Ren does Chucktown

The last weekend before school starting we took a quick family trip down to Charleston.  J booked at garage apartment through Airbnb.  It was neat because we had our own little apartment with a tiny kitchen, living space, bathroom, and bed above some guy's detached garage.  We never actually met the guy who owned the apartment but when we got there he had bagels and cream cheese, fresh towels and linens, and even those little hotel size shampoo, conditioner, and face soap like a hotel.  
On Saturday we took Ren to the beach for the first time and he LOVED it.  J did not love the amount of stuff we "had" to have with us on the beach but he enjoyed our day together.

After a post-beach nap and a visit to Westbrook we walked around downtown Charleston before heading off to dinner.

On Sunday we tried to go to the aquarium, but there was some sort of Kid's Day festival going on downtown and admission to the aquarium as well as other places were all free.  After sitting in traffic and then discovering this fact, we decided to go back to Charleston for an aquarium day trip on another day.

NYE 2013

We just got back from a fabulous, and quick, New Year's Eve mountain trip with several friends.  It was spur of the moment and short, but we had the best time!

Hotlanta

For our girls weekend Julie, Briana, and I all met up in Atlanta.  The girls each flew from their cities and I drove in so we could have a car.  Briana's flight got in first...and let me tell you...picking up someone from the ATL airport is no joke!  I joked with Briana when she finally got in the car that if we were at the Columbia airport I would have parked, sat and waited for her in a sweet little rocking chair while she came out the one and only possible exit, got her bags and paid about $3.00 for my parking spot.  Easy-peasy.  In Atlanta you get yelled at by policemen for sitting in one spot on the curb for too long and have to continue circling around until your friend arrives.  That is until we discovered the cell phone lot when we went back to the airport later that night to pick up Julie.
The main reason for out get together was just to hang out since we hadn't been together in two years.  We didn't really do a whole lot other than chat and catch up.  Friday morning we went to the Coca-Cola museum which is something I've been wanting to do for a very long time!

 The official torch of the 1996 Olympic Games

The best most interesting part of the museum was the tasting room where you could taste Coke products from around the world.  Each continent had it's own drink station where you could taste several different flavors.  Most of the flavors where very sweet fruity drinks that you could never drink for real.

But there was one flavor...

just save your taste buds and skip the Beverly from Italy.  It was so bitter and disgusting that I had to quickly find the traditional Coke fountain and wash that nasty taste down!

At the very end of the tour you got to pick up a free glass bottle of Coke that was bottled right there in the factory!

Saturday we spend most of our day at the Mall of Georgia shopping and then on to the Bella Vita salon.  Josh's aunt owns this super cute salon so we made appointments to get some fancy high school style manicures.

I don't know if you can tell, but there are tiny rhinestones on each of our ring fingers...we are so hip!

We had such a good time being together again.  Next trip...Nashville '14!!

Little River

While were camping we went tubing down the Little River.  The water was a slightly low so you constantly had to keep your butt up so you wouldn't hit any rocks.  The only pictures are at the end of the river where we got out at our campsite.  Some of the up close ones where taken with my new 75-300mm lens.  It was the first time I had used and I love it!

Camping...for real!

Last summer we went camping with J's family.  I use the term camping very loosely seeing as how I checked into a hotel every night while J slept in a tent.  This year however I decided (or maybe it was the fact that J wouldn't pay for a hotel for me) to sleep at the campground which meant...tents!  We totally had air mattresses so it wasn't like I was sleeping on the actual ground or anything.

We decided that if this was going to be an annual thing for us that we might as well buy our very own tent.  I loved our little home away from home.  It was actually HUGE feeling on the inside (I'm tempted to compare it to Harry Potter, but that's cause y'all know I'm obsessed).  By then end of the week when Jeremy and Kristin were there we had two king sized beds and two large suitcases with room to move around.  Altogether we had five campsites for the whole family.  Luckily all the sites were close together so it was like we had our own little community...and we had the spots closest to the bathrooms.

It was such a relaxing week in the mountains.  The temperature didn't heat past the mid 80's and at night we were chilly enough to need blankets and sweatshirts.  All we really did was eat, read, tube down the river, and play cards.  Please keep in mind while looking at the pictures...there were minimal showers and no make up worn during this vacation.  

**warning-picture overload**

I also had the task all week of french braiding hair.  It really is the best hairstyle for camping in the great outdoors.