Hilton Head Island - Day 2

We woke bright and early in our hotel room in Macon and were on the road to Hilton Head!  The weather was seriously gorgeous the entire time we were there.  It was hot, sunny, and basically perfect. 

Welcome to South Carolina

We made it!

Brett about to get some delicious peaches...

Georgia peaches!

Really delicious turkey sub from Harris Teeter

On our balcony before heading to dinner

Happiness below my feets

Pit stop at a beach bar before dinner

In heaven...

Cute husband

Mellow Mushroom... for real the best pizza EVER!

Happy husband!

Day 2 was spent driving to Hilton Head, relaxing on the beach, and going to one of our favorite restaurants down there: Mellow Mushroom.  We don't have Mellow Mushrooms up north... but we sooooo wish we did!  It's amazing.  We are extreme lovers of pizza.  We ended the night at a beach bar, Big Bamboo, for some late night drinks and a Jimmy Buffett cover band.  Ah, beach life.

Hilton Head on Dwellable

Port Royal/Folly Field on Dwellable

Hilton Head Island - Day 1

Our Hilton Head Island vacation was all sorts of perfect.  We spent 6 days and 5 nights in paradise just relaxing, biking on the beach, eating delicious food, drinking refreshing drinks, and soaking up the sunshine and each others company.

We instilled a rule while on this vacation: no iPhones.  When we are home, our iPhones go everywhere with us.  Sometimes, it's kind of sad how much we depend on them and get engulfed in all the apps and things to check every 5 seconds.  So to fully take advantage of relaxing and taking in our surroundings while in Hilton Head, we decided 'no iPhones!'  We left them in our villa, tucked away in a drawer, only to be taken out if we needed to look up directions or information for a restaurant.  Neither of us broke the rule at all and I have to say, it was soooooo nice.  It felt weirdly freeing.  We better enjoyed each other, our surroundings, and all the little moments we may have missed if we were staring down at our phones.  This little experiment has definitely opened our eyes and I think has changed the way we use our phones even now that we're home.  While, yes, we still have our iPhones with us all the time, I find that neither of us are checking them as constantly as we were before our trip.

So anyway, Hilton Head!  I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks since we were there.  I miss it!  I took so so so many pictures... and there are so many I want to share, so I think I'll break this post into several posts, so I don't overwhelm you with pictures!  Sorry if you get sick of seeing vacation pictures for the next couple posts... feel free to skip over them if you want!  I just wanted to document them mainly for myself to look back on and smile. :)

Day 1:

Pretty airport sunset

Day 1 was fairly uneventful.  We both worked full days, then headed to the airport.  Our flight ended up being delayed over 2 hours... so we had a lot of down time in the airport.  On the plus side, AirTran gave us each a free round trip flight to anywhere because of the inconvenience... um, SCORE!  I didn't take many pictures, but this sunset was pretty nice.  We landed at the Atlanta airport around midnight, rented a car, and drove to our hotel in Macon, GA to get some sleep before heading to Hilton Head the next morning!

Hilton Head on Dwellable

Port Royal/Folly Field on Dwellable

Hilton Head Island Polaroids

First off, HAPPY FRIDAY!!!  I hope you enjoyed my little camping polaroids last night.  How about some vacation polaroids now??

My Instax (I think he needs a name...) was one of the first things on my packing list for vacation.  I was so so excited to take him to Hilton Head and snap away at the beautiful sights!  Once we safely got him through airport security (no x-rays please!), I busted him out often throughout the week.  Here are the results:

I'm definitely still learning the art of taking polaroids.  As you can see, some didn't come out so great.  But I'm having a blast learning!  I'm in the process of writing a recap post from our vacation with actual regular photos.  Coming soon, I promise!

Enjoy your weekend!  We're hanging with Lee & Jess tonight, then it's off to another wedding tomorrow!  Not sure what Sunday will bring... we shall see!  What are your plans?!

Hilton Head on Dwellable

Port Royal/Folly Field on Dwellable

 

Camping Polaroids

I took my Fuji Instax camping with us this past weekend.

I only took 2 photos, but I quite like them!

 Up next... Hilton Head polaroids!

Camping at the Que

So as I mentioned last week, we went camping this past weekend at one of our favorite places!  We were planning on camping Friday through Sunday, but the weather was acting up on Saturday afternoon, so we cut it short.  We still had a great time though!

We spent Friday night grilling dinner over the fire, drinking home-brews, looking at the stars (and spotting a planet!), and just chatting the night away.  After a good night's sleep in our tent, we woke up Saturday to beautiful weather.  We cooked breakfast over the fire, made hot coffee with our french press, and just enjoyed the great view of the lake.  We went for a walk through the woods, napped in our tent, then went for a run.  The weather was gorgeous in the morning.  We floated around the lake on our rafts, enjoying the sunshine.  By the time we made our way back to our campsite in the early afternoon, the weather started to turn.  It got really dark really fast.  We were cooking lunch over the fire when it started thundering and raining.  So we decided to pack everything up and call it a day, instead of staying another night.  Which actually worked out nicely because we ended up heading into the town of Johnstown (where we went to college, met, had our first apartment together, fell in love, etc etc etc!) and had a nice little time reminiscing about the 5 years we spent living there.  All in all, a great weekend for sure!

Look at those storm clouds!

We left shortly after this...

Can't wait until our next camping adventure!

Que, We're Coming!

 Today at 6:30pm, I will be here:

Brett & I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go camping this weekend!  This is one of our only free weekends for the entire Summer, so we wanted to take advantage of it & do something we loooove.  I think we also convinced Lee & Jess to meet us there. :)  After work, we are heading up to Johnstown, PA to go camping here, at the Quemahoning Reservoir.  We used to go here all.the.time when we lived in Johnstown.  We haven't been back since last Memorial Day weekend.  It is still one of our favorite places in the world.  Camping right on the water, witnessing some of the most gorgeous sunrises, swimming in the water, and relaxing under the stars... now that is my idea of a great weekend!

How are you taking advantage of the weekend?

HAPPY FRIDAY!*

It's June?!

Did May even happen??

I feel like it was April yesterday...

May was a blur to me, but a very awesome month for many reasons...

We had weddings, vacations, my birthday, and finally nice weather!

 And now it's June?!

Sloooow down, year!

Next thing I know, it's going to be Fall...

And I need this Summer weather to last.

June brings...

more weddings,

parties,

camping (!),

the arts fest,

cook-outs,

and many more days enjoying this beautiful weather.

So happy June!

Make it a good one!

PS - Still winding down from our vacation & then weekend away.

Hoping to get some Hilton Head photos posted soon. <3

{Photo by me - Taken of my new dream catcher that hangs in my car... loooove}

Living on Island Time...

Our island vacation was one of the most relaxing weeks we've had in a long time.  For 6 days, we had no schedule, no commitments, and no concept of time.  We relaxed and did whatever we felt like doing whenever we wanted to.  We didn't have to answer to anyone and weren't expected to be anywhere.  It was a picture perfect vacation (more on this later).  

It's pretty difficult to come home after a week of bliss and immediately be thrown back into the fast-paced, go, go, go lifestyle we have.  We got home at 1:00am Wednesday night, went to work bright and early Thursday, came home immediately to unpack from vacation and repack for an out-of-town wedding we have to go to this weekend.  Since getting home from vacation, the only thing I've had time to do is unpack, repack, and vacuum my house.  That's it.  I haven't even had time to load all my vacation photos onto my MacBook so I can do a proper blog post!  (The above photo was taken on my iPhone).  And now I'm at work, which right after, we have to drive to Erie to make it to the wedding rehearsal on time (Brett is a reader in the wedding).

It's a pretty harsh slap in the face getting home from a vacation of having no obligations.  Our Summer is packed full of things we have to do and places we are excepted to be.  While most all of them are fun things like weddings and parties, sometimes I can't help but wish for that care-free island lifestyle.  While on our vacation, we easily fell into the mindset of the laid-back islanders.  I can only hope that, in the mist of all the Summer craziness, we can still keep that easy-going island mindset and make sure we slooooooow down and appreciate the simple things in life as often as possible.

{Photo by me - Taken at Coco's on the Beach on Hilton Head Island}

We're Hooooome...

Hi friends!

Just wanted to pop in real quick

to let you know that we are back from our

wonderful,

relaxing,

fantastic,

perfect,

romantic,

amazing

island vacation.

We got home late last night,

so I'm running on about 3 hours of sleep.

When I am able to think full thoughts

and not act like a walking zombie,

I will do a full recap of our vacation!

Until then, just wanted to say

Hiii, I'm baaaaack

and depressed I am still not on vacation...

What have you guys been up to?!

Fill me in on what I missed!

{Photo by me - Hilton Head Island May 2011}

It's Finally Here!

Today's the day!

In just a few short hours, Brett and I will flying high in the sky, heading down to Hilton Head.  I.CAN'T.WAIT.  I'm soo excited!  This vacation is much needed and I can't wait to relax on the beach with a drink in my hand, hubby by my side, and not a care in the world.  I'm planning on trying to completely unplug during this vacation... and I don't think the service is very good on the island anyway.  I'll be back late Wednesday night and hopefully back to normal posting on Thursday!  The forecast is looking perfect: mid 80s and sunny all week long... 

Paradise, here we come!*

PS - I finished my '365 in Year 25' project!  I took a photo every single day as a 25 year old.  Check it out here!  And for my 26th year, I started a new project: "Year 26" where I'm going to take a photo of myself every single day.  I'm excited!

I'm 26!!

Today's my birthday!

The big 2-6...

Does this mean I am officially in my "late 20s"?!

Tomorrow we leave for our Hilton Head Island vacation!

From the looks of it, I'd say 26 is going to be a pretty great year!

Dale's Best Man Speech

In my brother's wedding this past weekend, his Best Man was his roommate from college, Dale.  Dale had been talking all week about how excited he was about his Best Man speech and wouldn't tell any of us what it was.  Well, come Saturday, Dale got up at the reception to give his speech.  But instead of standing there at the head table, he made his way over to the microphone and played a little song....

And it was HILARIOUS! This is probably the BEST Best Man speech I have ever witnessed. I loved it.  We had such a good time on Saturday... I'm kinda sad it's all over!!

Lee & Jess are MARRIED!

This past weekend was a very special one!  My brother Lee and best friend Jess got MARRIED!  The wedding was so beautiful and the reception was a blast!  The weather turned out to be seriously p.e.r.f.e.c.t.  I couldn't be happier for these two.  I am so very luck to finally get to call my best friend my sister-in-law.

Guys, I love you and hope you have an AMAZING honeymoon!  Can't wait to see all the pictures when you get back!! xoxo

Be Grateful

Twinkle Lights*

I'm quickly falling in love with this Spring weather and our back porch.  Since we moved into this house, the back porch has been one of my favorite places.  At our old apartment in the city, we didn't even have a tiny balcony, let alone a back yard!  So this porch is like a palace to us.  The rain has finally let up (it's been raining for over 15 days straight) and the sun has been out in all its glory.  The porch was practically begging us to come out and play.  And so we did.  And I realized that spending the evening lounging on our back porch with my husband and our twinkle lights is the perfect way to end any day.

(PS, 10 days until Hilton Head...)  

9 Month Wedding Anniversary!

Hi friends!*

How was your weekend?  Mine was quite nice.  Saturday was Brett and my 9 month wedding anniversary (yes, we celebrate every month)!  We celebrated with a little date full of gigantic sandwiches (proof above), delicious brews, and live music.  Perfect.  We also spent the weekend sleeping in until almost 10am both Saturday and Sunday.  This never happens.  We are usually up and moving around by 8am, but for some reason we just relaxed in bed and it was blissful.  Though I will say, it was basically impossible to wake up today for work at my normal time of 5:15am.  Woof.  Is it bad if I'm already ready for the weekend and it's only Monday...

This week is going to be busy, busy, busy.  My brother is getting married this Saturday (to my best friend, score!) so we have lots to do this week!  Also, we are down to only 11 days until our Hilton Head vacation, so we are trying to finalize all our plans for that.  I also need to fit in cleaning my house somewhere in there... uhhh, but we won't talk about that.  Oh!  And Brett had his check-up appointment for his foot this morning and they said it is healing perfectly and he doesn't really need to wear the boot much longer!  Happy happy joy joy!

And this concludes the most random post ever.  Onward with the day!

PS - Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!  Happy Mother's Day to all the momma's out there, especially mine! :)

Olé!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I could use one of these margaritas...  It looks so cool and refreshing: the perfect warm weather beach drink.  Too bad it was only 39 degrees when I left my house this morning.  It IS May right?  Spring, you can come back any day now...

Have anything fun planned for tonight?  So far, all that's on our agenda is going to see a house for sale.  I was planning on making chicken parmesan for dinner, but in the spirit of the holiday I may have to switch to something Mexican!  We don't even have any Coronas in the house...  I am so unprepared! 

 Olé!

Happy May!

 Happy May!  (a few days late...)

I honestly can't believe it's already May.  This year is seriously flying by.  But I must say, I love the month of May!  It's my birthday month and reminds me that Summer is near!  We have a lot going on in the month of May this year & I can't wait.

On Saturday night, we will be seeing one of our newly favorite bands in concert: The Bridge.  We saw them for the first time this Winter and their show was so.much.fun.  We've been waiting for them to come back to Pittsburgh and the time is finally here!

Throughout the month, we are also continuing to go through the process of buying our first home.  We've been looking at a lot of house and narrowing down exactly what we want in a home.  It's a lot to think about and figure out, but just knowing that soon (hopefully) we will be living in our very own home makes me so happy and excited.

One of the biggest things I'm looking forward to in May is Brett's broken foot finally healing.  He has his check-up appointment next Monday and will hopefully get the okay to take his walking boot cast off for good.  This past month has been really hard, obviously for Brett more than me, and I have felt so helpless.  There's nothing I can do to make him feel better (...besides not break his foot to begin with!).  I just can't wait until things are back to normal and I have my 2-footed husband back.

My brother's wedding is also coming up in less than 2 weeks!  On May 14th, my brother Lee and my best friend Jess will be getting married and I'll finally get to call Jess my official Sister-In-Law!  I can't wait, it's going to be a great time.

Then, on May 19th, I'll officially be in my mid-to-late 20s... I don't know how I feel about this.  I think 26 is still considered mid 20s, right?!  My 25th year on this Earth was a really, really great one.  I hope 26 will be even better!

And of course, I cannot forget our Hilton Head Island trip (and I'm sure neither can you because it's all I ever talk about...)!  In 17 days, we will be road-tripping down the coast to our relaxing, perfect, island paradise.  It is this that I am most excited about in the month of May...  Nothing makes me happier than traveling with my favorite traveling partner, the husband.  We have so much fun together and I can't wait to escape the day-to-day routine to go spend the week in true vacation bliss.

What do you guys have planned for May?  Anything fun?  I want to hear!*