I don't know about you....but I'm feelin' 22!

Well, I am actually very much feeling like I'm 30 since I've been home from my girls vacay for two days now and still don't feel 100%, but boy was it worth it!  I can without a doubt say that I have some seriously fun friends.   They made my turning thirty feel totally awesome! 

 

Haley and I headed down early Thursday in order to get the beach house ready for everyone and get some sun since Haley had to leave late Friday for a bachelorette party in Savannah.  It was great to have some sister in law catch up time too.

 

 

 

Later in the afternoon, Laura and Rebecca S. joined us for happy hour on the beach, and our group was almost complete!

 

 

 

Not too much later, our favorite shorty Paige joined the fun and we all headed out to Fannie's for some pizza and a Miami vice (that's a blended combo of a daiquiri and a pina colada, delicious!)

 

 

My favorite SIL steering the boat at Fannie's!

 

 

We were all a little tired from our travels, but rallied like the fun girls that we are and took our singing skills on over to Benny's (It's a Tybee Thang!).

 

 

We sang a few songs......

 

 

 

Did a little dancing.....

 

 

And took some pics!

 

 

Friendship at it's finest :)

 

 

Friday morning came quickly, but we managed to wake up, eat a greasy Sugar Shack breakfast, and head out for some beach time.

 

 

 

 

 

Paige and Rebecca even treated us (and some innocent beach-goers) to some yoga moves!

 

 

 

Check out that form!  Talent I tell you. 

 

 

We sadly had to say goodbye to Haley on Friday afternoon but the fun didn't stop there.  After some condo cocktails and primping, we were ready for dinner.  Social is a place that I HAVE to go every time I'm at Tybee.  The decor is beachy and comfortable, and the food is YUM.

 

Here's the four of us in the lounge area! 

 

 

Roomie Love!

 



Cheers to me!  The big 3-0!

 

 

After dinner we headed over to the Rock House to do a little dancing...

 

 

 

And take a jello shot....still gross, even when you're thirty (especially when they're made with Fireball-yuck, not recommended!).

 



The vibe there just wasn't cutting it, so we went back to our old stomping grounds, Benny's.  The night ended up to be nothing short of legendary.

There we are!

 

This is Rebecca singing "Total Eclipse of the Heart".  It was the best karaoke performance I have ever seen. In. My. Life.  I'm talking the people were out of there seats- coming from the bar to see what was going on onstage! The crowd was going wild!!  Amazing.  Just amazing.

Here's me singing something much less exciting :)

 

 

Here's the Rebecca's dancing with our new friend, Jules. 

Paige even rocked a solo.  Get 'em PP!

Post Karaoke glow!

 

 

The night ended with a visit from the Tybee Pirate (and some random gentlemen photo crashing) and a golf cart cab ride home (compliments of Troy who let us know his signature dance is the mashed potato.)  Does anyone know what that is?  Either way, it was fantastic!

Saturday started with a trip to the Breakfast Club AKA the BEST breakfast you will ever have. Seriously.  Then it was back out to the beach.  Some of us played bocce, while others napped peacefully :)

 

We spent the majority of the day beachside and then had a low-key dinner at a little dive called

Huc-a-Poos.  It was a really neat place with cornhole, the ring game and live music every night.  It's definitely a hidden spot where the locals hang. 

 

Self portrait time!

 

 

 There's the whole gang :)  What a beautiful group!

 

A girls vacation is just what the doctor ordered.  Spending time with some of my favorite girls was the perfect way to ring in the big 3-0.  I love you all so much and it means so much to have you all in my life.  We sure did have a lot of laughs on our trip and I think it will go down in history as one of the best birthdays EVER!  If this is how thirty feels than count me IN!

 

Love my girls!!!

 

First Anniversary Trip

Over a year ago, William's grandparents gave us a SUPER generous wedding gift- a select registry gift certificate.  Select Registry is basically a membership that various inns, bed and breakfasts and luxury hotels are a part of.  So basically, we had nearly 400 places to choose from for some vacation time together!  Isn't that awesome??

  As our one-year anniversary approached, we decided to pick somewhere neither one of us has been that also wasn't too far of a drive....and the choice was made: St. Augustine, FL!  When we booked I had no idea that we were going to be visiting the nation's oldest city.  How cool, right??  AND it only takes about 4 and 1/2 hours to get to St. Augustine-bonus points!  It's only about 30 miles south of Jacksonville (just in case you wanted to know).

There was so much to do.  Lots of shopping, places to eat, things to see....and we tried to do as much as we could, while still relaxing some too of course. 

We left Columbia Thursday night and drove down to Tybee Island, GA to get a head start on the trip.  Friday morning we got up fairly early and made it into St. Augustine around noon.  First stop was the St. Francis Inn to get some materials from them.  We actually selected to stay at their condo at the Comanchee Inn right on the harbor.  It was a really nice place, and the view was beautiful. 

We went straight to lunch at O.C. White's (as recommended by the Innkeeper) and had a nice cold beer and a delicious lunch.  We shared the blackened mahi sandwich and the garlic shrimp.  Yum! 

After wrapping up lunch we headed over to the condo to check in and then headed over to the pool to get some sunshine in!

An ice cold Shocktop to start off the trip!

Dinner was a suprise from my Mom and Stepdad!  How thoughtful!  I should've known she was up to something when she asked me to send her the link to where we were staying :)   They sent us over to The Reef ,  which was voted the "Best Seafood Restaurant in St. Augustine"! It was delicious and the oceanfront view was gorgeous.  We had the calamari, grilled scallop tostadas and then split some crabcakes!  I think the scallop tostadas were my favorite part of everything we ate the entire trip.  I will definitely be recreating them at home sometime this summer!

Dinner at The Reef!

Saturday we started off with breakfast on our porch and then headed off to the marina for our kayak excursion.  Our guide gave us a great history lesson as well as showed us some beautiful areas of the marsh. She took us over to the fort (the Castillo de San Marcos national monument) and also the world's tallest cross!  The plaque on the cross says that it "marks the approximate site where in 1565 the cross of Christianity was first permanently planted in what is now the United States." That's right -- Jesus arrived in America here first, over a half-century before the Pilgrims even touched their toes to Plymouth Rock!  Pretty neat I thought!

The fort ( and you can kind of see the cross in the back too if you look closely)

After kayaking, we headed over to Mango Mangoes for some shrimp tacos and a cold beer before relaxing at St. Augustine Beach for a few hours.  You can drive on the beaches in St. A which was quite interesting to me.... you just don't see that in SC!

After a little beach time, we headed back to the condo and got showered and changed before walking over to dinner at the Kingfish Grill, which was right beside our condo.  We feasted on oysters, shrimp, scallops and William had the shrimp and grits.  This place was cozy and nice, right on the water and the ambiance was very comfortable.

Sunday!  Our official anniversary!!  We began with breakfast at Fish Tales and then headed off to the St. A Alligator Zoological Park.  We got here early in order to beat the crowds and I'm glad we did.  There was A LOT more to see here than we expected and it was all really neat.  We even learned about the largest croc to ever be discovered, Gomek.  He lived at the St. A. Park for a few years before passing away.  But they have an entire almost "shrine" built for him there.  That sucker weighed 2,000 lbs!!  Craziness....

Fishtales-our morning breakfast stop :)

Check out all those baby gators!

 Albino gator!

Dragon!

Hey guys!

That's us!

GOMEK! 

 Cool shot of a bird :)

After the park we did a little sightseeing in the downtown historic district.  Shopped a little, stopped for a drink at the White Lion Pub, checked out the live music at Scarlett O'Hara's and then ate some lunch at the The Backyard of Meehan's Tropical Pub.  We had a delicious crab and shrimp dip, followed by a beef brisket stuffed chile relleno.  YUM! 

A quick mimosa at Scarlett O'Hara's

Not a great shot of Meehan's, but anyways.....

After stuffing ourselves we did what anyone would want to do-put on our swimsuits!  We traveled over to Vilano Beach and basically took a nap :)  This beach was different from St. A beach because it was almost all shells. It was kind of hard to walk actually!  It was nice out though and we got to see some surfers show us their skills!

We wrapped up beach time and headed back to the condo for a champagne toast (yes, that's our wedding day flutes AND champagne, I'm so thoughtful, I know) we headed over to Harry's for our last meal in St. A.  Harry's has the most beautiful courtyard where we decided to spend our evening.  There was a guy playing music and the whole vibe was just perfect.  We shared some fried green tomatoes for starters, and I had the tilapia shrimp meuniére and William had the red beans and rice with smoked sausage.  It was a great time with great service, and great company too of course!

This picture doesn't do the courtyard at Harry's justice. It was really gorgeous out there!

Hey! It's us again!

There was a storm rolling in that night so we ended the night after dinner and then made our way back to Columbia first thing Monday morning.  We had a fantastic trip and it was a wonderful idea to go somewhere new and explore.  Here's to another fun year!

Reminiscing

There are times in my life where I find myself saying, "last year at this time I was.....".  This usally happens as the year wraps up but it is exactly what I've been doing this week.  William and I are coming up on our first wedding anniversary and it is exciting, emotional and completely crazy that we have already gotten to this point!  It sure has flown by!

 

I spent some of last weekend going through my wedding organizer and boxes of wedding "stuff." Looking at all of the shower invitations, wedding dress magazine cutouts, napkins, bubbles and all of the special things that were a part of the wedding planning process was just amazing.  I even found a few napkins from the wedding day- I kept everything!    It was hard to hold back the tears as I thought about the excitement that was taking place last year.  We are truly blessed with such wonderful family and friends.

 

We had just bought our first home, William was in the process of starting his own business, and we were about to begin our lives together.  Oh gosh-I'm tearing up now!  We have done so much over the last year as a couple, and I have to say, while it hasn't been easy the whole time, I am so very thankful that I have William as a partner in life.  He is such a hard worker and does his best to make our lives better.  He also makes our yard look great and lends a hand keeping the house clean too *bonus points :) 

 

Here are a few of my best memories (in no particular order) of our first year as husband and wife.  We have done so much it was hard to narrow it down to just these few!

 

• The honeymoon of course! We had a great time in Savannah and Tybee Island! 

 

• We bought our first home, and have really enjoyed working on making it ours.  

 

 

• William started his own business and I am so proud of his hardwork and perseverance.  (This is an old picture, but you get the point :)

• I traveled to Signal Mountain for the first time to spend Christmas with William's side of the family.   It was nice to finally see how they do the holidays, AND it was our first Christmas actually spent together!

 

 

• We went to the NFC Championship AND the SUPER BOWL! YES! Atlanta AND New Orleans in just a few weeks. Both were once-in-a-lifetime experiences (well hopefully we will be back next year-GO NINERS!).

 

 

•  We lost our sweet Mr. Henry, but gained our precious girl Sally Mae.  It is truly amazing how much joy a pup can bring in to your life.  Mr. Henry will never be forgotten and will always have a special place in our hearts.  We are very thankful for our little lady who brings lots of laughs and entertainment to our lives.

 

 

 

This weekend we are traveling to St. Augustine, Florida to celebrate our first year of marriage and I couldn't be more excited.  Since our honeymoon, we really haven't been on a vacation (just the two of us anyways) so this will be a great time for us to spend together having fun and just relaxing....and I'm sure doing some reminiscing of how far we've come.  Here's to many more years of excitement, changes and lots of laughter!

 



Lay Down Sally......

 Do I have that song stuck in your head now?!  It sure is stuck in mine :)  As most of you know, William and I were SO excited to get our newest family member a few weeks ago.  Introducing.....Miss Sally Mae Walker.  Isn't she the cutest??  Sally is a golden retriever and came to us from Maysville, GA on April 14th.  She is irresistibly cute and has brought a lot of happiness to our home.  She's enjoyed meeting some of her extended family and can't wait to play with some of her friends she hasn't met yet.  

She looks a little fluffier than she actually is.  When this was taken she only weighed about 7lbs.  And in just a week, she's already up to 10 lbs!  She won't be a puppy for long, that's for sure!

This is her snoozing.  She prefers the hardwood floor opposed to her super comfy bed.  Hey, whatever works!

Hanging out by the back door making sure there isn't any mischief occurring outside!

I tried to get a picture of her super cute collar that her Aunt Haley gave her, but she's so fluffy it's always covered up!  In case you were wondering, it's grey with white polka dots complete with a pink daisy :)

I'm a proud momma of our new four-legged friend!  Come visit if you haven't already.  You'll fall in love too, promise!!