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December was slammed with fun events & trips so we thought we'd post our holiday recap!

 

Clay and I were finally able to decorate for Christmas this year! 3 years ago we were engaged and still living with roommates, 2 years ago we had just gotten married & were laying on the Dominican beach on Christmas morning (actually the main Blog photo up top was taken that day,) and last year our entire house was packed in boxes and we moved to FL on Dec. 27th! SOOOO...needless to say that we had LOTS of decorations we never had the chance to put up!

 

We really enjoyed having our first tree (a 7.5 foot pre-lit from Clay's mom!) and so did the cats! We weren't sure how they would react to it but they left it alone and slept underneath it almost every day.



 

 

My DIY door décor...just covered the R in glitter & tied the ribbon

 One weekend before Christmas we went to the Stephen Foster State Park for their Festival of Lights. They decorate the entire park with lights, have fake snow & Santa for the kids, and serve free popcorn and hot chocolate.  It was a great date night!

 

Clay's company Christmas party was in Orlando so we made it a full weekend & went shopping at the outlets.  This was the first time I was sweating & wearing shorts/flip-flops to buy Christmas gifts. This was also the first time I didn't have to wear tights or a winter coat to a Christmas party!

 

 

of course we had to stop at Bass Pro Shops!

AH-MAY-ZING place for lunch...for reals.

Clay's meatloaf sandwich with bacon on super thick Texas toast

               I got the Man v. Food favorite on the menu:        



fried chicken on a homemade biscuit with eggs, tomato, mozzarella,
and a chipotle cream sauce all over griddled mashed potatoes. oh my...

Then on Tuesday, December 17th, we celebrated our 2nd Anniversary! We had a nice dinner at the Great Outdoors with a low country boil, ribs, and peanut butter pie for dessert!

 

 

The last Friday of work before Christmas break was tacky day for teachers. My friend Katie (who teaches next door) ironed on her fiancés face to a shirt and added all sorts of tacky decorations.  Michelle (her intern) wore one of her moms legit tacky sweaters, complete with mitten shaped pockets.  I decided to make this bow skirt using hot glue, a cheap skirt on the Target clearance rack, and tons of bows. There are no bows on the back...just around the waistband.  It was SUCH a fun last day! 

Katie, Michelle, & I

Clay and I left for NC on Monday the 23rd after he got off work.  We drove to Kinston, Grifton/Washington, and then to Raleigh in a span of 7 days.  We saw a lot of family & friends and really enjoyed ourselves.

Christmas Eve in Kinston

Ben (Clay's 2nd cousin) and Robin's new puppy!

opening our big gift...

AN AMAZING NEW KAYAK PADDLE!  :)

 

Christmas Day in Grifton

 



Our nephew Jack (Clay's sister's son) opening presents.
He actually stopped mid-tear in this one and cheesed
at me so I'd take a picture! :) TOO CUTE! 

Granny opening her FL oranges!

Clay's mom Liz is so excited...Downton Abbey seasons 1-3!

Then we got Jack to pose with everyone & take pictures. He was SO into the photos that night!

 

 

 

Then he wanted to hear the Chipmunks Christmas song to sing and dance for us...he was being such a ham that night!  Uncle Clay pulled it up on his phone and he was so enthralled with watching the video. This was also one of the first times he got THIS close to Clay!

 

 

On the 26th, we headed to Washington, NC to continue the celebration!

 

Sophie opening her Satchel's Pizza t-shirt!

Clay's cousin Jason checking out our annual family calendar - thanks Jaime!

On the 27th, we drove to Raleigh to see my family & celebrate!

 



Clay & our niece Eva

Eva turned 6 on NYE so she celebrated and had a jewelry making party at their house on the 28th with her friends. They had a great time! 

 



Our nephew Cal...all smiles!

Eva and I made headbands from the kit we got her for her birthday.
She made two, then snuck upstairs and put one in a bag and gave it to me.
Precious.

 The night of the 28th, we got to see NCSU play. We went a little early to scalp tickets and ended up getting 2 FREE tickets from a total stranger!



Sunday the 29th, we got up and had breakfast before my family had to leave.

 





Us & Grandma!

Hope your Christmas was filled with love, laughter, friends, and family! 

 

Next up: NYE in Savannah!

st. augustine: camping & ocean kayaking

Ahh...St. Augustine. We LOVE St. Augustine.  We decided to go one weekend in November to check out another beach park (Anastasia State Park) and go camping and try out ocean kayaking with all of our gear. It was such an awesome weekend and we will definitely be back to camp at this park. 

We got there early Saturday and stopped for breakfast at the Manatee Café before scoping out the park. We decided to change and go ocean kayaking first since there was plenty of daylight left!  There was a place there for you to rent kayaks, canoes, and catamarans (which we really want to try one day!)  The people were super cool and very knowledgeable.  We hauled our gear down to the shore and took off. This was our gorgeous view below:

The way the park is laid out, it's along a channel that runs parallel to the ocean.  The water was more choppy that we are used to but we were excited to be experiencing something different so we trekked on!  We passed the St. Augustine Lighthouse and kept going towards a lunch spot we looked up that was right on the water.

Clay & the yachts surrounding the restaurant

I could not stop laughing because we looked SO tiny compared to these huge boats! We decided to try and go as far as we could manage towards the inlet.  We were almost to the end of the channel where you can see Castillo de San Marcos and The Great Cross but the waves were picking up pretty bad and it was getting hard to maneuver!  We ended up turning around before risking tipping overboard and we headed back to the yacht-filled lunch spot. This was our first time kayaking to lunch!

We snuck our way through the yachts and found a small boat dock right up front towards the restaurant.  I was trying to take pictures & watch out for boats and I must admit we looked pretty funny on our brightly colored kayaks. We looked even funnier trying to roll off onto the dock...which seemed SO much higher when you were trying to balance and not make a fool of yourself! 

We took apart our paddles and shoved them down into Clay's compartment, chained and locked up our kayaks, and dried off a little before having lunch.  We took a few steps back and snapped this shot below, which still makes me laugh.

Then once we were seated outside, we got this photo below, which is one of my favorites. I absolutely love the contrast of our kayaks with all of the HUGE white boats. 

One day we will have both...I hope! 

The Conch House was such a great spot to enjoy the afternoon. It totally reminded us of our honeymoon in the Dominican! We enjoyed oysters (our fave!) and split a lunch entree.  YUM.

By the time we were finished, we contemplated stopping by the lighthouse before we set up camp but were afraid that we wouldn't be back with much light left. We skipped it and hauled it back to the park. WHEW...it was a lot harder after a meal!  Our cute set-up is seen below.

After setting up camp, we showered and headed out for a walking ghost tour and dinner. We love finding Groupons or Living Social deals for the ghost tours - they are always entertaining.

our lovely guide!

Castillo de San Marcos

 After our tour & dinner, we came back and enjoyed a fire for quite some time.

I forgot how much I loved doing that.



Sunday morning, we got up and ate brunch at Café 11. it.was.amazing. They were slammed packed and I was most likely shoving my face with Praline French Toast that I failed to snap any pictures. sorry.

Then we did a super touristy thing...went to The Fountain of Youth.  It is pretty crazy that this site that was discovered is literally in the middle of a neighborhood.  The staff is insanely cheesy and makes for an entertaining trip for sure.

Here we go...so this spring is a sulfur spring and you can smell it before you even walk in the door. 





Thankfully this was the size cup they handed out instead of a full glass!  It was absolutely disgusting. I had to hold my nose and swallow as fast as possible. The taste would not come out of our mouths for hours...seriously. Then on top of that, we were burping up sulfur FOR THE REST OF THE DAY but we did it. I know - TMI. And it's worked.

See? Even Clay is acting younger below & I bet you can't tell I'll be 30 in 2 weeks!



The Great Cross

 What an awesome couple of days in St. Augustine. This is another contender for our retirement city.

Who wants to join us?