meeting emma belle, tennessee in september

My sister gave birth to her beautiful daughter earlier this month and I’ve been itching to go in and meet my first niece ever since. When I was Googling the drive to Nashville for a friend’s upcoming bachelorette party, I realized that my sister and brother-in-law’s farm was nestled just down the path I’d be taking, so I left a couple days early to do both in one trip. I booked a room at the Best Western in town so […]

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my sister’s baby shower, tennessee in august

My first nephew was born just over 12 years ago, and through marriages I’m now the proud aunt of four darling nephews on all sides of my family. We don’t see them enough, but they are the greatest joys to our life and we really enjoy the time we get to spend with them all. My sister found out she was pregnant on my birthday this year, but waited until the next day to tell me. She had sent a […]

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mother/daughter trip, wilmington in august

My mom and I were feeling low on quality time together lately, so we stole a few of our extra vacation days and planned a short trip to Wilmington, NC. Even though it’s only a couple hours from Charlotte, I’d never been there, so Mom flew into town first to meet me here. Eric and I picked her up at the airport, had lunch, and swung by the house so she could visit her grand-puppy before we hopped in my […]

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10 year high school reunion, chattanooga in july

I was already class president of my senior class in high school before someone reminded me that I would be in charge of planning our reunions down the road, and I’ve been anxious about the pressure ever since. Classmates started asking about plans after only nine years, so the other officers and I made a private group for the class and started the task of hunting everyone down on Facebook last spring. As the time drew closer, we put up […]

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weekend in the mountains, boone in june

Our friends Ali and Sam were planning a quick getaway to a family cabin up in Boone, NC, and asked if we’d like to tag along with them, their little one, and pup – uh, yes please! So after work on Friday, we packed a couple small bags and met them up at the mountain house late that evening. Ali spent time there as a child, so after the tour and some midnight snacks, we all said our goodnights and […]

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girl’s weekend, nashville in march

My friend, sorority sister, and our wedding minister Mary Beth celebrated her own bachelorette status in Nashville this past weekend, and it was so much fun y’all. The trip is already hazy but I’m fairly certain she set the bar on how girls’ weekends should be done. Hats off to the Maid and Matron of Honor for keeping 11 women happy, safe, relatively on time and well-fed for an entire weekend. I saved money by getting an early morning flight Thursday and […]

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chucktown throwdown, charleston in february

When a friend from work got engaged last year, she immediately told Eric and I that we had to be at the destination wedding in Charleston. After procrastinating on booking a room in the wedding hotel block and realizing that the only person at the wedding we had met more than twice was the bride herself, we decided to find an old Charleston Airbnb and make it a fun getaway weekend for us in addition to the wedding Saturday. I feel I […]

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our first anniversary, cherokee in october

How have we been married a whole year already?! With everything going on in the other areas of our lives (like new jobs for us both and lots of friends getting married), it seemed to fly by while also feeling like it lasted a hundred months. We didn’t really have time for a long trip away, so we decided to head up to the mountains of Cherokee, NC for our first anniversary. We wanted to take Ollie with us, so […]

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independence day, maryland in july

With the 4th of July falling on a Monday this year, Eric and I both had a long weekend off work and decided to visit my parents (and Uncle George visiting from England) up in Maryland. We packed our suitcases early so we could throw them in the (new!) car after work Friday and get on the road before sunset. It’s a long drive, so we got there in time to unpack the car and tell everyone goodnight. Mom cooked […]

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our honeymoon in punta cana

While our wedding day was unbelievably special, I have to be honest… my favorite part of the whole wedding process was definitely planning for and going on our honeymoon. After nine months of long-distance wedding planning, stressful professional changes, and personal health battles to deal with – we never needed a vacation more! Eric and I usually consider ourselves pretty adventurous travelers, but we knew we would be exhausted on this trip before we even arrived. We wanted an environment […]

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