Vacation All I Ever Wanted

I am currently on an eleven day vacation from work and I couldn't be happier about it. I love my job but I love my family more and I'm thoroughly enjoying my quality time with them. And today was the last day of school for the husband so we are all kinds of happy over here. To celebrate the occasions we are headed to the beach in the morning for a week of the salt life! I hope Georgia Grace's second trip to the beach is just as fun as her first beach vacation. Minus the flat dry and bee stings on the way down, I can do without that nonsense.

Thursday I had some errands I needed to tend to before our trip so I spent my spa gift certificate from my sister-in-law/brother-in-law and treated myself to a massage and a facial. I never treat myself to something like this so it was extra awesome. I'm accepting any other spa gift certificates anyone wants to send my way ;) Thanks Aunt Shanna!

While I was at the spa our cousin Payton kept GGH for us which I know they both looked forward to! She always takes sweet pictures for me so I know what she's up to when I am away from home. 

And this one takes the cake. I've never been more proud of anything in my life than I am this girl.

Today we visited Daddy at school to celebrate summer break and say goodbye to his sweet third graders. The good news is he is looping to fourth grade next year so he will have all of the same students which he is really excited about. He will attend a conference the week we get back to help prepare for fourth grade curriculum. His daughter thought all of this was worthy of a big smooch! She was extra friendly to his students and blew kisses to them as we were leaving. She's our little politician.

I will try to post a few iPhone pictures from the gulf coast but I will basically be blog-free this week. It's good to take a break every now and then. You can follow me on Instagram for daily pictures (or you can do what I just did and go back to view the early baby days and cry about how fast time is going...)- love the convenience of an IG feed!

See y'all next week!

Summer Bucket List

The pools are open, the school year is almost over and the grill has already been working overtime at our house. Summer is here and with summer comes carefree, easy days of relaxed schedules and outdoor fun. I can't wait to participate in all the fun activities with my little family and I thought I would create a list of things I wanted us to do this season. I make a list for everything so it only seemed fitting that Summer got a list too :) 

Our 2014 Summer bucket list-

I found this cute printable here and thought it would be the perfect place to put our list. I am going to print it out and hang it on our fridge as a reminder of the fun things we want to cross off our list in the next three months. I hope to make a bucket list every year and let GGH contribute her favorite things.

I kept our activities pretty simple because a.) I wanted to be fairly confident that we would be able to do them and b.) I don't want high expectations. Summer is about going with the flow and living life. 

One of my favorite quotes for summer- "In summer, the song sings itself" by William Carlos Williams. My friend Sarah had this on a chalkboard on her porch last year. It sums this season up perfectly.

I'm excited to cross a few of these off next when we head south for a week at the beach. I'm excited for a list to motivate me to make things happen!

Memorial Day Weekend 2014

Sweet summertime is officially here! Even though we had already swam a few times Memorial Day is always the summer kickoff for me. Here's a bunch of pictures to represent what our long weekend looked like.

Our cousins from Indianapolis came down for the holiday and GGH had an instant best friend. They played so well together. We are looking forward to her next visit!

This weekend we met with an architect to design our house plans and did a little browsing for house materials. I think we're getting closer and closer to making decisions about the big things. My dreams for our family home are coming true!

Saturday was a pool day and the first pool day for the newest member to our group! Roman slept the whole time nearly so I think he found poolside to be enjoyable :)

This girl loves being at her Gammy's. Between the pool and golf cart trips around the course she stays highly entertained.

Saturday night I attended a bachelorette party for one of my best friend's Shira. It was such a fun night being with gal pals. Abby was a wonderful host and we found out the next day that they are expecting baby #2! Love this family so much. 

Sunday we had nursery duty at church and got to check out the new courtyard playground. It is so nice! She had a ball along with her other nursery buddies.

She is getting to be such a big girl. Sigh.

Sunday night we were invited to three different Memorial Day cookouts but I wasn't feeling well so we just stayed home. Bummer. We let Georgia play in the yard after supper. As long as she is outside she doesn't care where she is :)

A funny from this weekend-our cousin Payton was talking about her and just said Georgia and after she finished talking GGH added "Grace" ha!

Yesterday Marcus went to the lake for fishing with the guys so I decided to work so I could take off at the end of the week before we leave for the beach Saturday. GGH spent the day with Ma, Grandmomma and Aunt Shanna. They had the best day and there's no doubt she's extra spoiled after this weekend :)

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I'm thankful for the ones who served like my Papaw Porter so we could have something to celebrate this weekend. God Bless America!

Zooversary

Yesterday we celebrated our anniversary by taking Georgia Grace to the zoo for the first time. Rarely do we ever get to do anything together as a family through the week so it was a treat.

Louisville Zoo-May 22nd, 2014

It has been several years since I have been to the Louisville Zoo so we just kind of made the big loop on our own time and schedule. The elephants were impressive so I had to snap a picture.

Georgia and her elephant friends. She would do her arm like the elephant's nose. She's such an observant child.

And then there was the 56 year old gorilla. She was born in 1958! She was so sweet, just sat and laid in the corner by herself.

Taking a peak at her. She was literally right by the window camping out.

Georgia Grace was really fond of her. The gorillas and giraffes were her favorites.

The polar bear exhibit was the most impressive of all. It's unbelievable to me that we have a polar bear living here in the south! And it was a hot day in May so he would sit on the rock a while but spent most of his time in the cold water. Or bath as Georgia Grace called it :)

 He had just dove off the rock which resulted in an eruption from the crowd and then he swam over to the bench we were sitting on and started sniffing through the glass. It was the neatest!

Mommy, GGH and a camel :) I was proud of the way she would stroll a while and then would walk and let us pack her. She was pretty much content with whatever we wanted her to do. We did have a few runaway attempts but she didn't get far. As long as she could see the animals she was in good shape.

She was the sweetest baby at the zoo. She would say hi and bye to every animal we visited! And she loved watching the bigger kids that were looking at the animals around her. By the end of the day her curls were sweaty and sticking to her face but the heat never phased her. I love how easy she is to go places with! I hope this holds true for our beach trip in a few weeks.

We got home late afternoon and I made a mexican casserole while Marcus gave baby girl a bath. It was an early bedtime for those two while Mommy finished things up around the house. Thanks to everyone for the anniversary wishes! I cannot believe we are starting year #5. It just keeps getting better.

#tbt Our Wedding Day

Today marks four years of being a bride and what better way to commemorate the event than a little throwback to our wedding day. Our wedding day was on the perfect Saturday in May. We have laughed at how we chose to get married during one of the busiest seasons of the year AND right at the end of the school year. But we were young and in love and Marcus's only stipulation to me was that he wanted to have his degree. So he graduated from college the second Saturday in May and we set our wedding day for the third :)

We have a billion and two pictures from our day but I am just picking a few some of my favorites to remember the day by. I love the story that these pictures tell from the day I became Mrs. Marcus Harrison.

I went for a simple updo and a birdcage veil with a long veil in the back. I love pictures of brides getting ready for their best hour. 

My Mom and Grandmas adding the finishing touches

The hands of three of the most important women in my life helping me in my wedding dress. We did the exact same picture for my sister's wedding last year. Same hands, same church, same special love. 

Matching shoes with the very best flower girl Maggie Ann :)

I carried my great-grandmother Embry and great-grandmother Porter's wedding bands on my bouquet.

Candid moments are the best moments. Love my MOH/sister with all my heart. I remember this was just moments before I walked down the aisle. I was so anxious I could bust so I thought doing a normal task would help. 

My beautiful ladies. I was the first one to get married in the group and since then I have had the honor to stand by three of them on their special days and will stand by two of them this year on their wedding days. I love them so!

A fine looking group of fellas

Cousin Keagen was a super-duper ring bearer

I'm proud that we were using monograms way before it became trendy ha! And we put Marcus's initial on the left because that just feels right to me.

My emotional groom. Love this picture so much. We chose to wait and see each other when I walked down the aisle. I'll never regret that decision no matter how crazy the photo-ops afterward became :) My man is a traditionalist and that's one of the many things I love about him.

We both wrote our own vows. His were knock your socks off amazing! How did I get so lucky that he was reading them to me?

Signed, sealed and delivered-I'm yours!!

I think everyone has that one picture from their wedding day that defines them. This would be ours. It shows our happiness, style and love. This is currently hung in a 16x20 frame in our dining room and will be finding a spot in our new house.

My handsome honey!

I have to give myself some props for a second here. I was the farthest thing from a bridezilla. The whole day I had a care-free, laid back attitude. It was shocking! I am a bit of a control freak and detail-oriented and high strung and you get the picture I am painting... I know we had several people praying for us and our special day and those prayers were felt. The day was not perfect (1/3 of the flowers became frostbit in the refrigerators, for example but I didn't learn this until afterward) but it was perfectly us.

I never knew he had such a big mouth!

First dance as husband and wife. I hope we are still dancing just like this 50 years from now.

If these two get married I take the credit :)

I was channeling my inner Jackie O for the leaving attire :) Another one of my favorite pictures from our special day on the 22nd of May. Raw emotion is captivating.

And then we were off to Hawaii for 9 days! We've already decided we want to go back at one of our anniversary milestones to relive our honeymoon. Minus the first night when we slept in our car in a Walmart parking lot. That's another post for another day. Our honeymoon story is a show stopper!

I'm thankful for my forever groom and this day four years ago when we committed ourselves to each other for life. I can't imagine a life without him in it.

Today we are celebrating by taking Georgia Grace to the zoo for the first time. These past four years have been good to us. I have truly found the one my soul loves.