Pitching Our Tent

We were so very blessed to receive so many awesome gifts and gift cards for our wedding. Seriously. We were so thankful for all the things we were given and were able to buy because of the love of our family and friends. And one of the things we were so excited about was our own tent. We were able to buy a 6-person tent from Target with some of our gift card money (or what we now call, "Imaginary Monies.") We've had it for a couple of weeks, but hadn't used it yet. So we decided Veteran's Day weekend would be the perfect time to break it in!

We made reservations online for Sunday night, at Three Rivers State Park, in Sneads, Florida. We made our packing lists, went grocery shopping, and tried to plan out our time there. We left after church and lunch on Sunday around 3 pm (after a quick stop to grab some firewood from my parents - thanks Papa!) and made the quick, hour-long drive to the southwest corner of Lake Seminole. We had just gotten our new puppy Prim the day before, and so of course we had to bring her with us. She did great in the car though, and seemed quite excited for the adventure!

We got the tent put up pretty quickly, and got the rest of the camp set up too. The weather was great, and the park was very nice. It was definitely going to be chilly though, so Jeff got a fire going right away.

Before leaving, I prepped chicken, potatoes & veggies to make hobo pouches for dinner. So after hanging out and talking and exploring a tiny bit, we started getting dinner ready. The pouches turned out pretty yummy, even though the potatoes got a little bit burned on the bottom. It was all still good anyways. And then of course in true camping tradition, we made s'mores for dessert!

While we were eating, an armadillo ran by our campsite, and Prim went crazy over it. He stayed in the little clump of trees right next to us for a long time (which freaked me out), but Primrose just wanted to go over and investigate the whole time he was rooting around over there. Jeff wanted to let her go after it, but I was against that idea, so I had a tight hold on her leash. I guess he finally went away after about an hour or so, and then she calmed down.

Then we just sat staring at the fire and talking and enjoying the peace and quiet. It was really nice to just sit back and enjoy the silence and the outdoors and the fresh air. We sat in comfortable silence for a while, and then continued on with our normal conversation. I sure loved spending the night with this husband of mine. And since we aren't completely shut off from technology in this generation, we took my laptop into the tent and watched a couple episodes of "FRIENDS" before finally falling asleep.

And then the next morning, I got to wake up to these two cuties... :)

Well this was actually a quick nap-time later, so that's why he's wearing glasses...

We woke up right after 6 am, and after taking Prim for a quick walk, Jeff got the fire blazing again in order to make some breakfast. I was going to let Jeff be in charge of making breakfast, but I'm too much of a control freak (and I also just really like cooking), so I ended up jumping in and helping out quite a bit too. Between the two of us though, we had ourselves a nice breakfast of fried eggs, turkey bacon and potatoes.

Prim also hadn't eaten much in the couple of days we had her, so we made her a couple of eggs for breakfast as well, and she loved them! Also, we decided to take advantage of the camping tradition, and decided to make some s'mores again :) And Jeff decided to take a couple of really flattering pictures of me eating them. None are super cute, but here's the "best" one....

Since we woke up so early, we were actually super tired, so we decided to take a quick nap. Even baby Prim was tired, so she took a nap with us too.

After nap time, we hung out around our campsite a little more, then had to pack up camp to be out by noon. We then drove down to the public part of the park to explore a bit. We walked out on the boat ramp/dock, to check out the gorgeous view of Lake Seminole, and it was so calm and pretty. Then we found ourselves a nice little trail to hike close by. We walked for about 45 minutes to an hour, and Prim absolutely loved it! She seemed to really just enjoy being outside and exploring and smelling everything. She led the way most of the time, and it was a good thing we had a 24-foot retractable leash on her!

Afterwards, we all had some water, and then made our way out of the park. We found a tiny local restaurant and had the pizza and salad buffet for lunch before heading out of town. We had such a great time camping out together as a little family, and we definitely can't wait to be able to do it again! We're hoping to do it at least once more before it gets way too cold, and then we'll be excited again in the spring once the weather starts warming up a little bit. We want to check out all the state parks close to Tallahassee with camp grounds, so we'll have fun going to a lots of new campsites, and putting our new tent to good use!

Much Love,
Halie

Picking A Wedding Venue - The Final Part

So our first option was a beach house. Then that was gonna cost an arm and a leg, so we nixed that idea and decided to look for outdoor venue options around town. Our next choice was Maclay Gardens State Park - and we loved it. But we weren't quick enough and it was already booked for our original October 12th date, and the whole rest of the month too. Then our next option was The Dogwood House. It was a good option, and we definitely liked it, we just weren't in love with it, and were a little hesitant to book it.

So we looked around some more, and then last week Jeff and I and my parents finally went to go visit the Wakulla Springs Lodge, at Wakulla Springs State Park. And we absolutely loooooved it. Like a lot.

The bad news was however, that there was already a wedding booked for October 12th. Sad news. However, pretty much every other weekend in October was available, so we talked about changing our date. It ended up being a really quick talk though, because we both loved the Lodge so much, that we could find no real reason not to change our date. The next day (last Thursday), I contacted the Lodge once more, to get the contract started! And that afternoon I sent in our signed contract with our initial deposit. So our new wedding date is October 5, 2013!

Now I guess I should share some pictures of the place, right?! This pretty little gazebo is where we'll do the actual ceremony. Jeff and I and the pastors will stand in it, with our bridal party down on the stones, and then we'll set up chairs facing it, obviously. I want to try to decorate it a bit by either doing something on the backdrop, or something around the front two columns. Not exactly sure what yet though, but I'm trying to think of something!

And then the reception will be just about 200 feet away, back inside the main lodge building, on the glass-enclosed terrace room. We're not doing a full, sit-down meal, but just appetizers and hors d'oeuvres and cake, so we won't have tons of tables and chairs taking up too much space. However, the room itself is pretty huge, and is actually way bigger in real life than it looks in the pictures. It's so pretty in there, and I think it will make a really gorgeous place for our wedding reception! (The first picture below is just to show you how close the gazebo is to the main building.)

This is the door leading from the main lobby, inside the terrace. And it's gorgeous!

So our venue has officially been booked now! And we both couldn't be more excited about it. Seriously. And this beautiful place is only about 20-25 minutes outside of Tallahassee, which makes it easy for us to visit and plan, and easy for our guests to get to as well. I'm already trying to envision how we'll decorate and set everything up, and I think it's going to be so great and gorgeous and I just can't wait to get started on some of the projects in my head! So glad we finally have this huge detail finalized, and that we can now move on to other things. That's one big stress lifted off my to-do list now, and I'm so thankful for that.

At dinner with my parents after visiting the Lodge last week.

P.S. - My awesome and amazing friend and blog designer Erin has been working for me the past week or so, and things should be changing around here today! Get excited for that folks, because I'm super pumped about it!

P.P.S. - UPDATE! The blog redesign is now complete, and Erin did such a great job bringing my ideas and visions into a real life layout and design. And I absolutely love it. Check her out if you're looking for great design work, at awesome prices, from someone who's incredibly easy to work with. Seriously - go check out her design page!

Picking A Wedding Venue

My week is still feeling all crazy and weird. Monday felt like the longest day ever somehow, Tuesday felt like Monday, and now today just feels strange. I guess the whole week is gonna feel a little off, until we get to the weekend and everything gets reset back to normal. And to make it even weirder, I'm not doing my typical weigh-in Wednesday post today. Sure, I'm still going to share what the scale said this morning, but then I'm moving on and today is going to be Wedding Wednesday instead! Because I have some wedding stuff I feel like sharing and updating y'all on. And I only worked out once in the past week (1 mile run & Zumba = 883 calories burned) so that's all I've got for my weigh-in today. And hey, I'd rather stay the exact same than have to report a gain!

Initial Starting Weight = 227

January Starting Weight = 217

Last Week, May 22 = 189.2

Today, May 29 = 189.2

So now let's move on to some wedding news! As some of you may remember, we were planning to do our wedding at the beach, on St. George Island. We searched high and low to find the right house to rent, and once we found it, we started making plans to rent it. But it turns out there were a TON of extra fees, that shot the total price through the freaking roof. And we just couldn't justify paying as much as it was going to cost, just for the venue. The house included nothing additional, but it was already over half of our intended budget. We have made sure to search everywhere and exhaust all potential beach options, but we couldn't find anything suitable, and within our budget. So just this last weekend, we sadly had to nix that idea of a beach wedding.

So we've started looking around town to see what we can find here! We are still wanting an outdoor wedding, so that's what we're focusing on. And so far, we've already found a really great option! I had done all the research on it, and then we went to check it out further on Monday evening, and we both loved it. It's Maclay Gardens State Park here in town. So let me just show you some pictures of the place...

This below is where the ceremony would be. We would stand right there where I am, with chairs set up from where the picture is being taken, so everyone is looking out on the reflecting pool, to the lake in the far background. And we want to build a little bamboo arch thingy for us to stand under, that will be centered right there framing the pool.

The pictures below is what's directly behind where Jeff was standing to take the picture above. It's a beautiful little walled garden with a tiny fountain in it, that would be great for portraits of the bridal party, and of course Jeff & I too.

And the reception would also be at Maclay, at the Gardener's Cottage on the back end of the property. It's just a cute little house, that's empty inside, and can be set up and decorated however we want, provided we don't mess anything up of course! And we would set up a big white tent in that grassy area to the left of the house, because the house itself isn't big enough for everyone. What you can't see from the picture though, is that there is a giant row of beautiful flowers that surrounds that whole little lawn area, and is so pretty!

We hadn't made an appointment, so we couldn't actually go inside the little cottage, but we peeked in the windows, and it's really cute inside. Definitely want to make an official appointment so we can go inside and look around and get the full run-down of how they do weddings. All-in-all though, we really liked the whole idea of the wedding and reception at Maclay, and it's a really great deal. Not only is it wayyyy more affordable than our beach house option, but this also includes some tables and chairs that we would obviously need as well.

There are a few other pro's to having the wedding here in town, and so even though we're bummed we're not doing a beach wedding anymore, we're actually getting really excited about the direction things are going in now. We've come up with a new theme, but we'll be keeping the same color scheme as before. We're also coming up with lots of cute ideas and DIY projects that I'm sure we'll have to get started before too long! And of course I'm definitely excited about doing some craft projects :)

Today on our lunch break, Jeff and my Mama and I are going to look at another option here in town, so we'll see how that goes. I believe it's roughly the same price as Maclay so it's still really affordable. I can't wait until we finally pick a venue, and we can start planning out all the cute little details and things! Hopefully that'll be happening soon, because we have got to get a move on. October 12 is just about four and a half months away, and we've got a lot to get done in that time frame! Ahh!

So here's to a crazy summer of wedding planning up ahead! Oh, and I'd definitely still be open and willing to accept any and all advice concerning planning a wedding, especially on a budget. So feel free to share any tips you may have or leave links to other bride-to-be bloggers!

Post-Pledge: The Final Recap

As of this morning, I'm considering my 25 Before 25 Pledge list officially over. Tomorrow I will be 25 years old, and it's time to move on! I have created a new list of 30 Before 30, which is full of all sorts of things. Some are small, some are quite huge, but I'm excited about them all. (Those will be posted later this week.) But for this post, I want to do a recap of how things went for my 25 Before 25 goals!

OK first, I want to talk about the 14 goals that I did completely accomplish, and officially crossed off:

1. Explore 3 towns nearby. We explored Panama City Beach, Marianna and Thomasville, Georgia.

2. Try 6 new restaurants. The new ones we tried were: 101 Restaurant, Monk's, Georgio's, Taste Budz Cafe,  Backwoods Bistro, Up in Smoke, Jonah's and Tallahassee Smokehouse. So that's actually eight!

3. Read 6 books. I started off good, then got stuck on one that was too long and boring. "The Swan Thieves" is super long, and it took me like 2 months to read just half of it. I ended up moving on, and not finishing it. I did however read: Harry Potter 1, Daring to Dream, Room, Gone Girl, Out of Mormonism, Divergent, and Insurgent. So I ended up reading 7 books, and half of an extremely long one!

4. Maintain both bank accounts at $_,000. I don't want to divulge what that fill-in-the-blank is, but I will say I accomplished this amount around mid-December! Yay me for saving money!

5. Try 10 different nail art designs. Check, check, check! I probably did around 20 different manicures, not including just plain colors. Below are almost all the designs I tried, although I do know there are a few others missing, but I can't find pictures of those.

6. Have a Bible study with youth in the fall. Also a check! We ended up splitting the youth into high school/middle school and boys/girls, so there were four groups. I got to attend some of both of the girls study sessions, and I loved getting to be with them!

7. Reach 10,000 page views and 200 blog posts. I hit 10,000 page views sometime in October (I think), and my 200th post was in November, when I accepted the Liebster award! As of today, I'm at 19,329 page views and this is post number 259! And I'd say I'm still going strong :)

8. Start learning guitar. OK so maybe I didn't actually learn the guitar, but I did try, and ended up making a decision about it... My hands aren't big enough to fit around the neck, so I'm going to try the ukulele instead! 

9. Do something I've never done before. Well honestly, I have a really funny story for this one, but I'm just not sure it's "blog-appropriate." Let's just say it's about a time when I needed to relieve myself on a bike ride at an inconvenient time... if you email me about it, I might just let ya know ;)

10. Actually do things from my Pinterest pins. By mid-October, I had already made seven or eight new recipes that I got off of Pinterest! And I've definitely made more since then. You can check out some of them at these links: enchilada soup, twice-baked cauliflower and bacon-wrapped lil' smokies, creamy tortellini soup, pan-roasted chicken, pepperoni pizza casserole, and oven-baked chicken fajitas.

11. Update my resume. Check. Not much else to say about that, but it's done!

12. Blog my entire weight loss journey honestly. Did this just two weeks ago, and shared every single detail. And it was great. I loved actually writing the whole thing out, and getting so much amazing feedback back from everyone.

13. Plan one real date night every month. Most of those date nights can be read about in the same posts above about the new restaurants we tried. I'm so glad we made sure to have at least one real date night every month, and it was definitely a fun goal to accomplish :)

14. Make a list for 30 Before 30. Done! And I can't wait to get started on it! :) I'll be sharing it on Wednesday.

Now let's move on to the ones that were only partially finished or not at all finished...

We actually only made it to 4 of 10 State Parks - St. George Island, St. Andrews in Panama City, Maclay Gardens here in Tally, and the Marianna Caverns. I think we probably could have only fit in one more, had Jeff not broken his foot. But 4 of 10 isn't too bad... and we can still use our pass through the end of May.

I do not weigh 180, I did not complete a Couch to 5K, and I did not complete the 30-Day Shred. Unfortunately, I just  got lazy and these didn't happen. I did run a little bit but I quit, and I did the Shred DVD often, just not for 30 straight days. But now I'm working on everything again, and I'm losing weight! I currently weigh 205, and have lost 12 pounds since January 8th!

I didn't get to ride entire length of St. Mark's Trail (16 miles), and I didn't bike 200 miles total. I got nowhere close to 200, and only rode about 55 miles total. I did ride my furthest distance ever, but it wasn't on the trail like I wanted. My furthest was the 20-mile alley cat we did in October.

We didn't get a chance to try geocaching, and I missed the camping trip my Sunday school class took in the fall when I got too sick to go. I memorized three new Scripture verses, but then kind of got stuck there... Oh, and I didn't hang up the pictures in my room yet either.

So 14 of my 25 goals are completely crossed off. Not too shabby, although of course I would have liked that number to be higher! But it doesn't really matter, because I had fun doing them. And some of the ones that I didn't get to cross off, are making a reappearance on my next list of goals anyways.

I got to try new things, eat new food, make new recipes, spend time with my boyfriend, save some money, visit new places, read awesome books, and do so many other things as well. Even though I can't cross off every single thing, I'd still say that I was successful in really living my life over these last few months since I wrote my initial Pledge!

Up through now, I've had a pretty great 24 years. I'm looking forward to what 25 will bring though, and can't wait to see what my life looks like at 30!! Here's to at least FIVE more years of Food, Fun, Family, Fitness and Fabulousness!! Tomorrow, I'll be ready to welcome in The Big 2-5! :)

Potholing

This past Sunday, Jeff and I took a mini road trip over to Marianna, Florida, to check out another state park and do some exploring and have an adventure! We went to Florida Caverns State Park, and did the cave tour together! We didn't realize at first we were going to have to pay, but we ended up paying $8 a person, and it was totally worth it for the 45 minute underground tour of the cavern. It was so awesome down there! 

The pictures below really don't do it justice, but I tried my best. Hopefully you can at least get a little glimpse of what it's like down there! All of the formations are natural down there. The cave itself however was excavated in 1938-1942 in order for us to be able to actually walk around and go on tours. The men were paid only $1 a day to do some extremely strenuous work. So crazy. But I'm so glad they did that, so that we could explore it all now! Because it was so cool!!

Oh, and "Potholing" is the term used in the UK and Ireland apparently for what we would just call "caving" or maybe even "spelunking." But obviously I just had to use "Potholing!"

That super smooth, glassy-looking part is actually water! It is completely stagnant, therefore looks like glass.

This is in the "Castle Room," named for the way this formation looks!

This now marks state park number 4 out of my goal to visit 10 before my 25th birthday! There are still plenty other ones nearby, and we plan on visiting another again soon, because we enjoyed this one so much! If you get a chance to go under the earth into an air cave (meaning not the underwater kind), I highly recommend it. It is just so different, and so neat down there. Way cool.