Trippy Pics

We got back from our trip Sunday night, and I think we are just now starting to recover! It has taken a while for me to get the gumption and energy to post some visual delights for our families and friends. We had so much fun in Myrtle Beach/Pawley's Island and loved sharing the trip with Paul and Nancy!

The only little hiccup was the weather... I swear the humidity had to have been, like, 90% and the temperatures were high. Most of the sites we wanted to see were outside, so it was definitely a challenge for us prego ladies to endure the sauna that is the South Carolinian summertime.

The men golfed every day and had a blast on the beautiful courses, while Nancy and I went to Brookgreen Gardens and some plantations.

All in all, our Fourth of July week was a success! :)

Celebrating the Fourth (with about a thousand other people) on Myrtle Beach. There were fireworks going off everywhere. So fun!

  

Live oaks and Spanish moss at Brookgreen Gardens

The garden also had a cute little zoo with native animals

No big deal, just two real live BALD EAGLES! How appropriate for Independence Day. I think the poor little dears were just as hot as we were.

The view from the patio of our condo (I am sure Jord has more golf pictures for us to post later)

Part 2 coming up next!

Life Lately

Oh, hey...

Haven't had a lot to update the past week. We've been doing lots of baby browsing (seriously, how many car seats are there to choose from? I never realized until now). Little man's crib should be coming any time today! Wahoo! We are planning to set it up for FHE tonight, so I will try and do some documentation.

Also, I have been working a lot on this  project, though it is going a little slower than I would like because it has been 90 degrees and above every day and my body has become an oven.

Once that's complete, I just have to keep working on the nursery and getting it all put together! I have some more DIY ideas (thanks to Pinterest) to keep myself occupied.

This whole nesting thing is no joke... I am not even in the third trimester, yet (one more week) and I seriously just spend every day trying to do something new to baby's room or the house or trying to find a new thing to clean/organize. 

Also, we have decided that we might take a little trip with our friends over the Fourth to this place....

Ahhh... Myrtle Beach

The whole "having a giant belly" thing on the beach this year has been making me a little wary, but I got a sassy new swimsuit, so here's hoping I feel a lot like this...

and less like this...

Can't wait! :)

Arizona Jaunt

Last weekend, we took a little trip to Arizona to spend Father's Day/my grandma's birthday with our relatives.

My mom and aunt were very sweet and threw us a baby shower; the little man was totally spoiled, and we are so grateful for our wonderful family.

Now I look at his little items around the house and feel a bit more mama-like :) I love to picture him in his teeny hats and onesies and think about our little family's future.

 Great-grandma Dory!

 Baby J's swag :)

 Horizontal stripes may have been the wrong choice... HAHAHA

Jordie's first Father's Day present!

Rushmore

We still have things to share from our cross country road trip... After spending time in Montana and Wyoming, we headed over to South Dakota to get a glimpse at the great Mount Rushmore! An unpatriotic admission: I kind of thought it was going to be really lame. And boring. However, the setting in the Black Hills was so beautiful, and the monument was really amazing. Take a looksie :)

We also decided to make a pit stop at the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is still unfinished, except for the face, but it is HUGE. Maybe one day we will be able to see it again when it is complete.

Also, we realized upon driving through the state of South Dakota that it is kind of a ...unique... place full of strange roadside attractions. Exhibit A:

George W. So hot right now.

I can just imagine what the creator of this was thinking... "Hey, what should we do with an empty lot next to this gas station in the middle of the Black Hills?" "How about fill it with giant busts of presidents? Also, throw in a windmill." Naturally, we used this glorious backdrop to show off how ridiculously good looking we are.

Other strange places: a giant park full of bears that you can pay to drive through and Wall Drug.

From there we made our way through Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and finally home to North Carolina (toward the end there, we got a little tired of taking pictures). It was a long trip and a whirlwind of a week, but we had lots of fun and got to see so many areas of the country. Since then, we have just been settling into our new place and trying to make it as homey as possible. More pictures of the town where we live to come, so stay tuned!!

What we've been up to...

Due to a bout of sickness and overall laziness, I've been a little slow on the blogging front, but here are some fun things that we have been up to for the past month/couple weeks :)



For Memorial Day weekend, we took a spontaneous little trip over to Wilmington. After some mishaps (and no camping vacancies, like, anywhere), we slept on Carolina Beach with about a thousand other people. Due to mosquitoes and some loud parties, not many Z's were had, but waking up to the sound of the ocean was pretty neato. We also got to use our new tent and camping pads, wedding presents from Jordan's family. We love them! Thanks, guys!


I sure do miss my beloved Sunflower Market, but we found a place that has served as a substitute for now. It's a fun little open air market with tons of produce and beautiful flowers. I have been thinking about taking some home and creating a makeshift planter on our porch :)

One thing we are learning about the summer months here in NC is that the storms are WEIRD. They come seemingly out of nowhere, are really scary for about fifteen minutes, and then disappear, leaving a bunch of fog. The most recent one gave us some nice-sized hail, followed by what can only be described as a scene from The Mist, sans creepy critter things trying to eat us.




Things that we did this past weekend... a fun Friday night Uptown with some friends, imaginary house hunting, listening to the outdoor summer symphony performance, puppy window shopping(since we can't exactly adopt any pets at the moment), and my husband fell in love with a ferret. The end.

Yellowstone Part Deux

Here are some more little snippets of our time at the park... Feast your eyes upon these beauties!

We were able to get up close and personal with some of these beasts... Most of the information that we got at the entrance warned against angering the bison and getting gored. Yikes. However, I found them to be quite docile and, dare I say, cuddly-looking? They were really fun to look at at first, but toward the end of the day we were a little tired of them acting like they owned the place... Stopping in the middle of the road in huge herds and staring at us blankly when we politely asked them to move. Rude. Case in point....

Bison Blockade from Alyssa Rose on Vimeo.

Sorry about the brief PDA. It was our honeymoon, after all. Also, Jordan is dreamy. Moving on...



When we were heading out on our way and leaving Yellowstone the next day, we had one of the coolest wildlife experiences. Driving along, we saw some bighorn sheep (rams?) climbing the rocks, and we quickly pulled off the side of the road to get some pictures and video.

Yellowstone ram sighting from Alyssa Rose on Vimeo.

How cool is that!? We were a little bummed that we had such limited time to spend here, but we had to get moving to get to our next destination in time... Mount Rushmore! More on that later.