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!

Whitney Turns 25!!

Whitney turned 25 this past Saturday and we took the whole day to celebrate! 25 is big deal as I'm sure most of you know... 1/4 of a century! I wanted to make this day jammed pack with fun adventures. We started at Alice's Tea Cup for brunch.

Afterwards we walked past this puppy shop and we of course had to play with this precious one. Whitney called him Butterscotch Fluffy.

We next went downtown to lower Manhattan to a Museum all dedicated to Anne Frank. Whitney has been pretty interested in Anne Frank ever since she found out that August 4th was the day that the Nazi's found her and her family hiding and took them to the concentration camps. When we visited my family in Iowa in May, my mom and Whitney tried to go to a museum about Anne Frank but the event changed so they didn't get to see it. I'm glad we got to learn more about her life.

We were right by the Financial District and since the weather was beautiful we rested underneath some shade and enjoyed the scenery. In the distance, you'll notice the Statue of Liberty.

And... the last activity besides dinner was ARCHERY! We both have never done this activity before and I found a groupon online for Archery and thought this would be so fun. Especially, since we are both reading Hunger Games and just saw the movie Brave.

It was pretty tough! It takes so much precision and a steady grip to allow it hit the target. What was really fun about this was they started all of us pretty close but after like 15 minutes they would pull our line further and further making it much more difficult.

We ended the night at Watawa - our favorite Sushi place with four of our great friends. A triple date:) It was an eventful day!!
Happy Birthday to the most important person in my life!

Hiking

Nathan and I had a surprise MINI-VACATION last Saturday. The city can get really exhausting after a while with walking everywhere in the heat, not having central air conditioning and auditioning, taking class, and working 3 different jobs! Our close friends Marissa and James invited us to go see The Dark Knight Rises on Friday night, and we had a blast. They then invited us to hiking with them the next day in upstate NY. They luckily have a car and we were so excited to go!
  They picked us up early Saturday morning and we headed to our destination that was 2.5 hours away in Minnewaska, NY. We were so happy to be in a car with the windows down listening to music and talking with our friends. That alone felt like a vacation from the city. :)
    We then go to the park around noon and immediately saw the beautiful lake surrounded by trees and these gorgeous cliffs that jut out from the trees.

     We then headed on our hike which ended up being about 7 miles of hiking - SHEESH! The weather was perfect...I mean, it felt like it was October...the perfect cool chill in the air, it was such a blessing!

 
    As we hiked we would tell stories and talk about everything under the sun. There were even times when we were laughing so hard no one could walk anymore because we couldn't breathe from laughing - those are the best times!
   When got to hike along the edge of this gorgeous mountainous cliff over looking a city and trees below us, which is where we decided to eat our packed lunches.

I realllllly thought we could push this over. Guess not...

   

Lunch Location

   After lunch we were hiking up a hill when we felt the temperature drop like 15 degrees. We were all talking about how we all felt it and it felt like air conditioning, next thing we knew there was this cave that jutted down almost like a big rocky hole in the ground. It went so deep, that the cold air was pouring out of the cave and created a feeling of air conditioning. We walked close to the opening and we could see our breath and the rocks felt like ice. This was one of the coolest things I had ever experienced in person. We sat down and took a nice rest there in our natural air conditioning. :)

   We then finished our hike after a few pretty tough spots that included rock climbing...we were SO out of breath! We had never been happier than to see the gorgeous LAKE when we returned. Once we got to the lake, Nathan quickly jumped into the cold water while the rest of us just sat on the pier and dipped our sore feet into the water. Nathan is the sweetest husband in the universe because he floated right below me and massaged my feet then gave me a 'natural foot scrub' with the rocks from the lake. He is the best! I almost cried because it felt sooo good.

   After changing out of our sweaty and wet clothes and into a fresh outfit, we walked to our car and were overjoyed to sit down! (we are getting old..haha) Then we saw a FOOD TRUCK where we got fresh cold waters and raspberry-lemon italian ice's. A few minutes down the road we saw a BBQ restaurant , that was not any bigger than 2 port-a-potty's side by side. It was kind of like a BBQ truck, but it looked like a log cabin. :) You know me and BBQ. I HAD to have it , and so did everyone else.
   We ordered up and sat under our rainbow colored umbrella in the parking lot and stuffed our starving faces. We felt like this was a prize after all of our hard work!

 

  We returned home around 8pm, and settled back into the loud noises of the city. The day was so refreshing and felt like an unexpected get-a-way. Couldn't have been a better Saturday!