trumps in town.

a few weeks ago our house was jam-packed with trumps. my dad, my stepmom, my little sister, and my little brother and his girlfriend all came to visit us. seth and ally arrived on friday night just in time for us to head down to riverbend to see florida georgia line perform followed by jake owen. it was super crowded. had just rained so it was super humid and ridiculously hot. but fortunately we were able to find a good spot to stand where there weren't people bumping into us every three seconds. and despite a terrible, terrible adventure to ihop later that night, we had a blast!

dad, robin and jessie arrived on saturday afternoon and we went back to riverbend again saturday night for cee-lo's controversial act. the weather was much nicer {though it was still very hot!}.

on sunday, it was rainy for most of the day so we hung out around the house, drank margaritas and played board games. then we grilled out and had cake to celebrate robin's birthday!

it was so good to have the trumps in town. our house was crowded for sure, but we had a great time! i hope they all come back soon!

1095.

1,095. that's how many days it's been since this happened:

1,095 seems like so many days. but yet it doesn't seem like it's been that long since i was freaking out about everything that still had to be done anxiously awaiting walking down the aisle to my husband-to-be.

dear mr. heard,
three years has flown by. and i have enjoyed every minute of it {ok, fine, almost every minute}. so much has happened in those 1,095 days, but i know there is so much more to come for us in our life together. i love you and happy anniversary.

{p.s. if you'd like to know more about our wedding, check out our wedding page here. or get more details from last year's wedding week posts. and you can see how we celebrated our first and second anniversaries here and here.}

check back soon for a post on how we celebrate the occasion this year! and yes, it started with champagne and cake at midnight. tradition!

a little trip home.

as i mentioned at the end of my last post, i recently had a quick trip back to virginia to see my family and to see my bff kasey! juliet and i jumped in the car and made the drive up i-81 to my most favorite place in the whole. entire. world.

juliet is so smart that as soon as we take the exit she starts crying because she knows where she is and she gets so excited. like, head out the window excited.

although i don't blame her. if i wasn't driving i'd probably hang my own head out the window to breathe in that fresh country air. :)

but seriously. do my parents not have the best view in the world?

and it's a good thing they have a nice patio and view because poor juliet was so incredibly disappointed to find that momma and timmy weren't even home when we arrived! but she hopped up into her usual spot to watch over snakey acres as we waited. she loves being up on that wall and spends 95% of the time we are home outside by herself so she can sit up there. and she won't come inside until she's good and ready.

one of the sweetest things about visiting home {other than seeing everyone i love, of course!} is that my momma always put fresh flowers in my room before i arrive.

after momma and timmy arrived, we let their new puppy abi {abby?} and juliet meet for the first time. this face. how could you not love her?

and no, her tongue does not fit into her mouth. ever. actually that's not true. there's also this face:

silly puppy.

after a bit of time spent chatting/catching up/napping we all headed down to the blue ridge country music festival where we got to see colt ford, hunter hayes and little big town {gloriana played too but we missed them}. the music was good, the food was sold out, but the people watching was probably one of the best parts. i can't even explain some of the things. but we had a good time.

on sunday I GOT TO SEE KASEY! for anyone who doesn't know, kasey is my bestest friend from high school who moved to michigan right after we graduated. i actually drove her up there {okay, fine, i rode in my car with her as she drove and i slept most of the way} and spent a few weeks helping her get settled/hanging out/being silly. michigan is pretty far away but fortunately we get to see each other about once a year. last year she came to see our new house in tennessee! and while we usually spend about 6 hours taking pictures i somehow managed to only get this one picture of us this trip.

the best thing about getting together with kasey is that it's like no time has passed since our last visit. i'm so, so glad i got to see my best friend!

and now just a few random pictures i wanted to share from my trip. when momma came to visit me for my pinning ceremony i sent her home with some succulent cuttings and they've really taken off on her porch!

tucker puppy was begging for food and i thought this was the sweetest little face.

if juliet wasn't out on the wall, she was claiming this entire chair for herself.

and after a long day of playing in the yard, abi looks like this.

you and me both, abi.

stay tuned for more posts coming soon about more family fun and traveling!

the beach!

so austin and i just got back from the beach over the weekend. before we got married we used to go to fort walton beach/destin, florida at the beginning of every summer with austin's parents. but the year we got married we didn't go {we were a bit busy gettin' hitched and all} and we hadn't been back since. i'm not really sure why, but i'm sure it had to do with austin having/changing jobs and me not having a job/being in school. but not this year!

i really don't have that many pictures to share. mostly because blinding sun + greasy sunblock + sand + digital camera = hot mess. but i do have a few because i whined to austin that i just had to have pictures to prove we went on vacation i wanted to have the memories recorded.

although it was a bit seaweed-y some days for the most part the water was so clear!

we arrived on saturday afternoon and after the drive none of us were interested in going grocery shopping or cooking. instead we decided to grab dinner at dewey destin's seafood. and by "we" i of course mean everyone but me because they had zero food i could eat. they couldn't even throw some lettuce on a plate and call it a salad for me. i later had a frozen dinner meal back at the condo.

on sunday we hit the beach. obviously. and i slathered on spf 60 the entire week to keep from getting burned. #palegirlproblems. austin and i headed out to the boardwalk to wander around. a people watch. there's always interesting people-watching at the beach.

and bird watching. we saw lots of these birds. you can get crazy close to them and they just sit there.

we also saw lots of pelicans. a favorite.

oh what a wonderful bird is the pelican. for his beak can hold more than his belly can. he can store in his beak enough food for a week and i don't know how in the hell he can.

we grabbed a few drinks and then had dinner at mcguires just over the bridge into destin. listen to me here: if you go to destin, you MUST get pizza at vinny mcguires. it was delicious. no joke. and our server was ridiculously awesome. and the decor inside mcguires is... interesting.

{is this picture blog appropriate? idowhatiwant.}

on monday austin and i packed the cooler and the car and headed to the state park for some snorkeling. it was really fun. i so badly wished we had thought ahead to buy one of those cheap-o disposable under water cameras. but we didn't. but then again no one needs to be photographed with those goofy looking goggles and snorkels on their face anyway.

tuesday, wednesday and thursday were mainly beach days. although we did take a trip to the movie theater to see the great gatsby {two thumbs up right here}. we also ate a "celebrate rikki's graduation" dinner at callahan's one night. thursday night, austin took me on a date night where we went back to the board walk to people/bird watch, shop and enjoy dinner at crab island cantina.

we had yummy margaritas and and delish guacamole {oh, i eat guacamole now, who woulda thought?}.

on friday we soaked up as much sun as possible since it was our last day. and by "soak up as much sun as possible" obviously i mean hide under the umbrella to keep my pale skin from frying.

hiding from the sun all week was, of course, alternated with floating on the lacking waves water that is found in the gulf {i tend to prefer the scare-the-heck-outta-you-gotta-dive-through-em-to-keep-from-being-turned-upside-down-and-drowning-waves you find at the east coast beaches}.

after swimming/frying all day austin and i decided on the spur of the moment to drive back home late friday night instead of waking up super early saturday morning to head back. we had a full moon to light our way the whole trip.

and for any of you who have ever taken a road trip with me you know i am like an infant who falls asleep almost instantly in the car. but not this time! i'm proud to say that i was able to keep myself awake for the entire drive home. who am i? we made it back in town in time to get a good night sleep before picking up the pup in the morning.

she was pretty excited to see us. and kinda blurry.

and if you're wondering why we had to get back in town so early it was so we could make it in time for my sweet sorority sister, kailan, to get married to austin's fraternity brother, mason!

i may be a bit biased, but adpi+phi delt weddings are the best weddings.

and as much as i'm hating having to wait until july to take my boards, i'm really enjoying all the vacation-ing i'm getting to do during this time. i even get to head to virginia soon to see kasey!

perfection.

i already mentioned that my momma came in to town over the weekend for my pinning ceremony, but we got to spend the entire weekend together! i can't remember the last time i got to spend mother's day weekend with my momma. and it was perfection.

after the pinning ceremony and reception momma, austin, and i tried out community pie for some pizza for dinner. it was really good! we forgot that nightfall had started up for the summer so the whole downtown area was crazy and community pie is right smack dab in the center of nightfall. but we actually didn't have to wait for a table.

we considered trying out some of milk and honey's gelato, which they had at community pie, but instead we decided to go to one of my favorite places: dub's! {and here's people looking right and eating soft serve ice cream...}

saturday morning, momma and i went and got some delicious donuts from julie darling on the north shore. if you go there, please get the honey wheat donuts. especially if they have fresh, warm ones. but if not, a quick trip in the microwave is almost as good as fresh. omg. so good.

and then we went yard sale-ing! one of my favorite things to do. and although a lot of the sales were pretty unimpressive, we did manage to find a few things we just had to have. austin bought us a new cooler for when we go camping {2 bucks!} and i got some halloween decor. you can never have too much halloween decor, right? after exhausting all the yard sales we could find, we decided to head down to the saturday river market. and i got this cute little guy!

are you kidding me? he's the cutest little weenie dog i've ever seen! the guy there makes all kinds of creatures and designs from metal. momma got some really cute dragonfly stake things for out in the garden and their wings were made from old silver ware handles! i wish i had gotten a picture of them, but don't worry because i plan to buy some dragonflies of my own soon. and then i will share their cuteness. we then had lunch at the vine street market. i highly recommended this little sandwich shop and bakery, but it's not on vine street. so don't look there.

after some gardening, and perhaps a little nap, we got cleaned up to head to dinner with austin's mom and then we were off to the ballet.

then on sunday, on mother's day, i had a little surprise planned for my momma. thanks to bri and her husband i had a mother/daughter photoshoot planned. these next pictures are some that austin shot in the background, i'm anxiously awaiting the pictures from josh. i hope they turn out well!

after our picture session, it was time to grab some lunch at taziki's. and then i got baklava. i just couldn't pass it up. and it was delicious.

unfortunately, it was then that miserable time when momma had to head back home. even though we did so much {and ate SO much}, the weekend never seems long enough. but i am so incredibly happy that i got to spend mother's day with my amazing momma. i can't wait until she {and timmy!} makes the trip back down here. sooner, rather than later, i hope. love you, momma!