OBX 2012 - part 1

 I am back safe and sound (more on the safe part tomorrow). We got back Monday night around 10 p.m. We had a really good and eventful vacation. Due to lots of wind and dangerous rip currents my dreams leading up to vacation of laying out on the sandy beaches all day everyday were quickly tossed aside. There were winds up to 20-30 mph which also put a challenge on our camping too. We were going to pack up and move up the coast to Virginia Beach but decided to stick it out and I am really happy that we did. 

I hope you are ready for a picture overload.

On the road! Anthony, Trevor, Me, Maddy and Shalene

We drove through the night so I don't have any pictures from on the way down.

 This was the road going into Rodanthe. It was so desolate and the sand dunes were amazing.

 our campsite

 heading to the beach

 us girls on the beach for the 1st time

 First stop was The Fishin' Hole to get some supplies and I got a new fishing pole!

 Since these flags were flying at all the beaches we ended up doing lots of sightseeing while the guys got their fishing in. We made it to all of the light houses on the Outerbanks within a couple days. 

 Bodie Island Lighthouse. Built in 1872 and 156 feet tall. They are currently working on it so we were not able to go in it.

 Currituck Lighthouse. Located in Corolla, built in 1875 and is 162 feet tall.

Ocracoke Lighthouse located on Ocracoke Island. It was only accessible by ferry to the island which was free, even to take your car too! This one is the smallest of the lighthouses we saw (77 feet) and is the oldest operating lighthouse on the North Carolina Coast.

Cape Hatteras. 198 feet and we climbed to the top of this one! It is 248 steps to the top and was extremely windy at the top. 

Since it was so windy and no swimming allowed on the beaches we hit up the gorgeous pool at our campground whenever we weren't sight seeing. 

The house from the Nicholas Sparks movie Nights in Rodanthe was in our town so we had to go check it out. I did some research before we left and found my way back to Hooked on Houses and read about how the new owners actually moved the house to its new location are remodeled it to look like the movie set. I wanted to get some up close pics but there was a family renting it for the week so I didn't want to be rude. 

That is all for today but I will definitely be posting more about our trip in the next couple days. So make sure you check back for more gorgeous pictures of the beaches and sunsets and sunrises maybe even a little picture tour of our campground. 

dreaming about my reception...

In less than 7 hours we will be beach bound! Just thought I would throw that out there but anyways once again it is Wednesday and we all know what that means...

&

WEDDING WEDNESDAY over here on my blog!

Today I am just going to put them both in the same post because I am very busy with finishing stuff up at work and trying to wrap my head around everything I need to get for our trip and what I might be missing. We did have a slight change of plans for the trip but it is working out for the good (: The other couple that was going to go with us cannot go so now Shalene and Madeline are going and so is Trevor (Anthony's youngest brother that has never been to the beach before!) We are going to have lots of fun and I am planning a little trip for us girls to go see the house that Nights in Rodanthe was filmed at and go see the light houses too. We will be staying at an oceanfront KOA Campground so I will most likely not be getting on here because we won't have a bunch of time to be doing all the ordinary stuff we would be doing at home. 

Anyways this week I have been searching pinterest for all kinds of ideas for decorations for the reception.

I am planning on having some rustic chalk boards made like this. We are going to skip the stress of doing assigned seating and let everyone sit where they want to. I think this allows them to mingle with new family members. The only reserved seating will be for immediate family like our parents, grandparents and possibly really close aunts and uncles

I thought these were super cute and am going to make one that says FRY in our wedding colors or with bailing twine.

I have been admiring these charms for my bouquet for a while now. I really want a picture of my Grandpa Spiker, Grandma Kuhn (Dad's real Mom) and Anthony's Grandpa Kehn...it would be really special to me have them going down the aisle with me on my big day since they can't physically be there.

We already have a bunch of white balls we got from Alyssa and Nick's wedding so I just want to get some green, blue and orange ones and do something similar to this.

I really like this color for the guys tuxes. Not real sure if I am going to not have them wear the jackets but this does look really nice!

And of course I want a picture like this!

This week Mom and I have been shopping around for 4 oz. mason jars online for our wedding favors. It is going to be so cute but we need to get started on them really soon because strawberries are in season. My plan is to have all my bridesmaids come over to help with making the jam and assembling them. It will be a fun day just hanging out with my girls. But this is what we are going to do for our favors:

Now I just have to figure out how we are going to make homemade jam and the art of canning!

Should be quite the experience for all of us.

Weekend Recap

Wow what a busy weekend we had! Luckily I had friday off of work and I actually ended up spending the night with Aubrey which was nice because I hadn't seen her in 3 whole weeks! which is very bad and just shouldn't ever happen again. Anyways we rode around some on the four wheeler with Kaci and spent some time outside. 

On Friday we went to town and ended up stopping at some yard sales and I scored a digital picture frame for $1 and it works great! I also got some old window frames from their barn before I went home and ended up doing something really cool for Jk's party and for the wedding. I only ended up using 2 frames but I still have two more that I am going to do for the wedding. I was so happy with how JK's picture table turned out for his graduation party. His party was on Saturday and we had tons of really good food, Dad, JK and Anthony did a hog roast, Aunt Lori made her delicious cakes and we all had a great time visiting with family and friends that we don't get to see all the time. 

Sunday I went to the Columbus Zoo with Aunt Lori, Maddy, Molly and Caroline. We had a great time and got to see a lot of animals since we got there early in the morning before it got too hot. It was up in the 90s by the time we were leaving.

 Miss Molly touching a Chocolate Chip Star Fish

 The Gorillas were my favorite part at the zoo. They are so much like humans it is crazy. This little family was funny to watch and the dad kinda just sat there watching everything going on. Aunt Lori said he seemed wise beyond his years. The gorilla below is 56 years old and we spent a couple minutes just watching her eat popcorn. She just kept grabbing the handfuls and pulling them closer to her because she didn't want to get up due to arthritis.

 Another one of my favorite exhibits which is also new was the polar bears. They had an under ground viewing tank and an area above the water to watch them too.

 Jack Hanna was also there with his family and we were able to grab a picture with him

I had back problems all week so when I got home from the zoo I decided to lay down and take a nap and let my back relax after all the walking we did. When I woke up I got some laundry done which I would like to get the rest done before I leave on Wednesday for vacation so it is all done and I don't have to worry about it. I also gave Tank and Diesel a bath outside. Tank definitely needed it because with the heat he is mostly founding lounging around his little baby pool or laying the water/mud puddles made from the pool in the front yard. He is pretty rediculous!

All in all I had a pretty good weekend and now I am just counting down the days til we are beach bound!