Aunt Sam and Uncle James Visit New Braunfels!

Aunt Sam and Uncle James at Gruene Hall!
Uncle James loves Samson and Daisy May and they love him more! :o)

Aunt Sam with Landon at Mamacitas Mexican Restaurant here in New Braunfels...we had to get Uncle James who is from NC some good TexMex while he was visiting! We also had Texas BBQ and of course we took James to Naegelins for some good ol' Texas style kolaches and pastries!

The lovebirds getting ready to go tubing. LJ and I put them in in Gruene and they got out at our neighborhood's private river access and walked back to our place. The weather was perfect. They enjoyed having a relaxing float down the river with some beers and the cool tubes our awesome neighbors Amy and Dan let us borrow. Planning a wedding is so stressful and we were thankful they got so have some R&R while they visited us!

Cool glasses we found at the cute little shop in Gruene they were going to wear to meet everyone at James' seminary! :o)

Best friends.

Gram Carol, Gramp Mike, my James who finally got to take a study break to join us, Sam and her James at Gristmill at a beautiful river view dinner. Landon is having too much fun grabbing sugar packets to smile in this one lol!

Yes, we took a 10 month old wedding dress shopping. He was amazing! He even let me stay the whole time through multiple dresses, veils, jewelry try-ons, etc and had the most fun time! Gram Carol helped entertain him with her phone and his toys but his favorite was sitting on the floor next to Aunt Sam when she came out in each princess dress...he loved playing with the soft fabrics and watching her twirl around! :o)

Gram Carol and LJ are buddies! She is awesome!

Gram Carol and Gramp Mike with sweet LJ. Can you tell by his expression that they are some of his most favorite friends?!? :o)

My best friend Sam and her new fiance James came to visit all the way from North Carolina this week! We had the most incredible time with them. James is coming to Austin to go to seminary this fall and Samantha will join him here after their wedding this winter. We could not be more thrilled to be close to them again as we moved right to North Carolina after our marriage for my James to go to school there and Sam was living there the whole time we were. It is so amazing how the Lord keeps connecting our paths back together.

While in town, Sam and I were able to go with her mom wedding dress shopping (pics above) and we found the PERFECT dress! Celebrations bridal boutique here in NB is wonderful. The people were SO nice and even let sweet Landon crawl all around with his very noisy toys while we looked at dresses. Mom and I cried at the sight of beautiful Samantha in the gorgeous gowns and we are just thrilled that she is marrying James Franklin who is the most incredible man. He is passionate about helping children with disabilities just like Sam and they were friends and colleagues working together with Young Life and then Reality Ministries before their courtship. Her James and my James get along like brothers and we all 4 have the most wonderful tine together. We are going to have first Friday date nights where we go swing dancing when Sam gets here in January and until then we told James he is welcome here any time as he is part of our little family. We hope he comes over a ton for home cooked meals and to play with Landon and the dogs who all 3 love him dearly. It is incredible to see how God is working through the upcoming marriage of Sam and James. I am so encouraged by everything they are doing and what they stand for. They are going to make an incredible difference as they serve together as husband and wife. Oh and I am SO excited that Sam asked me to be her Matron of Honor! She is like my sister and I could not be more honored to stand by her on the wedding day and help with all of the preparations. Sam is like my Mom's second daughter so she of course was all teary when I sent her pics of the dress and told her about the engagement. My whole family will be there on the wedding day and thankfully my Mom has offered to help with Landon during wedding festivities and she will go early with me to help with preparations in December.

Well, the bar exam is only a few days away and next week at this time I will have my hubby back! He has been studying 17 hours a day (seriously) and this has been a very trying but wonderful time for us. We are so looking forward to his full time job as an attorney here in New Braunfels which begins August 1st with the most awesome firm. Finally we will have evenings and weekends together again and will get the opportunity to go fishing, play tennis, tubing on the river, vacationing in the hill country, and just relaxing together. LJ and I have a sweet surprise we have been working with Nana on for ther weekend after the bar. I am SO bad with secrets and am dying to tell him but will NOT spoil the surprise this time because I promised Nana! :o) Can't wait! Pictures to come of our anniversary and Landon's adventures with friends and milestone shots but now it's finally time for me to nap since we have been going since 5:45 this morning and Landon finally is down for a long nap!