SC Summer Visit

Most of our visit this summer was spent in Charleston, which was awesome. I wrote about it here. We got back to Greenville late on Wednesday afternoon. We spent the rest of the week relaxing, shopping, and eating at our favorite restaurants in Greenville.

On Thursday, Brad drove down to Augusta, Georgia to visit the Deere plant down there. Since he was gone all day and dad was working, mom and I spent the day together. We visited her office, had lunch, put Dayton down for nap and spent some quality time together. Nothing exciting - just being home. On Friday, Brad and I got up for a run, did a little shopping, and then after Dayton's nap the four of us went to the water park.

Friday night, we went to our favorite restaurant, Tupelo Honey. A-mazing! I love downtown Greenville. It's one of the things that I miss the most from home.

Saturday morning we all went on a hike in Paris Mountain State Park. I used to go hiking here all of the time with friends. It's beautiful and there are so many trails that range from easy to hard. We took the easy one. I carried Dayton in the ergo carrier on the way up and Brad carried him on the way down. Adding an almost 30 pounds will give you a good work out!

We drove back home on Sunday with an added passenger...my sister! Yep, Jaimie came back to Iowa with us and visited for a week. That post coming up next! I'm so glad we were able to visit home. I miss the sun, the heat, the food, and most of all my family. Another memorable trip in the books!

Charleston 2015

It's official. We've made Charleston a yearly trip when we visit South Carolina. I love everything about that city. I don't know if you can get any more southern than Charleston! It's just gorgeous. This year, we left for the south on Saturday, arrived at my parents Saturday night, spent the day in Greenville on Sunday, and left for Charleston on Monday. The drive was fairly quick. When we arrived, we walked around the market district and then headed over to a downtown brewery called,
T-Bonz. Yum. The hubs and I visited this place on our mini-moon, so we make this place a regular visit. Besides, the beer list is awesome.

After dinner, we headed out to our beach front hotel. Each year that we've visited Charleston, we stay at the Tides on Folly Beach. I think next year, we're looking to rent a beach house for the week! This girl loves the sun, the sand, and the ocean. My soul needs it. I am telling you! I will always be a beach girl. Always. After we checked in, we all went down to the beach to take a walk and let Dayton play in the water. We took Dayton to the beach last year when he was 16 weeks old, so this was his first time knowing what was going on. As you can see, we had so much fun watching him discover the ocean! This kid. He cracks me up!

I'm not quite sure why the video is so blurry, but you get it! Our second day in Charleston was a beach day. We headed out early enough in the morning that it wasn't too hot for Dayton. He loved it. I knew he was mine! We had a fun morning of playing in the sand, playing in the small pools, and playing in the water. I fed Dayton his lunch in our hotel room and then he took his nice long afternoon nap. Thanks to my mom, the rest of us laid out on the beach and by the pool all afternoon. The hubs and I took advantage of the pool side service and had a few drinks! Best beach day. ever.

Tuesday night we went to dinner at an amazing restaurant that serves traditional southern cuisine! Right before dinner, a storm warning popped up. Look at those clouds! Rain in the south is something else. There was a flash flood on the streets as you can see below. Luckily, we made it to dinner just fine. I had the chicken and waffles, the hubs had shrimp and grits, and the rest of the fam had some other delicious southern meals. Dayton ate a little bit of everything! After dinner we headed back to the hotel and took a few family photos.

On Wednesday, we headed out early to the beach. We didn't have much time before we had to check out of our hotel and I wanted to soak up our last moments out near the water. It was very humid out and my camera was having a hard time with it. Ugh. We could have gotten some awesome pictures, but my lens kept fogging up. I'm going to have to look into that!

After we cleaned up from the beach, we headed to lunch at Hyman's (a must stop) and to walk around the free market. Thank you for being beautiful Charleston. I love you!

Savannah is for Lovers

Savannah, Georgia is a gorgeous southern city. Gorgeous. It is definitely in my top ten favorite places to visit. Since our little fam was headed down south for spring break, the hubs and I decided to add on some extra plans for our vacation. We drove down to my parents house on Saturday, hung out on Sunday, then we left Dayton with my parents and headed down to Savannah for a few days for a little "no kids" getaway. It was much needed and we enjoyed every second of it.

I will admit, I was a little nervous to leave Dayton for two and a half days, but I did pretty well. He's in a "mama only" phase and I'm still nursing, so that made me a little apprehensive as well. I choked up a bit when we left, but other than that I was okay! Obviously, we missed our sweet little guy like crazy, but it was really good for the two of us to get away and act "not like parents" for a little bit. My mom and sister sent me plenty of photos of lil' bit too which helped!

The hubs and I drove to Savannah Monday morning, arrived around lunch time and explored the city. The one thing we kind of forgot about was St. Patrick's Day. St. Patrick's Day is huge in Savannah. I knew that they celebrated the holiday in a big way, but we hadn't realized the extent of the celebrations. It was fine though. We did our thing while everyone else did their St. Patrick's Day thing. We did partake in the festivities at night and enjoyed all of the live music, people watching, and holiday fun.

We started our getaway by exploring the city on Monday afternoon. We could not have planned better weather on Monday and Tuesday. It was amazingly beautiful and warm! I wore shorts. It made me so so happy. I can't even explain my need for warm weather and sun to you. Anyways, Monday night we ate at a southern restaurant called, a.lure. It. was. delicious. I mean, delicious! We both love southern cuisine and this place was great! After dinner, we walked around River Street and downtown watching all of the holiday celebrating and listening to the live music. In Savannah, you can walk around with drink in hand, which we did the entire time we were there. (It was kind of nice to have a drink and not have to worry or think about nursing/pumping, etc.!)

Tuesday morning we slept in a bit and then headed down to our hotels spa to enjoy our couples massage. The hubs had booked these for us in advance. Good job bear! It was amazing, of course, and much needed. After our massages, we packed up and headed to the beach Tybee Island is about a 20 minute drive from Savannah. I love Tybee Island. Such a pretty beach! We got there around 11 am and just laid in the sun for a few hours. Just what this girl needed. I'm a beach girl. Always have been, always will be.

Tybee Island

For a late lunch, we headed to the famous Crab Shack. Yum! The "real" Crab Shack is a simple place with the most delicious low country boil seafood. We shared the sampler platter that had shrimp, potatoes, crab, mussels, sausage, and king crab legs. Since we were pretty hungry, we also ordered the bbq pork nachos. All of it was amazing! If you're ever in Savannah, you have to go to the Crab Shack. It is well worth it!

The Crab Shack

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to clean up. I had previously found a bucket list blog that had written about Savannah (here), so we picked out a few things and headed downtown to check some things off of our own bucket list. First we headed to the Moon River brewery to eat dinner. The restaurant had an open patio, so we continued to enjoy the gorgeous weather as we ate and drank. Then we headed over to Leopold's (where the tutti frutti flavor was created), but they were closed due to the St. Patrick's Day festivities! I was so bummed, but we got a picture there (before we realized they were closed). After that disappointment, we walked a few blocks to Jen's and Friends. This place did not disappoint! Jen's has hundreds of creative martinis. I ordered the birthday cake martini and the hubs ordered the Bourbon Carmel Pecan martini. I am not a liquor drinker (at all), but this thing was so good. Props to Jen's!

St. Patrick's Day on River Street |  in front of Leopold's  |  Moon River brewery

enjoying a drink on River Street  |  downtown  |  River Street  |  birthday cake martini  |  live band

We had decided to take a ghost tour on Tuesday night as well, so to kill a little time we walked around downtown to partake in the St. Patrick's Day festivities. We sat outside on a bench, had a drink, and enjoyed the live bands. At 10 pm we were at the meet sight for the ghost tour. Our tour guide was very eccentric, but he was very knowledgeable about all of the murders, ghosts, voodoo, and spookiness of the city. I would highly recommend a ghost tour. It was fun! and if anything we heard a lot of history about the city.

Wednesday it was time to head home, but we did opt to drive through Augusta, Georgia and check out that area on the way home. I love the south. There's just no other place like it! We had  wonderful trip and are already looking forward to visiting Savannah again (when it's not St. Patrick's Day)!

Our Quick Trip...Surprise!

We had it all planned out - a surprise visit to see my family. My sister was going to help me pull it off. I took a personal day at work on the 24th,  Brad had looked up flights and found one that left from CR at 5 am, connected in Chicago, and landed in Greenville at 9:30 am. That would mean Dayton and I would have all of Friday and Saturday, as well as Sunday morning to spend with my parents! The best part? my parents had NO idea we were planning this. Well, my dad ended up finding out because he was being so stubborn about taking Friday off. My sister had convinced my mom to take that Friday off so that they could go on a shopping trip up to Charlotte. See what I mean?? Perfect!

Yep, it was perfect. All up until the day we were supposed to leave for Greenville. Brad had dropped Dayton and I off at his sister Beth's house Thursday night since we would be leaving so early Friday morning. I woke up at 3 am and saw that my flight had been cancelled!! due to FOG?! Fog people. Yes, fog. So I called the airport, and called, and called but was sent to voice mail every time! Finally, I borrowed Beth's car and drove to the airport. All of the flights had been cancelled until around noon, so I knew they would be re-booking us. I stood in line for almost 2 hours. Finally, I got our flight re-booked and we would get to Greenville at 4:30 pm.

I drove back to Beth's, got Dayton and I ready, and then Beth took us to the airport. Between checking in and getting to our gate, our flight had been diverted because it couldn't land! and would have a major delay. UGH!! Long story short? We spent a lot of time at the airport. Can I just stop and say that my baby is an absolute angel?! Not one cry, whine, or "meh" out of him the entire day. I couldn't believe it! He was smiling, laughing, flirting with all of the ladies, nursing, eating, and cuddling all like the happy little man he is! He was held by a bunch of little old ladies, played with an older couple headed to Florida, and get this...got up on his hands and knees and took a "crawl" for the first time! in the airport. without his dad present. Ha! of course. Anywho, we finally got on a plane (praise Jesus!!) at 3 pm, landed in Chicago, had lunch/dinner, and then flew to Greenville. We landed in Greenville at 9:30 pm. Yep, 12 whole hours after we were originally supposed to land. The surprise was ruined, but none the less, my parents were very happy to see us! Surprise!

We enjoyed every minute of Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning. I was so homesick and Dayton hadn't seen my parents in almost 3 months. They change too quickly at this stage! I got to spend so much time with my family and I cherished every second of watching my parents and sister with Dayton. I love you guys. More than I can tell you. I miss you every single day.

Here's a few pictures from our trip. Did it go as planned? No. Was that frustrating? Yes. Did it all work out? Sure did. And you know what? God is good. He put the nicest people in my path on Friday and made the whole day go as smoothly as possible.

Home in SC

Home sweet home. I miss it all of the time, but the ache gets even worse when we actually get down south and I realize yet again, how much I love the south and home. Don't get me wrong, we love CF, but there's nothing quite like the south. And yes, the hubs totally agrees!

We were so lucky to be able to fly home in late February for a Baby Shower that my family threw for us (read more here). We flew out on Friday morning from -5 degrees in Iowa, arrived Friday afternoon to 70 degrees in Greenville. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. We enjoyed the sun, spent time with my parents, and went out to eat at our spot, Tsunami, in downtown. Yum! Our shower was Saturday morning and we spent the rest of Saturday afternoon enjoying friends, family, and everything we love about our town. Sigh.

Sunday morning we went to a new restaurant that some friends had told us about - one that we had to go to. Boy are we glad we did! You can't get any more of the southern cookin' deliciousness than Tupelo Honey (anyone singing the Tim McGraw song in their head?!). A-ma-zing. I did get some pictures of this amazing experience and I'm counting down the days until we go back! We had brunch, but I need to eat at this place for lunch and dinner at some point in the near future.

I need to try tons of these...when I'm not prego or nursing...

My delish omelet and home cooked potatoes

That right there my friends, is a sweet potato pancake. Yep, with peach butter. Best thing ever!

The sis's fried chicken, biscuits and gravy.

It will always be...Home sweet home.