Saturday, April 7, 2012

the one on the weekends.

Weekend are small nuggets of time that most of us can use to relax, sleep in, get house work done, catch up with long conversations, try new recipes, finish some homework, or even travel.  My past three weekends have been all of the above, and they have been great.  A couple weeks ago my sister came to Raleigh to hang out and explore.  She has very "let just go with it" attitude, which I love.  I wanted to tried this random hole-in-the-wall consignment shop, Ashley was all for it.  We walk in, realized our great grandmother would shop there, looked at each other & headed for the door.  Ashley was not phased at all, we laughed about it and we on the next one.

I took Ashley to the NC Museum of Art.. because home girl is abstract and loves her some art.




 Then we headed to my beloved Fresh Berries right outside of campus.  After we finished I showed her the brickyard and just the basic around main campus.




After our bellies were full of yummy fro-yo, our shoe soles covered in brick dust we had to get our nap on before a night of good sushi.  My roomie, Jenn, and I took Ashley to Sushi Blues in downtown Raleigh to enjoy some majorly good food.

 




On Sunday, we went to church and stayed in downtown to eat at the Busy Bee Cafe -- one of my favorite Raleigh spots.




It was such a good weekend spent with Ashley.  We had fun, it was super laid back and she was always up for trying something new or just going with the flow.  

The next weekend I went home.  I didn't take any pictures, as it was just a relaxed weekend.  I went to a PA open house, I landed a "job" with my pediatrician, and caught up on sleep.  It was such a successful weekend. 

Last weekend, my softball girls headed to Boone to have a girls weekend.  While there, I fell completely in love with Boone.  The girls kept joking with me how I would fit right in with my sticker-covered nalgene and laptop, my chacos and my love for local/non-chain shops and restaurants.  It was such a fun weekend and it was so great to be there with such great company.




Saturday we spent the entire day exploring the weird and wonderful world of Boone and shopping!  We started the morning with some strong coffee, indie-inspired shops and antique stores.







We walked past a store that store my heart by the sign alone.  We went in and all got rings made!




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 & since we had shopped all day, we got Chili's To-Go and watched the NCAA Championship at Shawn's apartment.

 



Sunday, we got up fairly early to head to Grandfather Mountain and enjoy the view.



We also went over the Mile High Bridge.





We even had a Jesus moment while breathing in our view.. I put in my hands in my rain coat pockets, and pulled out a little verse I had written on a post it.  I shared it with my girls and we just sat there for a moment to soak in it's meaning and how it related to us this weekend.  I think it's incredible how God will show up at the perfect moment, with the perfect words.  Those verses could not have been more fitting to the trip.  I am thankful for my Jesus and his power to humble us when we are on our high horses.

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.




Shawn cracked us up with her impression of a news reporter on a windy day at Grandfather Mountian.

Hello there!  This is Shawn Watson, reporting for WXII.  Today, I am on Grandfather Mountain to observe the windy index and determine if the safety of your children is worth the risk of coming onto the Mile High Bridge.


It was such a good trip.  I love these girls.

  

The past three weekends have been relaxing, humbling, and fun.  This weekend has already been incredible.  I've hung out with Sam, saw The Hunger Games, shopped for my dearest roommate's birthday, ate at the Carving Board, spend an entire day at Victory Junction Gang Camp painting fire hydrants, stained new bathroom furniture and now I am headed out to take my little brother's senior pictures!  Oh and last but most certainly not least, we celebrate Jesus tomorrow!

My life is good, my heart is full. 

Happy Saturday!

Saturday, March 24, 2012

the one on the big boat, day five.

Day five.  Freeport.   Finally, we could get on a beach!
We got up early, pack us a day bag, ate some breakfast and headed off the boat.  The first thing we did was go to the straw market since it was right there off the dock.


We contemplated on getting our "bahama mama braid" on.


The weather didn't seem to be in our favor on this day either..

  
 So we got our group of ten together to grab a taxi to head to an area made for touring and walking around.  The taxi people did not seem to care for us because our group was so big.   So we wasted the time with picture taking!





Finally, we met a lovely lady named Gussy, who took us to our destination.

We can describe the experience by this one picture.
 












So we walked, talked, shopped, explored.. & finally got our feet into salty water.  During our adventures we found some coconuts to try and figure out how Tom Hanks did it on Cast Away.













Also, we decided to do a little Dirty Dancing...






&& we finally perfected it.
 
 
After several hours of walking around and being off the boat, we called up Gussy and headed back to the boat for lunch and relaxing before supper.


For supper.. Mahi Mahi.  Enough said.


..topped off with strange, yet good rendition of Baked Alaska.


For the rest of the night we just hung out.. went to one more comedy show then called it a night.  Before we could even finish our dreams were back at Port Canaveral ready to head back to Raleigh.




The trip was so so so fun!  It was such a good experience regardless of the weather.  Im so thankful that our group of ten got along so well and were able to roll with the punches the weather presented us!