Mini Wine Country Getaway

This past weekend, Brett and I headed up to Lake Erie to go wine touring with our good friends, Dan and BreAnne.  The surrounding areas of Erie and the New York border along Lake Erie are known for their great wineries.  As a wedding gift, Dan and BreAnne got us a bunch of gift certificates to wineries up there and a one night stay at this adorable little bed and breakfast right on Lake Erie.  The view from our room was amazing.  It was such a nice little weekend getaway!*

And now we somehow came home with about 2 cases of wine... oops.  Good thing we like wine!*

dan & breanne's wedding

so i compeltely forgot to blog about our friends' wedding!

4th of july weekend, brett & i were in our good friends' dan & breanne's wedding!
it was a blast!
the weather was perfect
and everyone had so much fun
we are so happy for you guys!

{the newlyweds - breanne & dan}

{first dance}

{brett & i dancing}

{our bridal party outfits!}

{at the end of the night, things got a little interesting...}

{i have no idea where we even found this manican!}

{they broke her...}

{dan & breanne's car the morning after the wedding}

so from the entire day of events,
somehow i only manage to take a couple pictures of actual wedding stuff...
the rest (like 20 photos) are of people with the naked manican!
needless to say, it was a great day!

congrats to dan & breanne!
(who just got back from their honeymoon in cape cod... ou la la!)

next up, US! :) :)

"throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor"

i had a really lovely weekend. friday, we ended up going to mad mex instead of the pirates game. i had to redeem my coupon for a free birthday burrito! on saturday, we woke up bright and early and headed west to hermitage, pa to watch brett's sister in her track meet (she's going to the state championship!). then from there, we head up to erie for dan & breanne's stag n drag. a stag n drag is an erie thing (i've never heard of it before this) where a bride & groom-to-be have a little party to raise money for the wedding. i think it was a success! luckily it was inside because it poured down rain all.day.long.

then sunday was awesome! it was a gorgeous day - no rain in sight! brett & i spent the afternoon at the beach in erie, eating lunch and walking along the shore talking about our possible future endeavors... what we wanted to do with our lives, where we wanted to live, etc (more on that later). we also met up with brett's brother & family: scott, brooke, and bradley!

after a relaxing afternoon at the beach, we headed to north east (about 45 minutes outside of erie) where we had our engagement photo shoot with our AWESOME wedding photographers (heather neckers)! we met at their studio, then headed out to shoot in beautiful woods & fields with awesome trees, and a gorgeous vineyard. we had a blast! heather and murl were so laid-back, awesome, and talented, so it made the photo shoot really easy for us! i cannot wait to see all the photos - they had so many great ideas! we finished up the photo shoot around 8pm and it was time to head back to pittsburgh. we stopped at uncle charlies pub in edinboro for some late night pizza & beer on the way. then, finished the drive to pittsburgh having loud singalongs in the car.


it was a great weekend. i couldn't get over the beautiful scenery that surrounded us on sunday. we were outside all day long, surrounded by nature, and that's just how we like it. spending all day outside surrounded by trees, woods, fields, vineyards, & beaches makes me really dislike living in the city in pittsburgh. where we live, there are no fields of grass, no enchanting woods and trees, no place for us just to get lost in the beauty of nature. all we have is concrete sidewalks, big buildings, houses and apartment buildings crammed together with tons of people living side by side and just making the environment very chaotic and rushed. not at all what i want.

when we moved to the city in pittsburgh, we were excited because we looked forward to being able to walk out our front door and have the city right at our footstep - bars, restaurants, grocery stores, shops - it was city living and we wanted to experience that stage of our lives. but after almost a year and a half of city living, we are done. don't get me wrong, it's definitely been a blast and great experience living here. we've enjoyed this lifestyle and it's been neat to have such a variety of unique restaurants and bars close by. but now, we are growing out of that stage in our lives. we are ready to move on to a more laid-back, simple life, where we are surrounded by nature, not concrete, big buildings, sirens, and the hustle & bustle. this is pretty much what brett & i were discussing on sunday while we walked along the beach.

we've been feeling this way for a while now, sick of the city life and ready for the simple life. we've just been taking our time trying to figure out where we go from here. luckily, we both have the same dreams as far as what we want our lives to be. we both want the same things, we both want the simple life. we are great lovers of the outdoors. we want to own a boat that we can take out on lakes. we want a porch or deck that we can drink our morning coffee on, while looking at a nice lake. it's very simple things we want, and thankfully they are things that we both want and agree on. since i was a little girl, i've been telling my family that i was going to live by water when i grow up. when brett & i talk about what we want our lives to be in the future, we always say the same things: we just want to live by a lake, own a boat, have kids, and be happy. pretty much my ultimate dream life would be to live in a house by a lake, happily married with kids, and not be too far of a drive from our families.

we are now at the point in our lives, where we are starting to make decisions like this. with brett now looking for a new job, this is kind of allowing us to really kick-start things and start acting on all our ideas. we can have talks of where should we live, what should we do. and it's exciting! we've been looking at different areas of where we might enjoy living. we have realized that, while pittsburgh has been fun, it just not the place for us right now. we want to experience other areas and not get stuck living somewhere when we haven't explored all our options. we aren't the type of people to just settle somewhere because it's easy and we're in a routine. i'm really looking forward to what lies ahead for us! change is exciting and i'm ready for a new adventure!*

“Twenty years from now
you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do
than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.”
~Mark Twain

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I hope you all have your green on today. :) Even though today is St. Patrick's Day, Brett and I did a little celebrating in Erie over the weekend. We went to the Oakwood for lunch on Saturday, which is famous for their reubens (Brett had one, I did not = veghead). Then we headed downtown to State Street for the parade, though we ended up not watching much because it was pouring. Instead, we indulged in beers and irish bands inside Molly Brannigans. Everyone had their St. Patty's best on, including our little nephew Bradley:


Isn't he adorable?! His shirt says 'Kiss my, I'm Irish.' He wouldn't sit still to get a good shot of the whole shirt. :) As for today, I'm celebrating St. Patty's Day through my green shirt I'm wearing at work. Maybe a beer at lunch?! Just kidding...

St. Patrick's Day holds a very special place in my heart. I come from an Irish family, with a very Irish Grandfather, who just so happened to pass away on St. Patrick's Day in 2005. Wow, it's already been 5 years, time flies. I miss him every day. Love you G-Pa :) I'm sure he's celebrating St. Patty's Day somewhere just like the rest of us!


I hope everyone has a very lucky 4 leaf clover kind of day!*