Lovely Ladies!

I got all kinds of girl time in the past week! First up, my sister, Kimberly, came up Wesneday night to work in Seattle after a few meetings that day in Portland. She got to stay through Saturday morning which was awesome! Friday night we actually got to go to the Seattle Sounders game. It was a great game and we won! I love that Seattle is so into soccer, it's such a great atmosphere!

After I dropped Kimberly off at the airport Saturday morning, I got ready for my next girly adventure, the Zach Brown Band concert with a few crosfitt ladies! It was out at The Gorge, which is a natural amphitheater along the Columbia river around the middle of the state. We got out there early afternoon on Saturday and started it off right with some wine tasting at the winery that I'm a member of, Cave B.

After we got our little campsite organized, we headed over to the concert and claimed a spot with our blankets. The concert was awesome! It's such feel good music, and I definitely did a few knee slappin' dances to it. I love country music!!

 The venue was absolutely stunning and I had such a great night camping it with my ladies!

Smith Smith Smash Part 2!!

It happened...Evelyn and Nathan got married!! We flew out bright and early Friday morning for the big weekend and met up with some friends in Atlanta who picked us up so we could join them to Lake Martin in Alabama where the wedding would be. Evelyn amazingly found us an awesome rental house on the lake that we filled with 11 of us. There were also several other houses being rented on the lake for other wedding guests and the house the wedding was at was also on the lake. Since everything we'd be doing all weekend would be located on the lake, we decided to rent a pontoon boat that all 11 of us could fit on and transport ourselves between venues. After picking up the boat we got everyone from the house and hopped over to the first event of the weekend, the welcome party!

Driving the boat home in the dark was a bit of a challenge, but we made it and it was so much fun! Saturday started out with a brunch at another house on the lake, so we boated on over there!

Saturday night was wedding night, so as the wedding party was getting all primped up and taking pictures, the rest of us took the extra hours to get in some lake time and took the boat out. We docked at a little island and a few of the guys did some cliff jumping while we all floated around in the sun.

When it was wedding time, we all boated on over for that too! It's definitely the first time I've ever shown up to a wedding in a boat. That was pretty awesome. We got there a little early so Liz and I could help out by taking polaroids of all the guests as they arrived. That's what they were doing instead of a guestbook, then each guest could write a little note with their photo, it was so cute!

Then came the wedding. Of course it was amazing, and I'm so excited for Evelyn and Nathan for tying the knot, they are so amazing together! And then came the partying! I must admit, I slacked a little on the picture taking, so I'll be excited to see the pics the professional photographers took. I definitely had a blast cutting a rug on the dance floor though! The bride and groom left the ceremony on their boat...so cute, then we met up with them again at the 'party house' where we continued the partying late into the night.

Sunday we got moving in time to clean up the house, pack up, and hit the road/lake. Ryan and I took the boat back to the marina and Liz and Andrew met us there to take us back to Atlanta. Our flight was a little later, but we wanted to get back to Atlanta with a couple extra hours to meet up with Ryan's parents for a little bit. We did lunch and wandered around a nearby cemetery which had a ton of history in it, including a huge section dedicated to soldiers of the confederacy. It was really a pretty place, and it was nice that we got to spend a few hours with them before our flight.

Such a great weekend, and only two more days till our next bit of fun when Kimberly comes up to visit!!

Parental Visit

So the parents came into town! Mom and Dad drove up from SF after visiting all my siblings there. I convinced them to stop at Crater Lake on the way, which is something I've been wanting to do for a loooong time! Someday... The dropped off their rental car at the airport where we picked them up last Wednesday night and brought them home to a night of grilling at the house! Unfortunately I had to work on Thursday...and it rained most of the day, so mom and dad hung out at the house most of the day waiting for us to get home. I did, however, take Friday off of work, so that's when the real fun began! Ryan still had to work, so mom, dad, Ben, and I spent the morning wandering through discovery park and enjoying the sunshine.

We met up with Ryan for a delicious Mexican lunch where mom and I stuck around and rented kayaks for a few hours. Yes, the Mexican restaurant rents kayaks...that is awesome. It was such a perfect day for being on the water, and it was great exercise too paddling around the lake for a few hours!

We headed home after kayaking and waited for Ryan to get back from work. The evening was spent walking around the neighborhood, getting some good views, seeing a house Ryan designed, and some delicious pizza and wine. I love being able to walk everywhere on a nice summer night!

Saturday was game day! Being home for the Auburn game was a bit of a priority, so we just went out for a little brunch and a walk around greenlake to get some fresh air before heading home to catch the afternoon game. We won.

Unfortunately mom and dad had to head home early Sunday morning. We spent the rest of the weekend doing a little yard work, relaxing, and watching a lot of 'Homeland'. Have you seen it? We're hooked at the moment. It's a lot easier for me to get into a show when I can watch several episodes in a row...which we did...several times...

Smith-Smith Smash Part One!

Last weekend I got to spend a few days with a few of my favorite people in the whole wide world! I flew out bright and early Friday morning for Charleston, SC and met up with the party animals at an awesome hotel right on Folly Beach. My good friend Evelyn is getting married in two weeks, so this was her bachelorette party weekend!! It ended up being a group of 4 of my best friends from college, and 3 of Evelyn's awesome friends/family. It was such a great group and we had a blast! 

After a quick drink at the hotel beach bar and a few drinks in the hotel room, we headed out for a night of delicious seafood and some serious white girl dancing!

When we got home, apparently the lovely bride to be decided it would be a brilliant idea to jump in the hotel pool fully clothed. It looked like a good time, so we all followed suit and jumped in! As could be expected, the hotel security came out and asked us to get out. We played stupid and apologized, then to our surprise, he asked us if we were actual guests of the hotel and what our room number was. When we gave it to him, he said he'd let us stay in if we kept the noise down!

Friday night was a great start to the weekend of celebrations!!

Saturday morning started with lunch on the beach and a few hours of beach time.

After our beaching it was time to go out on the town! Evelyn's cousin had made us reservations at a great place in Charleston so we started our night there, and did a night out in the big (not so big) city of Charleston. 

After a delicious dinner we found our way to a strange rooftop bar. It was definitely trying to be super swanky, and it was a little, but there was a super strange convergence of people there. One side had a wide range of much older people, then there were the people that looked like they were on a first date at a hot spot...and then there were the bachelorette parties...about 6 of them! This prompted Eduardo and Walton to corral them all into a bachelorette dance off!

After the bridal war, we all spent the rest of the night partying it up and boogying on the dance floor!

So that was really hard to narrow down photos for this blog, and I have a couple hundred more too! Did I mention that I really like to take photos! We had such an amazing 2 nights of fun the South Carolina, and I love all of these people so much! 

Sunday everyone headed their separate ways. The best part of ended this trip though is that we'll all be seeing each other again in just 2 weeks! That is so awesome and I can't wait to see them all again for round 2 of the Smith-Smith Smash (Evelyn's last name is Smith and her soon to be husband's last name is Smith...no relation, so they awesomely don't have to worry about any name changing after this wedding!)

My flight wasn't till a little later, so I hung out with Liz and Laura who were driving back to ATL. We walked the pier and had lunch in Charleston before they dropped me off at the airport and headed home too! Did I mention that I absolutely adore all these people!!