Newlywed life has been the sweetest, so I thought I would share an update on a few things we’ve been up to this summer. I’ve loved capturing little bits and pieces of our life together!

The Borrowers

Getting to spend our first night in our apartment also meant that I was able to cook our first dinner at the apartment! I felt pretty unsure about having a mostly bare refrigerator, but it ended up being a fun challenge to cook from such limited ingredients. I should do it more often, just for fun!

This is what I shared on Instagram that day…

Tonight we shared our first dinner in our new home, courtesy of a borrowed table and folding chairs, a borrowed tablecloth, borrowed dishes and silverware, borrowed cookware… pretty much borrowed everything! Our wedding gifts should be arriving next week, but until then, we’re The Borrowers. 🙂 It was fun trying to come up with dinner from very limited ingredients, spices, and condiments. I ended up making a Garden Salad with Pan-Seared Sausage over Sautéed Celery, Apples, and Peas and topped with melted Gouda. I had to improvise with only a small skillet to work with, but it turned out quite well. Also, we could pretty much drink Pellegrino with every meal. 😉 #handmethelemonsandlimes #happymemories #benjandlauren

Grilling

Even though I do most of the cooking, Benj and I always have a blast when we’re able to cook together. He’s great at coming up with ideas and helping me chop things into perfectly shaped pieces. But mostly, I just love it whenever we’re able to work together.

On this particular night in early July, he wanted to make jalapeño poppers. He also wanted to cook up a sautéed hot pepper and onion relish to go with our hamburgers. I had fun watching and made the oven fries and corn.

Since we didn’t yet have a grill of our own, we used the only charcoal grill our apartment complex has to offer. It was a beautiful summer evening, perfect for grilling out!

Summertime Picnicking

Washington summers are just beautiful, even though this one was particularly hot. We tried to get outside often and have as many picnics as we could!

I loved fixing dinner, packing it all up in our cooler and picnic basket (thanks Mom and Dad), and heading out with my sweetheart to a nearby park. Between our honeymoon and our first summer, we share lots of sweet memories of picnicking together!

Fresh Salmon

I must say, there’s nothing quite like fresh, wild-caught salmon! There was an incredible price on it one week at our local Costco, so I bought a whole fish- minus the head. Benj filleted it for us and we ended up with 3 delicious meals.

Staying Organized

Since even before our wedding Benj has been great about helping me to stay organized! I’m an organized person by nature, but he’s great about helping me create lists and systems.

We’re geeky like that. It’s fun, guys! Really.

Stuffed

Below is a photo of everything I was able to bring from Alabama. I was able to squeeze in spices from my awesome mom and a stack of handmade soap from my amazing friend, Shannon!

The suitcases mainly contained clothes, clothes, and more clothes, but I’ve actually gotten rid of quite a few things since. Taking more of a minimalistic approach to clothing has been so freeing.

More Furniture

The first pieces of furniture we purchased after our bed frame were our patio pieces because we happened to spot them on Craigslist! Benj went and checked them out, bought them, somehow managed to fit them into our car after partially disassembling them. Then, he reassembled them at home.

It was so nice to be able to enjoy the fresh air out on our patio during the summertime, especially in the morning and evening hours.

I hope you enjoyed this update of our newlywed life! We shared such a wonderful summer.