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

Weekending

We had the best weekend hanging around the house and it was bliss! Friday after work, we had an exciting date night at our local Aldi picking up a few things for dinner and then after we got back, I gave Stephen a haircut - real exciting things ;) After dinner, we finished watching Tangled and headed to bed with no alarm clock set.

We actually slept in for the first time in who knows how long and after seeing an email for 50% off jeans at Old Navy, I ran out to the mall. I didn't end up finding anything but popped into Homegoods afterwards and spotted the perfect bench for our entry way. I've been looking for a bench for our entry for a while now and haven't been able to find the right one. I love the shape of this one and that it's all wood so I don't have to worry about kids putting their shoes all over it. After convincing Stephen it would fit, I brought it home and it looks perfect!

Now, I just need to find some pillows that coordinate well with the ones in the pictures because those are on our chairs on the opposite side of the room. I love floral pillows like this, this and this.

After getting the bench setup, we had lunch and then I cleaned the whole house. It felt so good to have a clean house where I actually cleaned everything and not just a quick vacuum. After cleaning, I painted my nails and watched 3 episodes of Southern Charm before getting ready for the white party. 

The white party was in downtown Orlando and was a lot of fun! It was for a great cause and we enjoyed getting to catch up with friends. I loved wearing my new dress and we made it to bed around 2 am that night. 

Our alarms came very quickly Sunday morning but we rallied and headed to church. After church, we had lunch with our friends and by the time we finished and ran to Publix, it was after 3. I took a quick nap while Stephen mowed and then got to work on some embroidery and getting ready for the week ahead. It's too bad there's not another day to recover but it was a slow weekend which was much needed. 

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!! Linking up with Biana

Five on Friday

Woo hoo! Three cheers for Friday and my first FoF in a month lol We're so excited because tomorrow night, we have a white party at a club in downtown Orlando. We're going to support our friends and to hang out with my BIL & SIL - plus, I've never gone to an all white party ;) Thankfully, other than that, the weekend will be pretty slow (praise) so I'm hoping to relax and take a nap or two.

One
One thing you might not know about us is that Stephen and I love Sperry shoes. I mean, Stephen made a cheesy pick up line over Sperry's which I instantly fell for ;) so they're something close to our hearts. They recently released a line of sneakers and I've been needing a good pair of neutral sneakers so Stephen got these sneakers for my birthday and I love them! They're so comfy and light weight - I can't wait to wear them to Disney next weekend :) Funny thing is, I opened them the morning of my birthday and later that day, Stephen found a pair he liked at a great price so he got a pair too!

Two
My blog friend, Kelsey recently released her own line of planners. Y'all, she has put so much into this project and earlier this week, she held a live session to go through her planners. The planners turned out so amazing!!! She has beautiful patterns for the covers, two different types of planners and the inside is amazing. My organizational self loves how they're laid out and I can't wait to get my hands on one for 2018! They're really nothing like I've ever seen before. Go check out what they look like on the inside and outside from her live session on facebook.

Three
After finishing our stint of English shows and since we've been traveling so much, we haven't been able to get into a good TV show lately. For the past few years, everyone's been talking about how much they love Southern Charm. I decided to finally start it and I love it - so interesting and now I wish I watched this before our recent trip to Charleston! lol

Four
A few weeks ago, our friends mentioned a podcast they really liked called Up and Vanished and since I have such a long drive to work, I decided to check it out. Well, I'm officially hooked and have 3 episodes left until I finish it... it's so good. The podcast looks into an 11 year old "cold" murder case which hasn't been solved. There are so many twists to the story and it might even get solved throughout the podcast which is nuts! It definitely keeps you intrigued (legit I don't feel sleepy on my drives while listening lol)

Five
Alright ladies, for Stephen's birthday, I got him a smoker box to attach to the side of his grill. We attempted to smoke some pulled pork which resulted in a big fail... We really need to get on our smoke game because we're hosting a cookout next month and would love to smoke something like pulled pork since it makes so much food. I need any good smoker recipes that y'all have!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Thoughts for Thursday - Coffee Talk

I've been seeing these type of blog posts around for a little while and thought it'd be fun to participate for my first blog in a month. If we were having coffee, I'd tell you:

• I cannot believe I did not write a single blog post the entire month of July. This has been the longest I've ever gone without blogging and I'm not going to lie - I liked it and missed it at the same time. With everything going on, it was so nice not to worry about having to write a blog post and having a full evening to myself (even if it was only once or twice) where I could read a book and go to sleep before 9:30. I also greatly missed it; mainly because of the connections here. Blogging brings all of us closer and I missed the daily interactions with everyone. I also missed logging all the events in our lives; and trust me, there were a lot in July

• My sister brought the book The Woman in Cabin 10 with her to HHI so I could read it. I knew I wanted to read it because I've heard such good things about the book and my sister really liked it. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint!! There were so many twists to the story - I was captivated.

• A few weeks ago, I took a training class at work and they showed us this crazy video of a guy climbing a cell tower to replace a light bulb. I could barely watch the video (I'm terrified of heights)... so crazy people do this for a living!

• Next week, I am going to finally chop my hair off! I'm more of a short-hair girl but it started getting fairly long so I decided to keep growing it and donate it. I'm having a love hate relationship with my long hair because it takes forever to do and gets tangled so easily but it's something different and I can do a mean french braid to keep it pulled back. However, I'm very excited to have short hair again - you can see some of my inspiration here

• My BIL, SIL and niece have officially moved back to the area and it's been so nice! Even though they've been here for less than 2 weeks, we moved them in and then Stephen got to see them while I was out last weekend and this coming weekend we will see them for a fun party. It's so nice to have them close by again!

• Speaking of the fun party, Stephen and I are going to a white party on Saturday night! We're super excited for this and all proceeds go to the Down Syndrome Association which is fun because our friends' baby is the poster baby for this party :) While in TN with my mom, we found this adorable white dress (couldn't find it online) and it'll be perfect for this party! You best believe the ending sequence from White Chicks will be playing in my head all night ;)

I'm going to leave it at this for today :) I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. Get ready for a lot of July recap because I want to make sure it's captured in this space! Linking up with Annie