Charleston For the Win

Welp, sadly, all good things must come to an end and I guess Spring Break 2013 is no different. SB '13 has now come and gone, although I'm still romanticizing our brief love affair in my heart.  I'm going to keep the love affair going a little longer and recap the end of the week and our trip to Charleston!

Friday morning we were off to Charleston, SC for the Cooper River Bridge Run!!

We dropped Berkley dog off to be boarded for the first time...

We sure missed this cuteness, I mean how could you not!?!

But a mimosa at Southend Brewery upon arrival really made up for it :)

We picked up our race packets at the super crowded expo, checked into our hotel & then waited on our friends to arrive!

Lisa & I - my twin!

The weather was awesome so we headed to the rooftop bar Vendue for drink numero uno :)

We sort of made a progressive evening out of it and headed to Mad River for drink numero dos & then headed to happy hour and an amazing dinner at Fleet Landing.  Yum!!!

Found a new koozie ;)

Since we had a mere 6.2 miles to run and an early wake up call the next morning, we figured we should turn it in early(ish)!

Race day, we had to wake up super early, stand in the cold for our shuttle, find our corral amongst forty some odd thousand people, then run up and across a ginormous bridge and into downtown Charleston!!  

Cold & on the shuttle!

That hill can suck it!!!  Oh my word, I wanted to walk so bad!  Haha

Finish!!!  Hallelujah!

Sweaty & done!! :)

I've obviously let go of any vanity I had and went ahead and posted these gross pics of myself.  Just keepin' it real y'all!

It was definitely fun race (ya know, once it was over!) & I'm glad I got the experience, but will I do it again!?  I dunno...  My hilarious (and half Kenyan) friend Mindy at Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake recapped her run here!  She basically summed up my exact feelings on this race!!

I'm no Kenyan, that's for dang sure, I'm just impressed I made it in under and hour!!  I'll take it :)

We celebrated post run at probably my most favorite spot in the whole world...Folly Beach!!

Clearly our first stop was Lost Dog Cafe for celebratory peach mango mimosas!!!

"Into each day, put in about one teaspoonful of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch of Folly, and a cupful of good humor!"

We had a drink at the beach bar, napped while the boys played....it was a perfect post race afternoon!!

My handsome man!!

We kept the party going with 89 cent rum runners at the hotel bar & an amazing, for real, so, so ahhmaaazing dinner at Anson's!

I was sad to wake up Sunday because it meant reality was right around the corner.  Boohoo!!  (I'm so spoiled right!?)  But it did mean back to my sweet boys at home :)

Today, was, well a work day.  Haha, just 43 and counting (yes, I'm counting!!) til my next love affair with summer!  Thanks for the good times spring break!

I'm so glad the weather has started to look more like spring, I fully plan on enjoying it this week!

Hope your Monday treated you more like a Thursday!  At least it's over right? ;)

Spring Break Lovin'

Oh Spring Break, how I love you!!

I am in full blown spring break mode this week and loving it!!  It's so nice to not have a packed agenda, sleep til 730, be able to run errands, meet friends for lunch and dinner.... oh yes, spring break and I are having a full fledged love affair!

Last weekend, my friend Lisa and I knocked out a 5 mile run on the greenway in prep for our 10K this weekend down in Charleston!  It was then necessary to follow our run with brunch and mimosas at Toast to celebrate Spring Break and all it's glory!!

Mmmmmm!

For Easter, Brandon and I visited a church that meets at the high school right beside us, then changed out of church clothes & into our workout clothes for an Easter workout at the track.  The gym was obviously closed due to the holiday so we made up an outside Easter WOD!

Brandon captured my best side in action...thanks for that!

Monday, my sweet friend Rachel had lots of us bloggy ladies & their baby girls over for lunch! Between the 4 of them, there are 5 baby girls from 3 weeks to 5 months!!  So neat that all their little girls will grow up and all be the same age/in the same grade together!  I was so glad to finally get to meet Faith's girls and Katie's brand new little bebe!  And since Faith has twins, I got to pretend to have a baby too, haha ;)

Katie, Faith, Me, Ashley, & Rachel

I spent a chunk of my Tuesday morning sitting in Toyota's waiting room as they serviced my car for it's 60K mile check up.  Paying that bill was fun.  NOT!  Ughh...money spent on maintaining cars is the worst!!  I could think of so many other things I would rather spend that money on!  But alas, it is wise to take care of what ya got I guess!!  Oh adulthood....sigh.

Last night was much more fun!  A bunch of girls went out to celebrate my friend Lisa's birthday (which is actually tomorrow)!  We met at Vine American Kitchen for dinner and drinks (and cupcakes!  Shhhh) and it was so much fun!  I'm so blessed to know so many wonderful women!!

Lane, Sara, Me, Whitney, Lisa, Courtney, Laurel & Dana

We will be celebrating Lisa's birthday pretty much all weekend long in Charleston!!  :)  The weather was looking dismal for tomorrow so we decided to cut the trip short a bit and not head down til Friday morning.  It will still be lots of fun, though!

I made the mistake of checking my work email today!  Not smart.  It got my mind swirling on all things school!  So I took a nap to sleep it off :)  No more of that til Sunday night when I need to mentally prepare, haha.

B took tomorrow and Friday off so I'm excited for a day to relax together tomorrow before our fun weekend away!

I wish Spring Break and I could make this love affair permanent...I should really look into that ;)  

Hope everyone's having a splendid week, spring break or not!  And if you're working, at least you're already over the hump!!

Midweek Randos

Happy hump day friends!!  Thought I'd pop in for a little midweek randomness :)

1.  Today is actually like my Thursday because tomorrow is my Friday!  Friday is a workday so I'm opting to start my spring break a little early!!

2.  Thank all that is holy for spring break.  Seriously y'all, this spring semester has about kilt me!

3.  We'll be in Charleston for the second half of my spring break and the weather is not looking so hot.  Literally!  Highs only in the 60s, rain chances....what is this?!  I am in need of beach weather, or at least 70s!  Come on Momma Nature, help a sister out!!

4.  We're not having the best weather luck lately!  Our Spartan Race weather this past weekend was not the greatest ever.  I was nervous about surviving, but I posted Monday and if y'all follow me on Instagram, then clearly you figured out I survived :)  A full race recap is coming, I'm just waiting on Spartan Race to post their pics!!

Spartans!!!

5.  Can we talk about the awkwardness of my hands in this picture!?  Hahaha, I was clearly super muddy and just didn't know what to do with them.  Just call me Ricky Bobby I guess!

6.  Erin, from BlueEyedBride, posted yesterday asking what's your strut song?  I could definitely strut to a bunch of the songs her readers left, but when I was running tonight I realized my ultimate strut song when it came through my 'Run' shuffle mix...

Matisse featuring Akon - Better Than Her

This is definitely my dance around the bedroom, run a little faster, walk a little taller song!  Do you have a strut song?

7.  So I started making my bed every morning last week!  For all of like 4 days in a row....and now I've gone 2 days without making it.  I've already fallen back to my old ways!  Oops!!  I'll restart tomorrow!

8.  I hate ending things on odd numbers.  Weird?  Yes.  Slightly OCD?  Yes.  Now you know :)

Hope you have a super fantastic end to your week!!

Friday's Letters

Friday's Letters!?  Let's :)

Dear husband, 4 short years ago just yesterday you & I were getting ready to go out with our respective friend groups for a night out.  Little did we know we'd end up at a fun little bar named The Attic meeting our future spouse!!  Wild right!?  What a fun & fast 4 years it's been!!!  I can't wait for what's next!

Dear weather, in case you haven't gotten the memo, it's SPRING now!!  Why must winter continue with the cold and the rainy and the yuck.  Especially this weekend of all weekends....I really need spring!

Dear Spartan Race, please don't kill me.

Dear Berkley, how are you so dang cute!?  My new favorite part of the day is playing with you for a bit on the bed each night before you get in your own bed!  You're so fun and smiley!  We're glad you're ours!!

Dear Spring Break, please hurry!  I'm ready.  Really, really ready for a little R&R and a lotta Folly Beach & Charleston!

Dear friends, happy, happy weekend!!!

Head on over to Ashley's blog & read all of Friday's Letters :)

Counting Down

via pin from Words to Live By by Michelle

So, I know.  I know I need to live for today and enjoy life here and now and not get too hung up on the future.  I know these things....and I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job of that lately!

BUT.  There are a lot of exciting things coming up!!  So here's what I'm looking forward to and making my count down list...

Any day now - A new baby nephew!!  Official due date - Wed. Feb. 27th

1 week - March 2nd - My 26th Birthday!!  Bring it on!

1 month - March 23rd - My first Spartan Sprint!!  Bring it on!?  :/  Haha

5 weeks - March 30th - April 7th - Spring Break '13!  Woop woo!!!

6 weeks - April 6th - Cooper River Bridge Run & a long weekend in Charleston!

14 weeks - A new baby niece!!  Official due date - Fri. May 31st

15 weeks - aka 68 school days until - Summer, Summer, Summer, Summertime!!!

Yes, I'm officially counting down until summer.  Please don't judge me!  :)  But until summer gets here, I'll be sure not to wish away the days in between.  They're of great value, too! 

Hope you're all having a stellar weekend!

Our 2nd Year in Pictures

Now that's is two weeks past our anniversary, I thought it was high time I get around to blogging Our 2nd Year in Pictures!  Whoops!

I stole this idea last year from Megan over at Tales of the Trees and wanted to make it a yearly tradition.  You can see last year's post (2011) here.  So to keep the tradition going....

Our 2nd Year in Pictures

December 2011
Cheering on the Panther's on Christmas Eve

January 2012
Playing around with our favorite app one lazy weekend night :)

February 2012
Date night!

March 2012
St. Patty's Day Bar Crawl

April 2012
Spring Break Cruise - Schooner's Wharf, Key West

May 2012
Memorial Day - Post Run, headed to brunch :)

June 2012
Folly Beach Weekend Trip!

July 2012
Carolina Beach - Family Beach Week

August 2012
Boat Cruise on Lake Michigan

September 2012
Asheville & Biltmore for B's birthday & Mama Shuck's visit :)

October 2012
Halloween!

November 2012
Cheers to 2 years!!

And here's to infinity more!

Love you B!!

Oh the place you'll go...

Over this summer, I've seen a few other bloggers recap all the places they've traveled alongside their significant other.  I've loved seeing all the places each blogger had been & I like the idea of keeping a log of all the places Brandon and I have traveled...so I thought I'd follow suit!

A few places are obvious repeats (MI, VA), but each trip was unique so I wanted to document the repeats anyway.

Hopefully, as we travel more over our lives to new, different, and exotic places (a girl can dream right!?), I can come back and update this post :)

Since March of 2009, when I first met Brandon, we've traveled to...

Matoaca, VA - Lake Chesdin - June 2009

My cousin Ashley's HS graduation - and the first of many trips to the lake

Myrtle Beach, SC - July 2009

A first for B, although I'd visited many a time!

Folly Beach, SC - September 2009

When my love affair with Folly Beach began

Crowder's Mountain & Chimney Rock, NC - September 2009

Hiking on Labor Day

Grand Rapids/Hudsonville, MI - December 2009

Meeting B's family for the first time!

Crystal Mountain, MI - December 2009

Squeezed in a little skiing while in the Mitten :)

Beech Mountain, NC - January 2010

A little local ski day trip!

San Juan, Puerto Rico - April 2010

My Spring Break & a very memorable trip - where we got engaged!!

Atlanta, GA - June 2010

A weekend in the ATL & the Tigers vs. the Braves

Matoaca, VA - Lake Chesdin - July 2010

Back to the lake - my family vacay

Hudsonville, MI - August 2010

Our Michigan wedding shower :)

Folly Beach, SC - September 2010

Labor Day Weekend at the beach with good friends!

Blacksburg, VA - VT - October 2010

Central Michigan vs. VT

MTNs of NC - November 2010

A weekend in the Mountains 2 weeks before the Big Day!

Negril, Jamaica - November 2010

Our Honeymoon!

Hudsonville, MI - December 2010

Our first married Christmas in Michigan

Myrtle Beach, SC - December 2010/January 2011

New Years at the Beach

Greenville, SC - February 2011

A weekend away

Atlanta, GA - March 2011
Visiting my Parents

Coco Beach & Orlando, FL - April 2011

Spring Break & my first visit to Universal Studios!

Blacksburg, VA - VT - May 2011

My cousin Erin's College Graduation

Durham, NC - July 2011

Durham for the night for a Durham Bulls Game

Corolla, NC - OBX - July 2011

Family Vacay in the Outer Banks

Grand Rapids/Husdonville/Muskegon, MI - July 2011

B's Company's Summer Work Party & my first helicopter ride!

Nashville, TN - August 2011

Traveling with B up to MI for a long weekend with the fam

Hudsonville, MI - August 2011

Long weekend with the fam

Virginia Beach, VA - September 2011

Another Labor Day at the Beach :)

Detroit, MI - October 2011

Our friends Ryan & Kelly's Wedding Weekend

Black Mountain & Mt. Mitchell, NC - October 2011

Hiking & Camping

Asheville, NC - November 2011

Our 1st Anniversary Trip and a visit to The Biltmore!

Rothbury, MI - December 2011

B's Company's Christmas Work Party

Hudsonville, MI - December 2011

Michigan after Christmas

Naussau, Bahamas & Key West, Florida - April 2012
B won a cruise through work so we took it over my Spring Break from school!

Matoaca, VA - May 2012
Up to the Lake for E&R's Engagement Luau

Folly Beach & Charleston, SC - June 2012
Our favorite spot

Blacksburg, VA - VT - June 2012
Erin & Ryan's Wedding Weekend

Virginia Beach, VA - July 2012
July 4th at the Beach!

Carolina Beach, NC - July 2012
Family Beach vacay


Unless I've somehow left out a trip that I just can't remember, that's every trip we've taken together!  Each has been so fun and special in it's own way...so here's to many more trips together, babe!