This and That

Wow! Nathan & I have had quite a summer....check it out!

4th OF JULY WEEKEND

After our Estes Park Adventure at the end of June, we headed home for the 4th of July! Since my parents met up with Eric & Carley in St. Louis, Nathan and I spent time with his family. His brother Jeremy came home from Lincoln for the weekend and brought his boat. So we headed out to the lake with Jeremy, Nathan's parents Bill & Shelly, and Nathan's older brother Scott & his family! We spent the day tubing, water skiing, and wakeboarding! After grilling some burgers, we took the boat out on the water for fireworks. The local fire department put on a great show!

Amanda & Fletcher (1 1/2)

Nathan & Barrett (3)

JULY10th WEEKEND

We traveled to Lansing, Michigan for Nathan's Uncle Doug's wedding to a wonderful woman named Kara! They had an awesome wedding in a chapel on Michigan State campus. After the ceremony, the reception was held AT the Michigan State Stadium! It was awesome! Doug even surprised Kara (HUGE Michigan State fan & alumni) by inviting Sparty the Spartan to the party (Michigan State's mascot)! All of Nathan's aunts from Nebraska drove up for the wedding as well as his aunt from North Carolina so all the immediate cousins were together for the event!

The Bride with Sparty the Spartan

Aunt Jen (from NC), Kara, & most of Girl Cousins

JULY OREGON TRAIL DAYS: Scottsbluff, NE

Nathan & I travelled to Gering, NE (about 4 hours from Kearney) to visit our good friends Levi & Ashlee! Levi is one of Nathan's best friends who stood as one of his best men in our wedding. Two months after we got married, Nathan was able to stand up as one of Levi's best men when he and Ashlee got married in August 2009! Levi and Ashlee recently had an adorable baby girl name Jovee (honeymoon baby)! By the end of the weekend I am afraid to say that I had caught a bad case of baby fever...

How can you say no to that adorable little angel?

WEEKEND of JULY 24th

Since most of the Nathan's family & friends in Nebraska did not get the attend Uncle Doug's wedding in Michigan, we had a Nebraska reception in St. Paul, NE! It was so much fun! We did alot of polka-dancing!

LAST WEEKEND of JULY

Nathan & I have the privilege to help with our church's high school youth group on Wednesday nights! This last weekend we were able to meet up with all of the other youth group leaders for food & fellowship. On Saturday morning we had a planning/brainstorming meeting about the upcoming school year and how we can be the most relevant to our teens! Our mission statement is:

Helping students and their families MEET, LOVE, & FOLLOW Jesus

We are really excited about the upcoming school year and the opportunity the Lord has given us to speak TRUTH into the lives of the next generation!

WHAT'S NEXT???

This next weekend (August 6-8) we have TWO family reunions. Thankfully one is in Boelus, NE and the other is in Cairo, NE (about 10 miles away from Boelus). So we will flip flop back and forth and be able to see both sides of the family! Hope all of you are enjoying your summer :)

Summer here we come...

Nathan....

• is really enjoying his job designing conveying systems! He has about a 40 minute drive to and from work each day but enjoys it!
• was able to spend a "man" weekend with his uncles & cousins over Memorial Day weekend fishing, turkey hunting, and golfing
• plays softball for our church’s men’s softball team on Tuesday nights this summer
• subs for the Dannebrog men’s town team softball with his dad, brother, cousins, and uncles (pretty much half the team has the last name Fries)

Amanda....

• is LOVING her job at Collage Center (this is the new name for the pregnancy center she is working for)
• ran the Lincoln, NE Half Marathon at the end of April in 2 hrs 30 minutes!!!

• just got back from a week at Royal Family Kids Camp last week! Her heart was touched to see the God move in the hearts of Nebraska foster children
• is trying to line up her final two college classes so that she can officially get her diploma
• flew out to California with bestie Chelsea to see bestie Dani 

Nathan & Amanda....

• took our nephews to see How to Train Your Dragon
• finally feel settled into our two bedroom apartment as we recently scored a couch & love seat combo for $100 :)
• are having interesting conversations about whether our next laptop should be APPLE (Amanda) or DELL (Nathan)
• LOVE THEIR NEW 2010 TOYOTA CAMRY!!!!!
• Sub for a coed softball team on Thursday nights every couple of weeks
• Enjoy pasta and fellowship with other couples from our church on Thursday nights for life group
• Both lead life groups for the high school guys & gals for the youth group at our church

We are really enjoying summer! We have some great travel opportunities coming up soon:

• June 25-27: Driving to a Bed & Breakfast in Estes Park, CO for our 1 YEAR!
• July 4th Weekend: Possbily heading down to Wichita, KS to visit family!
• July 10th Weekend: Heading to Michigan for Nathan’s Uncle Doug’s wedding!
• Another weekend in July: Driving up to Scottsbluff, NE to visit Levi (Nathan’s best man) and his wife as they recently had a beautiful baby girl named Jovee!
• July 30th Weekend: Youth Group Leadership weekend Retreat

We have a very busy summer coming up but we are so excited to see how God will continue to grow us closer together as we reach one year of marriage already! What a great year it has been! We are blessed to have our dream jobs at such a young age! I will try to stay more on top of our blog and update about our travels throughout this summer ☺

Here are some pictures from a wedding we recently went to at the end of May:

It was a beautiful outdoor wedding that happened to fall on the first day of 100% humidity in Nebraska...

This happened after I said, "Babe, let's take a picture..."

"Okay, a nice one this time...." haha

Finally!!!!

Wedding weekend!

Last weekend one of our best men Levi got married in Scottsbluff, NE. Levi and Nathan met while attending Western Nebraska Community College. We really enjoyed the weekend since we had a chance to visit with our other best man Zane and friends that we did not have time to visit with at our own wedding! Here are some pictures from the weekend!

Nathan, Levi, and Zane (Levi & Zane were our Best Men in our wedding)

Nathan and I before the wedding

A very good looking wedding party before the reception

You will notice that Levi literally has a ball and chain around his ankle...it is a Keener family tradition to actually chain a bowling ball around the leg of the groom at the reception. Nathan and Zane, being the best Best Men ever, thought ahead and purchased a saw to auction off. So after funds were attained...

Nathan worked so hard sawing that he actually cut his finger a little bit. It was intense but Levi was very relieved to have it off. His cousin, who was behind the plot, watched the whole saw process and after the chain was free, presented Levi with the key. It was pretty funny.

We had a wonderful time in western Nebraska. While driving home we were able to drive past Nebraska's most famous landmark: Chimney Rock! Here it is...

After returning from the wedding weekend, we both started classes at UNL! Nathan has classes primarily on Mon/Wed/Fri and I am soley on Tues/Thurs but we still get to spend most evenings together whenever I am not working a late shift. I have some very interesting Psychology classes and I am really enjoying my internship with the Lincoln Crisis Pregnancy Center! We are both looking forward to spending the weekend camping with two other couples at a state park south of Lincoln on Saturday and Sunday! I am sure that is what our next blog will be about! Hope everyone is doing well!

Last week of summer...

Well, this is our last week of summer before classes start at UNL! This weekend we will be traveling 5 hours out to western Nebraska for Nathan's best man's wedding! I am excited for the road trip and we will also get to visit with people that attended our wedding that we didn't get to talk to very much. I start my internship this week! Instead of participating in research on campus with a professor, I have decided to volunteer at the Lincoln Crisis Pregnancy Center. I am very excited because it is a Christian ministry that provides a safe environment for women seeking help and counsel about their pregnancies. I find out tomorrow what I will be doing for my internship! I am looking forward to seeing how God is going to use me and grow me throughout this experience.

We leave on Thursday for Scottsbluff, NE so our next post will probably have some fun pictures in it from the wedding festivities! Hope everyone has a wonderful week!