Five on Friday

Here we are... first day of September, Labor Day weekend and thus, the first weekend of fall!! This makes me so excited - fall is truly my favorite season but let's be real, it's going to stay hot for quite a while. And to kick off our Labor Day weekend, we are going to Epcot for the first weekend of Food and Wine and then over to MK to see the fall decorations. We are pumped! Time to get into today's 5:

One

So since it's now fall, I ended up picking up this chambray dress from Old Navy yesterday and can't wait to pair it with booties or boots and a scarf. I was hoping to be able to wear it for casual Friday's at work but it's slightly short in the front (I'm 5'10") so I'll just wear it outside of work ;)

via                                                              via

I also just saw J Crew restocked the shirt I wanted earlier this year but sold out... Let's see if I end up getting it ;)

Two

This past weekend I tried out 2 new recipes and both turned out delicious! I finally made Jessi's taco dip which was ah-mazing!! I'm now making it for our cookout next weekend :) Also, for our girl's night last weekend, I made a GF dessert because one of our friend's is GF. I made peanut butter cheesecake brownies and they were so delicious - maybe better than regular brownies!

Three

Okay, even though I said I wasn't going to do anymore recap posts, I realized I have 2 more things to recap on... my bad. Stephen's family wanted to celebrate our birthday's and since we had been traveling, we got together a few weeks later; after we moved my BIL & SIL in to their rental in Orlando. Stephen loves Red Robin and since it's a child-friendly place, that's where we decided to go - it was the perfect place to go and we had a lot of fun.

Four

The week after my conference in Napa, CA I hopped on a plane and went to a conference in Nashville, TN. I never blogged about that trip and while it wasn't as grand as Napa, I wanted to make sure it was still captured. Stephen stayed behind for this one because we had just gone to Nashville less than a year ago. I had a great time and for our big customer event, we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame - it was a really neat place but I'm glad I didn't spend any money to go there since I don't listen to country music and didn't know who 3/4 of the people were. Our biggest surprise of the night was after dinner in the rotunda, they had country music writers and singers, Billy Montana and Steve Dean perform their hit songs and tell us stories. It was so neat and such a special thing to get to see. 

Five

How many of y'all shopped the Lilly sale? I was staying away until my girlfriends at work had a huge group text about it so I got curious... After sitting in line for over 2 hours, I finally got in to check things out. I almost bought 1 dress but they sold out of my size right before I checked out. I may or may not have picked up a birthday gift for someone though ;)

Lastly, I'm considering offering some pre-orders for these sherpa pull over jackets. I've never done pre-orders before but I wanted to see if anyone is interested! Let me know if you'd be interested in pre-ordering a monogrammed sherpa pullover :)

As another plug for PPE ;) Be sure to check out our Facebook and Instagram pages for a fun Christmas announcement today!

I hope everyone has an amazing long weekend!!

My 26th Birthday

Even though it's been over a month since my birthday, I wanted to make sure it got documented on the blog because, you know, this is a digital scrapbook ;)

My birthday was on Sunday, July 9th, which was 1 day after we got back from our HHI vacation. Stephen kept asking me what I wanted to do and I couldn't decide - usually I would've said the beach or pool but we just got back from a whole week at the beach. Stephen never plans anything and usually never does surprise activities so you could imagine how happy I was when he told me he had the whole day planned out!! He did such a great job and made me feel so special the whole day!!

When we woke up, he told me we were doing an escape room over in Orlando, eating lunch, visiting Downtown Disney and watching the fireworks - all with our good friends! I was super pumped and so thankful our friends sacrificed an entire Sunday to drive all the way to Orlando to spend the day with us :) We realized that if we went to church, we would miss our escape room appointment so we listened to a sermon on the way over then conquered the Cuban Missile Crisis room - it was soo much fun!!

We worked up an appetite trying to escape so Stephen let me pick the restaurant for lunch - I decided on the Columbia over in Celebration. That place has such great Cuban food and our friends had never been there before. After lunch, we headed over to Downtown Disney for some shopping, walking around and of course, Ghirardelli's!

I got some surprise flan with a candle for my birthday :)

The Japanese store was having their one year anniversary party so they had origami and a "photo booth" with a ninja

After Downtown Disney, we wanted to show Josh and Elyssa the Magic Kingdom hotels so we took a bus to the Polynesian and walked around the Polynesian, the Grand Floridian and ended up at the Contemporary. We walked the outside stairs all the way to the roof and watched the fireworks to close out a great day!!

It was such a fun way to bring in 26 and I'm so thankful for everyone in my life and for those who made me feel so special!! Here's to 26!!

Linking up with Jessi

Hilton Head Island Part 1 | A Renewal, A Birthday & July 4th

I'm finally getting around to recapping our vacation to Hilton Head Island this year. I can't begin to tell you how this trip fell at the perfect time - Stephen and I were literally losing our minds and we came back so refreshed and ready for the rest of the month. I've been going to HHI for as long as I can remember and usually, we always go with our long time family friends, the Stones. This year, Stephen joined us along with our friend, Daniel's fiance, Charlsey. It was a very eventful week but oh so relaxing.

Stephen and I arrived on Saturday afternoon right before my parents headed out to do some grocery shopping. After we claimed our rooms and my parents left, we rode bikes and discovered a croquet course near our condo.

Shirts

Once my parents got back, we cleaned up and walked to Harbour Town for dinner at Crazy Crab. After dinner, we walked around, window shopped and watched the new, local band perform before racing back to the condo to beat the storm.

My Shirt | Similar Shorts | Caroline's Shirt

Since it was only the 5 of us that night, we decided to give our parents their anniversary gift a day before their vow renewal. I put together a framed list of stats that had happened within their 30 years of marriage and my sister made an adorable book of 30 lessons we've learned from them over the years. Thankfully, they still love our homemade gifts even though we're in our 20's lol

Sunday was the big renewal day so we headed to the beach with my dad for a little bit before he had to leave for golf. My mom and sister met us there and we hung out until early afternoon then we headed back and jumped in the pool for a few minutes. Afterwards, a storm rolled in and we got ready for the vow renewal.

On July 4th, my parents celebrated their 30th anniversary. Since they didn't want to do a vow renewal on the 4th they did it on the 2nd. It was supposed to be on the beach but of course, a big storm rolled in and we couldn't go to the beach. The Beach Club at Sea Pines was so accommodating and thankfully, a big group had just cancelled the upstairs ball room - it was setup for us to use and they let us use the area without charge! We were so appreciative and it worked out better than the beach because everyone could hear the ceremony and our hair didn't get ruined ;)

My parents were so sweet and asked my sister and me to officiate the ceremony since they were already legally married. All I have to say is thank goodness for online vow renewal ceremonies lol! We found one we liked and then added or removed things we did/didn't want to say. It worked out really well and Stephen said it went better than he expected ;)

So thankful our family friends could join us!

After the ceremony and pictures, we had dinner in the beach club dinning room. By that time, the rain had cleared up so we went to the beach for some pictures and sparklers.

We were very proud of this one ;)

Monday was Stephen's birthday and our first big day at the beach. We got to the beach early and spent all day there! It was so nice and relaxing! Unfortunately, I didn't go in the water much because they had a lot of sting rays... boo marine life ;) We beat the storm getting home and since we couldn't jump in the pool, we got ready for the early bird special at Alexander's.

Hat / Swim Suit

Tuesday was July 4th and we had big plans to spend the whole day at the beach. Thankfully the weather was perfect. We definitely enjoyed relaxing at the beach, swimming in the pool afterwards and having a fun cookout before going to the 18th hole of Harbour Town golf course and watching the fireworks. 

Hat

It was a perfect beginning to our vacation and with tons to celebrate!! Unfortunately, July 4th was my sister's last full day with us because she needed to get home and head up to Indy for her big girl job!!

Linking up with Jessi