Monday, October 6, 2008

Lea and Brian's Wedding

On August 16th, Lea, one of my closest friends from college, married her longtime love, Brian. They had a beautiful ceremony on the grounds of the Salisbury House in Des Moines. The weather was perfect, the bride was gorgeous and we were so glad to be a part of it!

We were also lucky enough to sneak in a visit with both our sisters and their families!

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a single picture of Ryan and I together from the weekend.


Dana and Lea


Me and my dad - lookin' good!



Beautiful grounds


Salisbury House


Brenna loves being pulled around in a box by Uncle Ryan


Auntie D and Baby Q

We Love Visitors!

Since our wedding we've had quite a few visitors come stay at our new house.

Ryan's parents, Steve and Val, came up for a long weekend and were the first to stay in our guest room. We spent lots of time garage sale-ing. We found some great deals - free deck umbrella, tractor sprinkler, big vase, 8 books, and yard tools! We even put the yard tools to good use trimming all the trees out front, and pulling all the weeds that had taken over our "garden". Ryan and Steve even made a gluten free lasagna! What a treat! Thanks for visiting, Bohlens!

Our next visitors were my parents. They had just visited their grandson in Des Moines and were on their way to Chicago for my grandma's 90th birthday. We had a low key couple of days with friends over for dinner, some time with all the Millers and dinner at Biaggi's.

Ryan's sister Stephanie, her husband Jared and their daughter, Brenna came up the first weekend in September. We had a great time going to their first Twins game, grilling out, worshipping at church and eating at Hoolihan's before they headed back to Ames.

Who wants to be our next visitors? We have a queen bed and two air mattresses...call and make your reservations! :)


Brenna loves her Uncle Ryan - he's goofy!


GO TWINS!


What a BIG girl!


Just watchin' the game! (with Uncle Ryan's big feet helping to hold down the seat)


Pretty darn cute! (yep, I mean both of them)


The Van Cleaves

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Ryan's Big Day

Ryan has developed a new love of the Twins this season. He's been a loyal fan watching or listening to almost EVERY game! So, for his 27th birthday (on June 29th) his only request was that we celebrate by going to the Twins game. Our good friends Adam and Harmony joined in the festivities.







Schmidt-Leafblad Wedding

One of our first big events as a married couple was attending the wedding of our good friends Ben Schmidt and Katie Leafblad. We’ve been in Bible Study with Ben and Katie for a few years and have been lucky enough to watch their relationship unfold. Ryan was a groomsman so we got to be a part of all the festivities. A beautiful wedding and we’re so excited for Ben and Katie to join the married crew! Here’s to many more memories together…


Jamaica-n Me Crazy!

After our wedding we spent a glorious week in Jamaica relaxing and recuperating after all the excitement. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort and had PERFECT weather every day. We did a lot of sunning and eating! :)

I could happily sit by the pool all day with a book but Ryan likes to be out and about doing stuff. To compromise, we spent most mornings at the pool and did some sort of activity each afternoon – glass bottom boat tour, chip and putt course, climbing the famous waterfall and one day Ryan snorkeled while I read in the shade.

We ordered room service one morning and enjoyed breakfast on our balcony overlooking the ocean!

We’re ready to go back!


We lost all of our golfballs....

Chip-n-putt


Chip-n-putt



Glass bottom boat tour

Breakfast on the balcony


Dinner at the Japanese steakhouse


Walking the beach


The swim up bar, Mmmm...fruit smoothies!


Reading by the pool


Chillin' in the pool


The view from our room


Heading back to the airport

The BIG Day!

May 16th 2008 – Beautiful weather, lots of friends and family, a perfect way to begin our life together!

After a 10 month engagement, we had 200 guests join us to celebrate with a ceremony at Wooddale Church followed by a reception at the DoubleTree Park Place. Everything went just as planned and we felt very blessed to be surrounded by so many people that love us!

It was hard to pick just a few favorite pictures so I may have gone a bit overboard…enjoy!





































Happy Couple

A few of our favorite engagement pictures. Some by our wedding photographer and some by our friend Neal who was kind enough to spend an afternoon getting some great shots!