Monday, August 31, 2015

This Summer....

....Was Crazy!
 Back when I was thinking about this summer and planning things for us to do, I knew I wanted it to be epic. Because pretty soon, I will be out of school and working like a grown-up and I won't have the glorious, amazing 3 months called summer vacation...not all at once anyway. So my main goal for this particular summer was to make it as memorable as possible. 

 Today I am linking up with Erika and Andrea to count down my favorite summer moments! (just because I could not pick just one)

5. Beware of the Gators 
At some point during the summer, there was a sign put up in our old neighborhood reminding us the beware of the alligators! This sign was nerve-wracking and funny at the same time. Nerve-wracking because, alligators are pretty scary...and they love dogs or so we've heard. And we just happen to have a little lab who loves the water. But it was also funny considering our neighborhood was near one of the busiest streets in Charleston. Oh the irony.
  4. Summer Reading
One of my favorite things about summer, other than sleeping, is being able to read as many novels as I can get my hands on. While in school, I don't hardly get to read as much as I'd like since its so busy but there are very few things that I'd put above curling up with a good book. 

3. The Eye Doctor
As fate would have it, I have horrible eye sight. I'm one of those people who have to go to the eye doctor religiously for my eyes. This year while at my appointment, my eye doctor and I got on the topic about school. He informed me that he not only knew one of my professors but that they just so happened to be neighbor. Small world 

 

2. House Hunting & Moving
For the first 2 months of summer we were house hunting. I promise we looked at approximately 2480840958 houses. Each one of them we found something wrong with...it had to be perfect.  Everyone kept saying that we'd know when we found the one. And just when we were ready to throw in the towel, we saw a listing on a beautiful home that we just had to see. Sure enough, as soon as we walked in, we knew.  Such an exhausting process but so so worth it! (I'd also like to note that we have not seen any signs of alligators so far ;))


My favorite summer moment: Summer Vacation
Once the house hunting was over, we were able to finally relax and take a vacay to Washington, D.C.  This trip was one for the books. Read more about it here

While on our summer vacation, we also got engaged!! Read more about and how it all went down here.  I absolutely love this guy with my whole heart 
xo

I really can not believe how fast summer went by. I'm pretty sure the rest of America is scratching their heads and wondering the same exact thing and I know its super cliche but I really can't. This summer was such a blessing in so many ways.  I'm so sad to see it go, but fall is just around the corner. Hello, beautiful leaves, crisp morning runs and pumpkin and apple everything! 


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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Our Love Story: The Engagement

8.8. 2015
I am just now getting over the roller coaster of excitement this night brought along! 
This day started off as any other. Well, aside from walking approximately 10 million miles taking a short visit to all of the monuments and memorials of Washington D.C. earlier on in the day. That night we knew we wanted to get something to eat from somewhere nice we just didn't know where. Eventually we decided on our favorite place. I have to mention that me and all of my indecisiveness, decided at the last minute, I maybe didn't want a sit down dinner. I asked Keith if we could go back to the a Nationals game again that night and he nonchalantly said 'Sure'--even though Im sure he's glad we stuck with the original plan haha. 

The Ruth's Chris in D.C. was wonderful. It overlooked the D.C. skyline including the airport and a lot of the monuments. The serving staff was super nice and made the experience that much more enjoyable. When we got up to the floor of the restaurant (it was on the 11th floor), I told the hostess that I just wanted to take a look around to which she responded a little too quickly that she had a good table for us that was getting ready at the moment. I had no idea what she meant by 'good table' and was hoping that all of the tables were considered good but I just went with it.


I had every intention of documenting our night including wine and entrees--because, blog duh ;). However, right after I snapped this picture of this amazing strawberry, spinach and goat cheese salad, the entire night changed. I literally felt like the universe shifted. A few of the other couples in the restarurant were out celebrating too. One lady had just told her hubby he was going to be a dad while another group was celebrating a birthday. Keith and I started talking about our future and what was to come for us. We were both super excited from talking about it and the other celebrations going on around us just added to that. Just then Keith started talking about the importance of living in the moment and our future and how he couldnt imagine it without me and before I knew it, he was on one knee! It was a complete blur as I could vaguely recall him saying my full name and asking me those oh so sweet words: Will you marry me?


I'm not going to lie, I was pretty darn hysterical. If you look closely, you can see my smeary makeup :). Apparently the servers and hostesses had been in on the ENTIRE THING. Keith asked me if I saw him and the both hostesses exchanging glances before they took us to our table. Of course I was completely clueless. He told me he'd let them in on his grand plans way before we got there.




And our server brought over a little cake for us almost right away and he kept wishing us a happy life and insisted on taking a dozen pictures of us. :)



I absolutely love this man so much! He gets me. This night could not have been more perfect even if i planned it myself. The skyline, the atmosphere. It was all so amazing. I absolutely can not wait to spend forever with this guy.
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Thursday, August 13, 2015

DC Part II

The second day of touring started out with a quick trip to Starbucks before heading to the metro. 
When Keith and I were brain storming different things to do, we both agreed that we wanted to view the Smithsonian museums since we'd heard so much about them.
First stop: The Smithsonian museum of Natural History. The science nerd in me was loving every minute.  





Thank God for the ever evolving brain. 





This thing was literally changing by the minute with new babies being born. So cool  and so accurate.


This exhibit showed just how far the human brain had come and how it actually was very similar to the ape species at one point 


A map of all the dinosaur sites in the US where they once were. There were only two in South Carolina.

Next up was the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  This thing was huge and chalked full of neat American facts. As soon as we walked in, there was this big display of the American flag. Behind it was a little tunnel that had the first ever American flag and the story behind it.

On the other side, there was a display of George Washington.


Artifacts from the sit in of 1960. I can't imagine what the young black people went through during this time. Many of them were the same age as Keith and I if not much younger. I am so thankful for their bravery.


First chemical flask and the DNA helix model both made us super excited





Each one of the artifacts had a little description and who they were donated by. Dorothy's slippers that were donated by an 'anonymous' person which was pretty neat to see. 


China patterns of the first lady's past

An American flag made of over 100,000 legos

My handsome engineer with one of the turbine engines :) 
The Smithsonians were huge. I mean ginormous but we still wanted to visit each of the monuments. 
A little side note: visiting each monument really seemed like an awesome idea... in the beginning. And they each looked relatively close to each other...from the map. So before each one, we would look up the distance and say something along the lines of well since we're right here we might as well. I have no idea how long I expected it to take but I'm sure it was a lot shorter than what it actually was. :)
So off we went to the first one

The Washington Monument.  While one one of the tours we were told that its actually two different shades of white because there was a 20 year break in the building process.

Next, we headed off to the Lincoln Memorial which actually didn't seem as far as it actually was just by standing at the Washington Monument. I mean, technically it was right across the little reflection pond {which was actually about a mile's walk but I wasn't keeping track or anything ;) }

Here we are in front of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The same place where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his I have a Dream speech almost 52 years ago to the day.


Xo



Next up, we headed to the newest memorial of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Then to the FDR memorial 

Last but not least, was the memorial of Thomas Jefferson


We walked for hours. But, as crazy as it sounds, we both loved it. Being able to actually see the city on foot was an experience that we wouldn't have been able to get had we brought a car or decided to take a shuttle or taxi. That night, we went out to dinner for a night on the town before boarding the plane the next morning. It was ah-mazing but I think it deserves its own post :)

For part I click here

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