Botany Bay

Mike and I have been down in Charleston for the last week. It has been raining a lot while we've been here but we have been able to have some fun despite the weather. One of the fun things we wanted to do was go to the beach. So my dad told us about Botany Bay Plantation down on Edisto Island. Its a really pretty beach and the best part is there aren't very many people (especially since it had been raining so they all ran away...it stopped after about 2 mins and we were able to enjoy a basically deserted beach and no rain :)

This beach is covered in beautiful shells! They are perfect and so pretty. The sad part is that you can't remove them from the beach (yes they have people watching you to make sure) but the nice part is that people have taken the ones they have found and displayed them on the beach. So on the fallen trees there are rows of shells that everyone can look at and enjoy :)

We had a lot of fun playing in the waves too :)

Look at them tan lines

Good times had by all :)

Birthdays! Birthdays! Birthdays!

May is a crazy month for birthdays in our family (which is why this post is being written in June). I LOVE birthdays! I love celebrating my birthday but I also love making other people's birthdays special. (I'm only going to blog about 2 of the birthday's this month but that's because these are the only 2 I was around for....I hope the others had fabulous days as well)

My dad's birthday always falls on Mother's Day weekend and also on the weekend of State for track. This year the state track meet was in Columbia and my dad had to be there. So Mike and I decided we would drive down and see him there. Then my mom suggested that we surprise him and drive down to Charleston. So we went to cheer his team on and when the meet was over we said goodbye and wished him a happy birthday.  Then we raced down to Charleston to beat him. We got to my parents house and my mom was set to go pick my dad up from the high school but luckily we made it in time to go pick him up. Boy was he surprised when he saw Mike and I drive up :) We continued to celebrate his birthday by taking him to see Iron Man 3 and then we went home and had a wonderful dinner with chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

At the end of May we celebrate another birthday....this time it was my birthday. This year I turned 23(still sounds funny) and I was so excited that my birthday fell on Memorial Day this year because that meant I didn't have to go to work. For my birthday I told Mike I wanted to sleep in and then go to the gym(yes even on my birthday I actually wanted to go spend at least an hour working out). Then I just wanted to relax at home until we went to the movies to see Great Gatsby and go to Red Robin for dinner. Best laid plans......

After I worked out I had a surprise waiting for me in my living room....my parents and little brother had come up from Charleston to spend the day with me! I was shocked! We began our day with presents!

This is a little flower cookie pan from Mike's family...it was pretty tasty!

 I have been telling Mike for a few months that I want to start canning food so guess what he got me! I'm so excited to be able to can some foods now.....now I just have to learn how to use it :)

 He also got me one of my favorite movies...Legally Blonde!

I also got some money from my family and Mike's which I enjoyed. I decided to use it to go shopping (shocker). I got some nice workout clothes and also some new summer clothes which I'll have to post pics of some time but trust me.....they're cute!

The only sad part about my family coming was that I didn't have a birthday cake. Originally when it was just going to be Mike and I, I told Mike I didn't want a whole cake for just the 2 of us so he made me pecan bars instead. He only made a half batch though so we didn't have enough for 5 people but if I had known their were going to be 5 of us I would have asked for a cake :( Oh well the pizza for lunch and Cookout milkshakes were delicious!! I decided to skip the movie and spend some time with my family so we played my favorite game....Clue!! The best part is that I won the game which I had never done before so I was pretty happy. After they left Mike took me out to dinner at Red Robin was was yummy as always then we had dessert at home and he sang Happy Birthday! to me.

The dessert was delicious and was the perfect ending to a great day! Hopefully 23 will be a great year! I'm happy my family was able to celebrate with me and that my husband worked so hard to make it a special day for me!

Easter 2013

It's hard to believe that last year at Easter Mike and I were sitting on the floor of our apartment, eating off paper plates because we were moving the next day. This year was much for relaxed and enjoyable. This year we asked my family to come up to Spartanburg so I could host Easter. It was nice to be at home for a holiday for once.

One thing I really wanted to do this year was dye Easter eggs. My brother and I had only does that once before so Mike and I bought a kit so we could all do it.

 It took awhile for the tablets to dissolve so Josh entertained us by making some funny/weird faces for the camera. I don't think we have a single normal face from him. 

Mike and his finished products. That yellow one took forever but it was really pretty

We wanted to get all of the eggs the next morning but Josh wouldn't wake up to take it so we could eat them. So we just put them on the blanket and told him to smile. I actually love this picture :)

My dad even made one :) His is blue and red...hmm I wonder why? Go Fort Dorchester! 

This year for dinner we decided to have baked potatoes, rolls, carrots and of course we made a brown sugar glazed ham. It was delicious! I was a little nervous since this was my first Easter dinner but everything turned out really well.

 

Mike was the master of the ham. I was going to make it but he totally took over and did it all :) He did a great job too! We had a great time going to church, playing games and going for walks and exploring the area a little more. We also had tons of delicious desserts that I didn't get pictures of. My dad taught me how to make a homemade lemon sponge pie which was so good and I made a banana cream and oreo pie too. I think we had enough desserts that we can go a few months without anything else :)

This year we decided not to go crazy on the presents and especially on the candy. I just asked for a chocolate bunny because that it tradition and its enough for me. Mike just wanted Hershey chocolate eggs so we were happy with our treats. We also decided to continue the tradition of giving books as gifts at Easter from Mike's family. So Mike bought me the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. I know its a little weird but I love Shakespeare so it was perfect. I bought Mike the complete works of Jules Verne. He loves the genre so it was perfect for him :) It was a simple Easter but it was fun and relaxing which is just how I like holidays to be.

Anniversary Trip

One of these days Mike and I will be able to celebrate our anniversary on the actual day. For the first two it was just because we were in Rexburg and it was just too far to go somewhere nice and fun during the week so we would do a little "trip" later. This year Mike was on spring break but I had to work. So we just had a nice dinner together and relaxed at home on our anniversary. We decided that our "trip" the next day was the present to each other but since I have a wonderful husband he had a surprise for me :)

I was lucky enough to get the day after our anniversary off so we decided to go down to Atlanta and visit the Georgia Aquarium. It was amazing! I was a little worried because the reviews were a little mixed. Some people said it was way too crowded, confusing to navigate and that they couldn't see anything. So these people I'm not sure what aquarium they went to but the one Mike and I went to was amazing....yes the aquarium had people in it but you have to expect that but it wasn't a crazy amount just normal. I think some people just want to have places like this to themselves. I didn't think it was confusing at all and we were able to see everything. Sometimes you just have to have this little thing called patience and wait an extra 2 seconds to get up to the glass or go to a different window and then go back. They had a tunnel in the ocean exhibit and the entrance to the tunnel was packed with people taking pictures but if you just walked inside the tunnel you could be all alone cause everyone was clogging the entrance...silly people.

Mike has been reading Moby Dick and loves it. When he saw the boat he was having a little too much fun playing captain.

I thought these frogs were so cute. The bottom one was kind of creepy though. His eyes followed us around.

The jelly fish were really pretty. If you stood far enough away they looked like a painting. I love the way jellyfish move in water. 

Japanese Fire Crabs

The beluga whales were pretty impressive but they weren't the brightest animals at the aquarium. They kept bumping into the glass and hitting their heads on the bottom of the tank. They were the most active though and fun to watch. 

Mike with an albino alligator 

The whale sharks were amazing! The biggest one was 27 ft long and the shortest was 25 ft long. The biggest one had a huge group of fish following her around. They will probably grow to about 40 ft long. Their were 4 of them in the tank and they swim about 100 miles a day. The manta rays were even more amazing than the whale sharks. I think they were more impressive. I expected the whale sharks to be big but the rays were 15 ft wide and did constant flips in the water. 

Last but not least the highlight of the trip for me....penguins! They were so cute and so much fun to watch. We got to watch them be fed and shake their heads no if they didn't want a fish. Then they dove into the water. I just love penguins!

After the aquarium we went to Olive Garden for dinner, as is tradition. We were some of the only people there and had really good food. All in all it was a wonderful anniversary! I'm looking forward to many, many more! I love you Mike!