Summer is off to a good start!

Summer has been long awaited here in Pennsylvania. This winter was brutal and it snowed almost every single week. It seemed as if we jumped from winter straight to summer, and skipped spring altogether. Summer is my favorite time of the year with fall coming in a really close second. All winter, I dreamed of starting my first garden. I bought garden and landscaping books and conducted landscaping "blueprints" in my mind. So when May rolled around and the warm weather was here to stay, I was ready to get my hands dirty and start planting. I planted tomatoes, peppers, banana peppers, lettuce, spinach, thyme, basil, cilantro, and sweet onions this year. Although the spinach bit the dust already and the lettuce isn't fairing well, I have my first tomato growing and see a few tiny little peppers on my plants.

Peony season came and went so fast, but I did take advantage of it by making some sweet arrangements for our house and also gave an arrangement to my friend Janelle. I truly find joy in the simple things such as arranging flowers, planting in my garden, watching hummingbirds at my feeder, and decorating my home. As I grow older, I'm learning that I truly am a homebody and find myself the happiest when I am listening to music and cleaning the house on Saturdays or hosting my friends over for a fire on weekend nights.

Timber and I have enjoyed going on walks together as of lately. We live in the country, so we walk by horse stables and farms. There's a crick nearby where I let him off the leash to swim.

Back in April, our family went to the MS Walk. We made a team for Clint, who was diagnosed with MS several years ago. Although it was a cold day, we had a fun time together and it was for a good cause.

In May, my friend Elaina invited me to go to Columbus, Ohio and stay with her brother Matt. We had a great time brunching in the city and going out at night. It was a fun weekend!

Carly graduated from Shippensburg University in May. Rayne and I stayed with her that weekend and spent Friday and Saturday hanging out around campus. I'm so proud of her! She now has a job with Hershey Park working on their websites and enjoys it.

In June, Trevor and I went with his family to Long Beach Island, New Jersey. It was a nice little getaway for a few days, and I enjoyed the time off work. We ate some good food and watched a few sunrises and sunsets with his parents:

We had our fifth annual Cinco De Junio! Cinco De Junio started back when we were in college and our friend Josh made up the holiday to get us all together when we came home for the summer. It grows into a bigger event each year, and it really is my favorite party of the summer! All of the guys shave their facial hair and keep their mustaches and we spend the evening drinking coronas, margaritas, eating chips and guac, and playing games.

Our friends Shane and Amber are having twin boys! We are all so excited because our group of friends are all beginning to start their families. We had a fun time at their co-ed baby shower, and Amber is the cutest pregnant lady ever. From the back, you can't even tell she's pregnant. And there's two babies in there!

Chelsey and I both have baby fever bad after going to all of these showers and seeing our friends with cute newborns. We both can't wait until we have kids and they grow up together as cousins.

Even though I don't work on the Labor and Delivery floor anymore, women's health truly is something I'm passionate about. I feel honored that I've been able to educate and help my friends out with their pregnancies and labor/delivery experiences!

Summer is off to a great start so far, and we have almost every single weekend booked up into September. We head to Europe in a few weeks, and I can't wait!