Kauai Honeymoon...

Hello dear blog readers! I am very excited to share with you that we have booked our 2nd stop on our honeymoon to Hawaii. We'll be staying at the Islander on the Beach in Kapaa, Kauai. I'm totally jazzed about the condo I found and think it will be a great fit for our 3 day stay in Kauai. The photo below is a picture from the balcony of our room.
It looks to die for, right!!! We booked it through a website called HomeAway, where individual owners of condos/vacation homes rent out their properties. The website is a great way to price compare places and helpful at finding vacation spots that are not part of a huge hotel chain. I recommend checking it out if you're looking for your next vacation get-a-way. (They have rentals all over the world.)

I'm looking forward to checking out the island of Kauai. I know several friends who've traveled to the wettest spot in the world (Mount Waialeale) and have rave reviews of the island with the beautiful coastline. A few things I'd like to do while on Kauai are take a catamaran boat out to see the Na Pali Coast, take a hike at Waimea Canyon, maybe splurge and take a helicopter tour of this heavenly place (I hear it's the best way to see the island!). Let me know you're thoughts if you've been to Kauai, I'd love to get some recommendations of restaurants, things to do and the names of any tours/activities you enjoyed while on Kauai.

We are still working out some detail for our stay in Maui. We'll be there for about 7 days, so any tips or recommendations you have on this beautiful vacation spot are welcomed too!

Engagement Pictures

We finally got our engagement pics taken with our wedding photographer, Bryn Weller. We had to find a new photographer about a month ago b/c the original person we booked cancelled on us for our wedding. In the end, I think we've found someone who totally fits our personalities and will capture all the wonderful moments throughout our wedding day.

These photos were taken at Devou Park in Covington, KY. Since Jeremy and I met in Cincinnati and this is our home, I really wanted a few shots with the beautiful Cincinnati Skyline in the background. Enjoy the pictures!And one final "family" picture with our girl, Ella.
We are missing one "family" memeber, JD the cat!

To my Dad...

I hope you're having a fabulous father's day today. You just left my house after our get together and I wanted to put it out there and say how much I love you and how much you mean to me. You've always supported me and been behind me in every decision I've made in my life. I appreciate your help through all the times in my life where I've called on you for help. You've help me with car trouble, you've helped me move from city to city, you've helped my set up my house by painting and hanging curtain rods, & you've helped me understand what it means to love your family unconditionally. I hope the rest of your day is relaxing and that you get to spend time in the garage, because that's where I know you love to be!


Cheers to you Dad - I love you!

Turning 30...

A few weeks ago marked my 30th birthday. Now, when I was a teenager, 30 seems like really, really old. Like by the time you turned 30, you should have a full head of grey hair and you should have it all figured out with your life "in place".

While I certainly have a few (okay, maybe more than a few) grey hairs, I'm feeling pretty good about my 30's. Life in my 20's treated me to a few unexpected twists and turns, some good - some bad, but still, all guiding me to the place I am right now in my life. Throughout my 20's, I managed to check several things off my life's "to do list".

Finish college with a bachelors degree - Check.
Start my career, in a new city - Check.
Purchase my first house -Check.

All in all, not so bad if you ask me. One delightful thing that happen in my 20's was meeting Jeremy. Many people search their entire life for someone to share it with and I feel completely blessed knowing that I've found that special someone. It is really exciting knowing that my first year in my 30's will be celebrated in a big way - our wedding!

I'm not someone who has always dreamed about what her wedding will look like. This has been good because it has helped me to be flexible in the planning process. I've enjoyed the decision making that goes along when planning the details of a wedding. I am totally excited and thrilled to be getting married this fall. The details are fun, things like picking out my dress, choosing the flowers, and tasting lots of yummy cake!

Having said all that, the thing that excites me more than any of these details is my marriage. That's the part I'm looking forward to the most! Our marriage. I believe that marriages do work and I've witnessed it in my own family. I know that God has guided me through all those experiences in my 20's, leading me to this wonderful moment as I start my 30's, to let me know that I am ready to be married.

So while I spend time making lists of things that still need get done, and I fret over things like the font on our invitations, I know I'm making the best decision of my life. To share it with the person I love, for the rest of my life. It doesn't get much better than that.

Cheers to my 30's, I believe the best is yet to come!

Spreading the word...

I was checking out a great blog I read from time to time called get in mah belly, the author of the blog, Liz, was giving a huge shout out to a blog she has recently become "obsessed with" (her words, not mine). So after reading her post, I also wanted to let people know about the Queen City Discovery blog.

The cool thing this blog does is tell the stories of the old, often forgotten about, buildings throughout Cincinnati . The photography is absolutely beautiful. Check out their photo gallery.

I'm probably breaking some "blogger" rules with this post, but I do fully disclaim that I'm pretty much "copying" right off Liz for this one, but I found these pictures of Cincinnati to be sooo great, that I also wanted to share & spread the word about the Queen City Discovery blog.

Update on Projects

Awhile back, I laid out 3 goals for this summer for house projects:

*Fix garage ceiling
*Give the windows a good "spring" cleaning
*Plant new grass in back yard

So far, we've worked on project #3, getting some grass to grow in the backyard. If you'll recall from my previous post, our yard was torn apart by our loving and playful pup, Ella. Given the energy and rambunctiousness of a 2 year old lab mix, you can imagine how much she loves to run around the yard, chasing everything from toys, sticks and even her tail. With all this darting back and forth over the already not so green grass, Miss Ella managed to turn our back yard into an area filled with dirt and mud, leaving no grass to be seen.

As the weather warmed up here in the 'Nati and spring sprung, we headed out to Lowes to have a chat with a garden expert about a durable grass seed that might have a better shot up against Ella playful ways. (Because even though people say Lab mix dogs call down when they turn 2, I don't see that happening for us anytime soon with her!) We ended up buying some "Smart Seed" and got started by raking up the dirt lawn and preparing the area for seeding.

We sectioned off half of the backyard with a temporary fence, and got to spreading the seed with our new handy walk behind Scott's spreader. We also planted a nice Azalea bush in the corner to try to deter Ella from barking when she sees the neighbors. (Though I doubt this will really make much of a difference in that area, but it will be a nice pop of color in the backyard!)

So far, the new grass is growing great! It's actually time for a cut and we're going to work on sectioning off the other half of the yard next week. Miss Ella is one smart dog, because she managed to jump our temporary fence last week and has now made it a fun backyard game of jumping to the newly seeded side, and then barking at us because she can't get back over the fence! (We'll have to get some taller yard stakes this time for the second half of the project to try to keep her from hopping into the newer seed.)

Nothing like watching grass grow to get you excited for summer time! I'll leave you with a fun picture of my girl Ella. Here she is back in February, running and jumping across the backyard. You can see that she truly enjoys playing and not even snow can stop her from "flying" in the yard. I wish the new grass seed luck, I think it's going to need it! (HaHa)

Have a fabulous weekend my "blog checking friends"!

Happy Mother's Day!

This coming Sunday is Mother's Day. I want to take a moment to wish my Mom, Carole, and all my "mom" friends a Happy Mother's Day. I hope you're all able to take a moment to relax and do something fun for yourself. Enjoy the Day!