To have and to hold.

Nathaniel and I celebrated our first year of marriage on Monday. This photo was taken just days after we started dating - it's amazing to me how completely in love we already were. We just "knew" - and that was enough.

To celebrate the year, we headed off to West Virginia and spent three days on a hilltop, sleeping in a straw-bale house, making breakfast over a fire and looking out at the incredible stars that are so difficult to see in Philadelphia.

Constantine is getting stronger every day. He is a little over 32 weeks now and the past few days I've been waking up really early with a contraction - I get one or two of them a day now, it seems. These are pretty normal 'getting ready' contractions - not actual labor. But it definitely feels strange when my entire belly becomes this solid mass, like a literal watermelon is hanging out in there!

Y'all come back, now.

This weekend was such a beautiful and needed time away from the city.  My aunt's birthday was cause for a West Virginia mountain celebration - so we packed our tents and drove the four hours to their newly purchased 14 acres of land!

What a lovely place we found when we arrived.  Trees and tree saplings everywhere, and in the distance a farm on a hill where in the early morning you could just make out a rooster's crow.  It was absolutely gorgeous!

We had a little rain, but we all managed to have a good time anyway.  It was so good to be with my family for a few days and enjoy their company.  My fiancé and I were able to relax from the business of wedding planning and classes and take some time to go on a walk or stand in the rain.  It was wonderful. I'm excited to go back again some time soon!