Charleston Getaway!

You know what's one of my favorite things? Birthdays. Birthdays are one of my favorite things! I mean, I love everyone's birthdays but mine are my most favorite;-) This year I was super excited to be able to celebrate in Charleston, SC (another one of our favorites!) as we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary and my birthday all wrapped up in one!

We hit the road Friday morning leaving the babe with David's parents in our rearview mirror. Don't get me wrong, we love our girl more than life itself, but a kiddo-free weekend is priceless! Since it had been a while (a whole two months!) since we had been to the beach we headed there first. Apparently, the rain hadn't been in a while either and followed us to the shore. We sought shelter under an umbrella our hotel had out with some chairs and hunkered down with a few Bud Light Limes (I'd like to argue the best beach beer that exists). The storm passed and we were able to walk the beach and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. We decided to stay on the island for supper and headed to Taco Boy for some fantastic tacos and a not so fantastic drink. Has anyone ever had a "sangrita"? Well, don't. It tastes nothing like a sangria or margarita! We then traipsed across the street to Snapper Jack's for live music and a dozen oysters for David. We ended the evening watching HGTV's new show about tiny houses and devouring cupcakes. Perfection.

The next morning we were woken earlier than ideal by a fire alarm and siren throughout the hotel. David moved at a turtle's pace, but we finally made it downstairs only to learn there was no fire and that someone had hung their wedding dress on the sprinkler head in their room. Whoops-a-daisy! At least we all got a show and I got to people watch to see what everyone wore to bed that night, te he he. We decided to seize the day and headed down the road to the Lost Dog Cafe for breakfast. Another delicious Folly Beach meal in the books. We hit the beach for a few hours before heading downtown.

One of my favorite parts of Charleston is downtown. Between the food, the shopping, the drinks, the people, the history, the shows-it's hard to really pinpoint what makes it so wonderful. Just take my word for it. We enjoyed a late lunch at The King Street Grille before hitting King Street and the Market for some shopping. We wandered all about before heading to Pearlz for drinks and more oysters. If you are in Charleston and like oysters with any fiber of your being you have to go to Pearlz! David and our waiter actually persuaded me to try them and I ate more than one! Haha. I ate about half a dozen and didn't hate them. I doused them in cocktail sauce and lemon juice and served it on a saltine, but it was good! While we were enjoying our happy hour snack David happened to look up and see some good friends of ours from Charlotte strolling by. Say what?? They were in town for their fifth anniversary too! WHAT??? We were able to catch up for a bit before we headed back in to finish our snack.

We then headed to the water to walk around a bit before our dinner reservation. We quickly decided next time we came and brought Amelia Grace we had to head there for her to splash around and play. We wandered around for a bit and even saw a few dolphins! We were quickly approaching our dinner reservation and walked towards Poogan's Porch. This Charleston classic is known for being the most haunted spot in Charleston and while we didn't see a ghost we did enjoy a fantastic meal. I had shrimp & grits and David ate (in his words) "the best fish he ever had". We then rolled ourselves over to Kaminsky's Dessert Bar for dessert before heading back to the hotel where we crashed from a crazy long day of walking.

Sunday morning we woke up and hit up the Lost Dog Cafe again before a fantastic walk on the beach. Talk about a great start to a birthday! We rounded out our trip with a quick visit to the outlets before hitting the road to head home. It was a wonderful way to ring in 27 years!

One Year Pictures

A few months before we moved I joined one of those buy/sell/trade sites for North Raleigh and after a few days of stalking the wares I noticed a post from a woman offering mini-sessions for $50! I knew we wanted to take pictures for her first birthday so I quickly messaged her and set up a time. Despite it being super close to her bedtime, Amelia Grace was the ideal model and allowed our photographer (the wonderful Amanda Conrad!) to take some fantastic pictures. They all turned out FANTASTIC so picking just a few to share with y'all was hard!

These are just a sampling of the almost 50 images she captured!

Happy first birthday, little love!

First Birthday Shindig

This past weekend we were fortunate enough to celebrate our little love's first birthday with family and friends! It's so hard to believe that this sweet girl is already one year old. They aren't kidding when they say you blink and your baby is gone. Our precious nugget has been replaced by a wild, child toddler with no fear. Don't get me wrong, I love every stage, but I definitely wouldn't mind if she decided we needed a day of cuddles like old times ;-) Anywho, enough mommy sob time and onto the pictures!

We did an owl theme and my mom really went above and beyond making that possible. I don't have any pictures of the decor but it was impressive! We are so thankful for all those who pitched in to make this such a wonderful day!

Owl fruit tray

Owl veggie tray 

Owl cupcakes 

More cupcakes

The SUPER impressive cake TJ's sweet girlfriend, Rebecca made!

 3/4 of the baby date crew 

(We missed you, Adah and Rachel!)

And when it came time for the cake, Amelia Grace definitely showed that she belonged to us by diving headfirst into her cake!

Here, momma, you get a bite too 

The yummy cookies Aunt Lisa made! 

The babes loved the water table and bubble machine 

My heart is so full!

We were truly blown away by all those who came from near and far to celebrate our precious girl's first birthday. And this truly was a group effort. We are so thankful to all who made this wonderful day so special! I think it's safe to say she had a good time. . .

Misfit Magic

In my last post I mentioned the wonderful gift my hubby surprised me that proves how well he knows me-a Misfit Shine.

Never heard of it? Yea, me either! Ha! I had been looking at the different FitBit options for a while now, but wasn't sold. I wanted a tracker that also told time since I always wear a watch. The only FitBit product that offered that had recently been taken off the market for causing skin irritation. Errr, not interested. David knew this and started doing some research. Side note, David always does research before he makes a purchase so, when he buys something you know it's the best. It can be insanely frustrating when all you need is a floor fan, but darn tootin' you're going to have the best stinkin fan on the market!

After he did his research he headed to Target and talked to the electronics guru there who told him all the merits of the Shine. It didn't take long for him to decide that was just what I needed. It's only been a few days, but my boy definitely made the right choice! 

A few details:

*It has options to be a watch, a necklace accessory, or just a regular pin. I wear it as a very sleek-looking watch on my wrist. 

*The stellar technology allows you to set a daily goal where you receive "points" towards a daily total. Different activities equal different points depending on how hard you work and for how long.

*There is automatic sleep monitoring that tells you how much "restful" sleep you get each night.  

Side note, my sleep isn't very restful these days. Hmmm, I wonder why;-)

*It calculates your steps, calories and mileage as well as calculates the points.

*You can sync it to your facebook account and "compete" with other Misfit owners.

*You can sync it with different calories-counting apps so your exercise and calories are logged in both apps to make for easier tracking. 

*It runs on a battery meaning you don't lose time (or steps) by having to charge it.

*Completely waterproof.

I am definitely a convert now and love how this new tool will help me get back in shape!

26th Birthday Buzz

This past weekend we celebrated my 26th birthday in the best way possible-delicious food and time together! 

One of our plans before Amelia Grace was born was to hit up some of our favorite restaurants we weren't sure we were going to get to after baby. Since she decided to surprise us a few weeks early we missed out on that opportunity, but that meant we had an excuse to go out big for my birthday. We ended up at one of our Charlotte favorites, Cowfish, and were not disappointed!

We dropped baby girl off at David's parent's house and headed out pretty early. When you have a newborn who doesn't sleep in, staying out late is a foreign concept! Then we headed to Cowfish where we began our meal with seared ahi tuna nachos (YUM). Now, if you have never been there you are definitely missing out-everything is good. You cannot go wrong, which is what made it so hard to decide what to eat. David ended up with their pimento cheese burger on toasted rye and I decided on the blue cheese chicken sandwich with caramelized onions and other fixins. Delish.

Afterwards David surprised me with a birthday gift I didn't even know I wanted-the Misfit Shine fitness tracker! I'd been looking at the FitBit for a while, but wasn't quite sold on it. David, knowing me as well as he does, did all the research and found the Shine and learned how much better it is. Two days in and I'm addicted to tracking everything. Need something from upstairs? I'll grab it for the extra steps. Run out to the mailbox? Count me in. A few extra minutes on our walk. Yes, please!

Afterwards we went across the street to Gigi's cupcakes-another delicious favorite! Then we headed over to Southpark Mall to wander around and look at all the crazy things we can't afford. Hello, super expensive Louis Vuitton purse. Hi there, Tiffany's lamp. Hola, Burberry coat.

It was a great birthday all around and will definitely be hard to top!

PS-The entire time I was writing this post my daughter was farting up a storm on her play mat. This is my life now. . .

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday, my love!

This is the most recent picture I have of the two of us and it's from October, how pathetic is that??

You are officially closer to 30 than you are to 20, but you've never looked better! You are an incredible husband and I know you're going to be an even better daddy to our little babe. I can't wait to celebrate this new year of life with you!

Est. 1988

I am officially 25 years old. That's a quarter of a century, folks. Yikes. In honor of this milestone I am showcasing some of the people celebrating with me!

Rihanna

Adele

Michael Cera

Julianne Hough

Ron Weasley

or Rupert Grint as his birth certificate claims

Emma Stone

Some other little tidbits about 1988. . .

Average cost of a new house was $91,600

Average income was $24,450

Average price of a new car was $10,400

A gallon of gas cost 91 cents!

A movie ticket was $3.50

Those were the good old days. . .

 

Friday Letters [08.02]

Happy Friday, folks!!

Dear Kenny Chesney, Not too shabby of a show there kid. Not as stellar as Keith Urban, but not too bad.

Let's just pretend I'm not a sweaty hot mess. . .

Dear Mother Nature, I've decided not to battle with you any longer about this monsoon weather. You just do your thing. BUT since you're being so vicious these days, how about throwing us an easy winter? I'll let you ponder that one.

Dear school friends, I missed y'all! It was so good seeing everyone this week. I can't wait to see all the awesome things we accomplish this year!

Dear NC legislature, You want to spend more money on inmates than you do on students? Fine, but I hope you enjoy the karma train because it is going to slam right smack into you when you least expect it.

Dear Momma, Happy (belated) Birthday! I hope it was everything you could have imagined and more. We can't wait to celebrate with you in a week!

Photo courtesy of Amaris Hames.

Spring Break-Day 5 (Nassau!)

I woke up super early Wednesday morning with the excitement of a little kid-we were in Nassau! Today was the day we got to swim with dolphins! Trying to contain my excitement was nearly impossible, so I woke up David and we got moving. In my extreme excitement I insisted we get off the boat an hour early. You know,  just in case. Well, rest assured we were there in plenty of time, so we occupied ourselves taking pictures.

 

After waiting in line and taking a quick ride from the boat to Atlantis (where we would be doing the actual swimming) we arrived:

Not too shabby, huh?

Our "visit" with the dolphins didn't start until 12:10, so with a few hours to burn we explored! We saw all sorts of fishies and sea creatures all around. We also hopped in the gorgeous clear-blue water  for a bit.

Please forgive the horrible quality of the following pictures, but they wouldn't let us bring our cameras with us. I guess that was their way of getting us to buy the photo package, which we totally did. The following images are pictures of pictures. Ghetto-fab, I know. . .

I loved every second of it, but David was not so into it. He was scared that any second Noah (the dolphin) would suddenly lose his mind and attack. We live to tell the tales, so he didn't. It was so neat getting up close and personal with them!

 Since it was Steve's birthday our waiters brought his dessert with a candle and had the dining room singing!

There was also a singalong from the dining room staff. Andrew (left) and Boris (right) got a little too into "Apple Bottom Jeans"!

 We must have been blessed by the cruise gods because Steve was chosen to participate as the team captain for the Scavenger Hunt at that evening's show. The premise was that the host would ask for semi-ridiculous items and someone in the room had to have them (you could not leave the room to find it). The team that had the most items won. It was so much fun scrambling around for some pretty random items in our purses and pockets. 

The game got even better when they requested one member of the audience be wrapped in toilet paper, as if in a wedding dress. David was our guinea pig:

The final way to earn points was to dress your team captain like a woman. Steve rocked it!

 What better way to celebrate your birthday than with a Carnival Cruise victory??

Come back tomorrow for Day 6 in Freeport!