Hilton Head

Remember that VH1 show, "The Best Week Ever"? I'm not sure if it's still on or not, but if it is, my week would definitely qualify. I went to Hilton Head, SC with Will's family for the second year in a row, and once again the island didn't disappoint. A week in Hilton Head is best described by the senses:

• The feel of a hot sun warming you, the sand under your feet and the coolness of the water on your toes as you walk the beach
• The smell of sunscreen, salt water, and fresh fish
• The sound of happy kids laughing, seagulls chirping over the water, a man and a guitar singing Buffett and Marley covers at The Tiki Hut, a volleyball being hit back and forth, and waves crashing against the surf
• The sight of an endless ocean, shrimp boats, palm trees, sea shells, Coast Guard helicopters flying, kites soaring in the ocean breeze, kids splashing in the pool and ocean, and happy, relaxed, sun-kissed faces
• The taste of chapstick and salt water, crab legs and shrimp, pina coladas and strawberry dacquiris, and ice cream and popsicles.

Once again a big THANK YOU to Will's dad for everything! It's a lot of fun to spend time with his family, especially at one of their favorite vacation spots. Some of my favorite pictures from the week:

Drinks at The Tiki Hut with Cari and Will

Pete taking Olivia and Luke for a sunset bike ride on the beachCute little Avery- she loved playing in the sand!I was the official dacquiri/pina colada maker of the week. I'm must have earned that title because I made the first batch strong, and no one looked back.The annual shot by "their" tree. Will's family has taken a picture by this tree for almost 30 years now!

Harbor Town. Big boats and pretty sunsets.

Insomnia...

It's 2:00 in the morning and though I should be tired I'm not. Since rising at 5:00 AM Central Time yesterday morning I have:

• Packed and loaded a car
• Left Hilton Head after a wonderful week of beach vacation
• Rode in a car for 10 hours
• Finished my 2nd book in 2 days (gotta love easy beach reads!)
• Listened to an entire book on CD in one sitting
• Stopped to drop off Cari, and then Will's dad, before I made it home myself
• Unloaded a car
• Packed a bag and the laptop to come downtown to the loft
• Scanned over craigslist and made several phone calls in hopes of finding a ticket to see Coldplay and Snow Patrol play tonight
• Drove downtown to the new loft
• Sorted through a week's worth of mail
• Re-hooked up wireless at the loft now that the place is painted
• Chatted with my sister for a few minutes
• Walked down to the Sommet Center and found an excellent ticket for a decent price ($50 under face value!)
• Saw one of the best concerts I've been to in a LONG time- 2 of my favorite bands in one night. Awesome
• Took LOTS of pictures. Funny how going to a concert alone made me more camera happy. I really enjoyed playing with and trying out different camera settings.
• Walked back to the loft after the concert. It was lovely to be at "home" (though we haven't moved in yet) less than 10 minutes after the show ended.
• Decided that the loft was too quiet, so packed up the car and headed back toward Madison
• Got stuck in post-concert/downtown Saturday night traffic and managed to get about 4 blocks away from the loft in 30 minutes
• Became frustrated, so I turned around and went back to the loft.
• Blew up the air mattress and turned on I-tunes to keep me company
• Edited my pictures from the past week
• Uploaded and emailed my Hilton Head pictures to Will's family
• Posted the concert pics on facebook
• Wrote this blog

That's close to 24 hours straight of activity...so Why oh WHY can't I sleep?! Maybe it has something to do with being alone in the loft for the first time. Will is in St. Louis at a bachelor party tonight, so I'm here by myself. I'm not necessarily scared, but I am unaccustomed to the noises of the new place, which puts me on edge. It's so strange to feel apprehensive and a bit scared of the dark at the age of 27!

I was going to write about Hilton Head and post some pics, but I've decided it's best to postpone that. I think I'll put a movie on instead and hope to doze off. I will make it through my first night alone here! :)

Paul and Erica's Wedding

We travelled back to Colorado over Memorial Day weekend to attend the wedding of one of Will's good college friends. We stayed in a house with 16 people, which was awesome. It was so nice to have a big enough space for everyone to hang out in, and it was great to not have to pay to eat out all weekend. Some highlights of the weekend:

• Being back in the mountains! It was overcast and rainy most of the weekend, but the views were still spectacular.


• Taking full advantage of the state-of-the-art kitchen at the house. We spent most of the weekend hanging out there (naturally- why is it that people always gravitate towards the kitchen?). It was comfortable enough for all 16 of us staying at the house to be in, along with extra guests that were hanging out throughout the weekend.


• Food and drinks consumed over the weekend included: 16 party pizzas, 2 kegs, a 12 pack of Sunshine Wheat beer (my favorite!), 1 bottle of Glen Livet Scotch, multiple rounds of margaritas, Grilled pork loins, Corn on the cob, salad, garlic bread, 4 dozen eggs, 2 blocks of cheese, lots of crackers, a bag of chips and salsa, a package of bacon, a tube of sausage, lots of fruits and veggies, and a few packages of bagels and english muffins. Whew! That's a lot of food!


• Being introduced to a new "move" by the recent college grads- it's called The Gargoyle. I guess the keg stand is out these days. Now you have to perch on top of the keg in the crouched position, drink the beer from the tap, and flap your arms as though you were a bird. I have included a picture of the bride, Erica, demonstrating the move for you, in case you aren't able to picture how truly spectacular this sight is.


• Lots of dancing all weekend- at the house, at the rehearsal party, and of course, the reception!


• Manis and Pedis with Bonna and Mary. Great girl time, and a relaxing way to spend a rainy mountain afternoon.


• The Karaoke Rehearsal party was hilarious. Especially funny was a stirring rendition of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" by Paul and the guys ala Top Gun.


• A pretty ceremony- the rain was unfortunate, but it did make for a nice backdrop at the church. And luckily it stopped after the ceremony so Paul and Erica were able to take some pictures outside.


• A fun reception. The dancing didn't stop all night!


• After parties every night at the house. We took full advantage of both the indoor and outdoor space, including a hot tub and sauna room!

Some pics from the weekend:

Paul and Erica singing everyone's favorite Neil Diamond song- "Forever in Blue Jeans"

The ceremony

First Dance

The Gargoyle, a popular move over the weekend

Lots of dancing, all weekend long...

Home Sweet Home!

It's finally official! After a couple days worth of delays in closing, it happened today. No popping of champagne tonight, though, as we have a busy week ahead of us. We have painters coming in on Thursday morning to give our new home a facelift, and then we take off for Colorado that afternoon to go to our friends Paul and Erica's wedding. We aren't planning on moving in until the painting is done, but we did spent part of the evening in our new place...lining the kitchen cabinets. Ahh, the exciting life of a homeowner. :)

Seriously, though, we are really excited to not be renting anymore. And we are equally as excited to have company come stay with us once we're settled!

And finally, some pics of the place. Now that it is officially "ours" I can poste pictures. After all our bad luck we were scared that we would jinx it if we posted pics before closing!

Birthday and Closing and Moving...oh my!

This is a busy week for us! Today is my birthday, which has so far (at 8:30 this morning) been a nice one. I got out of the shower to find Will walking through the front door with breakfast burritos and coffee (from McDonalds, obviously). Not quite breakfast in bed, but I'll take it! Breakfast burritos are so darn tasty!

Yesterday I had stage 1 of a 2 part process to put a crown on one of my teeth. With all the dental work I've had done lately, you'd think that I just never brush my teeth or something! I now have a temporary silver tooth until the permanent one comes in. Will and I were joking last night that I really am getting old- I'm losing my teeth and getting fake ones! :)

Tomorrow is the final walk thru of the new place, and then Thursday morning is the closing. Will didn't want to stay there until we had everything painted and were actually moved in...but I played a well-timed "it's my birthday" card and told him all I wanted from him was to sleep on an air mattress in our new place the first night. So that's what we're doing. :) Cari and Curtis are going to join us for celebratory champagne at the new place, and then we'll head out for birthday/closing celebrations.

We aren't going to move anything officially til everything is painted, but we're hoping to get that done ASAP. We just need to finalize our color choices! Such big decisions.

Oh! This is worth mentioning, too. After what seems like an eternity of cloudy, overcast, and rainy days in Nashville, we woke up this morning to SUNSHINE!!! Yay! Off to a great birthday start!

Weekend in Chicago

We had a great time in Chicago this weekend. The whole family was able to make it up to celebrate all the May birthdays and Mother's day together. We didn't have a big agenda planned but had a great time! Lots of walking and shopping, a trip to Navy Pier, drinks at the Signature Room at the Hancock, dinner and a show with Tony and Tina's wedding, and catching up with some of my old friends up in Wrigleyville. It felt good to be back in the city again! Here are some pics that highlight the weekend:

Mom and Dad on Mother's Day:
Mom with all her children...and grandchild on Mother's Day:

At Tony and Tina's wedding:

Fun with the "Bean":

Ella trying on some Christian Diors at Nordstrom Rack. That girl loves her shoes!

Meeting up with the girls in my old neighborhood:

Shelley's Visit

We had a fun weekend with Shelley in town! Unfortunately it rained the ENTIRE weekend, but we made the best of our time. Some highlights of the weekend:

* Exploring the Opryland hotel with Shelley, complete with a boat ride around the atrium.

* Shelley got to experience life in the inferno first hand. It was too cold for carpenter bees to be out, but she did get to see how we deal with flooding when it rains hard, as it did every day she was here. Fortunately we were able to show her where we are moving, so she will still want to come back and visit!

* An evening at the Grand Ole Opry. We had a blast! The show itself is definitely geared more towards the older crowd, but we enjoyed ourselves. The GOO is an event that everyone should experience, at least once.

* Spending Saturday morning exploring Andrew Jackson's plantation. It was like stepping back in time, complete with characters dressed in period costumes.

* Boot shopping! Will, Shelley, and I took advantage of a "Buy One, Get 2 pairs Free" deal. We all got new boots to wear honky tonking on Saturday night.

* Honky tonking at the bars along Broadway. It was my first official time going out to the honky tonks, and Shelley had never been either. We had such a blast, despite the rain. It is so fun to be able to bar hop and see live music at every bar. Shelley and I also had to take a shot every time we saw a Canadian tuxedo (denim jean jacket worn with denim jeans). The night started strong- 3 shots at the first 3 bars, but luckily we didn't see any more at any of the bars that followed.

* This pic of Shelley was taken at Trailer Park Resort. This bar is a riot! There are old parked cars in there that people literally stand and dance on. The floor is made of astroturf, and they use outdoor plastic patio furniture instead of regular tables and chairs. It's a real classy joint.

* Coming home from the bars to a power outage in the apartment, and proceding to try to eat the contents of our fridge in the dark, so the food didn't go bad. This was hilarious to us for some reason. We found out the next morning that the power outage was due to a car accident, not the weather.

All in all, a great weekend. It was so fun to take Shelley around and show her our new town. After spending Saturday night downtown, we are even more excited to be moving closer to the action. Just a couple more weeks!