Monday, April 27, 2009

My Friends Rock!





I was nice enough to share my bachelorette party weekend with the San Destin wine festival and I must say it was a good partnership! My closest girlfriends met up in San Destin, FL (a.k.a. Paradise) for my last official girls trip as a "Todd"! We had so much... here's a little recap of the weekend:

Thursday - got out of work and hit the road. Mikaela was nice enough to drive (even with a boot on her right foot!). The drive is pretty long, but not bad when you entertain yourselves with stops in tiny little towns, invites to bachelor parties from gas station peeps, hitting raccoons, drinking sugar free red bull the whole way and eating stuff that I normally don't eat! We arrived in San Destin at about 11pm Central time, checked into the condo and hit the bed.


Friday - wake up and get some groceries for the weekend (Laura was prepared with a shopping list and itinerary). We got back to the condo and went to the pool! It was a gorgeous day and I really love the fact that we were laying out on a Friday while everyone else we knew was at work!






I checked on April through out the day (she was making the long journey from Chicago via the Pensacola airport). She had a lay over in Atlanta and then a 2 hour drive from Pensacola to San Destin! She wins the longest distance traveled award and I really appreciate her being there! April arrived later that night and a few hours later Heidi rolled (after her long drive from Atlanta, which included getting lost and sitting in traffic for a few hours).





Watched the sun set from the porch and then we were ready to party!





Laura made some "cookies" and came prepared with party favors for the night! We had dinner at "Marlin Grill" and sat at a table outside, had drinks and just talked. It was a great night!


I only had to take one shot... and Mikaela joined me!

Saturday - we woke up and made the morning trip to Starbucks in the village. The condo we were staying in was right above the shops in Baytown. It was the perfect location and I'm so thankful to Mikaela's dad for letting us stay there!


Mikaela made waffles for everyone and then April, Mikaela and I hit the beach for a few hours and a cocktail!


We have to be thankful for the awesome weather we had all weekend! The sand was white and the water was gorgeous (cold, but gorgeous)! It was time for the wine festival so we headed back and all got ready.

We were right above all the action so all we had to do is get ready and walk downstairs into the wine festival (basically heaven for me!).


We walked around and tasted wine


met some random people


took a few pictures


And after an awesome day tasting wine, we headed back up to the condo. When we got back to the condo we had a little lingerie party!





Very fun -- but I can't show all of these pictures until after the honeymoon! After a day of wine tasting the zip line that takes you across a lake in the center of the village looks very enticing!






Laura wasn't feeling up for it, so she stayed at the base to take pictures! It was awesome... and I'm pretty sure the alcohol helped ease the nerves!


After that we stopped and had dinner (and more wine) at a pizza place and called it a night! It was an amazing day and I couldn't ask for a better Bachelorette weekend!

Sunday - April left at 4:45AM to start her long journey home, so I woke and said bye to her and then went back to sleep for a few hours. Once everyone was up and moving we packed up the cars and had breakfast with Mikaela's mom at "Another broken egg". I'm still confused as to why it's another when there isn't a first broken egg?? But it was awesome!


We all got into the cars and made the drive back home!

We missed some of the people that couldn't make it... but it was the best weekend and I really can't thank my awesome friends for the best weekend ever!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

First Time for Everything

It's amazing to think we were all little at one point in our lives! I have watched Isabella grow up and can't believe how much of a little lady she has become. She was just a baby a few days ago!



Now I am enjoying watching Bridgette (niece #2), enjoy all the fun things life has to offer a 9 month old! This past weekend I was there when she clapped for the first time! That may seem like a very small thing to do... but I don't think you ever get over the feeling of seeing someone do something for the first time in their life!

Let me set the stage for you... Bridgette has just started to crawl and quickly learned to pull herself up on stairs and small chairs. My sister and watched her pull herself up a few times on the stairs and then we clapped for her. After a few times of getting applause, she started to clap for herself!

This video was taken right after that!



I'm so excited to see her start walking and then talking! More to come, for sure!!!

Monday, April 20, 2009

On the Hunt (for eggs)


I'm a few days late in posting this, I know. Wedding planning took over my life last week (and a crazy week at work... oh yea, work)!

So I'm playing catch up and here you go!


Easter in Atlanta was GORGEOUS! It's always been one my favorite holidays. I'm not sure why... but I'm thinking it has to do with the fact that Easter was basically the only holiday where I got a new dress (not a hammy down from my older sister). That is a really weird word, hammy down, and I'm not sure if I spelled it right. So anyways, I love Easter and this year we did a little Easter egg hunt for the girls!





After opening Easter baskets from Erin and Aunt Beck, it was time to hunt! Isabella was so excited and was already counting the eggs she saw from the window. Once we opened the doors she was racing to find them!








Even my Dad took part in the hunt!

It was so fun to see how much excitement finding Easter eggs can create! I love being an Aunt and feel so blessed to be able to watch my nieces grow up and share special days like this with them!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

A Sweet Idea

I've come across some really good ideas while planning my wedding over the past few months, but nothing compares to something that I saw in person. Thanks to April for throwing the most awesome bash in history! I'm pretty sure no one will be able to live up to your beautiful wedding (but that doesn't mean we can't steal some of her great ideas!).

Here is a picture of her "sweets bar"


She had glass jars filled with different types of white colored candies. She had clear bags for guests to load up goodies into and personalized stickers to seal the sweets!



I still have the bag of candy that I put together (over 2 years ago)! It was just too pretty to eat!

I'm trying to figure out how to recreate this idea in Jamaica. Customs and melting candy poses a HUGE problem, but I'm still going to try!

Thanks April for sharing!