Happy Anniversary, Lauren and Joe!

May 30 will mark Lauren and Joe's first wedding anniversary. Their wedding was amazing. Held at 214 Martin Street in downtown Raleigh, their wedding was a beautiful celebration of family and love. I remember it as though it was yesterday. Time sure flies by quickly! Here's an update from Lauren on their first exciting year as husband and wife.

Wow! I cannot believe it has already been a year since we said "I do"! We started our first year of marriage in the perfect way by going on a honeymoon to Grenada. If you have never been, I highly recommend it. Not only was the island absolutely gorgeous and the weather perfect, but we got to spend almost an entire week away from reality alone as husband and wife. It was the perfect way to end all the wedding planning craziness and the perfect way to begin our marriage. 

Once we returned home and back to reality we kept busy by working on our house. We painted the entire first level and refinished the hardwoods, which took up almost the whole Summer. Unfortunately, we also had to replace our entire HVAC system since it finally decided enough was enough after over 20 years. While that was not a planned project, we appreciate the new and improved system! Lately, we have been working on painting the stair banister, re-screening the porch, and trying to grow grass in our yard. We have quickly learned that the home improvement projects will never end but we love being able to check things off of the list!

Other than working on our house, we spent a lot of time traveling to see friends and family. Every August we travel to the Jersey Shore (not the same shore that's on the MTV show) to visit Joe's parents in Wildwood. His sisters and their families also joined us from Cherry Hill, NJ for some fun in the sun. In September we went to Branson, Missouri to celebrate my Grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. All of their children, grandchildren, and great grandchild were in attendance. It was a really special trip that meant a lot to them. In October we traveled to Charlotte to welcome our new niece, Charlotte Gene Janky, into the world and a couple months later we got to meet our other new niece, Lennox Natalie Trumble. Between the two families, Joe and I are now the proud Aunt and Uncle to 5 nieces and 3 nephews! A trip to Chicago, Colonial Williamsburg, and Philadelphia last week for Joe's cousin's wedding are a few of the other exciting trips we made this year. When we're not traveling or doing housework we hang out with the best dog in the world, Bella, who just celebrated her 10th anniversary. 

We have accomplished a lot in our first year as Mr. and Mrs. and have even more to be thankful for. We can't wait to see what exciting things we have in store for year two and beyond! Thank you again to Randy for being a part of our day and making it so perfect!