Anniversary Trip

Okay, I think it's time to blog about this anniversary trip that Stephen and I took, considering it was the last weekend of August!

We wanted to go somewhere kind of close - we didn't have time for another Vegas trip or anywhere else like that (we would love to venture to Alaska or Colorado some day) so we settled for Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach. It would be our first time in three years going to the beach without children!

As we were headed toward the coast, Stephen pointed out that we were going to drive right past Lake Waccamaw - home of Camp Anchorage. Stephen and our youth group went to this camp last year and our church became fast friends with the leaders and workers of the camp. So when he suggested that we stop in and see everyone, I was so excited!

Unfortunately, everyone had left the camp to head to Wilmington for the weekend - right where we were going! We still walked around all the buildings of the camp and Stephen gave me a tour of everything. It's beautiful out there!

We got to the beach and basically headed right into downtown Wilmington. It was a Friday night so as you can imagine it was quite busy. We put our names on the list of a restaurant and then just walked the streets. There was a live band playing for free by the water so we just sat out there and listened for a while. It was nice not to be on any time constraints!

Then we got buzzed that our table was ready, so we headed back to the restaurant - Front Street Brewery.

The food was amazing.

As we walked back to our car, we passed this chain link fence that had tons and tons of keys hanging from it. Okay Wilmie friends - what's up with this!? It was kind of creepy...

 The next day we spent just a few short hours at the beach. It was beautiful weather and it was so nice being there just the two of us. I saw several other families there, running after their children, comforting them when they got covered in sand or scared by the waves... brought me back to July when we were at the beach with our kids (and a lot of family there to help!) and I definitely prefer it just the two of us at this point in our lives!!

After the beach we were off again, trying every restaurant possible before we had to leave! (Isn't that the point of vacation!?)

We got to this little pizzeria called Slice of Life. Their food was delicious!! Thank goodness for GPS for finding local restaurants. We were lucky to find this place!

 Of course it wasn't long before I was hungry again! But Stephen wasn't, so I was able to satisfy my sweet tooth at The Fuzzy Peach, which is a frozen yogurt joint. So good!!

 And on to the putt putt course! At this point, Stephen has no idea how bad he's going to lose...

I am feeling really confident...

SPIDER!!  This course had a "jungle" theme and I thought this was a decoration! This spider was as big as my hand and it was ALIVE and hanging over our HEADS. Not cool, spider, not cool.

Did a little graffiti action, reminding me of our high school days.

We ran into the mall when it started storming (also we were running out of places to go). We actually did leave with a couple of purchases. Stephen got a new wedding ring and I got a couple of sauces that are sold exclusively at Kitchen Collection. I know, we are so wild and crazy.

I saw this being sold at Kitchen Collection and literally shrieked in delight! I told Stephen this proves he's not the only man who has these issues. Hahaha! (I didn't buy it, but trust me, there are days I wish I had!)

 Okay, dinner time! We wanted some seafood so we headed to Surfs, a place we had passed a couple of times throughout the day. Man, oh man, am I glad we ate here! They had some incredible chili and amaaaazing shrimp, flounder, and onion rings. Not only that but they had some awesome live music going and because they weren't busy, our waitress even hung around our table a bit and chatted with us. It was such a laid-back restaurant. It was delicious and so much fun

Okay, so not even ONE picture of the happy couple! I can't believe it! Actually, I can. I love being in front of AND behind the camera, but Stephen would much rather be behind! I promise we were on this trip together! We loved every second of it. It is so rejuvenating to have even a short time without children.

We were very blessed that Stephen's mom and sister came all the way from Georgia to help out with the kids! So we knew they were in very capable hands and we I didn't worry about them for one second!

I'm already looking forward to our next trip together... whenever it may be!!

Here's to 7 wonderful years together, and looking forward to the next 70, if God will bless us with that many!

Mom's Transplant Anniversary

March 3 was my mom's five year anniversary of her liver transplant!! We go out to eat every year to celebrate. Dad already blogged about it here, so these pictures may look familiar to you.

The boys enjoy this little seat that Grandpa made for them. They could watch all the cars go by, which is something these nosy little boys loved!

Oh... looks like the boys weren't the only nosy ones!

The girls chatting with Joy:

Some of the lovely people in attendance:

What kind of sign is Evan holding up!?  I know for sure he is saying, "Cheese!!"

The kids get Easter gifts!!

Joy and Jamie!

BFFs: Joy, Mom, Gail

The night isn't complete without Ring Around the Rosie!

6 Years and Counting

Today is a very special day for two main reasons... it is my beautiful sister's birthday and it's also mine and Stephen's anniversary! This year marks six years and boy, is it getting better every year! This anniversary will be a little different from years past - we probably won't do anything at all to celebrate - but I definitely feel like we are closer and more in love than ever! I'm very thankful for my sister and my husband, so today is definitely a beautiful day to me!

Anniversary post 2010 - look at our cute high school picture!
Anniversary post 2009 - first anniversary trip with a baby!
Anniversary post 2008 - anniversary trip to UFC and announcing that we are pregnant!
Anniversary post 2007 - best anniversary trip EVER to Pennsylvania!

For your viewing pleasure...

Oh snap! First vacation together when we were 16 and such hotties!

Ooh yeah, prom '99 baby!

On to college life...

Woo-wee! Look at that smooch!

I love you babe!!

You Are My Liver

This is Mom's four-year liver anniversary!

When I was little, there used to be many nights I would spend the night with Granny and Granddaddy. We would pop popcorn and watch I Love Lucy until all hours of the night (probably at least 10pm!!) One of my favorite episodes of I Love Lucy is where they are all putting on a play that Lucy has written.

Ethel: Do you go alone?
Lucy: Si, I go alone.
Ethel: Eh, eh, eh, I think you go there to meet your liver.
Lucy: LOVER!

For some reason this was one of the funniest episodes ever to me. You should really try to find it on Hulu or something. But every time I think of livers, this is what comes to me.

We shall eat out to celebrate this grand occasion very soon! I love you Mom!

Life

There's so much I haven't blogged about lately... and I know I can't remember everything, so I'll just go with what I know!

The main thing is that on September 3, not only did my brilliant sister celebrate a birthday, but Stephen and I also celebrated five years of marriage. I know five years is just a drop in the bucket but we have had a blast these past five years! I can't wait to see what the future holds for us because every year gets better!!

This is a picture of Stephen and me in high school when we first started dating. I know, you are jealous of my tie-dye shirt and our hemp necklaces.


And this is at our wedding... smooching away!!


For our anniversary, Leila, Corky and Jennifer drove up to keep Brianna so Stephen and I could go on a retreat. It was sort of tough picking a location two hours away to visit (at this point in pregnancy I could only go roughly two hours from the hospital) but we ended up deciding on Lake Norman which is very close to Charlotte, Concord, etc. Lots to do around there. They came in Friday evening and we left Saturday morning, as soon as I could drag Stephen away from Brianna. That's not even a joke.

We got there around lunchtime and ate at a great local pizzeria, Taste of Brooklyn. After lunch we drove around town just to see if there were any places we wanted to stop at (not a thrift store in sight!!) but we finally just headed over to the hotel to see if we could check in early. We could, and by the time we made it up to the room and unpacked some of our things, to be honest, we were pretty tired! We decided to take a 30-minute nap, which turned into 1 1/2 hours. Oops. So much for 10-minute snoozing. We then trekked down to the business center so we could start Googling the places we wanted to visit. There were several places we wanted to go and we knew we'd only have time for one on this trip. After looking up about six different places we wanted to visit, we realized everything was closing at 5:00 because of it being Saturday. At this point it was already almost 4:30, so....

We decided at that point to hit a local nature preserve since they don't shut the gates until sunset. One that sounded really nice was Ribbonwalk and it was only 20 minutes or so away. So, we set off to find this park. The first clue that something was up is that our directions started taking us through this neighborhood. I mean, just houses and subdivisions. But there were other signs. The sign for the park wasn't very clearly marked. No other cars were there except one truck backed far into the woods. (I could hear Dueling Banjos almost.) No updated brochures, trail maps, trail markings, etc. But we decided to venture out and see what this park had to hold. We started down one trail, choosing it because it was furthest from the suspicious truck and the only one that wasn't overgrown. It quickly led us to a pond which was so nasty I honestly expected to see dead fish floating at the top. We turned down another trail that had poison ivy clearly marked with signs (thank goodness for that, at least) but the further we walked the more uneasy we felt. Finally Stephen said, "I really don't even want to leave the car unattended here!" Everything was overgrown and I'm not sure exactly how long this park had been out of commission, but I was ready to throw in the towel as well. I was so disappointed because I felt like everything we had an idea to do was falling apart!!

We decided to just hit the mall and stop in places on the way that we thought would be interesting, if we saw anything. I was still disappointed because who wants to spend their vacation at the mall? But there really wasn't anything else open late. Fortunately for us, we made one bad decision on which direction we were supposed to go to get to the mall! We stopped to get gas and it turned out we were supposed to be going the opposite direction. After we turned around we saw a sign for another nature preserve. I hesitated to go in because of our last experience but Stephen insisted. This was Reedy something nature preserve. Well, as soon as we drove in we could see this was what a nature preserve is supposed to be like!! It had about 8 or 10 different parking lots all leading to different trails, picnic areas, playgrounds, basketball courts, etc! It even had a huge museum (which of course was closed) with exhibits, nature sessions, and lots of other things. They had this great playground built under the trees and had this as the entrance:


The more we walked closer to the trails the more excited I got. "THIS is what a park is supposed to look like!", I exclaimed to Stephen. The parking lot we parked in went to these two trails:


which in turn forked off to lots of other trails. We first went to the Dragonfly Pond:



which was just under a mile, and then turned around and did the Umbrella Tree Trail. After one mile we turned around and headed back to the parking lot because we didn't know how much further it was and my stomach was telling me to chill out on the hiking! There was a lot of uphill climbing and the Braxton Hicks were just a-comin'! But it was so worth it to be out there. It was under 80 degrees, breeze, shaded, we could take our time, it was just beautiful. It made me so excited to get Brianna and Hunter out to Morrow Mountain to do some hiking and picnicking! Isn't it funny how when you have kids you spend half your time trying to stop them from growing up and the other half wishing they'd grow up so you can do more things with them??

By this time it was getting dark so we decided to head over to the mall and get a cookie and a pretzel (a tradition!). When we got there the AMC theater was right next to the mall so Stephen persuaded me to check out the movies that were playing and the times. You gotta understand - we hadn't been to the movies in about four years. Not only is it a joke how expensive they are, but then you gotta possibly deal with the kid sitting beside you, or the guy next to you answering his cell phone, people walking around, commentating on the movie... But Stephen looked like a little kid as we were looking up to see what was playing. Then he locked on The Expendables. The action movie of all action movies. As he checked the clock he frowned and said, "I guess we're not going to get to see anything after all." It was right at 7:30 and all the movies were starting either right then or three hours later. He looked so disappointed I convinced him we could see it - after all, they show tons of previews before movies so it wouldn't actually have started yet. He was so excited! But then we both practically gagged when we realized movie tickets were $10!!! TEN DOLLARS!?!? Is it that expensive everywhere? Holy cow! Of course we had to get a snack, so we got a "deal" which was bottomless popcorn and a bottomless drink... of course who can eat more than one of each?? That was another $12!!! Good grief. I tried to stay calm since this was a vacation and I knew Stephen was about to bust. After the movie he went on and on and on about how great the movie was, how loud it was (yes, that was one of the things I didn't like!), how BIG the screen was, etc etc. So I'm glad we went.

It was only 9:30 or so when we got out so we both assumed we could still go to the mall and walk around a bit. Wrong. Did you know most malls close at 9:00... even on Fridays? This just shows how often we get out of the house. So our options were pretty limited at this point. We decided just to grab something light to eat and head back to the hotel. After all, we had a whirlpool in our room, books, wireless Internet, and yes I brought coupons to clip.

The complimentary breakfast in the morning was delicious. If you ever have the opportunity to stay at a Country Inn & Suites, DO IT!! I am addicted to this chain of hotels. The breakfast was a huge variety of hot and cold foods - waffles, fixings for omelets, hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit, granola bars, bagles, biscuits and gravy.... I can't even remember everything! I always eat way too much at a complimentary breakfast. As it should be! After breakfast I could tell Stephen was itching to get home, mainly because he told me he was ready to go home. We went back to the room and packed all of our things and we were home around lunchtime.

All in all it was nice being away. I definitely didn't miss Brianna as much as Stephen did (what?? I am just being honest!!) but nothing was really open on the weekend and there were no thrift stores to be had, so there wasn't much for us to do. I did love the park though!! And the hotel! I could have stayed another night but Stephen said he doesn't get to spend enough time with us as it is and he wanted to get home. I understand that. We are irresistible.

It has taken me almost twelve hours to write this post so I'm going to end it here and write more later about everything else I was going to write about!

Celebrate!

Happy Anniversary to Stephen! This is our third anniversary and still going strong! As long as he keeps on following my orders suggestions we'll be juuuust fine. :)

And Happy Birthday to my beautiful sister Jenn!! This ensures that I'll always remember her birthday and she'll always remember my anniversary.... or else one of us will forget a very important date!

We won't have the most exciting anniversary ever, but that's okay, because I feel more tired than any other anniversary. We are both working all day, and then we have youth group at church tonight, and then most likely we will come home, eat some dinner and watch about 30-45 minutes of America's Got Talent before deciding we just can't stay awake any longer. We are just party animals. But this weekend will be fun, going to Georgia. I'll probably blog about that later.

I just realized I was going to do NaBloPoMo this month, because it was a month of jokes and laughter! And I've already missed two days! Darn the months that start off not near a computer.