{A Very Late} Weekend Wrap Up: Quick Trip to Tampa + A Gorgeous Wedding!

 I am perfectly aware that it is currently Friday and I am just now posting about this fantastic past weekend...that's just how I roll these days. 

So, since my mom now lives in Florida and I only have class on tuesdays and thursdays, I was able to come out for the weekend to attend my (2nd) cousin's wedding! (Also because we found a super cheap ticket. 

I packed up Friday afternoon and headed out to the airport. And because it's just just my luck, the plane was delayed by 3 hours so I didn't end up arriving at my Aunt's house until late that night. 

Saturday:

We woke up early (to my college standards) and decided to head out to another Goodwill in the metroplex that we hadn't been to before. It was a really good one and I ended up with a pair of chucks, KED slip ons and a few cute tops. Side note: you should've seen me trying to shove those in my small 'personal item' to carry on the plane. 

When we got back, it was already time to get ready for the wedding!

My mom's cousin (my second cousin) Sara was getting married.

The wedding took place in a gorgeous country club in Tampa and the actual ceremony was in this breathtaking garden with trees canopying the gazebo where they stood. 

 She made such a beautiful bride...I fell in love with her dress!

Here are some pictures we took before the ceremony:

My Nana and Papa and I

My cousins and my youngest brother...aren't they handsome?

My beautiful aunt and I

My cousins, brother and mom!

Stealing kisses from my cousin, Matthew ;)

Then it was time for the best part...the reception!!

While I don't dance (must be a family thing because no one else in our little clan does either!), we still had a blast. 

I introduced Matthew to the greatness of Shirley Temples!

All of the Dixon/Abells/Hamiltons/ Greens!

 Let's see (going sorta clockwise) that's the bride's dad Waymon, his wife Dianne, my Nana's other brother, Ted, my aunt Tee, my mom, my brother Addison, my twin cousins Jake and Tyler, my Nana and Papa, Ted's son Jason and his fiancee Nicole and finally me and Matthew in the front!

Whew, that's a lot.

The night ended with me being the DD and running through McDonalds for a a late night junk food run.

So many fun memories I'll have from this day!

Sunday:

Sunday morning my mom, Addison, my cousins Jake and Matthew headed out to the beach. Yep. You read that right, it's October and we went to the beach. Gotta love Florida!

Now, I didn't say it wasn't chilly... hehe

We found an alive jellyfish! It was so cool.

We concluded the afternoon eating the best chicken I've ever had at this little shack called Ya-Yas.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and spending quality time with the fam...especially this sweet girl that I missed so much.

Monday:

Monday morning after getting all the cousins off to school, Addison, my mom and I got donuts at the one and only Dunkin, then went out to the coolest music store ever...seriously!

The building used to be the most ritzy, fancy restaurant in the 80's that had the prettiest architecture and these glam chandeliers...there's even a fancy garden that houses hundreds of statues. 

You can read more about the history here.

It went out of business and now the gorgeous building houses a music store. It's kind of sad to see how fancy this place used to be and how different it is now, but I thought seeing all those bad-a** guitars juxtaposed against the chic, vintage decor was kinda neat. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon touring USF Tampa (such a beautiful campus!), eating Chinese with sweet Matthew and packing me up to head back to the big D. 

The end came way too fast (please refrain from a 'That's what she said' joke).

Before I knew it I was back in Dtown. The plane ride was pretty cool because I got to see downtown Dallas and even the State Fair!

This is the only picture I could get and it's pretty crappy...sorry.

I had so much fun spending time with family and visiting the great state of Florida!

Weekend Wrap Up: Garage Sales and CANTON!

I haven't done one of these in a long time and I had such a fantastic weekend, so I figured I'd share it with you!

Friday:

Friday night, my brother, his wife, my other brother and my mom (whew that was a mouthful) all decided to go have some drinks and appetizers on the patio of one of our favorite restaurants. They weather was gorgeous, the music was awesome and the company was even better! We had a blast.

Saturday:

All our saturday mornings are consumed by the same thing each week: yard sales! We get up around 7:30 and go saleing till around 11. We didn't come back with much, but most of the fun comes from just driving around anyway!

...which is where we found this guy!

We were back in the country and stumbled across this cow. He's pretty photogenic, no?

Afterwards, we went and had brunch on you guessed it...another patio!

My mom and I split this amazing fruit salad. It was so good!

Because the restaurant we were at was right next to Barnes and Noble, of course we just had to go in. Duh. 

I took pictures of about 50 books I want to read. Why pictures you ask? So I can order them on Amazon/check them out of the library...I'm cheap like that. 

My mom stumbled upon this book. SO funny!

Then we finished the day napping and reading and going grocery shopping at Trader Joe's: my new favorite store! I could barely sleep that night because I was so excited about what was coming Sunday...

Sunday:

We woke up extra early and headed out to CANTON! If you don't know what Canton is, it's a flea market out in East Texas (about 90 minutes outside of Dallas) that happens each month on the first weekend. It's amazing. There's antiques, garage sales, booths with clothes/accessories and a bunch more interesting things!

While I didn't end up buying anything (shocking, I know!) it still is so much fun just to walk around. My mom did find a few fun things...check out her post to see what she found! 

(I stole her pictures by the way) ;)

You can read about a previous trip to Canton, here!


 This past weekend was filled with so much fun and I am so glad to be able to spend time with my family.  BUT! This friday I have something really really exciting going on...you'll just have to wait and see!

Weekend Wrap Up {A day late}

*This post was supposed to go up yesterday, but for some reason (my error) yesterday's and today's got switched*

Whew. The last few days have been a whirl wind. 

I'm in the final days of summer up on the mountain, I leave tomorrow. 

*tear*

But I'm ready. I'm homesick, miss my doggie, and am ready to have my own bed again!

Anyways, this past weekend was super busy, but fun-filled at the same time.

I'm wrapping it up for ya today!

Friday:

We spent the day outside ATVing, fishing, fire building, and bird house building. 

My grandpa, cousin, and I worked on hoisting the birdhouse we handmade because if it's not suspended, the birds won't nest  due to those silly squirrels.  

We finished the day with watching, my current favorite movie, The Breakfast Club.

Saturday:

We woke up early to go back to Chick-fil-a to have their breakfast buffet.

mmmmm.... So good. Because the picture is a bit blurry, I will gladly go into detail of what my breakfast consisted of:

Grits, Bacon, Eggs, Biscuits, Chicken, Sausage, potatoes.

ahhh, I'm telling you, it's amazing. 

Then, we went to Goodwill and found a couple of things. 

{I came out with two new books!}

After that, we went over to tour Berry College. It was such a cool experience. 

Martha Berry was such an amazing woman who really revolutionized education in the United States!

By the way, does the picture above look familiar to you?

Well, it does to me! This was the plantation house they used in the movie "Sweet Home Alabama", which just so happens to be a favorite of mine. 

Our trip was cut short because our Sweet Jakey, got sick. 

So, we headed back up the mountain. 

Later that evening, we went over to Cloudland Canyon State Park for their annual Star Party!

A professor came and taught us all about summer stars, then once it got dark enough, we set up these huge technical telescopes and looked at the stars. It was clear enough that we could see Saturn! I've never seen a planet up close like that before, so I thought it was pretty amazing. 

Sunday:

better known as hodge-podge day

We did a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.

First, My nana and I made the best french toast ever. 

Then we worked it off by working outside in the heat. 

We were trying to re-uposlter a chair and literally had to pick the glue off with screwdrivers. 

Don't worry, I'll show you guys the before and after!

Then, we cooled off by watching.... you guessed it

Sweet Home Alabama.

I just had to see the scenery we saw the day before.

Then, I made cookies. 

yum.

and we concluded the day by fishing!

Jakey caught a large bass

and I caught....

a log. 

Yep. I caught nothing. 

boooo!

We had fun, nevertheless, 

and even Charlotte had to join in on the fun!

It was a great weekend and one I will remember forever.

Love you Nana and Papa!

and Jakey!

Weekend Wrap Up

Oh man, this was a weekend for the record books!

{If you didn't know already, I am in Tampa visiting my cousins, aunt and uncle. }

It was non-stop, but relaxing at the same time. 

Today, I'm wrapping it up for ya with my grainy cell phone pics!

Friday:

My cousin's elementary school was taking a field trip out to Busch Gardens (an amusement park) and I decided to tag along.

It was so much fun. I walked around with my youngest cousin who's 7 and didn't want to ride any of the 'big' rides. So instead, we rode the train and bumber cars. It was perfect and low key... just the way I like it!

Saturday:

Satuurday was a whirl wind. 

My aunt and I woke up early and went to wally world to find a swim suit.

Then we went yard saleing (you know I would on vacation!)

After about an hour, it was time to head to the ball field to watch my twin cousins play in the semi-finals!

It was such a close game and kept us all on our toes.

Even though the did great, they lost 10-8.

I was so proud of them! They made third place.

After the game, we ran home and packed the car to head out to Sarasota for the weekend.
We made it just in time for sunset!

It was breathtaking.

I also found out that while I was sitting watching the game, I had gotten the worst tan ever.

No really. It is terrible.

Oh my, It was bad!

Luckily, I was able to fix it by putting on 100spf the next day on the burns and 30spf everywhere else. It's not as bad now. 

Oh, and this is my beautiful aunt above.

aren't my cousins cute!

Sunday:
We woke up and had the best breakfast ever.
Then we went to the beach!
Our hotel was right on the water.

Speaking of, it was crystal clear and the most gorgeous blue color!
It felt like we were in Bora bora or something.

I couldn't get enough!

After a day at the beach, we packed up and headed back home.

On our way, we saw this huge statue:

It was really sweet.

That was our fun-filled, relaxing weekend!

Weekend Wrap-Up: Basset Hounds, Sunsets and Flowers Galore!

Man! This past weekend was one for the record books! It was one of those that was filled to the brim with activities, but was still fun and relaxing. 

I may or may not have mentioned that my grandparents were in town from NW Georgia for 10 days. I always savor when they are here. They are still so fun to be around!

Like always, I always mope around for a few days after they leave. My heart literally hurts when they are gone! Add on the fact that school/work starts back up today, and you can guarantee that I am going to be self medicating with chocolate.

Friday began with this sweet face:

I know, I think I am getting the stink eye ;)

I babysat for the majority of the morning, then garage sale'd with my 'Nana' for the afternoon. 

We didn't find much, but we still had fun spending time together. 

Oh, I almost forgot! Since they were leaving sunday morning for a 14 hour drive back home, they wanted Charlotte, their/our 12 year old basset hound, to smell nice. 

I say "ours" because she was my childhood dog growing up. She was my best friend and partner in crime! A few years ago, we moved and almost instantly started to notice that Char wasn't doing well. You see, we rescued her when she was a puppy and the vets had said she would only live 8 or 9 years. Needless to say, during this time, we figured she wasn't going to make it much longer. So when my grandparents moved into their retirement home with about 5 acres of woods, we knew she would be happier being able to roam the woods and just be free to do as she pleased. It was hard for me to choose to let her go, but I knew she would live a happier life with them.

I never ever regret that choice because here she is today at almost 13 years old:

She is so happy up there! {and I think she proved that vet wrong!} Plus, she absolutely adores my grandfather, she literally cries if he goes anywhere!

Anyway, (I feel like that was one huge back story) Friday, we took her up to our local dog wash and bathed her. 

She had me cracking up the entire way. Look at those big ears flapping in the wind!

Friday night, my whole family went up to grapevine lake (which is only about 5 minutes away from our house) to eat bbq and watch the sunset. 

We had a blast! Stay tuned this week for a more detailed post :)

Saturday:

Following with tradition, we all woke up early and hopped into the car for some early morning yard saleing! I am so excited that it's basically that season again!

After scouring the entire town, we headed back home with our wonderful finds and deals, and got ready to head out to the Dallas Arboretum to see the lovely Dallas Blooms.

Again, stay tuned for a full post on that!

When we left the arboretum, we then celebrated my grandparent's last supper at our favorite tex-mex restaurant.

This was the aftermath. 

and now my mouth is watering. 

SO good!

But I was more sad knowing they would be leaving in the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday came, and at 3:30 in the morning, my grandparents were on the road, heading for Lookout Mountain.

Sunday was depressing, like I said before. I hated it! 

We literally laid in bed all day and pouted.

Oh, and watched the Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles.

....and got lots of snuggles in with this little gal:

So that was my weekend! I am so sad to see it go, along with spring break for that matter.

I wish there was such thing as a do-over button!

Anyways, how was your weekend?

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