Friday - Night 1- Climbers Ranch

Friday afternoon our trip started by riding in a town car to the airport. It was very luxurious with a leather pillow AND a candy bowl full of tootsie rolls! (not to mention a lot cheaper then leaving our car at the airport!) After our 3 and a half hour direct flight, Kyle and I arrived in Jackson Hole, WY around 8:00 pm. We headed straight out and got our rental car, who we lovingly referred to as "Bessie". She was a Silver Hyundai Santa Fe and she served us well on our journey.


We arrived at the Alpine Climbers Ranch around 9, were given a tour in the dark and assigned our cabin. Inside there were 4 bunk beds made of plywood, that you put your sleeping pad and bag on top of. The picture shows Kyle sleeping on the one above me, but he ended up moving down with me b/c the beds were very wide and fit us both perfectly. We slept fairly well (windows and doors open-- love the cold air in the morning) except for our roommate waking up at 4 am hyperventilating/gagging... we aren't quite sure if it was a dream or what. She went right back to bed, but it took us a little longer. Around 5:30 am I was awakened by the howling coyotes outside and was ready to get up for the day! Kyle laughed as he opened his eyes and I was staring in his face saying "Hiiii, what are you doing"... of course he replied with "SLEEPING". We finally got up around 6:00 ready to go!

We're Back!

Thank you so much for your sweet comments on our last post. It was great to hear from so many of you, and meet some new friends!

We are back from our vacation and it was PERFECT. It definitely had a couple unexpected twists, but in the end it turned out to be a better vacation then we could have imagined! We have had the best time finally getting to spend some quality time with each other... those 10 days just flew by! Our days were JAM PACKED and so much fun, can't wait to show you everything we did!!! I successfully took over 900 photos, and promise to get some posted ASAP.... Promise!

Knock Knock, Who's There?

Since Kyle and I have now officially left for our Wyoming trip and are hiking the Teton Crest Trail (and secretly we know you are checking our blog constantly b/c you are DYING to see pictures and/or hear about all the wild animal encounters-- haha), we thought it would be fun to see who's actually out there reading about us!! There are so many people that read our blog that we don't know about, but believe me we are SO CURIOUS!!

Our StatCounter tells us we have visitors from: Virginia, Louisiana, California, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Georgia, Texas, Maryland, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Switzerland, Egypt, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Canada, Colorado, Oregon, Missouri AND MORE!

So who are you? We would love to meet you, hear from you, and read some of your blogs!

So how do you comment and let us know that you read our blog?
1) Click on the link "comments" at the bottom of this post.
2) In the "Leave a Comment" box, write your name, where you're from and how you found our blog!
3) You can then choose a blogger ID (if you have a blog), anonymous, or a name.
4) Then click "Publish Comment".

Looking forward to reading your comments when we return!! AND there might just be a gift given to one lucky commenter!!

Leaving for Wyoming!!!

We leave TODAY for our trip to hike the Teton Crest Trail! We are so excited for this vacation, and hope to have some great stories and photos from it! Everything is packed and ready to go!
If you would like to know where we'll be located each day, here is our plan:
Friday- Fly out to Wyoming, stay at Grand Teton Climbers Ranch
Saturday- Hike to Marion Lake
Sunday- Hike to Alaska Basin
Monday- Hike to Cascade North Fork
Tuesday- Hike to Holly Lake
Wednesday- Hike Out in afternoon, stay at Signal Mountain Lodge
Thursday- Tour around YellowStone, camping in Slough Creek Campground
Friday- Tour around YellowStone, stay at Lake YellowStone Hotel
Saturday- Tour around downtown Jackson, stay at Sundance Inn Jackson
Sunday- Fly out early back to ATL

We do have a couple of prayer requests though for your guys!!
1) Pray that Kyle and I will have enough energy to get through all of our hikes. We've both been suffering from colds/sinus infections the past couple weeks. We are fully equip with antibiotics and other meds, so hopefully those will help!
2) There is a lot of wildlife out there-- that's all I'm going to say about that one!

We will try and update once we are 'out of the woods' and staying at one of the hotels, so check back! Have a great week!

p.s. our food photo DOES look like alot of food. Just so you know, we aren't bringing all of it on the trail, it's for the whole week :)

Gwinett Braves Game with Work

My work organized a night out at the Gwinett Braves Game last week. They just built this stadium this year, so it's very clean and new! We had about 30 people order tickets, and we all got to bring our spouses/friends. It was really fun, and I think the best surprise all night was that we played THE DURHAM BULLS-- our hometown team! We left early so I'm not sure who won, but it was still a fun night!

Jen and her new hubby, David:Kyle and I:

Wordless Wednesday: LEVI!

A Celebration Dinner for Kyle!

Sunday night we had a small group get together at La Parilla (where else?) to celebrate Kyle being done with school! It was really nice of everyone to come out, and we had a great time catching up and talking! Thanks again you guys for being so supportive!

Taylor's holding up Kyle's "diploma" :)Taylor, Chris and Kathleen:Andrea and Lacey:

Abattoir for Andrea's Birthday!

On Friday night we all went out for Andrea's Birthday! We went to a restaurant in downtown Atlanta called "Abattoir", which was really fun (that word means "slaughterhouse" in french... ahh!). Jen and I just went over to their house straight after work instead of trying to drive through traffic. The rest of the girls came at 7:00 and Andrea opened presents and we hung out until our reservation at 9:30.

The work girls: (Andrea, Jen, Lacey and I)

Lacey and I:Andrea, Jen and Lacey:
Our huge group of girls!My delicious meal!Lacey and Jen's choice for the night!We had a great girls night! Happy Birthday Andrea!

Kyle is done with his MBA program!

That's right after almost 2 years in school while working full time, Kyle officially is done with classes for his MBA!! (Masters of Business Administration).

I am so proud of him for all of his hard work, and being dedicated to get this done so fast and early in his career! We have gotten in a routine of Monday & Tuesday being class nights, Wednesday being group meeting nights and Thursday is our one night together to eat dinner and pack for our weekend travels. We aren't going to know what to do, being able to spend time together EVERY NIGHT. WOO HOO!!!

What's his graduation present you ask???
Let us proudly introduce you to LEVI!!!

He is a 1976 Jeep CJ7, Levi Edition. More details coming soon!

Wordless Wednesday Part2: More Charleston pics!

Wordless Wednesday: Self Timer Camera on Floating Boat

SUCCESS!!

Happy 80th Birthday Grandpa!

It's amazing how much you can miss someone after they leave... more than you ever thought was possible. Grandpa made me feel more loved then I ever realized, and I'm so grateful to have had that consistent love from him my entire life. Today would have been his 80th birthday, and we will always remember the life he lived here on earth. Love you G-pa!

Boat Day with the family!

This weekend Kyle and I drove into Raleigh to go out on the boat with my family! We were going to do this to celebrate with grandpa his 80th birthday-- and we decided even though he is no longer with us, with us we would still go in his honor! We had such a good time!
The kiddos were HILARIOUS, especially Nathan. He watched Kyle drive the boat then asked if he could do it. He knew the gas, the steering wheel, and the horn—and went through those 3 things about 50 times. It was so funny to all of us.

Here is an action shot: Everyone else on the boat: After driving around for a little bit we went to a cove and anchored so all of us could swim around. Grandma even got in the water, we were all so excited!

Natalie and Nathan LOVED it!

And of course the guys had to do jumps off of the boat! Here is Jamie: Kyle: And the winner goes to….. NICK!

A HUGE thank you to Kyle’s parents for allowing us to take out their pontoon boat! We had an amazing time thanks to you guys!!

AND just incase you guys haven’t gone to Tara’s blog yet (click here to see the cutest video) and found out… SHE’S EXPECTING---- TWINS AGAIN!! We are all so excited for her, please keep her in your prayers these next couple of months!