Some Life Updates..

Well, hello! It's me, your long lost friend. I'm still alive. A lot has happened in the past 7+ months, so let's play a quick game of catch up. Actually, it's a pretty long post. Sorry about that. 

You may or may not know, but Cameron and I had to say goodbye unexpectedly to our sweet, sweet Brady back in July. Hence the super long blog break. It hit me like a tornado and I was in a serious funk for quite a while. The blog got put on the back burner as I had nothing to talk about and didn't want to come on here and be a Debbie downer. I will do a separate post on Brady later, mostly so I can remember that awful day (why?!? I don't know.). 

We had our annual Edisto trip in September. Had to expand to two houses with all of the cute little additions we've been adding. Always such a good time (what vacation isn't?) and we had a sprinkle for Baby Jack while we were there, as well. 

About three very quiet and hair-free months since we said goodbye to Brady, we said hello to a little nugget named Gus! He has brought laughter back into our everyday lives and we tell him about his big brother Brady all the time. I'll also do a separate post on Gus because, as you can imagine, there have been a lot of photos taken and a lot of memories made already in his 8 months. 

South Carolina's football team did not fair so well last season, but that didn't stop me from going to Columbia to cheer them on! Cameron was, of course, happy that Clemson made it to the national championship last year. I was (a little) happy that he was so happy about that...

In October, our family had something very scary happen. Cameron's oldest brother, David, suffered from a major stroke. He spent almost six weeks in the hospital and rehabilitation, and still continues rehab multiple times a week. From day one he made significant progress in a short amount of time, even the nurses and doctors were amazed. Every day we went to visit him we would see progress being made. A funny story that I'm sure we'll never forget - one day while Cameron and I were visiting David, we were asking him questions to help stimulate his memory. I asked him what my name was and he said "bad sandwich" but then immediately knew he was wrong and we all started laughing. My nieces love to call me that now. :) Every time I think back on those weeks that he was in the hospital, and even afterwards, I think about how amazing it was that the family and their friends all came together to support David and his family. I really think it made everyone closer as a result and taught us all to appreciate each other, and every moment spent together. 

The day David came home from the hospital!

My best friend gave birth to her second son, Jack, in December. He is the sweetest little thing and his brother, Lane, loves being a big brother! 

Our good friends, Scott and Jane, got engaged! I also had the pleasure of going wedding dress shopping with her! 

In February we saw Garth Brooks and it was, as you can imagine, AMAZING! Three hours of non-stop singing my heart out. 

We celebrated my 32nd birthday in my most favorite way - good friends and yummy oysters! A few days later my nieces came over and spoiled me with a foot, hand, and back massage!

Our niece, Arden, turned one! 

FOUR of our supper club girls are pregnant and are all due in August! On the way are two boys and two girls. We have had such fun celebrating finding out their genders and can't wait to meet them all! 

We just recently celebrated our three year wedding anniversary! On our actual anniversary we ate dinner at Fat Hen and the following weekend we spent the afternoon riding bikes on Kiawah! Very low key, very perfect. 

I'll be back soon! 

Friday Five {What I've Been Up To}.

{one}

Two weekends ago my Grandma Anna turned the ripe young age of 80! Not trying to brag, but I seriously have some good genes on both sides of my family. We celebrated at my Aunt & Uncle's house in Summerville. We had an awesome dinner prepared a little bit by everyone and afterwards, we sat around the table while Grandma Anna opened up her gifts and cards.  The best gift was from my mom, uncle, and aunt. They snuck into my grandma's old photos without her knowing and put together a photo book of memories. It was so neat to listen to a story about each picture.

Grandma with her granddaughters

Picture from the photo book - Grandma Anna was and still is a looker

Uncle Jerry & Aunt Debbie who drove from Iowa!

{two}

I posted a few weeks ago my weekly meal plan based around Skinnytaste cookbook recipes. I'm happy to say that none of the recipes disappointed and I would definitely make them all again!

Here are a few photos that I took, which look nothing like the cookbook's. ;)

Skillet Lemon Sole with Tomatoes and Capers
(I made with tilapia because that's what I had)

Chicken Pasta Caprese

{three}

Last weekend we celebrated our 2 year anniversary with dinner at Cypress, followed by coffee with Bailey's at a local coffee/dessert shop in Avondale, and ended with some nightcaps at The Roost with friends. 

I hadn't been to Cypress since prom my senior year of high school. It was amazing then and now, including the service! They started us off with two glasses of champagne and we ordered the cucumber tuna rolls to go along with it. I ordered the butter lettuce salad and Cameron ordered the Ceasar salad. He definitely had food envy after having a bite of my salad! For our entrees I ordered the filet topped with Boursin cheese and Cameron ordered one of their specials - veal with a soft shelled crab. We decided to forego dessert because they did not have bread pudding and well, we were stuffed! If you ever go to Cypress, even for their bar upstairs, you must order the lavender martini! So refreshing and delicious. Even Cameron liked it! 

I'm hoping my hair doesn't look this red in person. Someone please tell me if it does!

My yummy butter lettuce salad with bacon jam, buttermilk blue cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, and chives. SO GOOD.

Filet topped with Boursin cheese accompanied by asparagus, leeks, roasted garlic, crispy potatoes, and Madeira sauce.

{four}

Last weekend we also spent a lot of time in the yard getting it ready for Spring. I focused on my garden area, but did not plant anything due to the cold snap we had. Maybe I can plant my herbs and veggies today since I have the day off! I also picked up some peony bulbs at Costco last weekend. Who know's if they'll grow here in the scorching hot summer. Here's a good old fashioned before and after photo. Don't mind the pink ribbon - we're getting quotes to take down a few trees in the yard. 

{five}

I paid my car off this week!!  

2 Year Anniversary.

I love you, Mr. Baker.

First Anniversary. {Part Two}

Back today for Part Two of our Anniversary Weekend Re-cap!

But first, I just wanted to say a quick  thank you to all of my readers who sent me words of encouragement when I posted about my crappy day a week or so ago, and then again when Cameron's grandmother passed away. I (and Cameron) sincerely appreciate it!

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Saturday in Hilton Head, there was an 80% chance of rain. We did the normal touristy things like shop at the outlet mall and walk around Harbour Town. We grabbed lunch and a few drinks at The Quarterdeck, while over looking the marina. 

See how gloomy it was?

Once we were done with lunch and shopping, the sun started peeking through the clouds. We went back to our rooms and changed into our bathing suits. It wasn't quite warm enough for the pool, so we settled for the hot tub. 

I hate pruny fingers, so you will rarely see my hands in the water.

 

While we were lounging, we saw a bride and groom taking pictures separately, and then got to peek in on their first look! It was so sweet to watch!

That night, we cleaned up went to dinner at the Chart House. We arrived about an hour before our reservation so that we could sit outside and take advantage of their happy hour menu. I wore the dress that I wore to our rehearsal dinner exactly a year prior to that night.

For dinner, we started with the East Meets West Tuna {zesty tuna tartare drizzled with wasabi cream paired with seared peppered tuna & avocado, with kim chee slaw and plaintain chips}. Apparently we've been loving tuna lately. For entrees, Cameron ordered the Meyer Lemon Grouper and I ordered the Filet with a side of their sizzling mushrooms. Everything was delicious!

My dress was so tight by the end of dinner, that I wanted to go back to the hotel room and change before we went back out to a bar. Well, that turned into changing and just going to the hotel bar, and that turned into changing into our pj's and just watching a movie. Sounds lame probably, but I wouldn't have had it any other way! 

Sunday morning, we checked out and met our friends, Kelly Anne, Tyler, and their adorable baby, Greyson, for brunch at Lowcountry Backyard. It was so great catching up with them and I could just love on Baby Greyson all day! 

Once we made it back to Charleston, we stopped by an oyster roast that was being thrown by a family friend. My parents and Cameron's parents were there also, so afterwards, we invited them back to our house to enjoy some of our anniversary cake with us! We cut the top layer of the cake the night of our wedding, so I just had our cake baker (Cameron's cousin) make us a small 6" cake of our favorite flavor - chocolate cake with Kahlua icing. YUM. Served on our very, very special china.

Gifts wise, in sticking with the first anniversary theme of paper, here is what I gave Cameron:

Masculine Stationery

Ray Lamontagne Concert Tickets

Photo Book from Our First Year of Marriage

I am so bad about holding on to gifts until the actual occasion. I gave him the photo book before we even left to go on our trip, and I let him open the other two gifts about an hour after we got to the hotel! 

So anyway, that's how we spent our first anniversary! 

First Anniversary. {Part One}

Finally getting around to re-capping our first wedding anniversary!

Let's first start Thursday after work, because let's be honest, the moment you walk out of work, you are officially on vacation! After work, I got a spray tan and Cameron had a work meeting, so we met up downtown and tried Octobachi for the first time, after hearing amazing things about it from Katie. Once we FINALLY found it, we walked inside and sat at the bar. It's super small and the large group of med students were too loud to sit next to. 

We ordered their tuna sushi nachos. Yes, they were as amazing and they look. So fresh and delicious. 

After we finished those, we ordered some edamame, a california roll, and a spicy tuna roll. 

Look at this crab meat!

I'm starving looking at those pictures and can't wait to go back. 

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Now, on to our actual anniversary weekend. 

We left Charleston around lunch time and made the quick, 2 hour drive to Hilton Head. We stayed at the newly renovated Westin, thanks for my friend, Kelly Ann's, suggestion. We checked in and were told that we had been upgraded from a ocean view room to an ocean front room. Score! (Hint: If you're celebrating a special occasion, always let the management know! You'd be surprised what kind of upgrades you'll get!)

We got settled in and went for a walk to scope out the hotel. It was pretty overcast so there wasn't much pool or beach lounging to do. We found the outdoor bar, relaxed, and ordered some drinks. 

After a few drinks, we went back to the room to start getting ready for dinner. There was a knock at the door and some champagne and chocolate covered strawberries were delivered to us by the concierge! What a nice thought!

Before dinner, we stopped by a place called Ela's Grille, which was located in a cove on the water. I can't remember what kind of girly drink I ordered, but I do remember that it was really tasty. 

After drinks, we headed to Santa Fe Cafe, which we heard rave reviews about. It's a Mexican restaurant, but more upscale than your local Senor Tequila's. They were actually booked solid with reservations that night, but Kelly Anne, being the local girl that she is, had connections and got us in. They have a really nice outdoor seating area with a fireplace and live music, but unfortunately it was drizzling outside so we couldn't take advantage of it.

We ordered the guacamole to get us started. I ordered the Outrageous Chimichanga (Beef, chicken, black beans, cheese, sour cream, onions and tomatoes wrapped in a sun-dried tomato tortilla and fried to a pastry crust. Served over green & red chile sauce, topped with guacamole.), which was surprising because I had never ordered a chimichanga in my life. But I wanted to try something new, and I'm so glad I did. And Cameron ordered the Ribeye Burrito (Blackened ribeye, black beans, caramelized onions and cheddar jack cheese inside a flour tortilla), which was really good, too. Huge hunks of steak, which I likey. 

The Outrageous Chimichanga from Santa Fe's website

Needless to say, we were stuffed after our meal. But not quite ready to hit the hay just yet. I Googled "live music in Hilton Head" and stumbled across a jazz bar. Sure, why not? We thought. Let's go somewhere we normally wouldn't. We walked up to The Jazz Corner, thinking this would be a snooze, but we were way wrong. There was a red velvet rope blocking off the entrance so I immediately thought to myself that this was closed for a private party. The woman standing at the door told me there were exactly two spots left at the bar. We ordered some Irish coffees (how old are we again??) and listened to the 5-piece Jazz band. Come to find out, The Jazz Corner is continuously voted one of the Top 100 Jazz Venues in the World and we were there on the night that they were celebrating their 15th year! Everyone was so very friendly to us (I'm sure we stuck out like a sore thumb, being as the average age was probably 70). We met a nice gentleman that was sitting next to us, and even the owners stopped by to introduce themselves to us.  Since this was a night of celebrating their 15th anniversary, they put together a band of their favorite musicians, and they were all so awesome. Could not have had a better experience.

And that's a wrap of part one of our anniversary weekend! 

Kudos to you if you made it this far.