Doc's Photoshoot

You know your dog is more beautiful than you when you take him on his usual walk for the afternoon, and then he ends up the subject of an impromptu photoshoot. We are so thankful we ran into Weimaraner-loving Matt Smith of Matt Smith Photo Design, who took these beautiful photos of our furbaby! Check out Matt's blog post for more pictures, though you'll have to excuse Doc's open mouth since he was all tuckered out from playing frisbee. :) Have a happy weekend friends!

Dreaming of Sailing Away

So it has been radio silence round these parts lately. Oops! I had this lofty goal of posting every day once I returned from my blogging hiatus...you see how well that went. :) Maybe one of these days I'll actually finish the thirty-kabillion drafts I have sitting in my queue.

Kyle and I have been busy busy busy with various projects at home, work, and school this past week, and we are just plain tired. On top of that, our washing machine broke mid-cycle Sunday night, and then we discovered that our package of chicken leaked chicken juice all over the bottom shelf of our fridge. Ew. And we saw yesterday that my Jeep has been leaking oil. We have kinda not been happy campers. I love springtime and all, but I have honestly grown to despise this time of year when the monsters of end-of-semester projects, finals, and practicals take over my husband. Can we please have a time in our marriage when one of us is not a stressed-out full-time student? I know the day will come, but it just seems so far away right now.

Ok, so complaining over! The point of this post is that needless to say we are excited about our sailing trip coming up soon! I've spent about 99.9% of my recent days dreaming of all things sailing (and I have the Pinterest board to prove it!). Here are a few of the lovely images floating around in my head:

Source: blog.lonnymag.com via Lesley Anne on Pinterest

Source: debutanteseason.tumblr.com via Lesley Anne on Pinterest

Source: sweetandlovelythings.tumblr.com via Lesley Anne on Pinterest

Source: sailboatsandseersucker.tumblr.com via Lesley Anne on Pinterest

Source: thisisnotnew.com via Lesley Anne on Pinterest

Source: everythingfab.com via Lesley Anne on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Lesley Anne on Pinterest

Source: brunchatsaks.blogspot.com via Lesley Anne on Pinterest

This trip seriously can't get here soon enough! I may or may not have already started packing. Do any of y'all have some fun vacations planned this summer? Y'all are all welcome to be a stowaway on our ship. The more the merrier! ;)

2nd Anniversary Recap

Back in March during my blogging hiatus, we had a pretty significant life event to celebrate here in the Fenton household--our 2nd Wedding Anniversary! As you can see, we were pretty excited about it:

Since our anniversary fell on a Tuesday this year, I had originally planned to take a half day off of work. But a couple days before, I came down with a cold and was feeling pretty awful the morning of our anniversary, so I decided to just go ahead and take the whole day off. Before Kyle left for class, I managed to tuck this can of Mountain Dew in his lunch since it's his favorite soft drink. Get it? ;)

Later that morning, I fixed myself some muffins and enjoyed sipping some much-needed hot tea using our fine china. I love using these dishes, we need to bring them out more often! Even if it's just for a sandwich or something.

Once Kyle got back from class, I was ready to get outside and get some fresh air, so we headed over to Hammond's Ferry to let Doc play fetch for a while. He got tired pretty quickly, so I was able to get these really cute pictures of him laying in the grass. He's so precious!

After that we went home and started getting ready for our anniversary dinner. Before we left, we opened our presents to each other (best part!). I made the bow on Kyle's present out of leftover wrapping paper. Not very masculine but I was still pretty proud of it!

I got Kyle this shirt he had mentioned liking at Target. He was so excited about it that he changed into it for the rest of the night, despite the fact that it probably needed to be washed and ironed first. That's a man for ya! ;)

Kyle got me this beautiful gold monogram necklace. I love it! I am actually wearing it to work today. He said he originally wanted to get me the "L" one, but they were sold out of it so he opted for the "F" instead, and now if we ever have a daughter I can pass it on to her. So special!

We had dinner at Crums on Central, which is a local international cuisine restaurant. Despite having reservations, we had to wait for our table since there was an Elton John concert that night and everybody in Augusta was eating out for dinner. We had no idea about the concert, so I'm really glad we made reservations or we would've had to wait much longer! When we finally did get to sit down, we started things off with these yummy portabella fries. 

Kyle surprised me and ordered the Veal, Pork, and Beef Meatloaf. Never in a million years would I order meatloaf at a restaurant, but he said it was good and really enjoyed it so I stand corrected!

I order seafood every time we go out to eat, so unsurprisingly I got the Baked North Georgia Trout with Fried Oysters. It was served with asparagus on a bed of rice, and it was all really tasty! 

After dinner we skipped across town to Macaroni Grill to get some free tiramisu (we got a free dessert coupon through their e-newsletter). Yep, we're cheap. To prove that even further, we just went home after that to watch our wedding video and chillax with a glass of wine. No after dinner movie for these old married folks. All in all it was a great anniversary and we are now enjoying every minute of our third year of marriage! 

P.S. If you want to read all about our wedding, click here.

Our Easter Weekend

  Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord!"—and that he had said these things to her. [John 20:18]

 

We had a wonderful Easter weekend this year! Kyle's parents came to stay with us, and we were thankful we didn't have to repeat last year when we weren't with family at all. It was so good to have them here. They rolled into town on Saturday afternoon, and after the initial hugs and catching up, we were off to do some shopping for our sailing trip coming up in May (Can. Not. Wait!). We didn't find exactly what we were looking for (who knew Augusta would have a limited selection of snorkeling masks & fins?), but we had an amazing steak dinner planned that night that made up for the disappointing shopping trip. Justin, one of Kyle's PT classmates, joined us for dinner and we somehow managed to squeeze five people around our teeny tiny table.

On Easter morning, we went to the sunrise service at the new Lady Antebellum Amphitheater in Evans. It was my first Easter sunrise service, and it will probably be my last for a while. I am not a morning person and I hate being cold, both of which were involved in going to the sunrise service. ;) But before you write me off as a negative nancy, I absolutely loved watching the sunrise while hearing the truth of Jesus being proclaimed. Nothing in the world could ever beat that beautiful picture!

After the service, we came back to our house and Kyle and I made breakfast. One thing we made were these cream cheese and sausage pinwheels that have been a huge hit with our Sunday School class. They are seriously gone in two seconds every time we make them. And they are super easy to make, so win-win! Once we were full with breakfast and a little candy from our Easter basket (never too old for that!), we headed off to the Augusta Canal to walk and enjoy the beautiful day.

This is the view of the Canal from the headgates. So beautiful! 

I'm sure you've seen this picture of the Savannah River on my blog several times now. We love to come here all throughout the year! 

Kyle with his parents and goofy Doc.

Our Easter family photo. Not your typical Easter photo, but it will do!

I just had to grab this photo of Doc--he's front porch sittin'! A true Southern dog. ;)

We capped off our weekend with a delicious Shrimp and Grits meal made by Kyle's dad. He is a great cook and thankfully passed that talent on to Kyle!

Best of all, Kyle got to open an early birthday present from his parents--the newest Vince Flynn book, Kill Shot. (Fun factoid: the Mitch Rapp character in all of the Vince Flynn books provided the inspiration for 24's Jack Bauer. Pretty cool!) I guess this is the closest thing to what you would call Dude Lit. Now let's see if I can keep him from reading it before our sailing trip!

Hope y'all had just as wonderful of an Easter!

While I Was Away...

Life is too deep for words, so don't try to describe it, just live it. - C.S. Lewis

That is exactly what happened during these 40-something days that I’ve abstained from blogging. At first it was really hard, to deny the desire to document everything with my camera and think about how to put it into words in a blog post. Even harder was not to read everyone else’s blogs that I follow on a regular basis. I had come to love that. But the purpose of Lent was to keep that in check and God sure did meet me right where I was struggling. After a successful few days of my no-blogging policy, something clicked and it was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I felt free to experience life rather than document it. I left my camera at home and just lived in the moment. 

While I was away, so much happened! We celebrated two years of marriage, I cheered on my husband’s intramural softball team (undefeated so far!), we had game nights and movie nights with friends, we ushered in spring with plenty of grilling out and trips to the dog park, I finished a great book, we shared in the joy as our friends’ babies were born, and also experienced the pain of losing a dearly loved family member. The Lord gave and He took away. Life happened, and I am anxious to tell you all about it. [Come on now, I didn’t leave my camera at home the whole time. ;)] 

Tomorrow, I'll start things off with a recap of our Easter with the in-laws!

It’s good to be back. :)