Chris Tomlin Concert!

Peter and I went to the Chris Tomlin concert tonight! We got tickets through Geneva for $25 each and actually had decent seats! It was in the new Consol Energy Center, which is gigantic!

Here I am on one of the escalators at the entrance.

Use before the show started. It's a pretty bad quality picture though. :(

The view from our seats. Even though we were kind of high up, there's really not a bad seat in the place.

Peter snapped this picture during the opening act.

Peter and I both really like Chris Tomlin and enjoyed his concert. It was a great night and I actually bumped into a lady from my work. It's cool to make those kinds of connections. Most of the people at my company don't share the same music interest as me, if you know what I mean. Apparently Ben Roethlisberger was also there worshipping with us.

After the concert, I was looking to see if he had a Christmas tour going on, but it's too early still. His Christmas CD is one of my favorites. :)

A fun, fall day!

The weather today was absolutely gorgeous! Peter and I decided to head to a park. We went to Hartwood Park.

I love this time of year. The relief from the heat is such a welcomed change and I love to see the beginnings of fall in the shades on the trees. I snapped this picture as we were driving to the park.

The sky was blue with very little clouds and there was a cool breeze in the air--perfect for fall! We saw some kids attempting to fly kites and Peter's immediate reaction was sadness that we didn't bring a kite ourselves. That would've been super fun. I haven't flown a kite in many years! Next time...

It was so nice to be outside and just relaxing. Ahhhh, fresh air!

Me and my hunny :)

We then toured around the outside of the mansion in the park. We initially planned to go inside, but they weren't open. Oh well!

The grounds were just beautiful. I loved the big trees all over the property.

The big stone mansion is beautiful too! And super easy to photograph :P

More lush greenery:

The windows in the mansion were great. I bet that inside was even more beautiful with the sun shining through the stained glass.

This portion of the mansion was so cute. I think it'd make a great separate "little" house, don't you?

Great windows!

This door reminded me of all of the wonderful doors that we saw when we were in Italy. I think that I have a new fascination with doors from that trip!

These doors were actually to the bathrooms. They also reminded me a bit of the doors in Italy.

Through the archway was an awesome courtyard area.

Down the steps from the courtyard was this wonderful tree-lined lawn area. It was so cool to walk around in.

I love this guy. :) On a side note...my hair looks dark and short here. It's neither haha.

A view of the mansion from the edge of the tree-lined area:

Another attempt at capturing the entire mansion in one picture:

:)

There was also a cool little garden area. It was at the end of the season, but still had many flowers in bloom.

The layers I have in the front make it look like I have a short cut. It's something I'm now debating on doing for the winter. Any thoughts?

Also, don't you love my newest accessory? (Thumb and wrist splint)

After the park, we drove to Robinson and had lunch at the Olive Garden. Yum! They have the never-ending pasta bowl promotion going on which I got. I asked to start with the second course smaller bowl size though because I knew it'd be too much! I had the new Portobello Alfredo sauce. It's delicious!

We then met up with Ash and Katie. Peter went off to do his own thing for a bit while us girls were shopping.

We ended our day at Starbucks where I had a Chai Tea Frappucino with Pumpkin. Yum! Ashley also brought me a piece of homemade Banana Chocolate Chip Bread that she made. Double yum! Perfect for a fall day!

Peter and I headed home after that and had a simple dinner of pasta and ended our night watching a movie.

This is the kind of day that brings me joy. As much as I hate to "live for the weekend", it's really refreshing for my soul to have a day like this.

A Day Out

What a refreshing day! Peter and I headed out to Robinson for our monthly Ikea trip and ended up spending the entire day out and about. We intended to go to the park, and ended up doing that and much more!

Our first stop was Ikea. We've been going to Ikea the first Saturday of each month for several months now. They have a Social Media promotion where they give you $10 to spend at Ikea (not minimum purchase required!) and a free little tote if you show that you are a fan of the Ikea Pittsburgh page on Facebook. Peter and I both go and get $20 to spend. I've acquired a completely new set of dishes and some other great items!

Then we headed to Brady's Run Park. It was cooler today and the coming of autumn could be seen in the ever slightly changing leaves and felt in the cool, crisp breezes.

This is on our way to the park. It was a beautiful day!

We drove past a huge corn field on the way and I stopped to snap a few pictures.

A lonely ear of corn:

The clouds were so bright and white today and were beautiful against the great blue sky.

I shot these next 2 pictures from the car. I just love little sheds and barns.

Such a great day to be outside!

We ended up taking a long drive around the park at the beginning. There were some roads that neither of us had ever been on so we decided to explore. We were met with farmlands, sheep, and apple orchards!

On the left there were sheep in the field, but none of the pictures we took came out the great. :(

A small little orchard.

I can't wait to go apple picking later in the fall! It's one of my favorite traditions that Peter and I have started. We've been going each year since we were married.

Driving into the park now...

Peter and I laid out a blanket and had a picnic snack beneath these wonderful trees.

We just laid and talked and enjoyed the warm sun and cool air. It's so refreshing to get outside and soak in some of God's creation.

Here's us, so happy that it's starting to feel like fall!

We then went shopping a little bit and headed to The Wooden Indian for dinner. Yum! I love that restaurant. Anytime we head up to Beaver County, we tend to stop if we can.

This has been such a great start to the weekend. We have a 3 day weekend for Labor Day and have no plans to go anywhere. It's somewhat unusual for us since the last 2 years we have been on our vacation the beach during the week of Labor Day. We also tend to plan trips to visit friends/family during 3 day weekends. With all the hoopla that's been going on, we didn't make any plans and I'm so glad for that.