Spring Break 2014

This past week was a very much anticipated Spring Break trip to Charleston, SC! It had been almost two years since we had been able to visit this wonderful city so I started begging for a visit as soon as the new year rolled around. My wonderful husband graciously conceded (who wouldn't want to go to Charleston??) and booked us a condo about a block from the beach. The best part? The princess was able to tag along!

In past trips we've stayed in hotels and have been unable to bring her, but we knew this time that we wanted her to come. If you've been following along on Instagram you know she LOVES the beach. She's definitely having withdrawals from her daily walks in the sand!

We didn't make any big plans, but instead just decided to fly by the seat of our pants. We couldn't have made a more perfect choice. Each day we visited the beach to wear the pup out, and either stuck around and soaked up some rays or headed out to explore the city. We managed to eat more than a few delicious meals and not replicate a restaurant once!

It was an incredible trip that we can't wait to repeat next year with our baby girl:-)

She was less than enthused about this.

She LOVED jumping in the waves, until they got too big and chased her back!

The one and only picture of the two of us and I look nekkid. Cooooooooool.

A tired pup after hours of chasing the ball in the waves.

She used the sand as an exfoliant over and over and over. 

She loves it. Well, at least David does.

Anniversary in Asheville (Part 3)

After our stellar experience at Early Girl Eatery the day before we decided to hit up Tupelo Honey Cafe before we hit the road and headed for home. We decided to get there early and arrived at 8:30am for their 9am opening. Needless to say we were the first ones in line:-)

We dined on a delectable breakfast of an omelet stuffed with goat cheese, asparagus, and spinach as well as goat cheese grits (for me) and a crab scramble with asparagus, bacon, and toast (for David). And all that was after the most incredible biscuit I've ever had with blueberry preserves. We were stuffed! 

After that we hit the road for Skytop Orchard for some apple picking. It was a short drive and pretty much on our way home so we couldn't say no. 

I may or may not have gotten a smidge carried away with the picking. . . we ended up with $31 in apples for two people. Who wants some pie??

We then said goodbye to the mountains and hurried home to pick up our sweet girl. 

It was an amazing trip and I left rested and relaxed with a very full heart. Can't wait for our next visit!

Anniversary in Asheville (Part 2)

Saturday morning gave us a rare treat in our house-sleeping in until 8:15am! We're both such early risers during the week that the weekend usually follows the same pattern. We tossed and turned for a bit before rolling out of bed and heading back downtown for breakfast.

We got a few suggestions on this as well, but settled on Early Girl Eatery-we were not disappointed! We got there about 8:50am since we they opened at 9am. There was already a line when we arrived, but we made it just in time because after they seated us the wait jumped to 45 minutes! 

After a scrumptious breakfast we headed down the road to do some hiking. Neither of us brought gear for an intense workout, but we knew we wanted to take in some of the beauty that surrounded us. What made it even better was the park we ended up at had an exhibit by a famous Lego builder with Legos! How nifty!

We wandered/hiked for about an hour and a half before heading back to the hotel to freshen up to head back downtown. We were still stuffed from lunch so we hit up Hannah Flannigan's for beer and nachos. We highly suggest their Irish Nachos!

Then we were off to shop and see Asheville. I love this eclectic city and all the neat things it has to offer. Poor David was a trooper despite not loving all the shops. Maybe it was the sweet potato chips we picked up from the Gourmet Chip Company that made it bearable;-) 

After a few hours of that we attempted to go to 12 Bones to take part in the awesome BBQ everyone reccomended. Too bad they were only open for lunch. We ended up at Asheville Brewing Company for pizza and beer. No complaints from us!

Whether it's because we were exhausted or old we headed back to the hotel soon thereafter to watch football and hang out.

Anniversary in Asheville

Yes, our anniversary is in June. 

No, we didn't really do anything special for it. 

Yes, I just wanted an excuse to head to the mountains:-)

I wasn't home from Seattle for more than 48 hours and we were off again! This time was a bit more local-the beautiful Asheville, NC. 

For whatever reason I've been wanting to come back since we celebrated our first anniversary here in June 2011. It was such a wonderful, heart fulfilling trip I just knew we needed to come back. What better weekend than one that had a Holiday tacked onto it?!

We hit the road Friday afternoon and arrived a little over 2 hours later in search of food. Thanks to all the stellar people who responded to my facebook and blog post about visiting we knew of a few places we wanted to try. We found parking and headed to Lexington Avenue Brewery for a few beers and a stellar supper. 

Afterwards we wandered around a bit and ended up at the Bier Garden where David had one of his favorites on draft! I also got to have a Pumpkin Cider. Trust me, it was as good as it sounds. 

We were tired from the long work day and drive so we headed to our hotel to turn in for an early night. 

Come back tomorrow for the next installment!

Friday's Letters [11.01]

Happy Friday, folks!

Dear Daisy, I don't know what to do with you and all your personality.

This was taken when we were ignoring her and trying to eat supper. Clearly she did not agree with our choice.

Dear Davido, You rocked the Batman pajamas last night even if they were a smidge snug. Next year we'll spring for the real thing!

Dear Central Office, I can't thank you enough for blessing us with teacher workdays on Halloween AND the day after. The teachers of Mooresville are indebted to you.

Dear God, Thank you for giving me the opportunity to take in this beautiful view.

Dear Seattle, I'm coming for ya in a few days! Get excited!

Dear 2013, Where did you go???

30 Before 30-Vacation Somewhere New

Well, this past week my sweet husband who reads my blogs daily (hey, baby!) reminded me that I could check something off my 30 Before 30 List that I haven't checked off yet-a trip somewhere new! A few months ago we took an amazingly awesome super exciting trip out West to Colorado and it didn't even dawn on me to check it off. Here are the posts about our trip:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

 19 tasks down, 11 to go!

TImes Have Changed-Travels

It dawned on me while we were in Denver how times have changed. I think this kind of thing hits us all every so often when we're doing something that would shock our great-grandparents. You know what I'm taking about-the moment you check your phone's Google app to settle a debate or when you make a dinner reservation from your phone. Once I started thinking about it I was off! Today's post is the first in a mini-series of "my, how times have changed" posts. I'd love to hear if you have any additional topics than the few that I cover! Today's topic. . .

Travels

Holy smokes, have we grown by leaps and bounds in this category. The first major advancement being GPS. When those little buggers came out a few years ago they weren't trusted, but once people figured out they weren't being controlled by space aliens they took off. Sayanara, paper maps. When our cellphones started directing us places it was game over. Seriously, when was the last time you asked someone for directions somewhere? I bet you $5 you asked for an address to type in instead. 

That leads me to everyone's favorite advancement, cellphones. Instead of "I'll wait for your flight and hope it comes when it's supposed to", now it's "Call me when you board and I'll pick you up later". Or I can imagine it would be like that if you are a fancy pants world traveler. Cellphones are handy in countless categories, but this is definitely one it comes in handy.

How about when you're in an unfamiliar place and need place to eat supper? Instead of finding a random place on the side of the street or asking your hotel concierge, why don't you check the gajillion apps out there that reccomend places to eat? Or if you're tootling down the road and are craving Chick-fil-A. Hmm I wonder where the closest Chick-fil-A is. . . let me check my handy dandy travel app!

What about when you're heading down the interstate to visit the fam and it's rush hour? Yikes. No one in this day and age can possibly lower themselves to the level of 5pm traffic. Why don't we take a gander at road closings and find an alternate route around this mess.

Isn't this all so crazy?? Stick around for the next installment of how times have changed! 

HOORAH!

Last May we were fortunate enough to watch my younger brother, TJ, commission as an officer in the United States Marine Corp. He then spent a few months as a civilian waiting for his orders. In January he headed to Quantico, VA for The Basic School (TBS). This past week we witnessed his graduation from TBS! And this kid didn't just graduate, he graduated number 4 out of 273 marines! We were so incredibly excited to be able to witness this accomplishment. A few pictures from the big day. . . 

The parentals at the USMC Museum. 

Before heading into the ceremony, please take note of how thrilled TJ is to be with his family ;)

So excited we got to be there!

My adorable husband watching the CrossFit Games on his "grown up Gameboy"

 Number 4 with some of his fellow "dean's list" buds

TJ and some of his frands.

Adventures Out West-Day 3

Our final (tear) day in Colorado started at the best breakfast place either of us had ever enjoyed. And apparently the rest of Denver thought so too because we waiting 40 minutes for a table! It was more than worth it to enjoy our breakfast of omelets, hashbrowns, sweet potato pancakes, blueberry Danish pancakes, and pineapple upside down pancakes-all made with fresh, local ingredients! 

Best breakfast ever! You know a place is good when they can afford to be only open a few hours a day.

After our superb breakfast we rolled ourselves over to the Denver Zoo to check out the animals. We both love visiting the zoo, so we knew this "mile high" was a must-see. The theme of our visit there became, "look, there's Daisy!" toward almost every exhibit. Can ya tell we missed the princess??

Silly hippo daintily dipping into the water

The zoo had an amazing elephant exhibit!

After that we returned to the 16th Street Mall for more meandering and food. We hit up The Yardhouse for snacks and beers after we learned they had more beers on tap than anyplace in the world. I didn't count, but once I saw the beer menu I made the wise choice to believe them. 

My baby beer from The Yardhouse.

Just chillin' with an ox on the street, what about you?

More importantly while on 16th Street I found an awesome pair of cowgirl boots! If anyone remembers my post about the Luke Bryan concert, I got a rock stuck in my boot and the little bugger refuses to come out. So as an early birthday present David bought me a pair of Ariat boots! Happy Birthday to meeeeeee! Picture will come when they arrive in the mail!

After we wandered some more we decided to hit up the Gigi's storefront to pick up some cupcakes for dessert. After an excruciating decision we ended up with one Strawberry Shortcake (strawberry cupcake with strawberry buttercream frosting), one Kentucky Bourbon (chocolate pecan pie cupcake spiked with bourbon with a bourbon cream cheese frosting topped with chocolate chips, pecans, and caramel) and one Candy Bar Crunch (yellow cupcake with Butterfinger baked in and topped with Butterfinger frosting and little Butterfinger crumbles). To say they were divine would be an understatement. 

Ain't that the truth.

 Gone in the blink of an eye.

We then headed over to the Vine Street Pub for supper. This place was so uniquely awesome I wish I could pick it up and transplant it here. First off, all their food was fantastico and locally provided, second they only took cash or check, third their beer was top-notch, and fourth they had board games to play while you waited. Such.a.neat.place.

My adorable hubby.

We headed in for an early night considering we had a 6:30am flight the next morning. I wish our visit could have lasted longer, but since we didn't get to see and do everything, we now have an excuse to head back soon! 

Adventures Out West-Day 2

David had another day of work on Friday, but that didn't stop me from having fun! One of the guys David was working with's wife gave me a call that morning and asked if I wanted company for exploring Denver. Considering my only Denver experience was supper the other night, I jumped at the chance. I picked Kaitlin up and we were off on an adventure. 

First we hit up 16th Street Mall since I had heard so much about it. For those of you unfamiliar with the area it is an outdoor mall filled with random street performers in the heart of downtown Denver. It was pretty neat wandering in and out of the doors and taking in some hardcore people-watching. 

16th Street Mall

After walking and wandering for a few hours we decided we needed some culture in our lives and hit up the Colorado History Museum. Kaitlin is also a teacher so this wasn't torturous for her as it would have been for my sweet hubby. The museum had an exhibit on the American soldier that would bring tears to any eyes.

Cultural corner of downtown Denver. Lots of museums here!

Around this time we headed back down 16th Street and enjoyed a late afternoon snack-Gigi's Cupcakes! We discovered Gigi's a few years ago when we visited their original shop in Nashville, TN. I love that they have expanded and are now in North Carolina too! When I say these are the best cupcakes you will ever have, I mean these are the best cupcakes you will ever have. I indulged in a Midnight Magic (chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting topped with chocolate chips) while Kaitlin enjoyed a Blueberry Lavender (just what it sounds like!). They were both out of this world and gone before we could get a picture!

A portable Gigi's!

Around then we headed down the way toward Coors Field for the baseball game where we were meeting our hubbys and a few other employees. Before we entered the game we dipped into Wynkoop to enjoy a few beers. It was around that time I decided vacation calories do not count. . .

Despite a loss to the Cubs the game was a lot of fun! David's coworkers were awesome to hang out with and I wish they weren't so far away! 

Awesome seats!

 He's such a cutie

Thanks iPhone 5 for the awesome panoramic shot.

Following the game a few of us headed to Larimer Square for another round of beers before packing it in for the night. If y'all know me and my sleep habits you know the fact that I was awake at midnight (2am East Coast time) and functioning is a true act of God!

Come back tomorrow for our final day's adventures!

Adventures Out West-Day 1

I must have spoken too soon after our trip to Florida because no sooner had we unpacked than we were packing again and off to Colorado! David had an opportunity to head out there for work and this being my own and only chance to accompany him (hooray for summers off!) I jumped at the chance. Neither of us had ever been, but I can assure you this won't be our last trip. We had an incredible time and I almost didn't want to come back. 

The trip started out with a reluctant princess

 Can you tell she was totally not okay with our departure?

and a pretty nifty vending machine!

This thing had ipads in it!

When we arrived we headed downtown to see some of the awesome everyone talks about. We hit up Wynkoop Brewery for a few beers and some stellar food. Did you know Colorado is ranked third in the US for number of craft breweries and brewpubs?? We soon discovered why!

My handsome hubby

The insane beer menu at Wynkoop

David had to work the entire first day, so I went out exploring on my own. Helloooooo, beautiful mountains! I took the Cog Railway to the top of Pike's Peak (14,110 feet up!) and took in some beautiful views. I also learned all sorts of interesting things thanks to my new friends, a retired couple from Boston. They're spending the summer traveling around the West in their RV-so cool! Also many thanks to them for letting me borrow a sweatshirt for the top. Whodda thunk it would be 40 degrees at the top of the stinkin' mountain?? Not this girl!

View from the top.

Rockin my awesome borrowed sweatshirt.

After Pike's Peak I meandered around Manitou Springs popping in and out of the cutesy little shops. The time change had me all out of whack but I finally found a place called The Spice Shop that served a fantastic salad.

Nifty 3D map made of clay.

Fantastic salad. Perhaps it was the fact that my stomach was eating my insides.

I then ventured over to Garden of the Gods to take in more gorgeous views. People weren't kidding when they told us all Colorado had to offer! 

Hey there random stranger, want to take my picture?

A little while later (after an unfortunate incident of rushing back to the hotel to charge my phone from 1%) I met up with David and some of his coworkers for drinks. Everyone we met was awesome and really made us feel at home in a foreign place! Following drinks we hit up a local brewpup, Phantom Canyon, for supper. Despite not being a southern place, they knew how to make a mean dish of chicken and waffles.

Delicious supper coupled with more awesome beer.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more details!