Wildflowers

After coming home from the beach, I was really excited to see that most of our wildflowers in the back yard were blooming. They're really pretty, so I thought I'd take a few pictures to share with you.

The really tall plants are our sunflowers, which haven't bloomed quite yet.

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Litchfield Beach 2010

Andrew and I just returned home from a much-needed vacation to Litchfield Beach, SC. Andrew had just finished up with school a week earlier, and I, well, I could always use a vacation! I think I began my countdown approximately two months ago and surprisingly, it got here before I knew it.  Unfortunately, the vacation also ended before I knew it.  But, as usual, we had a great time at the beach and brought home lots of fun memories and a few souvenirs, too.

We went on a few long bike rides, played a little tennis, went shopping at the outlet malls, sampled the local fare, and of course, did some hardcore relaxing.

One of the new things we discovered this year is the Marsh Walk.  It is located in Murrells Inlet, which is just north of Litchfield.  It's a long boardwalk that goes behind all of the restaurants and overlooks the inlet and all of the boats, which is really pretty at sunset. As you walk, you can listen to all of the different bands playing at the restaurants and there was also some entertainment along the way, including a crazy Hawaiian man playing with fire and some weird guy making roses out of palm tree leaves.

Every year at the beach, we're constantly on the lookout for alligators. For some reason, we saw a lot more than usual this year.  All I've got to say is...thank goodness for a camera with a zooming lens!

Andrew and I also both really love photography and taking pictures. Traditionally, we've woken up at sunrise and gone out to the beach to take pictures. We decided to skip that this year and instead decided to take pictures at sunset instead.  I'm really glad we did because it was absolutely gorgeous, and it sure does beat waking up so early. 

We also took some fun pictures of ourselves...

After we were all done with that, we decided to have a little fun and we took some "ghost" pictures. Since it was pretty dark, we left the shutter open for a long time while we ran in and out of the picture. Since we weren't in the same spot the whole time, we look like ghosts.

As I mentioned before, although the week went by way too fast, we had a really great time.  It was so nice to relax and spend time with each other, as well as my family.  I'm already looking forward to next year!

For now, it's back to the grind until our next trip this summer, coming up in just two (hopefully) short weeks.  We'll be celebrating our 2nd anniversary at the Biltmore!

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Same Blog...New Name!

After a whole year of blogging about the places we've been and the things we've done, I've finally come up with a better name for our blog than "Andrew and Lauren's Blog." 

So, I introduce you to...(drumroll please)...

The Hartmans' Highlight Reel: The Play by Play of Our Mildly Exciting Adventures

The URL for our blog has also changed to http://www.hartmanshighlightreel.blogspot.com/

I hope you like it!

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Springing into Summer

My dearest blog readers...I am so sorry to have kept you in the dark for the past 2 and a half months. I must have gone through some sort of time warp because it's already the middle of June and I don't remember time going by that fast! Anyways, here's a few things that we've been up to since I last blogged.

Alumni Weekend
Back in mid-April, Andrew and I travelled all the way across town to our alma mater, Roanoke College, for a few of the Alumni Weekend festivities. We ate dinner at Friday on the Quad and the next day we enjoyed a picnic, the lacrosse game, and the farewell roast of our InterVarsity leader, Scott Yeager. We always enjoy going back to dear old Roanoke. Not only is it a gorgeous campus, but it always reminds us of when we met (awwww...).

Katherine's Graduation
A couple weeks later, Katherine (Andrew's sister) graduated from Roanoke College. She must be something special because they put ALL of the special symbols AND a summa cum laude next to her name! Oh, and she did it all in three years, too. Way to go, Katherine! We're proud of you.

Another Year Older!
On May 14th, I turned 23 years young. Isn't it sad that as you get older, birthdays just aren't as exciting as when you were 5 years old? Not that I had a bad birthday or anything, because everything was great...but I guess I just came to that realization this year that it's just another day!




In Other News...
Andrew is all done with school now! He finished up the school year last Friday. I have to brag on him a little bit; his students had some great SOL scores! I know he is relieved to be done for now and relax for the next 2ish months. Even though I sometimes get jealous that he gets to stay at home while I go to work, he is really helpful while I'm gone so we have more time just to relax.

We're getting really excited about our upcoming vacations, too. We'll be going to Litchfield Beach, SC, with my family for a week, then we're headed south to the Biltmore for our 2nd anniversary, and then we're headed north to the beach in Wildwood, NJ, with Andrew's grandparents. I'm sure they'll all make for some great blog posts!

I'll leave you with a picture of one of the daylilies in front of our house. They're so pretty right now. I've also got some sunflowers growing in the back and they are about 7-8 feet tall right now. They haven't poked their heads out yet, but I'll be sure to take a picture of them when they do. So long for now!

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