I'm Alive!

Helllllooooooo, long lost blog! I can't believe it's been two whole months since I've been on here. I'm a little ashamed. The problem was that every day that went by without updating meant that I needed to have something a little bit more exciting to say than the previous day in order to make up for such a long absence. According to that rationale this post had some big shoes to fill, and so the whole thing quickly spiraled into a big, slightly terrifying ball of procrastination as the task grew ever more daunting. The good news is that we've had a pretty exciting summer so far and I've got lots to share (pictures, pictures, pictures!). Here goes nothing-enjoy!

I'll pick up where I left off, which was the end of April. That weekend we had our good friends Nick and Caroline visit us from Columbia for Nick's birthday jamboree (another congratulations to them on their recent engagement!!!!). Poor Caroline was having some serious wisdom tooth issues but powered through it like a champ and we had a blast! The highlight of the weekend was this fun little festival that we happened upon called Bunnies and Bluegrass at the Firefly distilleries on Wadmalaw Island. Somehow I had absolutely no idea that Firefly was based out of Charleston, so it was really neat to see the whole set up about a half hour from home. We were able to sip on local muscadine wine and enjoy live bluegrass music and great company.

Photo Recap:

Out to birthday dinner Friday night at El Bohio, a yummy Cuban restaurant on James Island.

In front of the muscadine vines at Bunnies and Bluegrass. Had they been fully ripe, I think
we may have lost Carl for good.

Caroline, Meaghan, and I- about to start lounging on our picnic blanket with the delicious wine.

The next weekend was Cinco de Mayo, which we celebrated on Folly Beach with Liz, Katherine, Alex and a few of their friends and friends' friends. The more the merrier! It was a beautiful day and the beach was packed so I was somewhat surprised at the amount of weddings we witnessed that afternoon. Everyone loves a good beach wedding but for the life of me I could not figure out why so many people wanted to get married among the drunken masses that are inevitably involved with Cinco de Mayo. There was literally a break-dancing competition not a half block away from us that has to be in somebody's wedding video. Not to mention, Carl's creepy mustache was enough to make any innocent flower girl cry:

A couple of restraining orders and complaints from local schools later, and the mustache is finally gone.

Shortly after that was Mother's Day weekend. We packed up the dogs and headed to Irmo, where Julie and Ernie had rented a boat for us to have a lake day! It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend and so nice to get out on the lake, even though the water was still quite chilly.

Julie, Caroline, me, and Liz enjoying a Mother's day mimosa on Lake Murray.

Next came my much-anticipated Boston trip for Jessica's graduation. It was a whirlwind of sleep deprivation, sight-seeing, and some serious celebration. It's hard to believe that 3 years have gone by since we graduated college and Jessica started law school. Everybody send her well wishes as she spends a sickening amount of time preparing for the bar exam. Here's a few pictures from the long weekend:

Boston. I crack up every time I see this picture because it looks like I just photo-shopped myself onto a postcard.
There aren't even any cars on the road!

With Jessica at one of the bars right next to Fenway Park.

Me and Liz in front of the capitol. 

At Jessica's graduation party

The next weekend was Memorial Day Weekend. We packed up the dogs again and this time made the trek to Sunset Beach, NC, where we stayed with our friends Ted, Pearman, Findlay, Becca, Marshall, and Beth. It was a gorgeous and awesome weekend, but somehow I neglected to take any pictures except for this one:

Patriotic and tropical jello shots, made by yours truly. 

Whew! That brings us to June. The amount of time I've put into this massive recap is enough to teach me a lesson about slacking off on the blog (ha! get it?). It's also made me realize how great a summer we've had- and it's not even halfway over. I have a feeling we'll look back on this one with nostalgia when we're old and arthritic, cursing ourselves for abusing our bodies and not taking quite enough pictures.

The weekend before last we flew up to D.C. for some quality Louis and Aditi time. I think that they are secretly professional tour guides on the side because we managed to see absolutely everything, all in the span of about 56 hours. My calves were so sore by the end of the trip from hiking all over the city and I was exhausted for the entire following week, but it was completely worth it. Aditi has most of the good pictures to herself on her camera, but here were a few that I managed to snag off of Carl and Louis:

The four of us in front of the main Smithsonian building (I think)

Me and Carl

Me and Aditi all gussied up on Saturday night, shortly before I got to sample my first ever Jumbo Slice- it was epic.

This past weekend we stayed in Charleston so that we could go to Charleston Beer Garden, which was pretty amazing. Our admission paid for a commemorative pint glass and pint glass coozie with which to sample beers from 10 different craft breweries. Carl and I showed up and were first in line, out of an estimated 10,000 people that showed up to the event! We are so dedicated. There was also some great live music, delicious food truck food, "beer school" classes, pretzel necklaces, and lots of other freebies. We had a blast and I so hope that they have another Beer Garden next year.

With one of our fellow beer samplers who chose to dress the part. Please note the fact that Carl is wearing his red College of Charleston t-shirt for the third set of pictures in this blog post, and my pretzel necklace has dissolved into just the string, which I neglected to remove from around my neck. We are a mess.

Be back soon, or at least before another two months goes by!