denver 2.

we knew we wanted to drive up toward the mountains while we were in colorado, but we had no idea how easy it would be to get there. they're just hanging out less than two hours away.

and one of the best part: you have to drive through boulder to get there. boulder is awesome - a totally hippie place with AMAZING food. we had snarf's for lunch, which was one of the best sandwiches i have ever had.

and here she is. our rental car for the trip. cahrazy, right? the fiat is about the size of a loveseat on wheels. and b and i are each basically 6 feet tall. we barely squeezed in this thing. and then we threw caution to the wind and off-roaded in it. she did okay, but it totally got some stares.

but, if you want attention/that feeling that you're going to get smushed on the freeway/be unable to find the lock button inside the car {hint: you have to push down the driver's side door handle}, then rent a fiat. three guys in the snarf's parking lot literally stopped me to look inside. they also referenced the j. lo fiat commerical, which is awesomely bad.

made it all the way to the entrance. also: the entire trip - we're talking 4 hours in the car - i was singing "rocky mountain raiiiin, keep on fallin, keep on callin her naaamme." i mentioned that i wasn't sure on the lyrics, but we were up in the mountains with no cell signal, so no way to google. we get back to the hotel and b finally searches and ASSURES me it's "rocky mountain high" that i was singing by none other than john dever. makes sense, right?

people, i just you tubed that stuff and i had been belting ronnie milsap's SMOKEY mountain rain and just using the dang wrong mountain range. hahaha. duhhhh.

beautiful.

there we are. ignore the guardrail there. the wind, plus four inches of snow, plus my visions of people not noticing us in our fiat and accidentally running us over had my self-photography a bit off.

they're called the rocky mountains because they are super... rocky. literally did not know. but it really feels like at any moment a landslide could happen and a bajillion small pebbles would smush us. {and in our fiat it really would have only taken a few pebbles.}

downtown! one of my fav parts is that there are so many people all over downtown, even at night. the city was all decorated for the holidays. we had dinner with my friend michelle and her fiance art at the corner office, which was holy yum. and then we walked around, took the free shuttle up and down 16th street to see the lights and stores and watched people ice skate on the free rink. a totally perfect winter night. and a great end to our quick visit. 

oh that rocky mountain range. i think we'll be back.

after all, it keeps on callin my name.

the mile high city.

months ago southwest was offering up $59 flights. cheap airfare = one last vacation of 2011 for us! so, this weekend it was off to denver, colorado.

{and yes, i totally know that this was the year of travel for me. i think i'll do a post looking back at 2011, so that'll be fun for me to see everywhere we've been.}

we were only in the city for a few hours. but, we got to experience a lot. driving past the home of tim tebow. {did anyone else see the highlights of their overtime win yesterday? cahrazy.}

downtown!

related: just WAIT until you all see the rental car we drove around. haha, it is cahrazy!

a cute little area downtown. the city has a very friendly feel to it. lots of holiday decor up, people walking around, dogs ALL over the place. we heard most stores and even some restaurants allow you to bring your pet in. cahrazy!

denver performing arts center. aka their tpac. wonder if they call it the dpac?

the first of our many local restaurant experiences. city o city. funny story: so, b has a bunch of friends that live in denver. his friend jay said we had to check out city o city. b was well aware that jay is vegan, but i guess we just didn't put two and two together. result: b had tofu bbq for lunch. cahrazy. i had veg udon noodles, which were delish.

and a story that deserves a real "cahrazy" tag: my camera was broken destroyed melted  rendered useless in denver. the last morning we were there we went to a local place for pancakes. end result: a huge cup of hot syrup on me and on my beloved camera. which was a gift from b for my birthday last year. it was not fully the waitresses fault, but i still am feeling totally depressed about it. b's going to let me use his point and shoot until later next year after i've saved up for a dslr. {which i talked about wanting in like my 10th blog post ever. i should have saved a dollar a day for that thing since i blogged about it. #thatswhatsuzeormanwouldsay}

i know, cahrazy, right? oh well, moving on.

more photos and happier stories coming later in the week!

mississippi.

{print via poppy+pinecone.} 

we're headed to mississippi this weekend. vicksburg to be exact. which, from what i can tell on google isn't in the basin, but pretty far down there.

one of b's best friends from school is getting married. to a very sweet southern girl.

it'll be the first time i'll meet any of his friends and to say i'm nervous is putting it lightly.

wish me luck, y'all!

{i'm practicing my accent.}

see you sweet teas next week!

flashback friday: atlanta.

early on in our relationship b and i used to travel. a lot.

{okay, we still travel a lot.}

one of those vacations led us to atlanta. the reason we went was to go to top chef contestant kevin gillespie's woodfire grill.

{the food was amazing, he was not friendly, unfortunately.}

but, that wasn't all! here are some photos from that 09 trip.

 oh hai, remem when i used to eat meat?

 world of coke.

aquarium. and woof to all my photos from this time period. i felt like i was drunk looking through because every other one was a blurry mess.

olympic park.

self-explanatory.

the hotel where we stayed. amazing - i LOVED it and would totally recommend if you've ever in atlanta for a fancy weekend.

ocoee.

so you saw the epic pirate picture.

but, we did other epic things that weekend, like:

stayed in a cabin.

rafted in 50 degree temps. {and got the hypothermia.}

had this kid cook for us.

saw pretty sights.

smushed together in the back seat.

and slept the whole way home.

on the ocoee.

this weekend we'll be heading down to the ocoee river to white water raft! b and i have done it every summer since we've been together.

back in 09, literally less than two months after our "first date", i invited him along with a group of people to raft. luckily i caught the awkward-early-in-love trip on camera:

{i'm singing the song "memories" in my head right now}

then, last summer, we organized a trip with our regular crew. my shirt says "i <3 my boyfriend". he <3s when i wear it.

notice anything different? that's right, in photo two b is showing his teeth. literally from like age four on, he was a closed-mouth smiler. i reintroduced him to the permagrin and he has never looked back. 

i'll share photos from the trip when we get back {permagrins and all}.  

flashback friday.

some of my favorite blogs have features that they incorporate into their regular blogging. like: breakfast at toast's girls who inspire series, hello happiness! and her wedding wednesday, and cupcakes & cashmere's five things.

as i approach my 100th post (say wha?) i can see why: sometimes daily life just isn't interesting enough to blog about.

so: we're going to have a regular feature around these parts.

introducing {drumroll please....} flashback friday!

one of the reasons i started this blog is because i have a terrible memory. it's funny at times, like when i go somewhere and forget what i was there for. but other times it's a bit "woh, woh", like that on repeat wasn't around when we went to china and i already am fuzzy on the details.

speaking of china, that's the first flashback friday topic! yay.

i could do flashback friday about china for every friday until eternity. so, i'll share just a few of my favorite pictures and stories from the start of our big trip for this one.

ni hao china! we are the foreigners!

hahahahha. i could do a blog just about ryan's experience in china. he was nervous to say the least and ended up sitting next to this local on the ride from the airport. as you can tell, he was uncomfortable. the old man laughed the entire ride.

so. we walk out of the tunnel from the airport shuttle ride and realize we have no clue where we are / how to read the map / how far it will be to get to our hotel. brandon had been living in a city hours from beijing so he wasn't familiar either. we ended up accepting rides from these rickshaw drivers. a new phrase was born from the experience: "getting rickshaw'd". they ended up charging us about double what they said the ride would cost, but we were just glad to be at our hotel, huge bags and all.

first night dinner.

we look like little babies!

first post done and i love flashback friday already!

pentwater 3: yachts and keyholes.

okay, let me be real for a min: i thought michigan was kind of a lame duck state. i feel for them with the economy, cold weather, etc.

i saw the pure michigan ads and thought, "who would want to vacation there?"

the answer: ME. pentwater was SO nice.

more scenery shots so you can feel like you enjoyed it too.

can't help myself with the self photography.

can't help myself with the zoomed-in-so-far-my-lens-touched-that-tomato photography either. look at that bruschetta!

and then: storms. the sky was black! it literally swooped in as we got called in for dinner and before the cake was served the sun was shining again.

do you die of the cuteness in this shot? me too.

so: keyhole story. i tried the dress on a few times before the wedding day, but had never moved around in it. as soon as we sit for dinner i realize my entire center-side boob is ON DISPLAY. it was made more noticeable because i had super spray tanned right before... but hadn't done any non-visible areas. AKA the part HANGING out of the keyhole. and at the end of the night, one of b's relatives may or may not gone to hug me goodbye and accidentally caught his hand in the hole. i can only hope he had visited the open bar enough to black it out. lord, hear our prayer.

the end to a great night: they took off on a sparkle-lighted boat!



p.s. i had totally planned to fight to the death for catch the bouquet, but apparently that is not "in" anymore. it's not like i had my single ladies dance planned or anything.

pentwater 2: the wedding.

the whole reason we drove 12+ hours to the shores of michigan was to watch b's cousin get married.

i may be a little wedding blog obsessed {my favs: green wedding shoes, style me pretty, hey gorgeous, etc.} so i was uber excited to see all the details of the event, too. and to cry at the vows. because really, who doesn't cry during weddings?

warning: most of these pics are of us. but really, that's the usual around here.

do you love this as much as i do??

programs.

a note about the weather: it was crazy!! it was WAY warmer than i thought it would be, which is a good thing, but it rained the whole time. we had a light shower when we arrived and then saturday it stormed all morning. then sunday am it was gorgeous. the sky cleared out and the sun shone through. just perfect for their outdoor wedding.

there they are! so beautiful! her veil was omgamazing. i believe i had stopped sobbing by this point.

here's the dress i finally choose. it's from j.crew's bridesmaid line.

next up: the reception. also known as: "that time i found out my dress had a keyhole in the chest."

pentwater 1.

here's a glimpse at our trip north.

when i found this picture on a realty website, i was SURE it could not be as pretty as they'd made it out to be.

i was wrong.

this is the beach off b's uncle and aunt's beach house. it was so nice. the softest sand i've ever experienced! the waves were amazing and the sunset was truly beautiful.

we stayed in downtown pentwater. b's parents hosted us at a rental house (that ended up being a block from the wedding and reception!). we all may or may not now own "horniest bar around" t-shirts from the antler bar, seen below. get it? horns? antlers? horn-y?

i think the best word to describe pentwater is "quaint". here's scenes from inside the local candy shop. how awesome is that zoltar? my fortune was pretty good, too.

this was right before the welcome dinner, on a different beach. it was much rockier, but there were shells for the kids to gather and they loved it.

and a pic with the sister!

tomorrow: wedding pictures!