Fort Wilderness and Camp Rindone

Ryan and I had a wonderful weekend at Disney's Fort Wilderness with his family. We love going to any part of Disney. We are both so glad to be so close to Disney now. We grilled out, did Fantasia Golf, watched fireworks, and just relaxed! I cannot wait to go back in 2 weeks to the Wilderness Lodge and Magic Kingdom for the weekend to celebrate my birthday with my hubby!! We then took Lauren, Jenna, and Evan back to Tampa with us for a few days so that we could enjoy them. We have had a blast doing the pool, watching movies, eating mexican out. We love to spend time with these kids and we again feel lucky to have them so close now. Last night Ryan kissed me in the kitchen and told me he never had doubts that I would be a great mother, but now he's seen it first hand and knows I am going to be an amazing mom. I about cried, but having the kids with us is great practice for us one day (not now)!! For now we are just really enjoying being a great Aunt and Uncle. Happy Tuesday everyone! :)

Harry Potter and Skinny Girl Margaritas

Happy Wednesday everyone! It has been a pretty uneventful week so far... But two wonderful things for this week: The new Harry Potter Movie and Skinny Girl Margaritas! Ryan and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie when I got back from North Carolina Sunday evening. It was SOOOO good!! The last movie (Part I) was good, but kind of sad and I thought this one was really great. It had sad elements but the overall ending was a great one. If you haven't seen it definitely go see it! Also, I re-discovered Skinny Girl Margarita's. Bethenny Frankel was a member of the "Real Housewives of New York". I am such a huge fan of most of the Housewives shows (excluding Atlanta). She does a skinny brand, which features some of the things we love for less calories. The Skinny Girl Margarita is delicious for 1/5 of the calories. I bought a bottle or it and I am enjoying it a lot! I am a fan. It is nice to be able to enjoy a beverage in the summer and not feel like you are gaining weight!!

A Beautiful Saturday in Shelby

Today Mom and I headed up to Shelby to the Owls Eye Winery to celebrate Miss Heather's upcoming wedding.  The winery was very nice and had beautiful views of the mountains.  I cannot wait to take Ryan there when we are back in Shelby.  Heather had a great time today. I enjoyed visiting with Heather, Hillary, Mrs. Terri, and Bonnie, and of course spending time with Mom. Today was a great day and although I was sad to see it end I am excited to be in Charleston in 2 weeks to continue celebrating with Heather! :)

FLORIDA Drivers License

I am proud to admit I have my Florida Drivers License as of Wednesday, so I am coming closer and closer to being a full Florida Resident. I wish that the experience was fun, but poor Ryan took a long lunch and waited with me for what seemed like a year for me to get my new license. However, the guy that helped me was extremely nice, and I think he liked me so it wasn't horrible. I celebrated with a late lunch/early happy hour with a friend at Kona Grill. Having my new license was so helpful for my trip to NC on Thursday, because I no longer had to bring my marriage license with me to board the plane. I did however get patted down by a woman in her 40's. She explained that she would have to "feel me up" and asked if i'd like a private search... I said "no thank you, I would just like to get through this line" in a southern accent.  I survived and arrived safely in Greensboro just in time for a girls lunch with mom.  I am enjoying being home in Greensboro, and I am so excited to help host a shower for Heather tomorrow in Shelby!! I am so glad to have some of my closest friends getting married this summer too, and I cannot wait to help them celebrate like they were able to help me back in May. Heather is one of the best people I know so I am thrilled to celebrate tomorrow with my best friend! I miss Ryan and Morgan Dog, but they seem to be doing some male bonding together in my absence, and although they miss me I know they will have a fun weekend together! I will update again soon! Happy Friday to everyone! :)

Relaxing Weekend

We had our first weekend at home in a while, and it was really nice not to have any definite plans and to be able to just enjoy Tampa for the weekend together.  Friday we did Happy Hour at The Pub with some of Ryan's co-workers, which was nice.  It was good to get to meet and see them again.  Saturday we went down to South Tampa and took Morgan Dog to our new favorite doggy boutique "Downtown Dogs" and got him a delicious treat, then we headed next door to the Wine Exchange and enjoyed some drinks and an appetizer on what was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I just love how South Tampa is so dog friendly. After that we went shopping for some new condo additions (new pillows, rugs, lamps) and we were hugely successful in finding some great new items. Ryan was so patient with me, and it was a long process but everything looks great. It is nice to be settling in.... However, I can't help but think that we are going to have to start packing back up to move to South Tampa in no time at all.... Oh well, we are really excited to move and also to give Morgan more of a play area.  It will be well work packing up, but for now I definitely want our first home together to feel like "home" and it's really shaping up! Sunday we went to church and then headed out to Fort Desoto Beach, where they have a part of the beach that is dog friendly.  We met our friend's Ryan and Erika there and we all had a great time.  I am proud to report that Morgan Dog stayed in the water with us most of the time and swam with us without using his life jacket. I was so proud, and so thankful that he is starting to get used to the water. I know Ryan is thrilled too, being such a "fish" himself! All in all it was a great weekend, and I am excited to see what this week holds. I hope to be getting my Florida drivers license, and Ryan and I are getting those thank you notes written. I will have more updates soon! :)

Wrightsville Beach for July 4th

Ryan, Morgan Dog, and I headed up to NC for the 4th of July weekend.  It is a tradition for my family to spend the July 4th weekend together in  Wrightsville Beach and so when Ryan told me we could make the trip I was sooo happy.  We started out on Thursday afternoon and spent the night in Savannah that night.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there we were too tired to enjoy Savannah, but we are going to make that another trip.  We got to Wilmington on Friday and we left the beach only once the entire weekend.  We did a lot of beaching, boating, eating, and card playing for the whole weekend and it was wonderful!  The one time we did leave the beach was to head to Kenansville (the eastern NC country) for a family get together. So in true Swinson/Bellamy fashion we rented a 14 passenger van, which got the 14 family members at the beach to and from the reunion.  It was so much fun. I felt like we were on a party van. This is definitely the way to travel with fun family members!!  We enjoyed seeing our other family too!! I really can't say this enough, but I really feel I have the best family in the world.  We are so close and I just loved getting to spend the weekend with some of my favorite family members.  Ryan and I were sad to leave Tuesday, but we had a great time and we were definitely glad we made the trip.  Wrightsville Beach will always be my favorite beach and I cannot wait to go back.  Hope everyone had a great July 4th!