2012 in Review

The year 2012 has been an interesting one to say the least, but we made it through, and here are some highlights!

January

Made some resolutions..... check back later this week to see how I did! 

Ryan started taking a Statistics class at our local tech school 

February

Spent a long weekend in NYC with my girlfriends from work

Celebrated Ryan's 28th Birthday

March

Spent lots of time with my girlfriends Leigh & Leigh since they would both be moving soon!

Celebrated my first-day-of-college friend Taylor's Bachelorette Weekend with my first-ever trip to St. Patty's in 5pts

April

Tour-de-food around Columbia before our best friends moved away! 

Celebrated Taylor & Peter's Wedding Weekend in St. Simon's Island, GA

May

Celebrated Mary Elizabeth & Gabe's Wedding Reception after their return from their wedding in Jamaica!

Celebrated my little brother's graduation from Clemson

Celebrated Elizabeth & Billy's Wedding in Charleston

Convinced Ryan's parents to adopt a goldendoodle half-brother of Beaufort's  

June

Spent a few days at our family beach house in North Litchfield, SC

Celebrated my nephew Cooper's 2nd Birthday

July

Spent a little more time at the beach

Visited our friends and my uncle in D.C.  

FINALLY decided to run in my 2nd Half Marathon  

August

Spent a week at Folly Beach and went to the PGA Championship Golf Tournament in Kiawah Island

Celebrated Hilary & Kyle's Wedding (the same day we missed Jessica & Mark's wedding)

Ryan started taking some more classes at USC

Fall 2012 Football Season began with another Thursday season opener for the Gamecocks!

September

Lots of football watching going on!

Continued training for my half-marathon, hitting a few bad runs 

October

Ran my second half-marathon in Georgetown, SC and met my goal of running under 2.5 hours, setting a new PR at 2:26:17

Hosted a pumpkin carving party!  

November

Helped throw a SURPRISE party for my sister's 30th b-day

Visited the local corn maze with some friends from our Sunday School Class

December

My niece Elliott was born December 1st 

Celebrated our 3rd anniversary

Hosted a Favorite Things Christmas Exchange 

Celebrated Christmas and my 28th birthday with family and friends

Ended the year with a few extremely relaxing days at the beach!

Menu Plan Monday (Year 2, Week 32)

Our toes are either in the sand or walking the course for the PGA Championship this week.  We also have lots of relaxing to do, including some frozen meals made last week at home and several dinners out.  Vacation style menu plan means as little work as possible!  See y'all next week :)

Our trip to D.C.

So, as you might have seen in our menu plan, last weekend, we took off for a few days to visit some of our very best friends who recently moved to the Washington, D.C. area.  We had lots of fun visiting our nations' capitol and are so excited that now we have both family (my uncle) and friends to see when we visit!

Leaving S.C. still a long way to go!

We started off the weekend with the long drive on Thursday, got to their place and settled in and caught up on life.  Friday, we started making plans for what to do during our long weekend, including cooking dinner, so we had to hit up their awesome grocery store, Wegman's.  I've never been in a place quite like this store.  Let's be honest, you just have to see it to believe it.  My uncle told me later on in the weekend that they are building a store in his town and in addition to all their full time employees, they are advertising 350 part time positions!  Go Wegman's - putting America back to work!  If you're up the Virginia/Maryland way and need a job, they're hiring!  (However, don't get a job there if you don't want to drool all day over their wonderful food selections!)

Washington Monument by Night

After a trip to the store, we hit the road to catch the Metro, and rode to Georgetown.  We ate dinner at an awesome restaurant, Founding Farmers.  If you're ever in the Georgetown area, I highly suggest putting this place on your tour-de-food!  All of our appetizers and entrees were delicious.  I love this quote from their website, "A collective of American family farmers owns our restaurant. We source our fresh products from family farms, ranches, and fisheries across the United States. We celebrate and share the longstanding connection between farmers — the first to lead the “green” movement — and their historic stewardship of natural resources."  And, wouldn't you believe, one of their hosts was a Clemson grad, and recognized right away that we were from the south.   After dinner, we shopped in Georgetown and then headed back to downtown D.C. where we really enjoyed walking the National Mall at night and took a few pictures at the Washington Monument.  The view of the city lights at nighttime is truly a sight to see!

Ryan & Me in front of the Washington Monument

Saturday, we headed back to town and met my uncle for lunch at Burger, Tap & Shake.  The burgers were rockin' and the milkshake straws as big as your finger helped make enjoying that fabulous shake all the better.  Yum!  Our next stop was the American History Museum.  We only toured a few exhibits, but some of my favorites included the original American Flag that inspired The Star Spangled Banner, and the Transportation in America exhibit.  By-the-way, I'm a little upset that a car produced after I was born, the 1986 Dodge Caravan, is in a museum.  Does that make me old???

We spent the rest of the afternoon touring more monuments, Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, The Lincon Memorial (we also checked out the backside overlooking Memorial Bridge and Robert E. Lee's home on Arlington hill), and of course The White House.   We ended our day at The Old Ebbitt Grill, another fabulous meal in the city. 

WWII Memorial - South Carolina Column with view of
Washington Monument & American Flag in the background

Lincoln Memorial

Inside Lincoln Memorial

View of Washington Monument & Capitol from Lincoln Memorial

The White House (back side)

Outside the Whitehouse Gate

Sunday, we attended church with our friends and then had brunch, walked around Olde Town in Alexandria, and did some shopping at the nearby outlet mall, Potomac Mills.  By the time we got around to cooking dinner, we were all deliriously tired from our weekend of fun.  Somehow, not really sure how it came about, we ended up our night watching old re-run DVDs of The Cosby Show.  What a classic!  We have to thank our wonderful hosts and tour guides, Gray and Leigh, their little one A, and of course my Uncle Edwin who met up with us in the city and shared lots of great background info on all of the sights we visited.  Hopefully it won't be too long before we visit again!

In front of the Town Square in Alexandria

Me, Ryan, Gray & Leigh
photo courtesy of the sweetest 5 year old I know! 

One Year in the Making

We are celebrating our first anniversary today. Wow, I think the year has simply flown by. It is somewhat strange that we woke up to a cold rain this morning, and very similar to our wedding day. So, just for the sake of recording a few memories, here are a few things that we've done this year.

1. Just a few days after we returned from our honeymoon in Park City, Utah, we celebrated our first Christmas & New Year's in our own home (I guess we can't count buying the house, since technically that happened before we said "I DO"). Christmas was pretty toned down for us since we had just celebrated our wedding. While others were unloading Christmas gifts, we spent the holidays opening and sorting through wedding gifts. We had a blast spending all the giftcards we got when we returned the duplicates and extras. And I started the writing the thank-you notes.
2. We spent our first Valentine's Weekend in Savannah, GA where Ryan was happy to learn you can order a beer to-go from nearly any restaurant or bar and walk down the street drinking it. Unfortunately, we came home to a broken heat pump. Our first major mishap as homeowners and newlyweds, and 1 very cold night. Good fortune had it that our heat pump was still under warranty and we only had to pay for labor.
3. Got in a major car accident (not our fault!) and had to spend the money we were saving for Ryan's new car to replace my Honda we hoped would run for several more years.
4. Shopped and put a deposit down on our first puppy. That didn't work out, so we chose to wait for another litter and had to wait several more months.
5. Ryan started a new position at work. Although it may not be the ultimate answer, this change was an answer to prayer that we had been hoping for for many months. This put a damper on our summer vacation plans, but we definitely knew it was for the best.
6. We watched excitedly as our college alma mater, the University of South Carolina Gamecocks won the NCAA national baseball championship.
7. Just as the college world series wrapped up, our nephew Cooper was born. He is the first child in either of our immediate families. He was a few weeks early and had to spend a little extra time in the hospital at first, but hasn't let that slow him down. He is so precious and we have enjoyed watching him grown in the last 5 months.
8. In August, we finally brought home our puppy Beaufort. Life has been a whirlwind since then. I never imagined how much work goes into raising and training a puppy. Our entire house had to be "puppy-proofed", and even still, this smart little booger finds ways to get into trouble.
9. The week after we brought home the puppy, Ryan had to go to training for 3 straight weeks. This was our first time being apart for an extended period of time and I found a new respect for people who live apart from their loved ones. Luckily, I was quite busy taking care of our furry-four-legged child while he was away. Ryan got to spend 2 weekends with my uncle exploring the Washington, DC area. He has never been before and loved seeing all the sites in our nation's capitol.
10. Throughout the year, we have celebrated with several friends at their weddings and engagements, the exciting news of babies on the way and baby arrivals, even just recently the news of a long-awaited wait list spot for friends in the process of adopting sweet children from Ethiopia. We changed churches, helped start up a supper club group that meets monthly, made some new friends, made great memories and we have truly enjoyed every moment.

We are celebrating the great year we've had and looking forward with goals in mind of what we want our next year to look like. We are so thankful that God has blessed us with so much this year. I can't wait to share the many moments of our lives together and see what the next year holds.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Leslie