Summer Marches On

It's hard to believe that summer is almost half over! Events that have floated in the realm of expectation for so long are now happening quickly, one after the other, as summer marches on.

On Friday the 4th Travis & I spent a leisurely evening with his sister and brother-in-law, our friends Rachel & Eric, and their respective dogs, Pepper & Yoshi. Always happy to find an occasion to use my trifle bowl, I assembled a patriotic dessert for the affair.

Saturday was wedding number 2 of the summer, the joining of Julie & Alex in holy matrimony. Julie has been in my small group for the past couple years, and Alex is recent a transplant from North Carolina (they dated long distance for quite a while after meeting at a wedding in California) who has fit into our little small group community quite nicely. We love his accent and Southern charms. We like him a lot, too. Their wedding was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun (Travis & I even came away with the garter and bouquet, respectively). Congrats, Julie & Alex! I love you guys and wish you the best.

This coming Friday I'll get on a plane that will take me to Colorado for the annual 3G02 reunion. For those of you not up on your Suz lingo, 3G (or Third Gerig) is where I lived at Taylor; 02 is when I graduated. Therefore, 3G02 refers to the group of girls who came in together as freshmen to live on the third floor of Gerig Hall (plus Allison, whom we love and grafted in from another dorm) and formed a deep and lasting bond of friendship. We've held a reunion every spring since we graduated, and this year moved the reunion to July when (for the very first time since graduation) all 11 of us will be together again. Michelle is home from China, Suzanne has returned from Zambia, and the rest of us will come in from New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa to spend a weekend catching up on one another's lives, celebrating milestones, sharing our hearts and hopes and hurts, worshipping together and praying for one another, laughing and having fun, and just generally basking in the glow of our remarkable friendship. My heart is so full with gratitude to God for these women and this opportunity.