Biking, I Love You

Monday already?

Why must the weekends always fly by so quickly!?  I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day!  My family had originally planned to do a Mother's Day bike ride downtown with the whole family, but the constant rain decided to ruin those plans for us.  Booo.  Instead, Brett & I spent some time hanging out at my parent's house and then heading to my Aunt's house for dinner.  Still fun, but I was really looking forward to biking!

At least we were able to get a lot of mountain biking in on our trip to Smith Mountain Lake a couple weeks ago!  They have some great trails down there and we ended up going biking twice: once at Anglers Ridge and once at the Smith Mountain Lake State Park.  I think any more than that and my legs would have permanently become jello.

(Brett likes to pick me flowers and stick them in my helmet when we go biking.  LOVE him.)  We had a good couple days biking down there in Virginia.  I just wish we could have went yesterday with the whole fam!  Stupid rain... and it's still raining.  I thought April showers were supposed to bring May flowers!? 

Oh well, on with the week!

(My birthday is Saturday!!)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day

to the absolute best mom on the planet.

I love you, Mom!

{Photo circa 2004 - The amazing summer we spent touring with Hanson}

Livin' on Mountain Time...

It's been over a week since our mini road trip down to Smith Mountain Lake... and right about now, I'd give anything to be back relaxing at that cabin on the lake.  Life just gets so crazy, doesn't it?

The cabin was the cutest, most secluded, and perfect place to stay for a relaxing couple days away.  You really can't beat waking up, putting a pot of coffee on, toasting up some bagels, and enjoying breakfast outside completely surrounded by nature.  Not to mention the amazing dock that we had all to ourselves.  It was the perfect spot for our morning breakfasts or evening "happy hours".  There was nobody in view for miles and miles (with the exception of the occasional fisherman that boated by).

This little vacation was exactly what we needed.  We made sure to spend plenty of time relaxing, but also took advantage of the amazing outdoors that surrounded us.  We mountain biked, hiked, kayaked, and picnicked outside in the warm Spring weather. 

And one thing we came home knowing for sure from this mini getaway was that we are definitely ready for a nice loooong vacation getaway.  Now we just need to figure out how to get that in the works in the near future...

{More Smith Mountain Lake posts to come!}   

Blue Mountain Brewery

So, life has been super busy since we got back from our mini getaway at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia.  I am just now finally finding a little bit of time to blog.  Our little road trip was exactly what we needed: fun, adventurous, and relaxing.  We were only gone for four days, but those four days were pure bliss.

On our drive down to Virginia, we came dangerously close to a brewery that Brett has been wanting to check out forever.  So needless to say, we detoured about 10 miles and made our way to Blue Mountain Brewery for some brews and dinner.  Um... this place is awesome.  The brewery is nestled literally in the middle of the most beautiful mountain range views and rolling country acres.  Not to mention, they have a hop farm right in front of the brewery.  Amazing.  You really can't beat the view... sitting out on the patio, drinking your brews, and eating some delicious grub (which is all made from local ingredients!). 

We may have liked it so much that we ended up going there again for dinner on our way home from our trip...  Can you blame us?!

Visit #1 on the way...

Visit #2 on the way home...

Blue Mountain Brewery, we will be back!

Home Again, Home Again

Hi friends!*

We're home from our mini road trip getaway...

We got back late Tuesday night and I have been exhausted/super busy, so please excuse my little bit of blog silence these past couple days.  We had such a great time just getting away from it all on this mini vacation.  I can't wait to share it with you!  Until then, I hope you're having a great week!

{Photo from our cabin deck overlooking Smith Mountain Lake}

More photos to come...

Road Trippin'

Adios, Pittsburgh!

Tonight, we will be here...

{via}

!!

About a month ago, Brett and I decided that we desperately needed a little getaway.  Work has been getting the best of us, projects around the house are never-ending, and we just needed some time away from it all -- Just a little getaway where we can relax without having to think about work, responsibilities, etc.  So we decided to plan a little cabin getaway in the woods right on this gorgeous lake in Southern Virginia.

And it's finally here!  We hit the road this afternoon!

There will be plenty of:

...mountain biking...

...kayaking...

...hiking...

...beer & wine drinking...

...and most importantly...

relaxing.

Have a great weekend, friends!

Cya next week!!*

Liebster Blog Award

Good morning!

I thought I'd start out the week with a little award.

This past month, I received the...

two times from two very awesome bloggers:

Kristin of "Skinny Jeans & a Chai Latte"

and

Devon of "The Mermaid Chronicles"

This is a huge honor for me because I am seriously in love with these two blogs.  Check them out if you haven't already!  So the Liebster Blog Award:  This award showcases "smaller" bloggers who don't quite have an insanely enormous following yet.  I love these kinds of awards because they give you the opportunity to check out some amazing blogs that you may not have just stumbled across on your own.  Here are the rules:

- Pick 5 up & coming blogs to give the Liebster Award to (much have less than 200 followers).

- Show your thanks to the blogger(s) who gave you the award by linking back to them.

- Post the award on your blog.

- List the bloggers you gave the award to with links to their sites & let them know.

- Share 5 random facts about yourself.

Thanks again Kristin & Devon for choosing me!!*

So, 5 random things about myself...

1.  My favorite band of all time is Hanson. YUP.

2.  Most days I'd rather be traveling than doing pretty much anything else ever.

 

3.  I cannot function without coffee in the morning. And it's kind of pathetic.

4.  I have over 12 pairs of Toms Shoes and the collection is still growing.

5. I know more about craft beer than any normal girl should...

And now 5 bloggers that I'm passing this award on to...

1.  Jen of "Punky and the City"

2.  Ashley of "House of Glass"

3.  Olivia of "Olivia Dee"

4.  Jamie of "New York, New York" (my real life bestie!)

5.  Jessica of "Learning Love's Life"

Check them out - they are all amazing!!*

Friday!

The sun is shining,

the temperature is supposed to hit 80 degrees,

and we're heading down to WVU tonight for the Avett Brothers concert.

It's a happy Friday, indeed!

Have a great weekend, friends!*

Moraine State Park

I think I've officially caught the bug...

Lately, I cannot get enough of mountain biking!  My husband has been into it for a while now and finally got me obsessed too.  I got a bike last August and he's been showing me the ropes ever since.  It wasn't until just recently that I really started to get the hang of it and didn't want to cry every time I had to ride down a huge hill with tons of rocks and tree roots... but now I love it!  There's just something so exciting about getting on your bike and making your way deep into the woods away from everyday civilization.  I now catch myself staring into random patches of woods along my drives, wondering if there's a mountain biking trail back there.  I love it!

A couple weeks ago, we headed up to Moraine State Park for a nice 4 hour mountain biking session.  It was awesome.  There was barely anyone out and the weather was gorgeous.  After a few hours of riding, we found ourselves at this huge lake in the middle of the park and just took a moment to sit and enjoy the view.  Mountain biking with Brett is my favorite.