Happy Birthday Ryan!

We celebrated Ryan's Birthday last weekend!! Friday, his actual birthday was pretty low key. He took the day off and I made him breakfast, and we just enjoyed spending time together doing things around town. Ryan caught a fish on his morning trip, which was a great way to start off his big day! Lunch at our favorite Deli was delish, and after some R & R we had dinner at one of our favorite places, Bella's! Saturday was jam packed with fun! We spent the day boating, and having a blast with The Blumes!  We love boating with them and we caught several fish so it was a successful day too!  That night we went to Mary and Chris' house for a Cookout to celebrate with more friends! Ryan had a blast, and it was so nice to be able to celebrate! :)  Sunday we went to church, and after church we got to socialize with some new friends we have made and we also met an entire greek family (I am talking cousins, sisters, mothers, in-laws, neighbors.. the works) who all seemed to have some connection to NC, and they were so sweet!!  Everyone at church has really opened their arms to us and been so friendly.  It is so nice to be able to go together regularly to church!! What a blessing that we can do that! It is also wonderful to be meeting new people! :)  This week I had my first Book Club get together, and it was fun!! I am so glad all of these JLT and other events are starting to pick up because it is great being able to see my friends! Ryan had a busy week at work, but some great things happened for him there and he is doing a great job! I am very proud of him!  Well that is all for now, but I will update everyone again soon! It's gameday so GO PACK!!

Vero Beach Fun and JLT

Hope everyone had a great week and a wonderful Labor Day Holiday!  We really enjoyed going to Vero Beach with Ryan's side of the family!  It's was such a nice vacation for us, and we enjoyed being away together.  Vero Beach holds a special place in the hearts of the Ridnones, so I was excited to be able to share this place with them.  The beach itself was beautiful.  Being on the "west coast" we miss the Atlantic Ocean, so it was nice to get back to that!!  Here are a few pictures from our trip:

When we got back this week it was WONDERFUL to see our puppy man!  We missed not having Morgan Dog with us, but he had a great time at Aunt Britt and Uncle Tye's so he was a happy camper!  Junior League kicked off on Tuesday, and I am so excited to get started with the year!!  I love being apart of Junior League, and being able to help the community.  We had an amazing speaker too, and I cannot wait to get her book! That's all the updates for now, but i'll be back with more soon! :)

GAMEDAY! GO PACK!!

August has flown by so fast..... We have been out of town visiting family and staying busy every weekend! But, we are so excited for today because it is GAMEDAY!! We have long awaited football season, and it is finally here!  What a great way to kickoff Labor Day weekend. We are also excited about spending Labor Day weekend in one of Ryan's favorite places with his family!!  It's going to be a great long weekend!!  More updates soon, but in the meantime GO PACK!!!  We will be watching with friends tonight and cheering on our Wolfpack!!  Looking for a WIN!!!

Happy Friday Y'all! :)

Happy Birthday and Happy Wedding!

Wow, this has been such a fun August so far!!  It started off with a wonderful surprise from Ryan for my 27th birthday.  He took me away for the weekend to the Ritz Carlton in Palm Beach!  I had no idea where we were going, even as he was driving there, and I was so surprised when we pulled up to the Ritz.  It is just gorgeous inside and out, and it has beautiful views of the Atlantic Ocean! We spent the day Saturday and Sunday at the pool just relaxing.  Saturday night Ryan took me to dinner at one of their restaurants, and it was amazing.  What was also really neat was that we were able to have a sushi chef make us hand rolled sushi on the spot in the lobby before dinner.  It was so yummy.  What a wonderful experience!  Needless to say I had one of the best birthdays, and it was so nice to get way just the two of us together.  We vowed that we will do much more of that!! So far 27 has been a great year.  Last weekend I was able to be in North Carolina to celebrate the marriage of my cousin Chris and his now wife Amanda.  I enjoyed being apart of all of the events and festivities and it was so wonderful to be able to spend that time with my extended family and also to see some friends I had not seen in a while. Ryan was with his best friend Andrew in SC for his bachelor weekend, and he enjoyed fishing, and hanging out with the guys.  I know he wishes he could have been in two places at one time, but I am so glad he was able to make the trip up to celebrate with Andrew. Here are some pictures from both of the trips in August!  I will post more soon!  Have a great week everyone!

What a WONDERFUL trip home to NC!!

We are back!!  Our trip was so nice, but WAY too short for our liking. We would have loved to have had longer so we could have seen more people like Ryan's parents, and our other family and friends! We do feel so fortunate to have been able to see so many of y'all though!  We arrived Thursday and immediately we were served "real Bojangles sweet tea". We were able to go to Pastabilites, my favorite childhood restaurant and one of Ryan's favorites too for dinner that night and celebrate family with my parents, my cousin Chris, his fiance Amanda, and Scott's better half and fiance Jenn! YAY for a yummy family dinner.  Ryan and I then met Amanda and Grant at Green Valley Grill for drinks.  It was wonderful to catch up with the Marshalls and to hear about their furry new addition (puppy Hoss).  Friday was a fun day in Raleigh for Ryan and me and we enjoyed eating at one of our favorite places in Cameron Village with our friend Andrew and shopping at Baileys, and some other Raleigh favorites ( Ryan had "fun", but not quite as much as I did haha).  That night in Greensboro two of my closest friends Heather and Morgan and their husbands Jimmy and Andrew met us for dinner at Green Valley Grill to celebrate my upcoming birthday and just reunite! In one word.... WOW!  We had such a blast!  Whenever these boys get together it is a crazy time, and we all enjoyed catching up and planning our next vacation together. I was so thankful that I got to see every member of the "Steel Magnolias" and their wonderful hubbies on our visit home.  Saturday we attended a Greek wedding for my childhood friend Katie.  It was so nice to be in the audience this time and we had a great time visiting with all of the Greeks, and cutting a rug on the dance floor. My parents really enjoyed having us with them too, and we even got Momma Gwen up and working out two mornings in a row, and she held her own with us!! All in all the trip was wonderful.  Now, we are back and it's my birthday week!! Ryan has some surprises he's planning, so I am excited to see what he has in store for us this weekend!  We have really enjoyed watching the Olympics this week!!  Go Team USA!!  Hope everyone else is having a good week, and I will make sure to update you all again soon! :)

Two Days Until North Carolina

We are so excited to go to North Carolina to visit with some of our family and friends.  Wish we could see more people, but glad to have the opportunity to see some!! I appreciate being home in NC so much more now that I don't live there.  It will be a nice break from our hot Florida summer.  Nothing too new here on the home front for us.  We had a nice relaxing weekend, and didn't do much! I will have much more updates next week!! Have a great week everyone! :)

A weekend with the family!

This past weekend was so much fun!  We arrived in Oviedo Friday after work and spent the weekend with "The Leiss Family"! We really enjoyed seeing most of the nieces and nephews, and getting a chance to relax a little bit. I helped Jenna go back-to-school shopping Saturday, and looking at all the cute "little girl" clothes made me want a little girl.  I came home and informed Ryan that Morgan Dog needed a sibling haha! No, no... I can wait to have kids, but I am very excited to one day have children with Ryan, and for now I am blessed to be able to enjoy our nieces and nephews. We are getting excited about going home to NC in less than two weeks and seeing my side of the family, our friends, and all of the close Greek friends that are like family! It will be an awesome trip and kickoff my birthday week! :) I cannot believe I am turning 27 this year! Tonight I went to my first JLT Fundraising Committee meeting, and I am really excited about this year and my new committee.  I really like the ladies, and I think it'll be a great year! Hope everyone had a great weekend and start to the work week today!