why must the weekend end?

This weekend was so much fun. We packed a to into a little bit of time and I am honestly whooped as I type this. The weekend was one of those that you didn't want to end because we both hung out with friends and got to do a lot of (new) things.

Friday night I went to spin class (a first) at my YMCA. It wasn't as hard as I anticipated, but it was also a great workout and I was drenched with sweat when I left! I headed to the grocery store to pick up some beer -- Abita Purple Haze and Sweetwater Blue it was -- so good! Tyler was getting his hunting stuff together to go dove hunting at the farm on Saturday, so I sipped on the beer while he got ready.

Saturday I met my friend (she's also my coworker) Caroline at her gym to try a barre class. I've been DYING to try one and finally got a chance since she had a "bring a friend to class" pass. I had no idea what to expect but kept an open mind. While it was a really challenging workout, I also felt great afterwards and am feeling it now!! It was nice to go with a friend who was used to going, and I'm glad I don't have to "commit" to it right now; I am just going to visit when I'm over in Bluffton.

After the class, we met up with another friend, had lunch at the Frosty Frog on Hilton Head (hello amazing Jungle Juice daiquiri) and hit the beach with mojitos. The weather was absolutely perfect at the beach at Sea Pines was almost empty! After a few hours and a little sun, we went back to shower and have girls night!

I feel like I haven't had girls night in a really long time and it was SO GOOD to meet new girls to start hanging out with! We had some drinks before dinner then headed to Wise Guys back on Hilton Head. We decided on the tapas and had the calamari, sliders, lobster risotto, goat cheese, and stuffed mushrooms. So so good, and a great amount of food for 5 girls to split! I drove back home to Beaufort (about an hour away), so I dropped the girls off at a bar and headed home for the night. Good thing, since they told me they stayed out until 3:30!

Seriously counting down to another weekend to hang out again!

Sunday Tyler and I visited a church (we are trying to decide between two), and I did a lot of cleaning in the house before going to dinner at a friends' house. Tyler has become really good buds with my coworker and we had dinner with them for the first time. So much fun!

Did I mention Tyler went hunting all day Saturday with a friend? I'd say they did pretty well:

165 doves killed by 11 guys. Pretty impressive. And I think Sarge had a blast. Poor thing has been moping around all Sunday from running around and getting the birds. 

So there's my weekend in a nutshell. Why did it have to end!!??

How was yours?

weekend in houston

Hello hello!

Excuse my absence- we were having a blast in Houston and trying to regroup from such a fun time. We did a lot of things in just three days and it was awesome!

Friday afternoon Tyler and I drove to Charleston to hop on a plane to Houston. We had a short flight and arrived in Houston just in time for dinner! Tyler's brother Cameron and his wife Lissy picked us up and then we headed to their apartment for some grub. They cooked delicious lamb burgers with pitas, a fabulous salad, and couscous. I need cooking lessons from them! Oh, and wine of course! After dinner we walked a few blocks to a bar to meet up with a few of their friends. We met them last year at their wedding in Rhode Island so it was nice to hang out with complete strangers. Funny enough, their couple friends were flying to Charleston for Labor Day weekend.

Saturday I met up with Whitney from The Observant Turtle who lives in Houston and is from SC! This is the second time we have gotten together and of courseee food was involved! We had a fabulous brunch at Tiny Boxwoods and I had THE BEST watermelon lemonade I've ever ever ever had. Seriously, I couldn't get enough. And my granola, yogurt, and fruit was super too, but y'all the watermelon lemonade!! I want some right now!! We had a great catch-up as always and of course ended with a "see you soon" because hopefully I will get to see her later this month!

When I got back to meet the fam, they were geared up and ready to go sample BBQ. Keep in mind, i'd just eaten breakfast an hour prior!

We started at Virgie's BBQ and had brisket, sausage, ribs, baked beans, and potato salad. Oh and Big Red..... Texas friends- what is that stuff and do you like it!!? I felt like it was carbonated kool-aid and kind of hated it, but loved it at the same time!

Texas BBQ = beef not pork

It was obviously delicious.

Second stop was Gatlins BBQ but they weren't taking orders thanks to a catering order. After standing in line half an hour, we left and tried to go to an ice house that served BBQ, but they were closed! Finally we landed at one more place to get in a second sampling of BBQ. I was so full I totally missed the name of the restaurant!

Hello fried okra!

Tyler and Cameron went to the gun store for the afternoon while Lis and I went to the pool. I was like a blimp after all of the food I'd eaten! Then of course we showered and got ready for the CLEMSON GAME!!!

The four of us and a friend hopped in the car to get a table to watch the Clemson/Georgia game at Black Finn Grille where the Clemson alumni gather to watch the games. We had on all of our orange and got a great table and lots of beer! I had shrimp tacos which were decent, but it was OK since I was consuming plenty of beer (OK probably too much). We had so much fun screaming and yelling and ooh-ing and ahh-ing. We even met a couple originally from SC who went to Clemson who is friends with one of my friends and knows exactly where I grew up. It's such a small world people! After pulling out a great WIN we went home!

Sunday we woke up (with raging headaches- me at least), had breakfast (do you sense a food pattern here), and drove to George Bush Park to shoot skeet. Friends, let me warn you. Never ever shoot a gun while hungover. My head was pounding and every time I shot I could feel little blood vessels popping! I had beginners luck... We'll not beginners because been shooting a gun since I was very young, but I hit the clay the first shot I took. I think Ty was amazed. I, honestly, was quite amazed and then I was ready to go... Impatient much?

Trying to make things colorful.

A monogrammed gun case. NOW I have seen it all......

Of course, we had to grab some food (duh) after shooting up an appetite and Cam and Lis suggested Vietanamese food. I was super skeptical because usually my post-beer food is greasy, buttttt while in Houston you must eat like Texans! We drove through China town (this city is crazy) and had sweet and sour chicken at Que Huong. Thank goodness for Foursquare or I'd never remember the names of these places. I must say, it wasn't as crazy as I had anticipated!

Sweet and sour chicken- tomatoes, green onions, pineapple, onions + rice

And no trip to Texas is complete without boot shopping. Tyler is now a new proud owner of a new pair of Justin boots thanks to Cavendar's! I opted out of boots since I already have a pair and I don't wear them often, but it was so much fun trying on all kinds of crazy cowboy boots! We were so tired when we got back from our outing that Ty and I took a nap while Cam and Lis went to the pool. Before dinner, we all went downstairs to the gym to run off a few of the millions of calories we'd consumed over the weekend!

To wrap up our foodie weekend, we had tex-mex for dinner on Sunday night. I had delicious chicken tacos at Ninfa's and we all indulged on queso and mojitos and beer for the guys. I was seriously stuffed!! It was fun to experience all kinds of foods this weekend... obviously. After watching The Great Gatsby (which I wasn't really a fan of by the way........), we crashed!

Monday we had breakfast at home (because that's important) and sadly packed to head back to SC. Before we left, though, we made a trip to Tyler and Cameron's friend's fire house. I felt like I was on a set from Chicago Fire! I'd never been in a fire house before. As I sat in the driver's seat of the firetruck, the siren went off and I FREAKED out... I just knew I'd hit some wrong button, but, no.... the guys were called out to an assault! I asked a million questions and jumped on the pole because we couldn't slide down it since they'd closed it off due to the heat.... Oh Texas...

So as you can tell, I think we had a phenomenal time and I am so glad we were able to visit Cam and Lis! We hadn't gotten to spend too much time alone with them since we are usually in PA for a holiday, so it was great doing our own thing! I'm so blessed to have a great brother and sister-in-law! In a few weeks they'll move back to Lis's home state of Rhode Island, so I'm hoping a New England trip will be in our future!

And I'm going to miss their precious pooch and Sarge's cousin, Popcorn!

Thanks for reading my novel. Hope you don't think we are complete fatties! I promise I'm running and eating healthy this week!

laws in the lowcountry... for real!

Tyler's parents just left a few days ago after visiting us for an entire week! It was so much fun having them here with us and to show them around our new town. We packed in a lot in a little bit of time, and it was worth every bit!

Tyler picked them up from the airport on Friday in Savannah as I drove home from taking my insurance licensing exam in Columbia. I rushed home, ran to the grocery store to pick up some milk and bread and fresh flowers, and walked into the door at almost the same time that they did! 

We hopped on the boat to put out crab pots. Heather grew up crabbing in Baltimore so she was really excited to get back to her roots!

Ty threw the cast net out a few times and we really caught a lot of shrimp! They were teeeeeny, tiny, though!

We all showered and got ready for dinner at a place none of us had ever been before. The president of Ken's division at Pfizer told him about this amazing restaurant downtown called Griffin Market. They are a delicious Italian restaurant and they have quite the menu! We each had our own small appetizer "antipasti" (I had some sort of fried eggplant and honey that tasted like pancakes!) and then we shared the "primi" pasta. Heather and Ken had a risotto and Tyler and I split a penne pasta with fresh parmesan. I also had a crusted rosemary chicken dish with arugala and fennel. We all had dessert, too! Did I mention that we were a) celebrating the Laws visiting us and b) I PASSED MY INSURANCE EXAM!! It was such a fun night!

We  got up Saturday and had a delish brunch and stopped by the farmers market for watermelon, tomatoes, and peaches. Heather had heard so much about my working at the SC Department of Agriculture and the Certified SC Grown program and immediately spotted the Certified sign!

 Then we headed back out onto the boat to check our crab pots and crab with chicken necks.  We used to crab off of the boat in the creeks at Edisto Beach when I was a kid and I hadn't done it in years. We had a BLAST and we caught a ton of crabs. I had the hot line and was constantly catching crabs!

I had a lot of people ask about my shirt and bathing suit! The suit is from Target circa 2009 and the shirt is from Old Navy Outlet probably the same year! It was perfect for this day because my back was burned!

After we got back to the house, the guys steamed the crabs and we feasted!

Tyler's grandfather's nickname was Hump for Humphries and we now have his crab tools!

 My parents came down on Saturday because Tyler, Ken, my dad, and my brother had a fishing trip planned with one of my dad's friends. They caught a bunch of trout and red fish.

Tyler and his red fish.

All of the guys with their trout.

We cooked the trout for dinner along with watermelon from the farmers market and crab soup!

Monday the Laws drove to my parents for the day to spend time with them.

Tuesday, Ken and Heather invited their friends Shelley and Jeff down for dinner. It was delicous! I highly recommend Saltus River Grill if you come to Beaufort.

We ate outside, hence the frizzy hair we all have!

Wednesday Tyler entertained his parents!

Thursday he and his dad went to shoot sporting clays at Brays Island with Ken's coworker from Pfizer. Supposedly Brays is super nice and has a ton to offer! It is such a gorgeous place from what I've heard and the houses start in the $700,000s! 

Later, Ty and his dad drove to the Lewis's about 45 minutes away to deer hunt while Heather and I drove around with a realtor looking at houses and neighborhoods in Beaufort. Eventually, they want to move to South Carolina and are starting to get an idea of where they want to live. Heather and I also walked downtown on Bay Street and got deluxe pedicures. We had to do girl things while the guys were in the woods!

Ken sent me this selfie of him in the deer stand and I almost died! He is one of the funniest people I have EVER met! Ken is also always making us laugh and setting Tyler straight. I love when we are all together, especially with his brothers. There is never a dull moment.

 Love ya man!

It was so much fun having them here with us and man it is quiet in our house now. Sadly, we won't see them until Thanksgiving, but that will be here before we all know it. I'm so thankful for fabulous in-laws and got so lucky with Heather and Ken.

Love you guys!

Turkey Time

My hunting fanatic husband killed two turkeys the day after our honeymoon.

Y'all of course know Tyler LOVES to hunt. Like its an obsession. But, if I can shop, he can hunt!!

He wasn't really even planning to "hunt" Saturday afternoon.... he threw on a camo shirt to go move his blind in the woods. Sat for 10 minutes with the computer in hand (he was looking at pics from his game camera) and heard them walk out to the decoy. 

In ONE shot, he killed TWO. No, I'm not making this up. He was so pumped. You use a rifle to shoot turkeys and the little pellets inside the bullet explode (so you have to hit them in the neck- sorry TMI). Luckily they lined up perfectly for one shot!

They are kind of massive.

They made me take a pic.

Mom went along for the ride too.

Sarge wasn't really sure what to do...

Proud hubby.

One had 3 beards and the other has 4. I think that determines how old they are? I'm honestly not sure.

My mom is now worried that we won't come visit them anymore, but he has 3 more tags to fill!

I'd say between the wedding, honeymoon, killing turkeys, and me officially moving in this has been the greatest couple of weeks ever for Tyler!!

I'll be eating wild turkey for the rest of my life.