Three Years Married!

13 May 2006.

Three years ago yesterday.

I had my girls surrounding me...

...and David was spending his last single moments with his guys...

...with at least one sweet moment between him and his brothers. :)

Then it was time for my dad to walk me down the aisle...

...and for us to exchange eternal vows in front of our family and friends...

...and for David to kiss his bride.

It was thrilling to share our first walk as man and wife...

...and our first dance!

And we were ushered off into our happily ever after by our loving family and friends.

Our three-year anniversary. Here's to many more! :)

A Sea of Carolina Blue

My baby brother graduated from college last weekend!

OK, so he's not much of a "baby" anymore... Doesn't he look so distinguished?

David and I flew down to NC for the weekend to go to the graduation and celebrate with my family. We're so glad we could both be there!


Yeah, we got there pretty early... But that meant we got good seats!


Here come the graduating seniors!


Most of whom were on their cell phones, looking for family...


Hey! I know that guy!


Look, he found us!


Eric's always taking pictures of himself like this. I'm thrilled to have caught him on camera!


Where's Waldo?


There he is! :)


Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the keynote speaker.


Eric standing with the rest of the business school graduates.


Me and David with the proud graduate!


A family photo in front of the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

We're so proud of you, Eric! Many blessings on this next chapter of your life. We love you!

For more pictures of Eric's graduation, check out our Smugmug gallery.

The big 3-0!

David's birthday party last night was a rip-roaring success -- thank you to all of our wonderful friends for coming to celebrate with us!

I had so much fun decorating our apartment with the Star-Wars-as-30th-birthday-party theme:

"30" streamers courtesy of the Beesons;
Millennium Falcon and TIE fighter printed out from the interwebs

Super cheesy Star Wars plastic tablecovers

Framed pictures of David as a little boy;
plastic lightsabers borrowed from the Dorini boys

The little kids loved playing with the lightsabers:

Jeremy, age 4, and Lydia, age 6

And so did the big kids:

Dan, age 23, and John, age 27

And the pièce de résistance: the Death Star cake!

We put the candles in the Death Star part of the cake, to represent its explosion. And we put one in the laser itself, just because it looked cool. :)

See -- all cake inside!

David's brother Iain came down for the party, all the way from Poughkeepsie!

Busting out breakdancing moves, in honor of his kid brother's birthday

And he brought his lovely girlfriend Erin, who we got to meet for the first time.

We had so many people show up -- from our small groups, from YAC, from PEF staff... It was a nice melding of our many little worlds here in Princeton.

Michelle holding little Laura, with Iain and Damara in the background

Steven and Hilary came dressed up!!

And we also had some surprise guests -- old friends we haven't seen in ages!

Pearson, up from Duke for a conference -- we hadn't seen him in a year and a half!

And Saunders came down from the city with Pearson -- so good to see him, too!

Erik brought his pop-up Star Wars book as a contribution to the decorations -- it was a huge hit!

And Jason and Damara gave David a Star Wars lego kit!

The birthday boy reveling in his loot

Steven and Hilary promptly opened the kit and constructed it for us

Demonstrating the warning in the instructions...

The kit was complete with a mini Darth Vader!

People stayed at our apartment into the wee hours -- until almost midnight!! Which, frankly, is crazy late for old fogies like us...

Lucy taking advantage of Damara's falling asleep for a photo op

What a wonderful way to celebrate David's birthday! Thanks again, everyone -- we love you all!