Let's Go to the Beach: Part 3

This year we divided up the cooking a little bit.  My brother and his girlfriend cooked one night, and Brian and I cooked another night.  The food was great all week.  On our night we cooked bratwursts and mac and cheese.  We also had crabs one night, which was pretty fun.  Of course, we helped here and there as well, and my brother is always assisting with the grilling like in the picture above.

Our vacation ended on a good note.  On the last night we put in The Little Mermaid.  My four-year-old cousin was GLUED.  The whole family wound up watching and singing along to all of the songs, which always makes my little heart happy.

Thanks for following along with my beach recaps!

Let's Go to the Beach: Part 2

The neighborhood that we stay in feels kind of unreal.  Once you go through the gate you feel like you're in a little dream world.  And the house has a golf cart- so I took these neighborhood shots from the back seat.  It's really handy to call one of the boys to come get you when you're too tired to carry your chair back from the beach!

The whole family didn't make it to the beach for a photoshoot, but the four of us decided to persevere without them.  After tomorrow I'll be done with beach pictures, I promise!  Here is the first beach post.

Let's Go to the Beach: Part 1

I'm back!  Thanks again to my guest bloggers last week- I had such a great time while I was away, and it was great to know that my blog was in good hands while I was unplugged!  As I was going through my pictures, I decided that there were too many to keep to a single post, so you guys are going to get a few installments of my beach pics.  I hope you'll bear with me!

The beach house itself is one of my favorite things about our vacation.  I think we first came to this house in 2007, and we've been back most of the years since then.  Brian and I didn't go last year (we were on our honeymoon!) so it felt like it had been forever.  The house has a "sleeping porch," which is one of my favorite places to read (next to the beach, of course!)

What have you been up to the past week?  Got any updates?  Fill me in, I've missed you guys!

{after combing the blog archives, I found this post from the last time we were in the Outer Banks}

Guess what?!

{photo taken by me on this trip, which was one of my first blog posts!}

Eek!  We're going to NYC towards the end of August, and I couldn't be more excited!  Our first anniversary is on August 13th, and Brian sweetly suggested that we go to New York.  He's never been, and I've always wanted to go just the two of us.  Well, literally a couple of days after that, Alt NYC was announced.  I didn't know what to do.  It was so close to being convenient, just 10 days separated our trip.  When Brian got home we quickly talked it over and realized that I should snatch up a ticket, and if we decided that it wasn't right, I could always sell it later.

Well, it was a good thing I got that ticket, because they sold out in something like 4 hours.  We debated and thought about it for a long time, but in the end we decided to move our trip so that I could go to Alt.

But here's the thing: we're not extending our trip.  We're staying for two nights, which means that the one full day that we'll be in New York, I'll be at Alt.  And Brian will be on his own.  In New York.  On his first trip there EVER.

Brian has been a total trooper about the whole thing, ultimately giving up time for us to hang out together for me to go to Alt, which has been a goal of mine.  But because he's never been and he's being so accommodating about me turning this trip into a blogger thing, I feel like I need to plan at least a few fun things for him to do by himself on that day that I'm gone.

That's where you guys come in.  Do you have any ideas?  Any fun things that a guy who is interested in movies and comic books can do by himself in NYC, on the cheap?  I'd also love any other general NYC tips or place that you think we MUST go while we're there!  You guys are all so awesome- I know you'll have some cool things to share!

PS. This post about doing things separately on vacation was published around the time we were deciding, which I thought was so funny!  Have you ever done that?  I think it sounds fun!

weekend in washington

One of my loves from college lives in DC now, so on Saturday morning I woke up at the crack of dawn and roadtripped to hang out with her for the weekend.  The weather was rainy, so I didn't bring my camera on the first day, which it turns out might have been a blessing in disguise because I think I would have taken more pictures than I would have known what to do with!

We did so many fun things!  We hit up the Old Post Office Pavilion Observation Tower, the Tidal Basin for the cherry blossoms, the Hirshorn, Eastern Market, Capitol Hill, the Botanic Gardens.  It's amazing how many things I've never done in DC before considering that I grew up 25 miles away.  I'd never been that close to the Capitol before!  And of course, we ate lots and lots of really good food.  I had so much fun exploring and catching up!

Oh!  I saw the The Hunger Games on Friday.  Anyone else?!  Brian and I both loved it.  I really want the soundtrack now, the Arcade Fire song at the end was so perfect!

What were you up to this weekend, friends?


Edit: I linked up our wedding ceremony post over on Schue Love today!  Click over to check out a bunch of beautiful weddings!

Wedding Wednesday: Honeymoon

Brian and I have talked a lot about our honeymoon. Both of us eventually want to travel to Europe. But right now we don't really have the money for that, plus when we do go to Europe, we will probably want to spend every minute sightseeing. This isn't our most relaxing option. And let's face it, I'm not going to want to spend time planning our honeymoon activities with an impending wedding. So we've been thinking that laying on a beach somewhere would be a better option.

Right now we are thinking of spending our honeymoon in sunny Mexico...

in Cancun!

We haven't finalized anything yet, but this is our first choice right now. It was so funny because right around the time Brian and I started thinking Cancun my mom and I drove through Starbucks and my mom struck up a conversation with the cashier. He was talking about how he just got back from vacation and his mind was still in Mexico. My mom asked where and he said Playa del Carmen, which is apparently pretty close to Cancun. My mom explained that we were thinking about honeymooning there and he just went on and on about how amazing Caribbean Mexico is, which was exciting to hear.

Our only concern was what the weather would be like in Cancun in August, but so far everything I've read sounds good.

Have any of you ever traveled to Cancun? Any recommendations?

Park Obsession

I'm taking a class this semester where we are studying Richmond, Virginia, particularly the Church Hill area. Don't ask why, it's complicated. All I know is that from the first time I stepped out of my car and into Libby Hill Park, I was in love. Each time I go back seems more magical than the last.

{I know. You're in love. I understand.}

At some point in my research, I came across the fact that Libby Hill Park is a popular Richmond wedding venue. Not only does it sport The View That Named Richmond, but it sounds like it's pretty inexpensive from some of the wedding sites I checked out.

I thought I'd share my findings with you in honor of missing Wedding Wednesday yesterday!

This one is my favorite. Are they not the cutest couple?

Okay, so this is the only actual wedding. But isn't it a cool venue with the crepe myrtles?

Love this bridal shoot. Her dress is gorgeous.

This post is so cute, and it includes a little more history on the view.

there's no place like home

I loved being on vacation. Seriously. I was so sad to leave. But, there is simply nothing like pulling into your driveway after eight hours in the car. There just isn't.
Our beach week was so fun! We had great weather. It was sunny and not too hot all week long. The ocean left some to be desired: it was either warm and jelly-infested...

{Brian, seen torturing a jellyfish. Don't worry, they were dead}

Or arctic.

{see? cold.}

On the last day we got in and swam with the jellyfish in the waves. The waves were awesome and the water was a beautiful sea green. Ahhh. I miss it.

We had so much fun in the beach house too. It was our third year at this beach house and it is simply awesome. It's so much fun to just hang out with the fam. Plus, we had so much fun with my cousins. They are two and a half and almost five. My little cousin obliged us by saying "pokemon" when prompted in her sweet little voice all week... TOO CUTE. We got to play in the pool with them and had lots of fun jumping on beds.


I also finished a book, and started another (more on that later.) There is nothing I love more than reading oceanside.

Overall it was a great week of eating, laughing, and beaching. My only regret is that we didn't take more pictures!

vacation

I'm at the beach with my family this week. We just got here yesterday and I'm so excited! It's a little cloudy out this morning, but at least it's not 1 million degrees. I can't wait to spend the week in between the beach and our lovely beach house, eating and swimming (that's a great combo, isn't it?) and playing with my adorable little cousins!

Happy Monday : )

South of the border, anyone?

Today in my landscape history class we discussed the colonization of Central and South America. Instead of dwelling on the depressing number of lives lost in that process, I was taken back to my high school Spanish classes where we would watch travel videos every so often. Maybe I am just sick of the winter weather, but that lecture made me want to hop on a plane to Mexico City!

Image from Flickr

This cathedral began construction in 1523 on top of the site of the previous Aztec temple of Tenochtitlan. It was constructed using some of the materials from the demolished temple. Cool, huh?

Image from Flickr

You can ride these colorful boats around the city.

Image from Flickr

A little Diego Rivera never hurt anyone...

Image from Flickr

Aztec elements of the culture that remain are so interesting! I love these larger-than-life sculptures.

Image from Flickr

I mean, what's not to like? This is definitely going on my bucket list for places to travel.