Officially: THE BENSONS

We have been married for a little over 4 months and we are now, officially,

THE BENSONS!

(Click here to see more pictures of our wedding)

Julie has finally completed the long and sometimes aggravating name change process ... her name is now Julie Kathleen Paredes Benson. There are no hyphens ... and just one last name: Benson. In honor of her parents (and her sister who did the same thing with her name), she has taken her maiden name as her second middle name.All the finalized paperwork!

We have been having an amazing summer together ... (and it's still July!)


It's been filled with early morning bike rides to the coffee shop, relaxing evenings on the balcony, breakfast for dinner, middle of the night movie marathons, trips to see friends, reading together, New York, youth group pool parties, the beach, 4th of July fireworks (and a rodeo), and incredible amounts of laughter.

It's been a BLAST being the BENSONS!
(And we have MANY years to have even more fun!)

... The Benson Visit The Andersons ...

The Anderson's have been married for a little over 3 weeks now ... and we decided that it was already time to pay them a visit! They gave us a good excuse when they had their California wedding reception on July 10th (although a delayed plane made Julie late ... so she missed the entire reception!). Regardless, we were able to spend the weekend with them and were so blessed with a friendship that we are sure will last a LONG time!

Davey and Jess live just a few blocks away from the beach in Huntington Beach ... it was incredible!
... The boys getting ready to surf ...
The hottest surfer ever!We had a 7 hour drive home and we were sad to leave the beach ... and the Anderson's!

We stopped at the cheese factory (as recommended by Davey and Jess) and this is what we found (we should have bought some!):
Haha!

Overall, it was a short trip that went by way to fast! We had an incredible time and we can't wait for many more adventures with Davey and Jess!

And the Adventures Continue!

Our adventures for June brought us to
... New Jersey and New York ...
a big trip for our 3 month anniversary! Ha!

Erik was in his friend, Davey's wedding (and Davey was in our wedding) ... so Erik flew down to Huntington Beach to spend a day with Davey before they flew out to New Jersey to start getting ready for the wedding. The guys got to see a little bit of New York and even went to Yankee's game. I flew out on Thursday night, so I was able to spend most of the day on Friday with the guys in New Jersey.

Early Saturday morning, Davey and Jess got married! It rained on their wedding day too, but at least their plans were all inside! It was a beautiful wedding and we had a great time!

We are so excited they are married and can't wait to have some great adventures together!

... THEN ...
The Benson's took 2 days and 1 night ...
and explored New York!We saw as much as we could see in 2 short days ... it was a fast trip, but we were so excited to have the time together to see and experience a new place!

So awesome!

HAPPY 3 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!

Memorial Day Weekend Adventure!

We took a mini-road trip for Memorial Day weekend to Carmel and Monterey. We camped out of the truck at a park, went mountain biking, had breakfast at a cute cafe in Carmel, saw a movie in Monterey, and LOVED every minute of it!

Our truck ...


Our BBQ ... hot dogs!

The trail!

Almost at the top! (After Julie crashed ... it was an intense trail!)

It was an adventure and we are SO excited for many more! We had an incredible time getting away together for a short break. It was definitely needed!

Benson Adventure #1: HONEYMOON!

Honeymoon: Oahu, Hawaii

The first of many "Benson Adventures"!

We had an incredible time experiencing Oahu! We relaxed by the beach, went to a luau, saw Pearl Harbor, snorkeled at Haunama Bay, and golfed (Julie golfed her first full 18-holes ... we loved it!)!
We spent the whole week enjoying the beauty of Hawaii and smiling in excitement that we were finally married!

We are still in disbelief that we have been married for almost 2 months! We love our home, early mornings, reading on the balcony, and finding new adventures to experience together. We are incredibly blessed and are so excited for many more experiences as a family!

We are MARRIED!!!!

God blessed us with a beautiful rainy day ... even though we were wet, we had an incredible day! We were honored to have our incredible family and friends stand beside us as we became one! We are so blessed by their love and support ... and thank them greatly for toughing out the weather!

We have been married for almost 1 month and we LOVE life together! We are blessed to have found each other and cannot wait to pursue the adventure God has placed before us. We are so excited to walk through life together forever!

Less than 3 Months!

We are so excited for March 21st … and after feeling like it would never come, we can’t believe how close it is!

We have registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond so you can find our registry under Julie Paredes and Erik Benson.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!