The End of Summer...

Well I know it has been about four million years since I posted, but life got really scary (i will get to this part later), busy, hectic, exciting, and everything else in between!  When we returned from Key West we literally hopped in the car and headed to the lake to spend the 4th of July with the whole Snowden crew and home with my family for a day of good quality time.  It was awesome to get to experience my amazing in-law's new lake house, meet our new nephew Parker (what a sweet baby boy), and acquire hours of dance-party-time with my nieces!  It was also so wonderful to see my sweet husband getting to soak in quality time with his brother & bro-in-law, Michael & Rush.  Here are a few pics of time at the lake & then hanging with my family on the porch.

The awesome view of the boathouse, dock, and slue at Mike & Vickie's lake house :)

Joey, Michael, & Rush: so happy to be hanging out all together.

EG displaying her disdain for me taking her picture while she is concentrating on breakfast!

Two of the sweetest sisters I have ever known and had the honor of loving. 

My precious O ready to get out on the boat!

I am coming to snatch that camera out of your hands Aunt Kris....

Just chillin' on my parents' porch with J & Hemi :)

Even with the crazy amount of driving we completed in this 9 day span, we concluded it was worth every single mile/minute/cent!

A Few Pics from Key West...

I will write a post about our awesome trip soon, but I at least wanted to share a few pictures until then!

Sunday brunch @ The Westin (our hotel)

The Banyan Trees 

the most amazing trees I have ever seen

sunset cruise around Key West & Sunset Key

   

At my love Ernie's home :)

kayaking through one of the island's created by the Mangrove trees

@ Latitudes on Sunset Key for dinner with Ashley, Greg, Tiffany, & Chad on our last night

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! :)