Highlights of September

My excuse for not blogging in 3 months is literally to many fun things have been happening.   We've been lucky to get home, unpack and wash our clothes in time for the next fun thing,  No complaints here, as the Lord has blessed us with a season of fun and friends!

September started with us at DISNEY WORLD with Chris's awesome family.  We all stayed in the "treehouse" cabin that his parents rented and it was so much fun to be with everyone for a long weekend.  I felt like the bonding time was extra rich and relaxed because we didn't have to worry about plans or who we were going to see next.  We were all there together and it didn't really matter what we did.  We ended up taking advantage of the non-park attractions.  We saw Planes at Downtown Disney, we went bowling at Downtown Disney, we spent the day in these the awesome resort's pool, we ate at yummy restaurants, and the last night, we surprised his parents with renting a boat for the family to go watch the fireworks.  We had snacks and drinks on board.  Cindy and Dave were caught completely off guard and were SO excited! Loved being able to give to them and celebrate their 30+ year marriage.  

Night time swimming is the best! Greyson was showing us how
he can now put his head underwater and blow bubbles!

Momma and her boys after our fireworks cruise!
She did good!

The next weekend was the Seminary Fall Festival.  It is one of our favorite times in Louisville.  All our friends from group and church are there, free food, and fun people watching- what's not to love?!  

Sweet Friends

Also during September, Jenna went to Pure Barre training, so there was some practicing with her.  I'm so SO so excited she's going to be an instructor!

Getting our Warm Up on!

Then the Birthday Festivities started.  Chris started the Birthday week with taking me to Bistro 1860- a cute, newly redone restaurant not a half mile from our home.  It's menu is all tapas type items so we spent the night ordering new foods, drinks, and enjoying each others company.  I am so unbelievably grateful for a husband that I genuinely have the most fun with.  This night left me with such joy.  

Dessert is always the best.

My handsome date and I.

That weekend, mom and Hal came into town!  We had the best time with them trying out restaurants, going to Makers distillery, experiencing Sojourn, and just hanging out.  They overly blessed me on my birthday.  My mom brought up all of the jewelry that I had been given as a little girl, but that she held on to until I was ready to assume responsibility for it, so it was fun to go through different charms my grandparents gave me at different times.  They also got me a new phone (those of you who know me know my old one had been cracked for the entire 2+ years I'd had it..), and new bedding for Chris and I's bed!  Also, Hal made a huge pot of his Brunswick stew for Chris.  Chris and his friends enjoyed that stew for awhile.  

Beautiful Family!

My beautiful annabelle helped sing to me :)

Later that week we also had a friends B-Day celebration... 26 was brought in strong :)

My Louisville Family!

The next weekend, the Millers came!!  Chris's old roomate from FSU, (and probably the reason Chris and I met) Josh and his lovely Bride Sarah came up for the weekend.  We went to a new distillery, 4 Roses, then watched the FSU game.  Sunday we went to Sojourn, then Brunch at Toast.  

Boys will be Boys....

The whole gang at 4 Roses

 September was a whirl-wind, but nothing like October.  We'll see if I can get October posted about before Christmas.  So many fun times that I want to remember!

Monterey

Our trip to Monterey was blissful. Although we had a rough agenda of things we wanted to see and places we wanted to go, we were excited to find fun new activities or places to explore. The entire trip I felt like we were kids on a treasure hunt!  Every hour of each day we found the “treasure chest”: a new cool view we had hiked to, making eye contact with a sea otter in the wild, a charming Italian restaurant that enclosed us with a homey romantic ambiance.  

A lot has happened!!

In My absence of blogging, here are all of the fun things that have happened:

Dad and Susan came to visit for the weekend:

We've had lots of fun times at Pure Barre: 

We had to say good-bye to our good friends, Chris and Heather.  They moved to New Jersey to serve Chris's home church. 

Jenna and I ran in the Color Run!

Najja and I went to a painting class!

Jenna and I talked Chris and Jaren into coming to Pure Barre! They died and it was awesome!

We had a work social at the Louisville Zoo.

We celebrated Annabelle's 2nd Birthday

Had a community group picnic at the park.

It's been a fun fun few months!

Summertime Thoughts

I love summer.  It brings no true schedule changes for me personally, but it seems that other's change in schedule rubs off on me.  Maybe it's because of the long days... But there seems to be more time for slow mornings, fun nights with friends, engagements, new babies, exciting trips, seeing old friends, evening walks with Annabelle, all the good things in life.  

We're in a blessed season- we have been in Louisville for 2 years now and I feel comfortable and happy.  Last night over dinner with friends, it came up that the boys are over half way done with school... We have 2 years left in this amazing city.  I feel like I'm in college starting Junior year and getting anxiety about having to graduate.  

I'm ready to soak up the last months of summer and the last half of our time in dental school, but I want it to slow down so I can fully grasp and enjoy these moments.  

Home for the 4th!

I flew into Panama City Tuesday night, just as it started to rain.  By the time we went to pick Chris up the next day at noon, the road getting into the airport was flooded.... 

I checked the weather and it was 100% chance of rain for the next 2 days and 80% the 2 days after that.  Never have I seen so much rain in Panama City.  Honestly I was pretty depressed... This was our beach vacation for the summer.  We are now those people who only have one beach vacay a year! But thankfully my family is really fun and we made sure to have fun anyways.  

Thank goodness for Settlers of Catan! Chris and I probably played that game 6 or 7 times throughout the weekend with my families.  We got the StarTrek version for the beach house and it was awesome... 

Beach House Catan

On Friday we had about 3 hours of no rain,  so we seized the time and went out on the boat!

Boat Time!

It was fun but I got stung by a bee...  It started storming again so we went inside to play more catan.

That night, we were invited to go on a Dinner Cruise with Mom and Hal for Hal's Brother and Sister in Laws 70th Birthday Celebration. We had a BLAST! The sun came out right as we were boarding the ship.  Everyone had a fun night dancing, drinking and watching fireworks.

Enjoying the sunset with family!

The Crew

Gorgeous watching fireworks over the water.

The next day the sun was FINALLY out so we spent the morning on the beach with mom and then went to eat lunch at Limes, a restaurant on a dock with dad.

Last day in PC and only day with sunshine

Overall it was a fun time.  It was hard too realizing that I won't be back until Christmas- that our trips to PC are literally going to be twice a year at best.  It was hard to leave my family knowing that they could probably use me around- especially ROss and Robbie.  My hope is in the Lord.  The Lord has the power to be with them through this time in their lives and the Lord can work in their lives even if I am not around all the time.  Thankful for a Savior who goes before me and intercedes on my behalf!

Mere's Having a Baby!

My darling Mere is 36 weeks pregnant this week.  A wonderful friend of her new {darling} mother-in-law threw a shower for Meredith and baby Jack this past weekend.  Here's where it gets exciting: I am married to Chris- Chris was born and raised in Auburndale FL.  One of his best friends from home, and a groomsman in our wedding was Tyler.  I was born and raised in Panama City, FL.  Meredith and Carly are some of my oldest, best friends.  At our wedding, Carly meets Tyler and Tyler falls for Carly.  Flash forward to now and Carly and Tyler have been dating for awhile and are just perfect together.

SO, Carly and Tyler flew up from Tampa and Chris and I drove down from Louisville to Atlanta for the shower.  The first night we picked Carly and Tyler up from the airport and met Mere at Tin Lizzy's.  We had yummy food and Margarita's and sat for a few hours just catching up.

We left and headed to Meredith and Matt's home where we stayed for the night. We stayed up WAY late still just talking and hanging out.  

The next morning we had a slow and easy morning.  Mere made yummy cinnamon rolls, Mimosa's and we had lots of fruit.  Her sister Kelley came in around noon and soon after Carly, Tyler, Chris and I headed out to let them have sister time and we went to SweetWater Blue Brewery (Well, Carly and I demanded a few stops- Chick-fil-a and Starbucks ;) ).  Once there we hung out and drank their brewskies!

After the brewery, we left and headed to our super sweet hotel.  We stayed at the W in buckhead and it was awesome.   We spent the remainder of the afternoon at the sweet rooftop pool.

After the pool we changed and walked to dinner at Flipburger.  YUM!  They had the best burgers and milkshakes.  We walked back to the hotel and went up to the rooftop bar to see what it was about.

The next morning, Carly and I woke up,  got ready and drove to Mere's house to head to the shower.  WE stopped at her MIL's home to meet her and her Aunts.  They were so delightful and she had a beautiful Roswell home!  Then we packed up and headed to the shower.  THe entire shower was beautiful.  The hostesses had made the yummiest food, had place settings for everyone, and had decorations everywhere!  The company was wonderful too.  It was fun to see all of the women Meredith had become close to in the short time she's lived in the ATL.  Baby Jack received so many lovely presents.  I helped Mere organize the opening presents process and Carly took pics.  

The 4 PC girls at the Shower!

I love my Merey so much and I am so excited to watch her become a mommy to Baby Jack and to raise him in love!  

Love you Merey and thanks for sharing your special weekend with us!

P.S.  Here are some old pics to show just how far these friendships go back :)

Chris and Tyler at Chris's 6th Birthday

Carly and I in 5th Grade

Carly, Meredith, Carla, Carla's Brother Tony, and My 2 brothers Halloween in 4th Grade :)

Second Work Trip

Today I woke up in Phoenix, AZ.  It's my second work trip and think I am getting the hang of things.  It's strange to be in really nice hotel rooms alone.  Like where are my girls? Or Chris?!  Or most importantly, where's Annabelle?!  Last night I kept bumping into things while I was unpacking and I kept thinking Annabelle was going to freak out barking... but she didn't.  This week I was offered a full time position at US WorldMeds.  I am so excited to begin working full time.  It has really gotten me to think about my future:  Will I be a successful, powerful career woman? I love the idea of it and I really feel I could.  It would be tricky though- I feel I'd always have to be on my toes looking for the next oppertunity.  Will I work really hard for awhile and then be blessed with babies and choose to stay home with them? Will I work full time and just be stressed and barely hanging on, balancing work, kids and everything?  It's fun to dream.  

Happy Friday!