weekends in april

The past two weekends have been full of exciting things! Last weekend, Mike and I got to enjoy a long weekend at Pawley's Island with our community group leaders, Will & Toni. It was glorious [and I may have gotten sunburned]. We laid out when the weather permitted, hung around the house and watched a lot of baseball when it didn't and ate ourselves silly. I hope this summer is full of weekend trips just like this one.

This weekend was my sweet, handsome, little brother's first prom! I had the joy of taking pictures of him and some of his friends at Furman -- enjoy! (:

my handsome, grown up "little" brother (: 

Sarah & Carson 

Elledge, Mikey & Carson

Group Shot

last one, i promise 

Next up: more pictures of the progress on the house! 

window boxes

We're still working on the house. We'll probably always be working on the house. Now that the weather is nice outside Mike has been itchin' to get some work done on the outside of the house [never mind that we still have painting and windows to trim on the inside...boys (:]. Last Saturday Mike's g-ma, Gram treated us to lunch and then went plant shopping with us. We had a gift card and some of Mike's birthday money in pocket so we headed over to Martin's Nursery to see what we could find! Our knowledge of plants is slim nonexistent, so after wandering around for a few minutes we snagged an employee and got a little help. He basically told us if something was sitting out in the sun it was a "full exposure" plant, meaning that it can stand to be in the sun for long periods of time. Excellent. The front of our house has NO shade, so we needed a lot of these puppies. We ended up with some purples, yellows and whites along with some herbs. We are ecstatic with how they turned out! With a little watering and the rain that we've gotten they're growing beautifully! Next up on the "outside list" - shutters. 

*this last picture is Gram workin' hard ... it has been so neat to have her help us work on this house -- the house that she raised her family in! (: 

our first real lake trip in 2k12

Over Easter Mike, Carson & I headed to the lake for our first real lake trip this year. While there wasn't enough water to put the boat in this go 'round, we did have plenty of sun to lay out in! On Friday it was just plum cold, so we ventured to the outlets in Commerce, GA for some new duds. Friday evening our sweet friends Matt and Amanda met us back at the lake house with their 2 precious babies, David and Ethan. They brought Mike's truck back to us because we'd left it in Athens the weekend before for Matt's papa, Steve to work on. On Saturday Mikey fixed everyone waffles for breakfast, one of our favorite lakehouse traditions. We hung around the house until lunch time when we met Mike & Kayla at The Carolina Pizza Co. for a lunch of pizza! Once back at the house, the sun was warming the dock without us on it, so we packed up and headed down for the afternoon. The boys decided it would be a good idea [and it was] to take an old TV down to the newly electrically wired dock for some Super Nintendo. They had a blast playing super old video games while laying partly in the shade and partly in the sun...which left them with a nice half burn tan. (:

David loved the water! It was so fun to watch him "swim" around with Mikey and Matt - he'll be swimming on his own by the end of the summer! And sweet Baby E lounged around on the dock like a champ!

Travel List Challenge

If you know anything about me at all, you know that I LOVE to travel. Seriously, I don’t care where I’m going or what for, I just love to travel. Thankfully for me, my Mikey loves to travel as much as I do. Together we’ve been to Costa Rica twice, on a cruise with the Martins to the Bahamas, walked from GA to NY together, climbed Mt. Katahdin with Loop at the end of the AT, been on a mission trip with Grace to Eluethra, and skied out in Crested Butte 3 times. It may not seem like much, but we’re working on our 3^rd year of marriage, people! We’ve also been to the beach / coast of SC several times and while I count that as traveling [you do have to pack a bag!] I know most people probably wouldn’t count that. We’re currently working on an anniversary trip for our 3^rd anniversary this year! We aren’t quite settled on where we’re going, but have a pretty good idea—more on that later! AND – I have a weekend trip coming up in May to visit my sweet friend Alexa in New York with my soon-to-be-married cousin, Amber! To say I’m excited for this getaway girl’s weekend is an understatement! (:

I found this Travel List Challenge and thought for sure I’d have been to more places than I have! There are a couple of places that I’ve been awfully close to, but not actually in – so I didn’t count those. This literally makes me want to pack my bag and buy an “around the world” plane ticket…do those even exist?! As soon as I checked through the list I told Mike that my passport was itchin' for another stamp, and soon! Check out the list … Where have you been that I haven’t and is it worth it!? Any recommendations from the list that are a “must see?”  (Or any that aren’t on the list?!)

Travel List Challenge:

	1. Alamo	San Antonio, Texas, USA
	2. Alhambra	Granada, Spain
	3. Andros Island	Bahamas
	4. Angel Falls	Venezuela
	5. Angkor Wat	Angkor, Cambodia
	6. Atlantic City Boardwalk	Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
	7. Ayers Rock	Australia
	8. Big Ben	London, England
	9. Bora Bora	Polynesia
	10. British Museum	London, England
	11. Canals of Amsterdam	Amsterdam, Netherlands
	12. Cathedral of Seville	Seville, Spain
	13. Cave of Crystals	Mexico
	14. Christ the Redeemer	Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
	15. Cinque Terre National Park	Italy
	16. Colloseum	Rome, Italy
	17. Crater Lake National Park	Oregon, USA
	18. Dead Sea	Israel/Jordan
	19. Death Valley National Park	California, USA
	20. Devil's Tower	Wyoming, USA
	21. Dome of the Rock	Jerusalem, Israel
	22. Easter Island Statues	Polynesia
	23. Edinburgh Castle	Edinburgh, Scotland
	24. Eiffel Tower	Paris, France
	25. Empire State Building	New York City, New York, USA
	26. Forbidden City	Beijing, China
	27. French Quarter	New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
	28. Galapagos Islands	Ecuador
	29. Gateway Arch	St. Louis, Missouri, USA
	30. Gettysburg Battlefield	Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA
	31. Glacier Bay Basin	Alaska, USA
	32. Glacier National Park	Montana, USA
	33. Glowworm Cave	New Zealand
	34. Golden Gate Bridge	San Francisco, California, USA
	35. Grand Canal	Venice, Italy
	36. Grand Canyon	Arizona, USA
	37. Grand Mosque in Mecca	Saudi Arabia
	38. Great Barrier Reef	Queensland, Australia
	39. Great Mosque of Córdoba	Córdoba, Spain
	40. Great Wall of China	China
	41. Hagia Sophia	Istanbul, Turkey
	42. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park	Hawaii, USA
	43. Hollywood Boulevard	Hollywood, Califonia, USA
	44. Iguazu Falls	Argentina and Brazil
	45. Kiyomizu-dera	Kyoto, Japan
	46. Kremlin	Moscow, Russia
	47. Lake Titicaca	Peru
	48. Las Ramblas	Barcelona, Spain
	49. Las Vegas Strip	Las Vegas, Nevada
	50. Leaning Tower of Pisa	Pisa, Italy
	51. Louvre Museum	Paris, France
	52. Macchu Picchu	Peru
	53. Matterhorn	Switzerland
	54. Mayan Pyramids of Chichen Itza	Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
	55. Metropolitan Museum of Art	New York City, New York, USA
	56. Mount Everest	Nepal
	57. Mount Fuji	Japan
	58. Mount Kilimanjaro	Tanzania
	59. Mount Rushmore	Keystone, South Dakota, USA
	60. Napa Valley	California, USA
	61. Ngorongoro Crater	Tanzania
	62. Niagara Falls	New York, USA
	63. Notre Dame Cathedral	Paris, France
	64. Pacific Rim National Park	British Columbia, Canada
	65. Pebble Beaches of Nice	Nice, France
	66. Petra	Jordan
	67. Petronas Twin Towers	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
	68. Portland Head Lighthouse	Portland, Maine, USA
	69. Puerta Del Sol	Madrid, Spain
	70. Pyramids of Giza	Egypt
	71. Redwood National Park	California, USA
	72. Rock of Gibraltar	Gibraltar
	73. Rocky Mountain National Park	Colorado
	74. Ruins of Athens	Athens, Greece
	75. Ruins of Pompeii	Pompei, Italy
	76. Sagrada Famila	Barcelona, Spain
	77. Sears Tower	Chicago, Illlinois, USA
	78. Sedlec Ossuary	Czech Republic
	79. Sistine Chapel	Vatican City, Italy
	80. Smithsonian Institution	Washington, D.C., USA
	81. Space Needle	Seattle, Washington, USA
	82. St. Peter's Basilica	Vatican City, Italy
	83. Statue of Liberty	New York City, New York, USA
	84. Stonehenge	Wiltshire County, England
	85. Sydney Opera House	Sydney, Australia
	86. Taj Mahal	Agra, India
	87. Temple of the Golden Pavilion	Kyoto, Japan
	88. Teotihuacan	Mexico
	89. Tian Tan Buddha	Hong Kong, China
	90. Times Square	New York City, New York, USA
	91. Varanasi	Uttar Pradesh, India
	92. Victoria Falls	Zimbabwe
	93. Wailing Wall	Jerusalem, Israel
	94. Walt Disney World Resort	Orlando, Florida
	95. Washington Monument	Washington, D.C., USA
	96. White Cliffs of Dover	Dover, England
	97. White House	Washington, D.C., USA
	98. Winchester Cathedral	Hampshire, England
	99. Yosemite National Park	California, USA
	100. Zion National Park	Utah, USA

Here a just a few pictures from some of the places I've checked off the list! (:

the Gateway Arch

on our way back from skiing in CB for Spring Break 2009 

Times Square, NY 

Me & My Best in the Coliseum in Rome 2007

Sarah, me & Melissa in Pompeii - 2007

the Grand Canal - Venice, Italy 

on top of the MET - Summer 2011

this isn't the Portland Head Lighthouse [I went before I had a fancy camera, so those pictures are definitely not on my computer -- but it was close enough]