Beach x2

Jonathan and I were lucky enough to get to spend Memorial Day weekend in Charleston with friends.  One of our parents (I honestly don't remember which one - I think his mom and stepdad) watched the kids while we took off for a few days.  It was Heather and Mike's 10th anniversary and they decided to spend it with friends in Charleston!  It was so, so, so good to see Heather again - we hadn't seen each other in about 9 months since they moved to Missouri.  She was my absolute closest friend in NC and it was so hard when she left.  Heather's brother and his girlfriend, along with two of their other couple friends, were all part of the fun.  We spent many hours on the beach talking, listening to music, and just enjoying a little kid-free time.  We were able to go out for late dinners and sleep in in the mornings.  I got some weird random eye thing (an allergic reaction to sunscreen I think) that ruined a couple hours of the trip, but otherwise it was perfect.  We stayed in Foley Beach, which we really liked.  Jonathan and I went to Charleston for a little while on Sunday, which was also fun to just go do something with no regard for nap times or kid menus.  

 reunited finally

 during a little Charleston day-outing

 out to dinner

right before we had to leave on Monday - so sad!

Honestly this year we thought we may not make it to the beach - but surprisingly another opportunity opened up that we jumped on.  Jonathan's brother Brandan was having his bachelor party in Carolina Beach and the only house the guys could find was a week-long rental one street over from the ocean.  Since none of the guys were going down until Wednesday, the four of us plus my mom headed to use the house from Sunday until Wednesday.  We had so much fun hanging out at the ocean, going to a fun local restaurant called Hang Ten, going down to the boardwalk, and introducing my mom to Trader Joe's.  It was a great mini-vacation, and was much appreciated by Brenna who had been itching to get to the beach!

 happy beach bum

 dinner date

 ready for dinner on our awesome porch that overlooked the ocean

 trying a Britt's Donut on the boardwalk

 love this picture

 dinner with my mom

 family photo at a cool little park near a dinner location one night

San Francisco

We were so lucky this past February to get to go to San Francisco for 5 days.  Jonathan had to go there for work for 3 days and I had enough airline miles to get a free flight, so we turned it into a little getaway for ourselves.  Our moms split the week with the kids and we enjoyed the time together.  We went a day early so we had all of Monday to hang out before his work stuff started.

Sunday when we arrived we drove out to the Golden Gate Bridge (which cost us $20) - Seriously, people, believe them when they say to stop and pay the toll.  Even if the signs point to keep going.  It was super windy so we didn't walk all the way across, but it was so cool to see it in person finally.  Jonathan had seen it before, but it was my first time.  That night we also went to Chinatown and had some Chinese food and found the real Full House house and the Painted Ladies.  My childhood memories were on high-alert!  The hotel where we were staying was so nice - it was actually in San Jose which a bit of a drive out of San Francisco.

Monday we had the whole day to explore.  We did an early morning tour of Alcatraz, which was awesome.  We then hung around the pier area and had lunch at an amazing (touristy, but amazing) place called Chowder's on Pier 39.  We took the cable cars around town and did a little bit of shopping.  We visited Ghiradelli Square.  It was really a wonderful day.  I typically don't like to be totally touristy, but in that city it was fun and totally worth being exhausted at the end of the day!

 view from the ferry

 Al Capone's cell

hanging off a cable car

seriously steep roads

The rest of the week J had meetings so I just hung around the hotel - worked out some, napped some, walked down to the little shop and bought cupcakes, found an H&M (cue heavenly sounds), had lunch at a cool salad place, and read a book!  He got stuck in traffic at least one night coming back so we ate dinner near the hotel one night.  Our last night there we went into Palo Alto and drove by the house where Steve Jobs lived.  We saw the Palo Alto Apple store, which was fun.  We ate at the coolest Indian restaurant called Curry Up Now.  It started as a food truck and is now a restaurant.  So cute!

The trip was an absolute blast.  It was nice to have some fun sight-seeing time that didn't revolve around nap times.  And the relaxing time for me was an amazing bonus as well.  I hope we can do it again one day.

33Before33 - #4 - Anniversary Trip

The anniversary trip out of the country didn't happen, but we have had two good anniversaries since making the list AND a trip that wasn't on our anniversary but was fun nonetheless.

5th Anniversary - July 26, 2013 - We spent the day with the kids at the Asheboro Zoo.  We had a great day together.  Later that weekend we shipped the kids off to Jonathan's parents' house and had a date night in Hickory before he worked all weekend and I went to Asheville with my girls.

6th Anniversary - July 26, 2014 - My good friend Emily decided July 26 sounded like a great anniversary to have, so Jonathan and I left the kids with my mom and headed to TN for a weekend away.  We got there mid-day on Saturday and did a little shopping.  We rented a really nice cabin that wasn't too far from Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge.  The wedding was on Saturday night and was so much fun.  Sunday we went to breakfast in Gatlinburg and then for a 6 mile hike to a waterfall.  We hadn't been hiking in years, so it was fun to do something we used to love doing a lot before having kids.  We went to dinner at a Japanese place we remembered from years ago when we were there with friends.  While we were at dinner we chatted with the kids and my mom who were huddled in a bathroom during a tornado warning in Bristol!  We enjoyed just relaxing and watching a movie that wasn't made by Disney.  Monday we took our time and headed back to Bristol to get the kiddos and head back to NC.

 wedding selfie

 me and Vickie

 me and the gorgeous bride

 We work out.

terrible hike selfie

Our big alone trip was in February of this year.  It deserves it's own blog post.  :)