Longwood Gardens

    Nathan and I had one of the most beautiful Sunday's last week. One of our cast mates told us about a place called "Longwood Gardens" that was only about 20 minutes away from our theatre. Nathan bought us student rate tickets online and we decided to check it out after church.
     Longwood Gardens is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We went on the most beautiful day and the weather was bright and sunny with a little chill in the air. I couldn't believe how gorgeous the land, trees, bushes, flowers, lily pads, and fountains were. It felt like we were at a theme park but it was just to gaze at the beauty of nature around you!

It is too hard to explain, so just take a look for yourself!

This is the original house of the man who bought this land to conserve the beauty of nature. 

There was so much beautiful grass!

One of my favorite parts! The colors were gorgeous!

This plant looked like it came from a Dr. Seuss book. Nathan thought it looked like caterpillars. 

One of our favorites!

Cute couple. 

There were so many gorgeous HUGE trees!

We saw EVERY SINGLE area of the land that we could see! We were here for four hours!

Another favorite part was the field of wildflowers! 

This was one of the three tree houses on the conservatory. 

There was a flower competition and it was amazing!

This flower was the WINNER! You can see why. 

IT IS PERFECT!

Beautiful bouquet! 

You can also come at night and see the forest light up with these planted multi colored bulbs! 

(I'm sure it looks like a fairytale field)

There were plants there I had definitely NEVER seen in my life. Like this one!

I'll leave you with this beautiful picture of Nathan imitating a statue at the exit. 

It was an amazing experience we'll never forget! Maybe we'll take a trip and go during Christmas time -  the garden is open everyday of the year! 

Cooking and DVR

Whitney and I are doing pretty good here in Media, PA. We are learning about some other theatres in the area, mainly in Philly. It's always amazing working with other actors because you learn so much from them! We got extremely blessed with the housing for this job. The lady we live with is hardly home, so Whitney and I get to use her big kitchen for breakfast and dinners and it's been really fun being able to watch cable television again. Whitney cooked brussel sprouts for the first time and they were sooo good. They tasted just like the ones we had at a really nice restaurant we went to with Sam and Katherine in the city. The lady we now live with even has DVR so we are able to watch shows we would never normally watch since we are usually busy during the nights. We're getting excited for "Homeland" and "Grey's Anatomy" to start back up again! And the Emmy Awards are on tomorrow night! Yay!

We're still looking for a church service we can go to on Sundays. We went to one last week that was just not good. Why does church searching have to be so hard?? It makes us feel like we're picky and obviously the Lord doesn't want us to the most judgmental but you also want to feel comfortable when worshiping Him. We're hoping that tomorrow we can find someplace better.

Tomorrow is our day off and we are going to Longwood Gardens. It's apparently these incredible acre by acre gardens with beautiful fountains and paths, etc. One of our cast mates went and suggested we go - so we'll hopefully take some really great pictures to share. The weather is supposed to be really nice!

We open "Hairspray" with previews on Wednesdays and then on Friday is our official Opening. As of right now... we are NOT READY AT ALL! We haven't even tried on all of our costumes yet. We don't have all of our props and the set has yet to be completed. It's actually pretty scary thinking about how much we still have to do. We haven't even rehearsed with the band. Today they finalized the lighting for our show. But all of us are wondering how it's all going to come together... somehow we'll get there. Monday and Tuesday we're at the theatre for 12 hours each day - so that will hopefully be enough time to get everything done.
In our down time - we have been finishing up our Wedding Book that we're doing through Picaboo which is an online website. You'd think after 3 years - we'd have it done by now. We're looking forward to completing it and ordering it. We decided that the photo book will be our Anniversary gift to each other.

Oh and speaking of our Anniversary - we celebrated our 3rd Wedding Anniversary this past Wednesday by going to a nice Italian dinner. We each ordered seafood pasta and it was soo yummy. Unfortunately we had rehearsal all day but it turned out to be a very romantic evening:)

Stayed tuned for pictures from our trip to Longwood Gardens.

New Car and New Job

Nathan and I have recently moved to Pennsylvania, right outside of Philadelphia, in Media. We moved Labor Day weekend to start our contract doing "Hairspray". We will be here for two months and are currently starting our second week of rehearsals. We open the show on September 26th and run the show eight times a week until November 4th. This show is such a blast and we are having a great time so far! Nathan and I are really enjoying doing another contract together and especially getting the opportunity to play opposite each other on stage. We are living in a woman's house who volunteers at the theatre. All of her children have moved out and she has a room available that has a full size bed, a little seating area in our room, two walk in closets, our own bathroom, a washer and dryer, a dishwasher, and a piano! We feel like we are at our own little bed and breakfast; it is so nice! The woman who lives here works an early shift so she is gone by the time we wake up and then retreats to her room around 8pm at night, so it feels like we have the house to ourselves. It definitely makes us feel at home to be able to buy groceries and cook our own meals everyday.
      We also are getting a complimentary pass to the beautiful Health Plex Gym here in town. It has everything you could need, including a jacuzzi, steam room, and sauna. We are definitely taking advantage of this perk! :) The theatre is in an adorable little downtown area that reminds me a little bit of Gatlinburg, TN. We are really enjoying our time so far and are excited for our friends and family to come and visit.

Before Nathan and I started this contract we came to the conclusion that it was time for us to get a car again. We haven't needed one for the past two years because we have been living in NYC and haven't had the need for one since we use the train for our transportation. Since we got this job together and would have to be living in a smaller city where we would have to have a car to get from one place to another, I started looking up Rental Car Options. We realized that it was going to cost us SO much to rent a car for 2-4 months, that it would make more sense to buy a used car....so thats what we did! :) We bought ourselves a beautiful 2003 Black Hyundai Elantra. We paid for it in cash, got it registered, got car insurance and inspected all in a matter of 2 days! We have drove it to and from Philly to NYC a couple of times now and this baby is running like a gem! We are SO blessed and are so happy to be car owners! :) We have also been loving just riding in a car with the windows down listening to our music. We haven't had this luxury of commuting since we have been living in New York City. We are also LOVING the huge grocery stores and putting our groceries in the car to bring home and not carrying them home. ;) It's the small things right?

My Best Friend's Wedding

This past weekend was Sam and Katherine's Wedding!
Sam is Nathan's best friend from Iowa and they grew up together from the age of 13. Recently, Sam moved to NYC and lived with us for a while after he graduated from college. He then met his beautiful wife, Katherine, here in New York at the church where Nathan and I brought him to. Katherine is from Connecticut and has lived, gone to school, and worked as an art teacher in New York City. They are just perfect for one another and we couldn't be happier for them! Their wedding was gorgeous and was held on 5th Avenue at a beautiful ballroom where actually Gweneth Paltrow was married. The ceremony was in the same space as the reception. They transformed the room after the ceremony when we had a cocktail hour and then revealed the gorgeous dinner set up around the dance floor.
      Nathan was one of the best men. (Sam's brother was the other best man) Our dear friend, Eric Percuoco  was also a groomsman in the wedding, and we were excited to see him as well. (Nathan, Sam, and Eric are like the three stooges....attached to the hip, and are really close friends from childhood) Sam was Nathan's best man at mine and Nathan's wedding and Eric was also a groomsman.
      On Friday, Nathan's parents and sister, Karen flew in and stayed at our apartment with us for the weekend. Nathan and I attended the Rehearsal Dinner on Friday night and then met up with other wedding guests who had flown in (included Nathan's parents and sister) at the Hilton Hotel Bar so we could chat with the happy couple the night before their wedding.
     On the Day of the wedding, Nathan spent all day with Sam and the groomsmen at the Hilton Hotel. I stayed with nathan's family at our apartment where we played card games, relaxed at the house and ordered in sushi. We then went to the wedding at 5:30pm and had an incredible night!
     Here are a few photos from the weekend:

Congratulations Sam and Katherine Reth! 

We Love You!