home after the rain and lightning let up a little bit.

So we had about 45 minute of sunny fun before it all started. Needless to say, the Blue Angels didn't fly... it was a memorable adventure, and we had alot of laughs (despite the scared to death moments). At one point we laughed at how we wished we had pictures to document it, but didn't want to ruin my camera by pulling it out (EVERYTHING on the boat got soaking wet... and I mean EVERYTHING). Well, I found a disposable camera a few months ago in a box from way back in high school probably (before digital cameras came out). There were about 15 pictures left on it so I brought it with me this weekend to use them up and get it developed. Well I didn't care of it was destroyed by the rain, so we took it out and used the remaining pics on our adventure! I can't wait to get the camera developed tomorrow and see what turns out. But for now, these are the pics I took before and after the rain!

on our way to Pensacola

Katie, Harper and I...floating on life jackets and drinking daiquirismy baby boy didn't want to look at the cameradrowned rat, soaking wet, tired, and sunning on the front of the boatprecious

4th of July

***I updated shortly after posting, to add some pictures my mom took on her camera!

(has anyone noticed how UNcreative I am with my post titles?)

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We had such a fun time at the Beach, yet again (how could you not). Basically the theme of the weekend was FOOD and SWIMMING (& FAMILY)! Aunt Elizabeth came down and we had such a good time visiting and having lots of girl talks (at one point my dad was outnumbered and had to leave the room... it was too much for him.. haha). I hate that we didn't get any pics all together, but I'm pretty sure Natalie got some good ones! Check out Natalie's blog for more fun pics and a more thorough description of the weekend!

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Now that the new pool is finished, none of us can stay out of it! I think this was the first weekend this summer at the beach, though, that the SUN has been out and I actually got the chance to lay out and soak in the rays (although this weekend was one of the first times I have applied sunscreen correctly, so I didn't get as much sun as I'd hoped.... darn spray sunscreen made it too easy to apply!).

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Daddy with his youngins

have i mentioned before that our labs likes to swim?Bennett was in the Ono Island 4th of July parade with his friend Jack!Such a cutie (look at his new crocs!)Half Brothers: Steele (in the back) and Harper (in the front)... such FESTIVE pups! our little family (it was a bit sunny, and early)My weirdo sisters dress like twins for the 4th... how cute (in a very sarcastic but loving voice.. haha) so I jump in the middle of the "perfect" picture and it's kinda ruined huh? haha jk i know yall love me! :)
I attempted to paint my toenails white, then paint red FLAG stripes on them, but it looked horrible... so I ended up with this.. probably equally horrible (don't worry i took it all off on Monday)
someone stole my camera ...
uncle" awesome" (aka Michael) and B-manloves his MiMi and his HAND my parents pups Sam and Gus got festive too Harper & Steele don't really like the new gate that keeps them off the porch and out of the pool (because Harper attempted to EAT the house Thursday night, and the second the pool gate is open, both dogs are JUMPING in the pool!)... you can only go in the yard... sorry jailbirds!
swimming at Robinson island (we took the boat over and cooked hamburgers for lunch)...and Yes I realize this isn't swimming.... more like floating rigidly and scarily to keep away from all the jellyfish underneath us!
Saturday night amidst a lightning storm, with fireworks up above, Ben and I drove up to Josephine to spend the rest of the weekend with his family. I think their weekend had a similar theme to ours... lots of cooking and eating! We had a great weekend and I hope all of YOU had a wonderful Independence Day as well!!!

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WHOA DEANNA

I never predicted this one.... and I don't think anyone else did either! I CANNOT believe she didn't pick Jason!?!?!?! I mean Jesse is a great guy and everything and she does seem happy...now that I have watched the entire After the Final Rose show I understand her decision (kinda) and am happy for her... but I must say I am SHOCKED!!!! This is why I'm addicted to Reality TV! Poor Jason... he got me balling like a baby when he got rejected and was in the limo leaving DeAnna (just like he did when little Ty came running up to him and they embraced and fell on the grass at the home town date... I DIED).

But I DO have a prediction.... JASON will be the next Bachelor!!!! I mean, how could he not? He's the perfect guy, with a son, who needs 25 women who saw how incredible he is, to be vying for his love and KNOW that they want to have a family with him and Ty. I think he deserves it. Is anyone else on the same page with me? Do any of you blog readers even care like I do? I mean, I know I'm obsessed with this show and everything, but these are REAL people, and I care! (haha now I got myself laughing again).

Alright now talk amongst yourselves!

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