Luke Bryan!!!

Oh my gosh, I was soooo excited for this. Whitney and I bought lawn seats and started counting down. Maybe about once a week one of us would text the other and say "Just heard Luke on the radio...only four weeks left!"



before we left we had Heather take some pictures of us. why am i so awkward?

we fought through the traffic around Jiffy Lube Live to arrive during the opening act (Lee Brice-who was awesome). the weather was PERFECT-warm but not that humid, and the sunset was absolutely gorgeous. i do love my Virginia home.

finally...LUKE APPEARED! OMG you guys...what an amazingggg concert. i had loved Luke before this, but the concert made me love him even more. not only is he a good singer (and incredibly good looking), but he is a great performer...he knows how to interact with his audience and put on a good show. we were standing the entire time, jammin out to the tunes. the whole concert i kept telling Whit, "If he doesn't do 'Play It Again' i'm going to be SO MAD." because that's my very favorite of his songs. he left the stage, and when he came back for the encore, that was the song he did...i was so happy. ha. at one point i looked up at the stars and felt very carefree-like everything in life was going to be okay. leave it to country music to make you feel that way. <3

we had such a good time! we listened to Luke the whole way home and i had "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" in my head for about a week after.

There's nothing like a country concert at Jiffy Lube Live. What a great way to start off the summer.

Duck Beach 2014.

That time of year again...I had been counting down for Memorial Day weekend for months. The official start of summer at none other than Duck Beach.

Early Saturday morning, Caity, David, and T picked me up and we were off for the Outer Banks! That first day we were at Whalehead with the majority of the Mormons and later drove the 5 or so minutes south to our house at Pine Island. Our friends Hannah and Joel organized it this year and did a great job. Our house had beach access, a hot tub and a lot of space. Eventually we all went down to the beach where there was practically no one.



cutest couple, reading and being tender.

first selfies of the weekend.

heaven. really and truly. this is heaven.

roommate love! ( minus Heather, who was in Oregon). love these girls.
what you can't see in this picture is the pain i was going through due to an encounter with chopping jalepenos. for dinner that night we had "Cafe Rio" salads, and I was in charge of the guacamole. since it was a big group, i chopped about 10 jalepenos. i've always read to wear gloves while doing this but since i was busy and distracted i didn't think about it. about 10 minutes after i was finished, my hands started burning like acid was being poured on them. you couldn't tell because my skin looked normal, but man...the pain was indescribable. it really felt like my skin was burning off. cool running water was the only thing that helped the pain so while i stood at the sink miserable, several people were on their phones searching for remedies. there were several...milk, sour cream, lime juice, vaseline, shampoo, rubbing alcohol, nail polish remover, canola oil...we tried them all. and NOTHING worked. i was miserable. even the five minute drive to Harris Teeter to get vaseline was painful-i was crying the whole way there, so embarrassing. i have a pretty high pain tolerance, so the fact that this affected me so much was a big deal. i eventually went out of the house anyway, because i didn't want to spend the whole night stuck inside when everyone else was out socializing. i half fell asleep on the couch around 2am, and at 2:30 woke up when T, Alex and Joel came home and into the kitchen to get food. as soon as i got up i could tell my hands were fine and the pain was completely gone! so, so relieved. literally, the most awful thing ever. so that was Sunday night. fail.

Memorial Day observation, with help from the goldfish.

STUPID UMBRELLA THAT KEPT BLOWING AWAY.

Whit and Hannah trying to do a double paddle board situation. i couldnt stop laughing at the last picture...hahaha.

Ethan.

candid of Whit and Ethan lathering up on sunscreen.

doing what i do best, supporting my friends playing sports. #teammom

Whit : me : Hannah : Anna

Tuesday morning Anna and I decided to go out on the kayaks. so fun!

just posing on the beach with this girl-so vogue.

on our way out of town we stopped at the famed Duck Donuts for a little snack...and ended up getting more snacks. ha. in 10 minutes we ate donuts, stopped in the cutest candy store to make purchases for the road (including Cheerwine!), and got T an ice cream cone. #fatties

hahaha creepy photo of Dave while waiting to take our necessary car shot.

there's something about the beach that heals my soul. the sound of the crashing waves, of the seagulls squaking, of the sun on your skin...the peace it brings is so soothing. im soooo grateful that i got to go to Duck Beach and relax with friends. there really is nothing better!

California.

Four months ago, I went with Colleen over to Ethan's house so she could buy some frequent flier miles from him in order to go to California in April for her best friends wedding. She found a flight for about $400 (steal), and asked me if i wanted to go. I only had to think for about five seconds and said, "Actually, yeah!" With my job giving me Friday's off, I only needed to take Thursday off of work, and then I could spend four whole days there (the flight there arrived at 9am Thursday morning and I had a redeye returning to DC Monday morning). Plus, I had some extra money to spend that month. So I did a quick double check with my brother that I could stay with him and bought my ticket! That's the first time I've ever bought an impromptu plane ticket like that, it was pretty exciting!


packing the afternoon before...just a PSA, the floor of my room NEVER looks like this. so embarrassing...

at the car rental place.

we went straight from the airport to Disneyland! this is the view from the top of the parking structure where we were.

part of the reason i was so excited was because i was going to surprise my nephews at Disney! my sister in law knew we were coming and brought the boys there without letting them know i was coming. it was so fun!!! they were very confused at first, but five minutes later were excited and talkative :)

lots of waiting in line...

cute Daniel.

Colleen and I took D&J on the Goofy ride, which I HATE...but i love them so i went. my favorite scene in the world is sitting behind these two little blonde heads. :)

this was Colleen's first time to Disneyland AND California. so exciting! the gondola ride in California Adventure made me SO ill because it was a swinging one...oy. never doing THAT again. we got to meet Mickey and then stayed for the fireworks show! it was a longggg day (we woke up at 1am California time) but very full and fun.

the next day we lounged for a while, then went to Newport Beach! it was a little windy, but still enjoyable. that afternoon Colleen left to be with her friends the rest of the weekend while i chilled with my fam.

Saturday Jess and i went to the mall and ended up in the swimsuit store. we came out of the dressing room wearing the same swimsuit... hahahaha couldn't stop laughing.

i had the best time in California. i always do, but this time i really needed to get out of DC and see my nephews. fam time is the best time.