5.31.2012

lp bound.

that's right folks, the summer traveler is still travelin! 
tomorrow, bright and early, i head to my most favorite vacation spot, LAKE POWELL, with some fam and friends for the next week!
i am way too excited for this trip. 
pictures can give you just a little taste why:
i don't have much to complain about at the moment. 
welp, see ya next week. 

5.27.2012

California Adventures!

After the wedding week, I drove back to Monterey area to spend a few days with those cute Slama's! 
Our first day we walked around Cannery Row in Monterey right where we stayed during their open house a year ago! It is such a cute place and the weather was perfect! Plus I loved getting to spend a few days with the sister and my favorite brother in law!

I asked Cal before I came to visit if she knew where we could go strawberry picking. She did her reasearch and I was SO excited when we found a place to go to! So that is exactly what we did one sunny afternoon and had a BLAST!
We found SO many good and delicious strawberries too! We were in heaven (and had to have some self control because we just wanted to pick all the good ones we found)
It's been something that has been on my bucket list for quite some time now so I was a happy camper to check that bad boy off the list! 
Brandon is sadly allergic to strawberries but was such a champ to come with us and be our personal photographer. Thanks Brandall! 
And let me tell ya somethin' folks... These were the most DELICIOUS strawberries I have ever had! It will never be the same unless I personally pick them myself. I wish I lived closer to this Gizdich Ranch. Such a blast and a tasty reward!
So after a few fun days with the family, I was flying out of San Francisco to head back to Atlanta for a few days. My flight was early in the morning so Cal and Brandon drove me up there the night before and I got to meet up with my lovely friend, Miss Rachel Huey, and her boyfriend for a few hours! She is living close by there now so I was glad I got to see her and we stopped by Ghirardelli Square for some dessert. I obviously didn't have chocolate and got dirty looks from people but I happily enjoyed my scoop of vanilla ice cream :)
Stay Tuned for more adventures :) 

5.23.2012

fairty-tale wedding.

the week was here! my best friend of 6 years was getting married!! 
(yes, I realize I have a lot of best friends and a lot of them have gotten married recently... story of my life
most of the week we just did little things here and there to prepare for the big day and I enjoyed time with the Stone Fam who is like family to me!
it was a fun filled and crazy week in Northern California! 
The night before the wedding, we had a nice dinner over at her cousin's house with the family on both sides and the wedding party. 
Clearly, I just hung out with those good lookin' red heads all night. They are my favorites ;) 





We like to call Kate and Marcus the "Fairy tale Couple". They are absolutely perfect for each other and SO in love, it's almost sickening (but not because it's so adorable). I love these 2 and couldn't have picked anyone else more perfect for my best. 
Then the wedding day arrived! We got all ready and headed to the Sacramento Temple to wait for the newlyweds! 
And here they are! Mr. and Mrs. Hunt were just glowing, so in love, and SO happy. 
After we took a few pictures at the temple, we had a luncheon, then we took some more pictures later that afternoon at their house before the reception. 
And seriously, Kate looked perfect. Absolutely stunning. Her dress, her hair, her flowers, her make up... perfect. 
And let's just talk for a minute about these people I love! I have never met so many gorgeous and handsome red heads in my life! 
And we took more and more pictures. So here they are.
The Stones know how to have a good party.
And all these ladies I was bridesmaids with were so cute and fun to be with those few days!
We had the reception at this adorable farm house called The Blue Goose. 
And it was quite the party. These girls were so darling and fun to hang out with during the week!
And sister and Brandon came to the reception too! I was so happy to see both of them since we didn't spend too much time together during Tay's graduation! 
The reception was so great! 
I guess I have picked the right people to be friends with because every wedding reception I've been to in the past year has been an absolute blast! Good friends, good food, and good music. 


Thanks for a good time Stone and Hunt Families! It was a great wedding for one of my greatest friends. I couldn't be any happier for the two of them!

5.17.2012

the life of a summer traveler.

in the past 3 weeks i have:
 slept in 10 different beds/homes.
traveled by car, boat, & plane.
& with that...
traveled along the california coast.
traveled across the country.
cruised to mexico. 
been on set of a live jay leno show. 
attended a best friends wedding. 
went strawberry picking 
 spent time with many family members and close friends.
 and have repacked my bags 137671748632 times (but seriously).
[and out of all these weeks, this last Tuesday night was the first night I was by myself. it was just me in a hotel room one night; it was weird... and lonesome.]

up next on the schedule:
california.
utah.
lake powell.
efy along the california coast for 7 weeks.

ohhhh the life of the summer traveler.
stay tuned. 

5.14.2012

we're going on a cruise!

yes, the cruise has come and gone and although it makes me sad that all the excitement is over, the cruise was an absolute BLAST! and even better, I got to go with 3 of my best friends! 
it definitely lands in the top 3 of my most favorite vacations i've ever been on. 

and i'll tell ya why,
 these are the only worries i had during the week: 
what should i eat? or really how much should i eat?
how bad will i get burnt if i stay out in the sun all day using only spf 4 or maybe no sunscreen?
will we waste our day sleeping because our room is pitch black? 
what bathing suit should i wear today?
how do i get the sand out of my ears after a few days?
what if we lose each other on the boat and i can't call you cause we can't use our phones? 
yes it was pure bliss.
no phone, no internet, no time... just me, my favorite boys, the sun, the beach, bob marley, endless amounts of food and ice cream cones, and mexicoooo. just a little slice of heaven.

anyways, it was one of the best weeks of my life.
daily routine: woke up around 9:30 ish, put on our bathing suits, had endless options for breakfast, and either went out to the pool if we were at sea or went on land and went to the beach. then we would come back, eat, chill, get ready, eat dinner, and party till 2 almost every night. it was a dream.

and how can someone tell me to pick only a few selected pictures from this fantastic week? no one. so I'm sorry but here is a picture overview/overload from my fabulous week crusin' the Mexican Riviera. 

besides, pictures are better than words anyways. 

Only the beginning. if you couldn't tell from our pasty white bodies)Somewhere in Northern driving to Southern. 
NBD. They had a mini golf course on top of the boat.
karaoke every night. so entertaining.
don't want to get burnt our first day!
with the studs on our first formal night. taking our own pictures can be hard sometimes.
working on our modeling.
with the 3 studliest guys on the boat. 
the most delicious strawberry bisque ever.
like i said, we are attractive.
In beautiful Cabo!
After snorkeling in Pelican Beach! 
Exploring to Lover's Beach! 
Biggest Waves I have ever seen and this crazy kid was lovin them! 
Carnival Splendor: home away from home
the sunsets were absolutely GORGEOUS! 
party animals till 2 in the morninnnnnn
Puerto Vallarta for the day! 
enjoying some bottled fanta on the beach! life was perfect.
he would live on the beach and the ocean if he could.
what they did all day, every day at the beach.
and kyle got foot massages from Mexican men.
love these 3 so much!
we became champs at the volleyball tournament
i sucked at making ice cream cones, so carter made one for me and didn't do so great. 
and again, obsessed.
this pretty much summed up our week: listening or singing along with these 2 all day. maybe kyle would get sick of it, but we would just laugh. 
we entertained ourselves quite frequently at dinner. 
dancing our little hearts out nightly.
we learned what faces to make to be super attractive. 
became best friends with our bar waitress, Viorica from Romania! She was one of the sweetest.
Enjoyed some Coladas on Cinco De Mayo!
And loved our sweet waitress, Wonopan from Thailand! Such a sassy girl who always called me "baby" and taught me some dance moves. I loved her.
This fellow passenger was Elton John in the Legends night performed by guests on the boat. He also was one of the first friends we made on the boat and he LOVED Nick (like everyone else)!
I got abused frequently, but I'm used to it.
And there were TONS of Mormons on the boat. We hung out with these sweet Mormon girls a lot at nighttime. So darling!
Our cute little room. It was actually a lot more spacious and better than we expected. 
And to end of vacation, we got the hook ups from my Dad's friend to go see a live taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. We looked to see who would be appearing on the show, and of course I died when I saw that it was Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild because Nick is slightly obsessed. The boys were ecstatic to say the least.

And so, that ended our epic adventure to Southern California and Mexico. 
I couldn't have pictured going on this trip with anyone else besides these 3 boys. They are some of my closest friends. We never got sick of each other (or at least didn't admit it) or mad at one another the entire week. We had lots of laughs, got lots of sun, made new friends, ate too much food, and created new memories together. 
It was an awesome trip and definitely something I'll always remember. 
I wanna go back.