Daytona Beach Reunion

At least once a year, our dear friend Amy comes back to the states from Dubai and organizes a reunion for all of us. Last summer we went to Kelly's house in Palm City, and over Christmas break most of us visited Harry Potter World in Orlando. So technically this was our third reunion in twelve months! While spending gobs of money at the theme park and standing in line for several hours, we started talking about our next reunion. We unanimously decided to go back to the cheaper, more relaxing kind of trip. Leslie mentioned Daytona Beach, since Mike's family owns a few bars/liquor stores, and we were sold. I love that my sister and I have such close mutual friends and that all our significant others get along so well. It makes our reunion trips that much more fun :)

We made the seven-hour trek down to Daytona the Friday after our anniversary and drove back on Sunday - the day before our ten-hour flight to Italy. Most people thought we were crazy with all that travel in such a short amount of time, but I love to drive so I didn't think twice about it. However... about halfway through the miserable drive I was about to agree with everyone and turn around. We eventually made it to Metz Lounge to meet up with these lovely ladies and their other halves - which made the drive totally worth it. Besides, I could hardly complain about our drive considering Amy and John traveled halfway around the globe to get there!

We stayed with the Metzes but the rest of our crew stayed at a hotel right on the beach, so after the bar closed we made our way out to the ocean. The water and sand in the air made some crazy pictures!

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We spent most of Saturday on the beach, and we had gorgeous weather. Unfortunately we had a huge wave come and wash away our stuff, casualties including an iphone and a book...really could have been a lot worse.

After we got our fill of the beach we went back to Mike's parent's house for dinner. They were fabulous hosts and we all had such a great time meeting them. Thank you so much for having us!!

Joey and Bo modeling Leslie's stellar sunscreen application skills

We ended the night back at Metz Lounge II, completing our tour of the bars. An awesome weekend with even more awesome friends! Already looking forward to our next reunion - hopefully by then Amy will be back in the US for good!!

Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary

On July 11th, we celebrated our third wedding anniversary. It's sometimes hard to believe that we've already been married for three years, but at the same time, considering we've been together for over twelve years, it's more often hard to believe that we've only been married for three years.

Typically, for an occasion like this, we would get all dressed up and go out for a fancy dinner. However, we were about to take off on a two and a half week anniversary trip the following week, so we saved the money for our vacation and made dinner at home instead. We had grilled lamb chops, tomatoes, and broccolini with our nicest bottle of Chandon. I'd say it was just as good (if not better) than most restaurants.

 

We follow the traditional anniversary gifts, but for our anniversary we like to get gifts for "us" rather than for each other...which is definitely not traditional. But it avoids disappointment and/or unfortunate surprises, so it works for us ;)  It's pretty ridiculous that we still wrap presents knowing what they are, but it gives us a good laugh. The past two years we've gotten monogrammed items, but year three is leather and we couldn't find anything we really loved for the ideas we came up with. So we broke away from our usual monogramming and got a set of leather-bound books. We both love to read, and since 99% of our bookshelves are filled with paperbacks, we thought this was a nice, special addition to our ever-growing library. I chose a Jane Austen collection of seven novels, and Bo got Arabian Nights (hoping to finish before our trip to the Middle East next year!).

what ever could they be?!

 


One thing we love doing on our anniversary is reminiscing through our wedding album. We've both been happily surprised with how much we've actually looked at it - and glad it isn't sitting around collecting dust (I'm sure mom and dad would say the same!!). We enjoyed a cocktail (or two) while reliving all the amazing memories from our most favorite day spent with so many of our closest friends and family members.

an original Commander Concoction: vodka, club soda, mint, and frozen strawberries. Yum!

Happy third anniversary, love! And many, many more.

Brian & Krystina's Wedding

Immediately after Ginny's shower, I went home to change my outfit and we were off to celebrate the marriage of our friends Brian and Krystina. Brian was one of my former co-workers out in Myrtle Beach, and I played on a softball team with Krystina. Bo and I have become good friends with them over the past few years, so it was really awesome to see these two meet and then get married! And it's no secret that I called their marriage before they even knew it themselves :)

They were married at the Kellett Chapel of Peachtree Presbyterian Church and the reception was at the Atlanta History Center.

Cocktail hour was just outside all of the exhibits in the museum and during this time everyone had full access. Even though we had been there before for my office holiday party, we hadn't seen any of the exhibits so we took advantage of it this time. My favorite was the Olympics, and Bo's favorite was the Civil War. I'm certain that if my dad and brother had been there, their favorite would have been the Civil War exhibit as well, so I took this picture of the weaponry artifacts just for them.

Brian is also a fellow Gator and has successfully converted Krystina. We'll be seeing a lot of them on gamedays this fall!

  

another coozie for the collection!

and they lived happily ever after :)

Ginny's Shower Weekend

Just a quick note before I get to the meat of this post. I had every intention of spending last Sunday catching up on this here blog, but got the sad news late Saturday night that Ginny's father had passed away. Although I didn't know him very well, the few times I spent with him are such happy memories - he had a huge, contagious grin and was so much fun to be around. Ginny's sister, Katie, and her best friend, Michelle, both wrote beautiful posts about him that I'd encourage you to read if you haven't already - but have your tissues ready. If you're the praying kind, I ask you to pray for continued peace for Ginny and her family. Over the past week, I have very much admired Ginny's faith, strength, and grace as she mourned her father and prepared to bring her son into this world...all in a matter of days. Needless to say, it's been pretty emotional for her family. However, during a time of deep sadness, I am so glad they had such joy to look forward to in the birth of her and JM's son, Tillman. We all wish her dad was here to meet Tillman in person, but know he'll keep close watch from above and live on through his newest grandson and namesake.

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So without further ado..let's back up six weeks. The first weekend of July, Ginny's closest college girlfriends came in town from across the US to celebrate our mommy-to-be. Since she'd already had several showers for baby Tillman (he's so spoiled already!), we threw a shower just for her.

Everyone got in on Friday night and we had dinner at the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant, which is right next to the DeKalb airport. I had never been before and it was fun to sit outside and watch the planes take off and land all night. We were too busy catching up with each other that I didn't get a single picture once we were seated!

The next morning we had brunch at South City Kitchen, a restaurant that I love but don't go to very often. It's a great location for showers and events. (Side note: The very first time I went there, I was with a majority of these girls. Adrienne and I had just finished running a half marathon and were desperately starving. We showed up all gross and sweaty, and immediately noticed that the restaurant was more fitting for bridal and baby showers, not post-workout grub. Five years later, here we are again - much more appropriate this time!!)

We each brought a baby book for Tillman and wrote a note inside. We couldn't resist getting her some baby gifts :)

And then the water works started... Heather & Sonya had collected words of wisdom, encouraging thoughts, and general mommy tips from each of us (and our own moms & mommy friends) as well as from Ginny's closest friends and family members who were not present. Each one was typed out and as she read them aloud they were curled and put into a glass jar to be used as decoration in Tillman's nursery. The personal notes were really sweet tear-jerkers, and we had to take a few breaks so Ginny could collect herself!

After brunch we headed over to Sugarcoat (my regular spot) for manis/pedis. It was the perfect afternoon activity to keep our 8-months-pregnant momma off her feet and in the A/C. Besides, pregnant or not, who doesn't love to be pampered with their girlfriends?!

I managed to squeeze my appointment in before our friends' Brian and Krystina's wedding that night, and I had to miss the rest of the shower festivities. That evening, the girls continued to treat Ginny with fabulous mommy gifts and crafted Tillman's monthly onesies. (these pictures and a few above are courtesy of Heather's facebook album - thanks!) :)

It was a much needed girls weekend for all of us to celebrate the first of us to become a mom!

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And because I am so far behind on blogging about our crazy summer, I actually have a few pictures from baby Tillman's Birth Day Party! He arrived late Thursday night and I got to meet him yesterday. I love this little boy so much already.

about 13 hours old!

such happiness :)

Tillman started crying when he heard I was leaving. I'll be back soon, little buddy!