Aspen, Colorado

Drew and I took our first trip to Aspen in January.  Neither one of us went out there with big expectations of being great skiers (I had only snow skied one day in NC before this trip). Much to our surprise we were great (for begginers!). We were both in awe over the size of these mountains, it felt like the ski lifts were never going to make it to the top! We skied at Buttermilk Mountain (which was my favorite) and Snowmass. We didn't ski Aspen Mountain because it was definitely not for begginers! We spent our first day skiing the green trails (begginers) and the rest if the time we were on the blue trails (novice). We had one mishap though, we got off the trail we were following and ended up on a double black diamond course. We took our skis off and slid down on our butts! There was no way we were going to get down that trail on our skis! Also, these mountains were so big they had bars and lodges to stop at on your way down! There was a bar on the very top of Snowmass Mountain, so you would go in and have a drink (or 2) and then have to ski back down the mountain (not smart!).

We stayed in downtown Aspen at the Hyatt and it was so cozy and nice, the outdoor pool was heated and all the rooms had large fire places. We spent a lot of our time in the evenings walking around and exploring the shops and art galleries. Aspen is a very swanky town though, I didn't see any attractions for children either. The food was hit-or-miss in my oppionion.. There is a lot of European influence in Aspen so the food was really ritzy (ummm can I get some chicken fingers please!).

We will definitely go back to Aspen to ski!

Top of Snowmass Mountain

On the lift at Buttermilk

Sleigh ride!

Downtown Aspen

8 Month Catch-Up

I am a blog-slacker. Everytime I get caught up I swear I'm not going to slack off again, and I do, so I won't make that promise again! Here are some highlights from the past EIGHT months!
  
1. We were blessed with the birth of another niece! My sister-in-law, Kristin had a baby girl in March. She made her appearance rather quickly into the world much to everyone’s surprise, especially her parents! She is beautiful, healthy and (in my opinion) looks exactly like her big brother when he as a baby! 

2. My Gma Bev has made great improvements in her battle with breast cancer since receiving treatment in Atlanta Cancer Treatment Center of America.  Her overall health has improved and more importantly, she feels so much better! Praise  the LORD!

From Key West... ;)

3. Drew and I traveled to Aspen and Key West since my last post. I will have to post about these trips in greater detail later! We had a great time on both trips though and are planning our next trip to Colorado already (well, in our minds at least). ..

4. I had neck surgery in March to repair a ruptured disc in my neck that was causing severe pain down my right arm. Fortunately the doctor who performed the surgery did an amazing job and I feel so much better; I’m not 100% pain free yet, but we’re working on that!

first day home, notice the nurse (unnecessarily) shaved my hair - it's now growing into a rat-tail circa 1990. 

First day back at work with my fancy foam necklace! 

5. Drew bought a new toy.. a Jeep.. Although I was very reluctant in the beginning as to why we needed another vehicle, I must say it’s pretty darn fun to drive. Side note: It has a manual transmission; when we test drove it the first time Drew stalled out, I didn't.. I just felt that that was an important piece of information to share. ;) 

The in-laws driving us around :)

6. Both if my sweet nephews are another year older! It's so sad how quickly the time is flying by.. Their moms both did a great job on their birthday parties!

7. Three of my girlfriends are pregnant! Lori is due in February, Kathryn in March and Caroline in April! It's going to be a busy spring next year! 

I'm Backkkkkkkkkkk

Obviously I've been on a little bit of a blogging hiatus but hopefully I will get back on track now. 

Here are the highlights since my last post:

1. I FINISHED MY MASTER’S DEGREE! I just recently had it framed. It now hangs proudly under my undergraduate degree in my home office.

2. We went to Maui! BEST. VACATION. EVER. 
Drew and I had convinced ourselves by the end that we would just stay; he would become a fishing guide and I would be a bartender… My favorite activity was our hike along the Waihee Trail. Absolutely breathtaking! Drew’s favorite activity was golfing at the Four Seasons on Lanai. If you are ever thinking of a trip to Hawaii I would definitely recommend Maui over any of the other islands. We will definitely be back!

At the Drums of the Pacific Luau

Golfing on Lanai

Hiking the Waihee Trail

3. Drew and Kathryn’s Birthday! They are birthday twins! We ate at The Good Day Café in celebration. We also celebrated earlier in the week with a delicious dinner at my bother-in-law’s house (Drew and his brother’s bday are only separated by a week (and 6 years)). 

4. Bird Dog Breakaway and the Color Run! Kathryn and I recently completed both of these 5K’s. I’m not going to say that I enjoy running now, but I don’t hate it (anymore!). We finished the Bird Dog Breakaway in 33 minutes and the Color Run in 29 minutes. We were thrilled with our time at the Color Run (I had a sinus infection, Kathryn forgot her headphones and we didn't warm up). It was a lot of fun though! Kathryn has a much better description of it here: Kathryn's Blog, Click here!

Bird Dog Breakaway in Waynesboro

After the Color Run

5. GSU vs. The Citadel
We finally made it to a football game! The weather was wonderful and the Eagles won, of course! 

6. I finally found a unique way to store a few of the trinkets from my wedding. Mrs. Cheryl gifted me a handkerchief from her wedding that I pinned under my gown. My mother had this tiny bagged made out of her wedding dress and one of my father's USMC bars was pinned inside (this was also pinned under my dress).  I have had both of these items in my fireproof safe since the wedding but I have always wanted to display them. They are now beautifully displayed on the shelves in my living room. 

Old Barn Wood Shadow Box (via etsy, duh!)

7. Kim’s is ridiculously beautiful when pregnant (and not pregnant, obviously!). Here are a few pics I took last week:

8. My other sister-in-law just found out last week that they are having a girl! I know they were thrilled to find this out, plus it is so much more fun to shop for a girl! My Etsy addiction is getting out of hand.

 IT'S A GIRL!

9. This past weekend Ansley, Lori and I went to HHI for a mini-getaway. We went to the outlets, which were a bust by-the-way. After that we spent the rest of the day hanging out, eating, bar hopping and finally ended up at the XO Lounge at the resort. We forgot to take a group picture though.. But here is a picture from college… you get the idea! 

Another Adventure

Drew and I are gearing up for another travel adventure next month! We decided in May that we wanted to take a trip this fall to celebrate MBA accomplishments but we had no idea where we wanted to go. We thought about it and decided between going back to Costa Rica, Key West or doing something a little more low key like going to Denver. When it came down to booking our trip we weren't sold on any of those locations (although I would go back to Costa Rica in a heartbeat!). We ended up deciding on Hawaii, more specifically the island of Maui! We are soooo excited! I am not excited about the 20+ hours it will take us to get there though! We are flying out of Atlanta to Honolulu then taking an “island hopper” to Maui. Pray for us and this tiny airplane!

We are flying into Kahului and driving to Ka’anapali. Drew is stoked that I rented a jeep wrangler (typical tourist car!). He has always wanted a Jeep!

We decided to rent a condo in Ka’anapali versus staying in a hotel. We wanted to stay somewhere that was less crowded that the big resorts on Maui so we rented a 1 bedroom condo at the Honua Kai Resort.

The countdown clock has started.. we are less than a month away! We are staying in Maui for ALMOST a week! Can you believe that?? Usually 4 days is my max, but when it takes 20 hours to travel somewhere I’ll make an exception!

… More to come! 

July run-down

Wow! It has been over a month since my last post! Seems like I just wrote about Has Lina last week! Here is what has been going on since my last post:

We went to HHI for the 4^th of July! It was a lot of fun! We stayed in Folly Field. The traffic was terrible on the island though! We went shopping, spent time on the beach and ate ….a lot! Drew, my mom and brother even played a round of golf together at Indigo Run.

Mama and Parker

There were a bunch of birthdays this month too! Our nephew turned 2! Here is opening his Harley Davidson BIG wheel from Aunt Bean and Uncle Drew! I LOVED my big wheel as a kid and I hope he enjoys this one just as much!

Kim turned 27 this month too! I forgot to take a picture at dinner (we went to Myabis!) so her is a picture from a Kenny Chesney concert we attended in 2009! That was such a fun night!

My mother-in-law also had a birthday! I took a picture of her at the Mexican restaurant in a ridiculously large sombrero that I will decline to post… for now! ;) Here is a picture of us from 2007, I believe this was our first picture together!

Last Saturday was Caroline’s 30^th birthday! We went to Augusta to celebrate.. Beamies for dinner! Here is a picture of the girls before we headed out (by the way, this is Caroline’s front porch on their BEAUTIFUL new house!)

We have also started a few upgrades on our house! The bathroom was out of necessity (the tile grout was leaking (ughhhh!)) and we had the kitchen back-splash tiled too. The bathroom is almost finished (we decided to replace the countertops and then we added bead board to the walls since we had a mess on our hands anyway!).

Kitchen before and after!

tile coming down

mid-crazy-mess that was the bathroom. 

Drew and I have also been working out together in preparation for our upcoming trip! I will post about that soon.. But back to working out, I purchased a polar watch and heart rate monitor and I'll admit it’s pretty impressive (and keeps me motivated!). Among other things, it tracks your calories burned based on your heart rate during the workout (granted you have to wear a small strap around your rib cage while you work out and that can be a little uncomfortable at times.  I got mine on Amazon, of course.

We have also had a couple lazy afternoons too!  

The sun!! 

St. Simon's Island

We snuck away for Memorial Day weekend this past weekend and it was a very nice getaway! We rented a condo near the King and Prince Resort and shared it with my brother and Drew’s brother (plus their wives of course). Our friends Scott and Laurie were also at SSI for the weekend and they spent a lot of time with us too! We got a great deal on the condo, especially considering it was Memorial Day weekend; I wouldn't mind renting it again in the future! The weather was fantastic (sunny and high 80’s --perfect beach weather!). Us gals spent most of our days on the beach, the guys went golfing on Saturday and toughed it out with us all day Sunday. We brought a ton of food down with us and only ate about a 1/3 of it; imagine that. We ate out every night (@ the Red Barn, Crab Trap and Gnat’s Landing – Gnat’s was my favorite). I’m not sure why I didn't really take any pictures, but here are a few:

Drew and his bother playing corn-hole.

Outside of the Crab Trap (great chicken fingers by the way!)

.... yep that is it for pictures! 

Chateau Elan

Drew and I managed to slip away for the weekend and headed to Brasleton, GA to stay (and play) at Chateau Elan. Chateau Elan is a winery in North Georgia that makes several different types of wine, my favorite being the sweeter Muscadine wines (came home with 6 bottles!). We played golf Saturday afternoon and that was a lot of fun for both of us! Drew actually played; I just caddied for him. Saturday night we ate Dinner at the Versailles Restaurant which was French food which was fine, but the desserts were even better! I literally had a plate full of chocolate before we left dinner (and of course made myself sick!).   The rooms were fantastic, very spacious, clean and well decorated and our room overlooked one of the three golf courses. The spa was beautiful as well with an authentic Parisian feel (well, as authentic as they could make it in Georgia). We both agree that we would like to make another trip to Chateau Elan  in the future. 

Outside of the winery

Playing the Elan course.

One of the suites at C.E. (ours was laid out a little different than this one). 

LAS VEGAS!

We have been back from Las Vegas for almost 2 & a 1/2 weeks now and I'm just now getting around to writing about it. We had an awesome time and I think we stay just long enough (to spend more money than we planned on spending and eating more than we should have!). Oops! We stayed at Caesars Palace again but this time we stayed in the Palace Towers which were almost identical to the other towers (I think these rooms for just a little bit larger though). Here are a few pictures of our room:

We also went and saw The Beatles: Love Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage on our first night and it was truly amazing! That was my first Cirque show and I was blown away by how great it was produced and executed. The only thing I wish we would have done differently was going to the earlier 7:30 showing versus the 9:30 showing because we were all dragging by the end of it! They wouldn't allow photography inside but here are a few we snuck in! Ha!

Of course we gambled some too (playing blackjack and penny slots for the most part). My biggest win on the slot machines was $120! We walked across the street to play blackjack at the Flamingo because it was less crowded and the tables were much cheaper! I forget how much fun it can be when you're not losing all your money! We also tried playing craps for the first time and that game was just that ((crap))!

Of course we tried a ton of different restaurants my favorite restaurant was this little chocolate dessert place near our elevators literally everything was chocolate! My least favorite restaurant was Gordon Ramsay's Pub and Grill I thought the food was horrible but that is also because I'm not a fan of European style food; chicken fingers for this gal please!

Serendipity 

I also made a trip to the spa one day while the guys were out gallivanting. It was a beautiful spa but I can't say that it was worth the price of the services; yowza! Drew and Mr. David also went and drove sports cars at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on our last full day there ((Drew's Valentine's Day present)). Mr. David drove a white Porsche and Drew drove a Red Ferrari. They both enjoyed it and Mrs. Cheryl and I listen to them talk about it for the rest of the day! Here are few pictures for

Great trip, great weather, great family... GREAT time! 

January Catch Up

Well we are already half way through January and this is the first opportunity I have had to post a few things in a while. They say time flies when you are having fun... apparently time also flies when you are working all the time!

Here are a few highlights from the past couple of weeks:

Drew and I went to San Francisco in 2007; we went for a wedding but spent a few days touring the area and went to Napa Valley as well. One of the wineries we toured was Viansa Winery. We bought a few bottles of wine and had them shipped to us (one of which we have saved for the past 5 years). We finally decided that we would open it and try it out to see if it had actually improved with age. I had wrapped the bottle up several years ago so that we didn't accidentally open it (and it worked!). What didn't work however was the cork. Dang it! Half way through opening the bottle it broke off so we just went at it with a knife 'til we made a hole big enough to pour through.  I think the flavor got a little more 'smokey' with time in addition to the small shards of cork it wasn't half bad!

Viansa Winery in 2007

Zifandel bottled in 2005

My poor Annabelle had to have dental surgery last week. I was petrified.  Actually, I think petrified isn't a realistic description of exactly how scared I was for her. Fortunately everything turned out fine and my sweet little baby is feeling much better (less 12 teeth). She is however disappointed that her mouth is healing up and she isn't getting hot dogs for dinner anymore! 

Annabelle doing what she does best..

Leaving Dr. Ford's office.. Poor baby was still doped up. 

Drew and I decided to do something really low key for New Years versus years past. We actually didn't nail down any concrete plans until New Years Eve. We ended up heading over to two of our good friend's house (Gaines and Kathryn) and met up with a few other friends there. We enjoyed spending time with friends and we were actually back home and in the bed around 12:30! Win! 

Happy New Years! 

I had full intentions of getting a group shot at Christmas of my family and Drew's family, I even pulled my tripod out and got it set up. I decided before everyone got there to put the tripod and camera in the side bedroom so that it would not get knocked over in the madness. Well... I forgot all about it and never got a picture.:(  Drew and I did get a family photo earlier in the day:

Christmas Eve 2012

The shop is coming along nicely! I am optimistic that it will be completed in the next two weeks. I will add a separate blog post later this week with pictures and a full update. Drew is very excited about the progress on his "Man Shop".

Last week Blythe Elementary School called up to our office and asked if we had any volunteers that wanted to come and read for Book Day or Reading Day (something like that). Of course Lori and I jumped at the opportunity to go! I read a book called the Stray Dog to a group of 3rd graders. The book started out sad but ended happy! After finishing the story all the kids had to tell me stories about their pets including a few traumatic incidents... yikes! 

Reading is F-U-N

We nailed down final trip details for our Las Vegas getaway next month! We have the flights and hotel booked now and we are really excited to go! Drew's parents are accompanying us on this trip and we are really excited to get away with them on a real vacation (it is much overdue). We are staying a Caesars Palace again this time. Yippie! 

2009

Today is also Justin's 29th birthday! I can't believe he is only a year away from 30.. which means I'm getting a lot closer to 30 too. Eeek! ;) 

Happy Birthday!