As promised… wedding pictures!!!

WOW, it’s been a while. I’ve never been much of a blogger and it is obvious that I still haven’t quite reached that status. Either way, I promised some time ago that I would post some wedding photos! Here you go, and in no particular order. ENJOY!!!

Dude

Here is a video we created and showed in church last weekend. There is no hidden meaning or real purpose behind the video. We just needed a creative way to introduce the student ministry to the church. This is what we came up with. Enjoy!

Blessings…

As of recently, I’ve felt compelled to pray a different prayer. So many times I catch myself praying, “God, bless me for this, bless me for that.” Thing is, I’m so abundantly blessed already. I have an amazing wife, family and friends, an apartment we call home, two cars that are paid off (although my car needs prayers of blessings from time to time), a new HDTV, Nintendo Wii, a refridgerator full of food, a closet full of clothes… the list could go on and on. The point I’m getting to is that my Creator has blessed me and my wife so much, but how do I spend my time, my energy and efforts blessing the Lord? What I mean by this is, how does my life bring glory and honor to God? How am I blessing the Lord?

Psalm 34, A psalm of David says…

“I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!”

My prayer is that I will bless the LORD with all thats in me, that my words would bring glory and honor to His name, and that it becomes less and less about me and more about my Savior! I’ve been attempting to pray this prayer on a regular basis. It’s been a helpful reminder that it’s not about me and the way God is blessing my life (although He is), it’s about fully devoting my life to blessing the Lord!

Arethusa Falls

Angie and myself, along with some friends made the drive up north today to hike the Arethusa Falls trail at Crawford Notch. For those who have never hiked this trail (or those who have never gone hiking), we’d all recommend it. It’s only about a 1.5 mile hike in and I believe you only climb about 1000ft up. Angie and I had hiked this trail about a year ago but didn’t climb to the top of the falls last time. Granted getting up there was a little more difficult and intimidating at times, it was definitely well worth our time and energy. I’m one that really connects with God through His creation and being able to go places like we did today really show me the creativity of our creator. The pictures are a good start, but if you truly want to experience something beautiful, take a day to head up to Crawford Notch.

Looking over the top

Ang and I at the top of the falls

Me and my best friend from high school, Nick

Enjoying the view

The brook right before going over the 200ft falls

Chad standing on the edge (and scaring his wife!)

Climbing back down

Another cool view coming down the falls

Still climbing down

Capturing the beauty

Looking up from the bottom

Ang and I beneath the falls

Good view of the falls

Bemis Brook on the way back to the car

You don’t get this view from the bottom!

Catch you up to speed!

Since I recently started this blog, I now have to catch you up on some of the adventures you’ve missed out on. We won’t go back too far, but we’ll start you with the big one. On July 26th of this year, I married my best friend in the whole world, Angela Danielle Gard! Since I’m a visual person and I need pictures to help tell a story, I’ll wait until we get our wedding pictures back to write about our special day. Angie and I are getting antsy and are so pumped to see them for the first time. As I’m sure you are all eager to see our pictures too, I’m sure you’ll appreciate a blog about our wedding that has pictures to go with it.

Of course, after the wedding comes the honeymoon, and Playa del Carmen, Mexico made for an amazing first adventure together as a married couple! The photos don’t really do it justice. It was an amazing place to visit and we thoroughly enjoyed the luxuries of the “all-inclusive” package! We were sad when it was time to leave.

We had a need for speed and took it out on this thing!

Hanging on the balcony outside our room

View from the beach on our resort

Woke up early to watch the sunrise, it was amazing!

Trying my hardest to impersonate the aztec calendar

View from our room… picture doesn’t do it justice

Ran into several of these guys while we were there

Beautiful view!!!

Most unique ceasar salad I’ve ever seen!

Gearing up to snorkle

Beach at Tulum

Sandy feet!

Cruisin in Cozumel

Hangin in Cozumel

Dinner at the resort

After we returned from our honeymoon it was time to pack up the Uhaul and drive nineteen hours back to New Hampshire from Illinois. We decided to drive straight through, which really made for an adventure. We were in two countries and nine states within a four day period. On top of that, I only slept for about four and a half hours the night before the drive back. I’ll just say that the last three hours were the most difficult in my years of driving. Fortunately, we made it and have since settled into our new home (apartment that is). God has been so good to us and He continues to bless us as we are just over one month into our marriage. Thanks for your prayers and your support during these adventures in our life!

A New Adventure (writing this blog!)

I like to think of the many things that God places before us or calls us to in this life as, “adventures”. You may never know what He has in store for you and then BAM! He surprises you with something new. Sometimes it can be very exciting or something you may be extremely passionate about, or He may be calling you to something that may completely terrify you (Look at the story of Jonah). Thing is, after reading the book of Jonah, we are fully aware of the fact that we cannot run or hide from God. Jonah was disobedient and that landed him right in the belly of a large fish! For me, what it all boils down to is whether or not we are obedient with the adventures God places before us. This blog is my attempt to share the “adventures” of me and my wife’s life together. No matter what God puts before us, no matter where He takes us, it is our prayer that we continue to live our lives fully devoted to Christ and following His will in our lives. Hopefully this will be a place that we can share our little (or big) adventures with you all!