Month: September 2017

Family Life

Ashley and Ryan’s Wedding

This is just a quick blog post to highlight Ashley and Ryan’s special day. They got married at Evans Orchard on September 29th. They had BEAUTIFUL weather. Thursday night was the rehearsal and dinner. Dustin’s parents were able to tag along and help with the kids since I was in the wedding, Dustin was an usher, and Princess K was the flower girl.

Friday we got all dolled up early and took lots of pictures. The ceremony was beautiful and we all got to enjoy the reception. The yummy food included apple cake and apple cider doughnuts! Princess K loved the dance floor, and was exhausted the next day. She normally goes to bed at 7 pm and that night the party was just getting started at that time.

Ashley looked gorgeous and so did the rest of the crew. It was a beautiful setting. I am so glad I splurged on getting the babies (Prince K and my nephew) matching outfits because I will forever cherish the photos of them together with our family, especially the one with my dad holding them. They are 3 months apart but about the same size. Prince K is a bit of a chunker like his daddy was as a baby. Seriously the thighs on this baby!

Such a great weekend, I’ll leave you with an excerpt of my speech at the reception…

My advice was a “prescription” for a successful marriage.

  1. Pray without ceasing..(pray to start your day, pray throughout your day, and spend time in prayer together each day.)
  2. Grow in God, Study the word, together and separately.
  3.  Know each others needs/expectations, keep open communication. Over communicate at first if needed.
  4. Seek mentors that are in a different generation who have rich wisdom from God to share.
  5. Invest.. invest in one another, invest in people and your community, invest in God’s kingdom, and someday in your children
  6. Ryan keep tabs on Ashley’s shopping budget. 🙂

I’m going to close with the scripture verse that we had read at our wedding just over a decade ago (I know I can’t be that old right?) Ephesians 3:14-21. Paul was writing to the church at Epasehus to encourage them, so I pray that it is encouraging to you and one that you book mark and underline significant portions as you journey with God.

A Prayer for the Ephesians

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (and now with you as a couple), to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

*Professional Photo Credit Katelyn V Photography, the rest are mostly Dustin Hartzler. 🙂

Florida

Daytona Beach, FL

No summer is complete without sinking our toes into the sand somewhere! In September we headed to Daytona Beach, FL. My parents have timeshares and we found a good deal on an exchange in Daytona at a place with lots of pools and right on the beach.

Dustin’s parents joined us. We flew down on a Sunday. As soon as we got there, we needed to find lunch. We stopped for Thai food on our way in…no vacation is complete without Thai food.

Monday through Thursday was really just lots of beach and pool time with the adults taking turns for Prince K’s naps. One afternoon, Dustin took Princess K for her first theatre experience and saw Cars 3. We also had a round of putt-putt

We took our fancy camera out for the “golden hour” to take some family pictures because our kids were a mess by the time the lighting was good at night.

We were supposed to stay until the following Sunday with plans Saturday to head  to Orlando and go to Downtown Disney, as well as take Princess K to Disney on Ice. But Hurricane Irma was approaching. Despite the fact that it wasn’t supposed to even hit the Florida Keys and Miami until Sunday night, everyone was was in ultra panic mode so our resort ended up closing Friday afternoon.

On Thursday we thought we had a plan we were going to go to Hilton Head for a few days, Dustin’s parents have always wanted to go there and I figured its far enough north that we would be fine there until Sunday. We got our Delta tickets rerouted to fly home from Savanah and thought we had it figured out. Thankfully one of the people I was communicating with on accommodations informed me HHI was going to evaluate on Saturday morning (seemed a little premature) but thankful we didn’t drive there and then figure that out.

So we decided we should just figure out the best way to get home, we called Delta back again and got flights home on Saturday from Atlanta. Unfortunately we had to drive to ATL because the Friday flights from Daytona Beach they only had 3 tickets left and we needed 5. So a normally ~6 hour drive turned into 11 hours. But the kiddos were so good. And we got to enjoy dinner with our friend Vinus who leads the Jamaica mission trip that Dustin and I have been on before. It was fun she got to meet the kiddos since we haven’t been on the trip since we became parents.

We got home a day early, which actually turned out to be a good thing, we enjoyed lunch at Liberty Center with the family, and then also checked out the Popcorn festival that afternoon (Princess K picture below enjoying her Apple Cider Sushi and new purse). And Dustin had time to get some things done around the house prior to heading to Whistler, Canada for his company’s grand meetup. Overall great time, although Grandma Hartzler says she’s not going back to FL in September again. 🙂

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