Look Who's 6!!

Our little baby crabcakes is 6 today! Six years old! That means we've owned her for 4 1/2 years. That seems crazy to me! In honor of our little Lady Bird's birthday I'm going to post a series of her best instagram shots. Enjoy!!

Blonk Bachelorette

After staying out all night in Savannah I woke up and was on the road by 6 AM to head to Raleigh for Kristin's bachelorette party. Yep! I bounced straight from one on to another!! We have such a busy wedding summer. Four of our BEST friends are getting married which means tons of celebrations. It's awesome!! By 7:45 I was falling asleep again so I called the one person I knew would be up and willing to talk....Dear ol' Dad!  He kept me occupied for half an hour and then passed me off to mom for another half an hour. It was very necessary! Parents are the best.

The plan was to meet at the lake and go out on the boat with all of Kristin's bridesmaids but the weather just wasn't going to cooperate and we didn't want to risk getting stuck in a thunderstorm on the water. So...I called a couple clients, showed them 3 houses, and got them under contract instead :)  Real estate agents never rests!

After a quick cat-nap at home I put my bachelorette dress back on (yes...I have one I wear to all of them) and headed over to Kristin's for dinner and a night out in Raleigh. A taxi picked us up from Kristin's house and took us all out to 518 West. It was delicious!! Here we all are before heading out.

After dinner we hit up a couple dance clubs and some bars. Kristin got showered with attention by all of her ladies and a few guys as well but she just beat them off with her wand :) We ended the night with a sleepover at her house.

I'm so excited for her wedding in just 2.5 WEEKS!! I can't even believe it!! Kristin and I have been friends for 20 years which is just crazy. That's so rare these days. We go through pretty big intervals not seeing each other but it doesn't change anything. I love having her as a friend and I'm so glad our friendship has lasted this long. I was so honored to be asked to be a bridesmaid and I can't wait to celebrate again with her so soon. Love you Kristin!!

Holly Is Getting Hitched

What a whirlwind weekend!! I'm taking this morning to recover and catch up on some work from home because I am tired! On Thursday I headed down to Savannah for Holly's bachelorette weekend. I had never been to Savannah and was so excited to get to explore it while celebrating the upcoming wedding of Holly and Alexander.

Rachel (Holly's Matron of Honor), Rebecca, Holly, and I all went down on Thursday for some extra Savannah time. When we got there we relaxed by the pool for a bit before heading down to the river for some dinner.

We ate at One Eyed Izzy's. It was a seafood/Mexican restaurant and it was delicious. They have these four little balconies that have one table each and we were able to snag one. It was so fun to have our own private little balcony overlooking the river. 

The next morning was what I was looking forward to most. Ocean kayaking!!  I am not a coffee drinker but Holly brought back a tiny little frappucino from downstairs. It was sweet enough that I got through about half of it to wake me up for a day on the water!

The kayaking was awesome. We drove out to Tybee Island and met our group and guides there. They drove us out to the water and we kayaked for about 2 hours with a 45 minute swim break in between. It was definitely a work out but it was so gorgeous. I really want a kayak now. It was so peaceful to be out on the water and I could see myself spending many days out on the water with snacks and a book!

After kayaking we were famished! We went to AJs for lunch which was right on the river. The food was delicious but the service was exceptionally bad. Holly had been there before and had good service and the other tables seemed to be doing OK so I think it was just our grumpy waitress. We didn't let it ruin our day though!

After lunch we headed back to the hotel to cool off before the party began that night. The other two girls (Jess and Holly) were getting in later that night and then we were hitting the town! Once we showered and got ready for the night we had a mission to find cups! We had mixed drinks in the hotel room but no cups so Rebecca, Holly, and I headed out to find some. The first place we stopped didn't sell them so we were on our way to CVS when I spotted a pyramid of cups through the door of a student housing office. I was peering through the window when one of the guys inside came to the door so I asked him if we could have some of them. Long story short there were several guys inside and they exuberantly told us we could have all of the cups we wanted and offered to get us a bag so we could take the entire pyramid. It probably didn't hurt that we were all dolled up for the evening. We ended up taking 10 free cups and headed back to the hotel. 

Jess's flight ended up getting re-routed through Agusta so we opened gifts without her and then went on to Zunzi's 2 for dinner where she was able to meet us. 

Zunzi's was awesome! Derrick and I have heard Holly and Alexander tell us about Zunzi's for years so I was excited to finally get to eat there. I had the famous Oliver's Lunch which was a pile of deliciousness covered in Zunzi sauce. Plus the rain held off and we were able to eat on their super cool rooftop patio!

 

After dinner we walked to Smiles Piano Bar. There were tons of bachelorette parties going on. It's a huge place which is awesome because we were able to get a table and not feel crowded like you do in most piano bars. 

 Holly even had to get up on stage and do a little dancing.

It was a super fun weekend. I had to wake up bright and early the next morning to get back to Raleigh for Kristin's bachelorette party but the other girls stayed for the rest of the weekend. I think Holly had a great time which is the most important! She gets married in just under a month!!!

Celebrating 27

Last week I celebrated my 27th birthday.  I really liked 26. I'm fine with 27...I've never really been an age person but it's still kind of crazy to think about. A friend of mine told me that I'm almost late 20's! We decided I could eek out one last year of being called mid-20's but only just.  My family and friends spoiled me to the max this year :)

Mom came into town for Leanna's baby shower and stayed until Monday to take me on a birthday shopping spree. We started out with manicures and pedicures in this crazy place that we found that doubled as a nail salon and a bar. Since it was 9 AM we stuck with a smoothie and hot tea.

Then we hit the mall! This is what Mom and Dad gave me last year and I love the tradition! I love having my mom with me because she has great style and it's nice to have pure mother/daughter time that we don't get too often anymore.

While we were there we discovered the new location of the Microsoft Store coming to Durham! Had to snap a pic for Derrick!

We ended with a great lunch at Panera and then Mom hit the road back to Hickory and I headed to the office to get some work done. The next day was my actual birthday. When Derrick got home from work he gave me my birthday present. It's a 100% legit Russel Wilson Seahawks jersey and it is AWESOME!! I was super surprised. I had always told Derrick we needed a Seahawks jersey to watch the games in but it was always just an offhanded comment. He went for it and I LOVE it!! Thanks to Alison for giving him the size recommendation. I think it fits perfectly! I want Derrick to get the grey one before football season starts so we can match without really matching :)

And then he took me out to a surprise dinner at Daniels. It's this little Italian restaurant that doesn't look like much from the outside but is actually delicious! We had never been because you always need reservations so Derrick made sure we had them for my birthday night. My wine even matched my nails!!

The birthday celebrations continued on Wednesday night at our weekly trivia night. I had late showings so I didn't get there until about half-way through but when I did get there Derrick had brought my new jersey for me to change into and also brought cupcakes for everybody. Isn't he good? On top of that Claire and Nikki had conspired and brought banana pudding for everybody! It was such a great night and celebration and I am so grateful to have such great friends and family!

You know...late 20's aren't going to be so bad :)

Up the Elephant's Trunk!

So...back to Yosemite! I've been jumping around a bit because I know posts and posts with breathtaking pictures can get old.....:)

Derrick and I knew we wanted to get a taste of outdoor rock climbing while we were out west and there was no better place to get our feet wet then Yosemite! Derrick and I own the basic gear (shoes, harness, belay device) but don't own ropes and do not know much about anchoring and safely setting up an outdoor climbing experience so we were quite happy to default to the experts on this one. After a quick Bing search (gotta rep that Microsoft :) we found there were 2 companies in Yosemite that do group rock climbing. We ended up choosing SMYG because they were super quick to respond, very nice on the phone, and weren't going to make us jump through some crazy hoops for a day out.

It was also very reasonably priced for what we were getting. We're talking a full day with a private guide just for us. We are SO glad we did this. It was such a great experience and we can't wait to go climbing again!

Enough blabbing...check out some pics!

We learned to lead-belay while we were there. It's harder than it looks!

The first set of 4 we did was super slabby. This just means it leans in a bit. It was so different having to find your own hand and foot placements instead of having  a very clear, colored path like in the gym.

These first 4 were incredibly trying on our ankles. Because there aren't big foot holds all the way up, you are essentially gripping the rock through your shoes so your ankles stay tense the entire time. It was a new sensation and really affected us more than I expected.

The view from the top was awesome, and I'm not just talking about that hottie at the top of the wall!

After a quick lunch break at which Derrick and I realized we significantly over-packed food-wise, we headed up to a higher rockface for a couple more climbs and the topic of this blog title. Doesn't' it look just like an elephant? We climbed up her trunk and all the way up over her forehead. It's about a 75 foot climb but it's also on the top of a mountain so when you get up there you feel SO high and the wind is pretty crazy. We LOVED this one!

There is our awesome guide Colby who kept us safe all day!

Colby obliged us with a quick selfie. Best guide ever! We felt very safe while we were with him and he even humored us by laughing at our jokes and complimenting our inexperienced climbing :)

We ended the climb by simulating a multi-pitch climb which was pretty cool. A pitch is just a rope-length so in a multi-pitch climb you climb as far as your rope will allow, anchor yourself in place, and then continue your climb from where you are anchored. It was pretty neat and Colby taught us some tips and tricks for safely anchoring and belaying from the top of a wall. We also got to repel down which was pretty cool and something Derrick and I hadn't done before.

Seriously, this was an awesome experience and we are so glad we decided to go for it. If you are looking for a company to take you on a rock climbing adventure I would definitely recommend SMYG. It was exactly what we were hoping for and so much more!

Girly Girl

Yesterday I found myself doing something iconically "grown-up lady" that I have never done before and never really thought I would. Remember this is the girl that didn't pierce her ears until age 19, got make-up for the first time as a wedding gift, and opted out of junior year prom because of the dress code.

Yep...I put make-up on in the car at the stoplights. I'm a lady!!

In other news....keep your wisdom teeth. They are not worth the week+ of hell you'll have afterwards. We're on day 7 and still pushing the motrin hard over here. You can kind of tell in that picture above that I'm still a little swollen. Ugh..I'm soo over it.  Luckily an engagement party tonight and baby shower tomorrow are just the things to keep my mind off my mouth :)

Yo Yo Yosemite!

After Lake Tahoe we went back to Folsom to enjoy some down time with the family. We ate out, watched the Thunder, and generally just relaxed until Thursday. On Thursday all 5 of us headed to Yosemite for the weekend. The winding roads up the mountain were crazy and scary. No guard rails, up a mountain with hairpin turns. It was kind of crazy. We started out and this is what our backseat looked like. That lasted about 20 minutes before Jamie threw up all over the back seat. No more ipads in the car after that!

 Yosemite was definitely worth it though. It was stunningly beautiful! We drove into the park and hit up 3 small hikes that first day. The first one was basically a boulder scramble. We didn't know if we were on the trail or not but we just scrambled up the rocks towards the sound of the waterfall. It was one of my favorite hikes but also one of the more nerve wrecking hikes with two 8 year olds wanting to climb on everything and being so close to water.

This was most of the hike. Huge boulders to scramble over. I loved it!

Can you see the rock climbers in this picture? They were climbing that rock face with the river flowing below them. It was pretty awesome!

After that first hike we drove further into Yosemite to visit the visitor's center and hike the lower Yosemite Falls hike. It was all paved and a very easy hike which was perfect for the first day.

This is El Cap. It's a famous rock face that climbers climb. This is NOT what Derrick and I climbed. Maybe one day :)

Yosemite Falls!

Stunning right?

How is this place real?

The final hike of the day was a bridal veil hike. Apparently there are a lot of Bridal Veils throughout the US. We had a very close encounter with a deer. Did you know that more people get injured in Yosemite by deer than any other animal? They come up for food and if you feed them and then run out of food, they will punch you in the face! What????

On our way out of the park for the day we stopped at this vista point. Seriously...how can this be real? Doesn't it just look like a painting?

The next day was rock climbing but that's a whole other post!! If Yosemite isn't on your bucket list yet these pictures should have convinced you by now.