Block Leave=Vacation in the Key West

U.S. Route 1...yes we will be driving in on this interstate.

Well I tell you what...I am so excited about checking in at The Westin in Key West I can barely stand it!!  You are correct my friends, we are going on vacation!!!  Joey and I are headed on vacation tomorrow with one of our great "couple" friends, Ashley & Greg.  About 2 months ago Ashley and I were talking about destinations we were thinking of traveling to for block leave in June, and within about 30 minutes we were booked at The Westin Key West Resort & Marina.  And on top of having it booked and planned (with a crazy amount of excitement), Ashley worked wizard powers and found us the deal of our lives.  Needless to say I am quite appreciative! 

We will be in paradise for a week with good friends, food, sun, and activities!  In addition to all the awesome things we were excited to see and do with Ash & Greg, we learned our close friends Tiffany & Chad will be traveling to Key West as well overlapping with our stay for 2 days.  YAY!!  The vacation (which has not officially started yet) just keeps getting better!! So if you find yourself thinking you want to text, email, or call me...think again! :)

I will now leave you with a few pictures of things I found to do & see while we are there!  Have a great week!!

A cartoon map of "Old Town", Mallory Square, and the famous Duval Street where all the action happens!

The Westin Key West Resort & Marina Meetings.jpg borrowed from elitemeetings.com
(We will be staying here which is located on Front Street in the heart of Old Town)

The 2 pictures above are of the Dry Tortuga's National Park and Fort Jefferson.  We are hoping to spend a day there exploring, snorkeling, and doing water sports.

Post 1 Part B: Birthday Weekend

On my birthday weekend we decided to invite our friends to join us on a celebratory tour of the Spring Wine Festival.  It was more of a way to have everyone we love come together to hang out than a birthday party.  The festival was a great incentive to open up our house to out-of-town friends to stay the weekend and throw an after party for all of our friends.  We had an awesome turn out!  I am incredibly blessed with the people I can call friends!  In attendance were my roommates from college Anny and Elise (ie best friends/partners in crime/sisters), good ol' Michael and his rockin' girlfriend Kristin, all of our friends from Dahlonega, and a super trooper who drove our tour van!  Here are our pics....

On our back porch before we set out on the day.
Elise + me + Annelise aka Roommates for Life 

 

Our escort!

On our way....

1st Stop: Montaluce Winery

Best buds from WAYYYY back: Big B & Joey 

Tiffany and me...I absolutely love this girl!

Doing our first tasting of the day.

Staci, Dani, Sarah, me just hanging out :)

Ashley, Elise, Annelise, Me

Kristin & Michael overlooking the vineyards @ Montaluce

Excited about our next destination :)

Kristin & Michael displaying our next stop on the tour: Wolf Mountain!

Joey & Kristin bonding on the porch of Wolf Mountain with me and Anny chillin' at the back table.

 

3rd Stop: Frogtown Cellars

The guys just being normal and we are being ridiculous!

Jason + Sarah = One of my favorite couples ever!

At Frogtown some of the group gathered for a picture to commemorate the occasion...I was no where to be found!

Below are the pictures from the 4th and final stop on the festival tour before everyone went back to Casa se Snowden: Blackstock Winery & Vineyards...such a beautiful view! 

Joey and Abdul just discussing something serious I am sure...and wearing almost the exact same outfit. ha!

Kristin & Kristin @ Blackstock Winery and Vineyards :)

Sarah looking off the porch @ Blackstock.  I totally stole this pic along with a few others from her facebook page!

All in all my birthday pretty much was incredible!  Good friends, good wine, good food, and good times had by all!

Post 1 Part A: Catching up on March :)

Welcome back the few readers who have not abandoned me!  I am the worst about keeping up with my blog especially when I get busy, and busy is the word for the last 3 months!  I am now finally done with the chaos and letting the "summer-lazy" sink in to my life.  So many different and awesome things came and went since my last post, so I will break up the summaries into months.  My last post was towards the beginning of March so I will start there... After I announced I was to be in the Sound of Music as Maria a rigorous couple months of practice proceeded until opening night in May.  However, before I get to that awesome event there were so many other things we did and celebrated!

March 17th is the glorious holiday we like to call SAINT PADDY'S DAY, and in the spirit of the Irish we like to celebrate with friends.  And celebrate we did!  Since moving to Dahlonega over a year ago we have made some great friends.  Among them are Jason and Sarah.  They are a laid back, adventurous, and super fun pair who love to entertain.  On St. Paddy's Day we joined these two and many others at their house for cooking out, baking, games, and socializing.  It was a blast!  Here are a few pics from our crazy day and night! The only person we were missing was Tiffany, but I excused her absence due to the fact she was at the craziest parade/showdown in the country for the holiday...Savannah, Ga.  We were jealous!

Joey, me, Chad aka Tiffany's hubby :)

The boys chattin' and fishing

Sarah and me :)  I love this lady!

Joey + Kristin

Me and Ash :)

After that fab weekend came my 28th birthday or as I would like to say, "my 8th time of celebrating 21!" Ha!  My wonderful husband planned an awesome birthday night dinner at The Corkscrew Cafe with gift and celebration weekend with friends new & old!  For my actual birthday Joey surprised me with a record player!  For all those who know me and my family, you know how obsessed we are with music.  Obsessed is probably not even an accurate depiction of how embedded music is in my DNA and all vintage things.  I grew up admiring my mama & daddy's albums and always wanted my own turntable to play them.  Joey paid attention...

Corkscrew Cafe

Next post will be the Birthday Weekend/Spring Georgia Wine Highway Festival! :)