South Carolina Tar Heel: Family

Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Catching Up

I am still here! It's been a crazy past month! I have been in Blowing Rock for my family's vacation, home in Columbia and then back to Charleston for an amazing Bachelorette party for my cousin Lu!

I will start by recapping our family vacation to Blowing Rock - I think there were 24 of us (maybe 26?) spread out over 5 houses- we had the best time! From our annual visit to Tweetsie Railroad to our trip to Zaloo's Canoes for kayaking - it was our best year yet! I stayed at my aunt's house with James and my aunt and her Mini Doxie- Max, who served as our entertainment. We had a lots of great family meals together - one of my cousins was in charge of feeding all of us dinner everyone night save one- and even had a shower for my cousin Lu and her husband-to-be Dustin!

Our kayaking trip was an experience. Growing up we went on "Jeff trips" (Jeff is my dad) when the mountain trip was just for my dad's immediate family - his parents, my aunt and uncle and my 3 cousins. These trips were usually kayaking or canoeing, in the rain, in unseasonable cold weather for Blowing Rock in July. We would always have some sort of issues- keys were lost, people were hungry+angry=hangry, someone would cry.. you get the idea. So now that we are grown ups we all enjoy these 'Jeff trips' and usually there are no issues.

Well, this kayaking trip for everyone else was a nice 3 mile paddle down the New River. For me, I flipped my kayak (and I am no novice!) lost all my things - thankfully they were recovered by my cousin to be Dustin- including my monogram koozies!- in this process James was also flipped while trying to help me, bruised his knee, broke his shoes and then his diabetes testing kit got water in it. So it was a bit of a worry but thankfully we are all alive and well! Flipping aside, kayaking is one of the funnest things we do each year and I am already getting excited for our kayaking trip prior to my cousin's mountain wedding!

Last year when James and I were to couple to be married we were thrown a great surprise tailgate shower! This year it was my cousin Lu's turn! We threw them a great 'around the house' shower and Lu got some great things for her house to become a home! I know how much she loved monogram goodies so I got her a monogrammed cooler with her new last name and a monogram luggage tag with her new initials plus some great goodies for the kitchen, a frame to match her home decor and a few things from her registry as well!

We had lots of family time with my dad's cousins and 2nd cousins etc. We watched the fireworks, sang songs together, ate wonderful meals and enjoyed the much cooler temperature of the mountains! Can't wait to see everyone for Labor Day weekend for Lu's wedding!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Recent Buys and Gifts!

Source

Since I have basically been on a shopping embargo I have not been able to buy buy buy like I normally do. Weddings, trips and showers have meant cutting back on ~~my shopping~~ expenses so that we are able to do things for our friends & family getting married! I am a big time gift giver, almost to a fault. If someone has some sort of birthday or celebration, I want to buy them the best gift! My competitive nature comes out and I just have to get the coolest gift or the most fun or most usable one. Well, most fun and usable in my mind might not be the same as the person I am giving the gift to but really, I try to find something neat that they might enjoy!

My friend Katherine (hi love!) had a pretty bad month of May so I sent her a little pick me up. She is a big hedgehog fan so I found some cute note cards on Etsy to send to her. She loved them!

Source

I got my cousin, Lu, a really cute burlap bag (my gift of choice for all brides!) as a thank you for hosting me at her mountain condo one weekend while James was ~~cruising the Caribbean~~ away.

My cousin's married initials!

I had bought James a 'not father's day gift' - a leather weekend bag from Wilson's Leather Outlet. I had seen a few online and I knew James needed something besides an ADIDAS bag for our weekend trips (we will travel every weekend in June and July save one!!). While James was gone, I had it embossed for him and he loves it! We used it this past weekend in Blowing Rock and will use it again once we are both off work for the 4th of July!

My grandfather had given me some birthday money and I decided to use part of it for some monogrammed earrings. I walked (its so close to our house!) to Handpicked on Devine and spent about 30 mins trying to figure out what I wanted (have you seen their monogram earring selection? so big!) I finally settled on the Round Scalloped Monogram earrings and placed my order. Two days later, they were in the store! Such a steal for $20! If you join their rewards program, there are days almost once a week where your order is half off! This would be a great gift for a bride-to-be (hint, hint Lu!) or for your friends, $10 for monogram earrings is great!

Another day, another time to wear my new earrings!

Monogram earrings!

Wearing my new earrings in Denver, NC

$1.50 for thank you notes from Michaels craft store in Blowing Rock!

Cute thank you note!

My friend Cam popped in my office this morning and it was a big surprise! For me and for her, I left my make up and CHI in the mountains - all natural look for me! She left me with a muffin she had made - so sweet and such a great pick me up on a Tuesday!

Muffin at work - Thanks Cam!

I had seen a Southern Savers coupon code for the Paper Coterie for a free spiral bound journal! I knew I needed something to keep in my new purse (thanks to my sister and James!) and this fit the bill perfectly! I paid for shipping only, $7, and was able to custom make it using my monogram and some of our wedding pictures, including my favorite - me saying my wedding vows to James!

Saying my wedding vows to James

Outside cover- plastic to keep it clean!

Inside cover- cutting the cake and our getaway in our London cab!

The one on the cover is my favorite! Our wedding vows were the traditional Episcopalian vows that I cried while reciting.

I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow. And with all that I am and all that I have, I honor you, in the Name of God.

Hope everyone had a wonderful July 4th weekend! What a better way to celebrate the great country of America than to spend it in God's country- The Mountains!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Mountain Get Away

While I have mentioned my cousin's and my DIY adventures this past weekend, I have not talked about what other things we did in between gluing and burlaping.
Blowing Rock, NC has been a summer getaway since we lived abroad. I think we have been going for 20 years. We might have missed one summer when we were moving international from Colombia to the States but other than that, our family has gone to the mountains. As of late, we have deemed the 4th of July as our time in the mountains and we all look forward to the time we have together watching the fireworks. Our houses are always up on the mountains so a lot of times you can see 3 different firework shows and you are 'above' them! Such a unique view! This coming July will be James' 4th year with us, he has been every year since we started dating!

Tweetsie July 2011

We stay in different houses, have many meals together and we even get to go to Tweetsie Railroad, a theme park (in a sense) that I have been going to all my life.

Blowing Rock Thanksgiving 2011 (my beautiful sister!)

Blowing Rock 2010

You could hear the Tweetsie whistle from our house this past weekend and it was so neat to also be able to hear the guns from the 'gun fight' that is staged during the Tweetsie ride.

This weekend was all about relaxing and enjoying my time with my family! We went to the farmers market, had drinks on the porch with beautiful views, enjoyed visiting with my bff Siri and ate delicious food (homemade oreo for breakfast!). Could not ask for a better weekend!