our fourth.

We had sucha a great fourth filled with friends and family-- both mine and Thomas' family!
On the 3rd we went with our friends and their little one to watch some fireworks from afar. The little one was mesmerized by it all.

as was Thomas. ;) 

We were lucky enough to have my parent drive down for the weekend and then we all had a fun cookout at Thomas' grandparents house. Where Pa-Paw gave the city folk the grand tour of his "garden" (which is really a farm) and sent us all home with so many tomatoes! Seriously in his "garden" he planted 1500 tomato plants this year alone. Fifteen Hundred! Yes he sells them at the farmers market and I'm dying to drive up there one weekend and see him in action selling his tomatoes.

       

 

taking pictures in font of "chigger weed" as I was told.. ;) 

(I think they're too pretty to have such an awful name) 

While Thomas and my mama investigate other wildflowers.. or weeds. 

we'll go with wildflowers. 

 Told you. So many TOMATOES. 

 

and potatoes too! :) 

 

And the tour wasn't complete without a stroll through the orchard. 

 

Sadly they've been having issues with their apples for years, they've even had the University of Tennessee Agriculture Department up to investigate. Something is causing the apples to rot from the inside out-- some kind of fungus. It's so sad because this orchard is so pretty. 

And I want all the apples! 

However we wouldn't have had room for them in our trunk! 

southern hospitality and the renaissance festival.

I can't remember the exact date but it was way before memorial day weekend. I was talking to my friends Sara and Meghan and all of a sudden there was this idea of them coming to Nashville to see me over the long weekend.. it was all a blur and in my head I thought it was only a pipe dream. That is until Sar purchased and airline ticket and Meghan requested off works and roped Scott into driving 1/2 the drive so her long trip from CLEVELAND would be bearable.
And oh my goodness, words could barely describe my excitement for our memorial day weekend.

I mean, c'mon.. 

I love these guys. 

Thomas and I took them downtown on Saturday for the food truck festival and we sadly didn't plan correctly and completely missed the distillery tours for Yazoo-- but they got to at least see inside? ha. 

We also hit up Centennial Park and captured this gem of a photograph: 

 

It was a weekend full of guitar playing (thank you scott) lots of instagram-ing, some yummy southern food and of course. The Renaissance Festival. 

I might have had a little too much fun in making the flower crowns. 

However, Sar was in her element.. twirling.

 

 

To say the long weekend flew would be an understatement. 

Our last night we played a round of putt-putt and I remember thinking, didn't they JUST get here?!! As much as it sucks it's a great thing when you don't want a good thing to end. 

And I really wanted these guys to stay for at least 6 more days. 

Guys! Please come back and just hang out at our apartment? 

like this? 

 perfect. see you soon!! 

spring please?

I'm so ready. I want skirts and summer dresses! and sunshine! and warmth! I'm ready to complain about the southern humidity and the 90 degree heat!!

but no. I had a brief taste of 70 degrees and now we're back to forty degrees. It snowed  earlier this week. SNOWED! Nothing stuck of course, but flakes fell from the skies and shocked me and my entire office! 

Thankfully my mama is getting me ready for spring (you finished yours yet mama?).

Seriously! How cute?

My mama bought me this cute paper flower wreath kit from Paper-Source for my birthday and I'm so happy she did!! Although it took way longer than I expected, but it was fun to have a mindless craft for a Sunday afternoon. :) 

It helps that it turned out just. so. darn. cute! 

Here's hoping it will bring me more spring like weather!!  

mini-moon in chicago

Thomas and I were so heartbroken when we had to cancel our honeymoon to Yellowstone. Stupid government shutdown stressing us out a week before our wedding. However, we had such a good time in Chicago. We were only there for three nights, we were such tourist and it was amazing!
**warning this post is a full one, chalked full of tons of photos!

There was not a dull moment on our drive thanks to my family writing all over Rhonda. As soon as we hit the traffic in Chicago we seriously had an entire line of cars honking and waving at us-- it was so funny!

       

 

How cool is this wind far in the middle of Indiana?! 

We got into Chicago early evening so we thought it'd be fun to hit up Navy Pier.

And of course ride the Ferris Wheel. :) 

       

Our first day in Chicago, first things first.. we hit up the aquarium.

[I want to frame this picture, I'm so stinkin proud of it.]

We unsuccessfully took selfies in the sun with the sears tower behind us..

and we wondered around the amazing art institute.

we of course stopped at the bean and were mesmerized by it.

 

We were actually debating on if we wanted to go or not go up to the top of the Sears Tower, and we're so happy that we did. It was insanely fun and so cool.

The Ledge was ridiculous.

And I'll go ahead and admit it.. I have a problem. I purchased every touristy photo they took of us. Even the awful green screen ones. But this one was by far the coolest.

You can't go to Chicago as tourists and not get pizza! 

We were so tired at this point that we ordered it to go and ate it back at our hotel which was such a brilliant idea. 

And I might have whined a little while we were checking in about our honeymoon getting canceled and that this was our replacement and lucky us, they upgraded our room-- wooo!

When had one rainy day and it kinda put a wrench into our architectural boat tour plan. That was the only thing on our list that we didn't accomplish. But we did camp out inside the Field Museum while it was pouring rain outside.

We hung out with Sue the tyrannosaurus rex.  And other dinosaurs.. 

and we ended up seeing a buffalo after all!

On our last night in town we went up in the John Hancock Observatory and since it was rainy and gross out, we had the place to ourself.

It was fun seeing all the buildings pink for breast cancer awareness month. 

And then we treated ourself to a salted carmel sundae and coffee.

It was such a good time. As we knew it would be. 

Oh! And to top off our touristy trip.. 

we got a tin of Garrett's Popcorn for the car ride home. So yummy!