Woods Wedding and Thanksgiving!

This past weekend this girl got married.

I LOVE this picture!

Olivia is my cousin and she just rocks. She was in my wedding and was so amazing to me - thoughtful and generous and involved so much. I will never forget what an asset she was to Seth and I and I was thrilled to enjoy her Wedding Day with her. 

She had an awesome photographer - HOT bridesmaids and a total HOTTIE matron of honor :) - crazy groomsmen - a loving family - the cutest flower girls - a GORGEOUS dress - A wedding cake to DIE for - and her favorite MAN of 13 years to walk (stumble?) down the isle too. 

It rained most of the day and a few arrangements had to be changed - but Olivia took it like a champ. She was far from being a bridezilla in the least! She was amazing. Overall - by the end of the day on December 6th she was a married lady - had a beautiful wedding and was a lovely bride!

Olivia and Brian

 Such a sweet moment.

I can't wait to see the rest of her wedding pictures. If they are anything like the sneak peek they are going to be mind blowing!

Now my family and I love to take some selfies. No lie.

We have a family group text that we keep up with and every so often we will throw some selfies in there. And selfies are ALWAYS a must when we are together :). I'll spare you all and just share a few with you.

Bride Selfie!

Addy B, Cara, and I 

Brittany and Myself.

Our Grandparents!

Father, Brother, and Bro in law of the Bride :).

Me and the Bro.

Now Eason is a selfie taking fien. He goes a little overboard at times with his selfies and Brittany and I have to draw him back in to contain it.

Exhibit A.

 Ahhh, he's just so darn cute.

We're working on the selfies with little man. He isn't currently into the selfies or any pictures for that matter.

My sweet little Sineath clan.

Moving along - 

This past Saturday and Sunday I completed my first semester of Grad school! Whoooo Hooooo! It has been amazing to come home and not have to immediately start doing school work or studying.

Seth and I indulged in three nights straight of watching Blue Bloods and Prison Break this week. What a selfish and unnecessary treat! We loved it, but had to put a stop to it last night.

I've listened to Christmas music since like November....the beginning of it. I love it. I love Christmas. I love cards. I love trees and festive lights. I love wreaths. I love stockings. I love everything about Christmas! It's always such a wonderful reminder of what we are living for - why we celebrate - Jesus' birth and the hope he brought on this earth through becoming flesh. 

Our Thanksgiving this year was a little different. My parents were in Kiawah (there first time away from Union in I'm not sure how long). Seth and I stayed a few nights in Kiawah with them and then we trekked on to Camden to share some festivities with the Cook family.

Mom and Dad at the Ocean Course - It was absolutely beautiful.

Thanksgiving in Kiawah - with my poor man's head cut off.

Oh my goodness - it can't get cuter.

Mackay is into 'Roaring' and he crouches down and throws his hands up and roars at you. Of course it scars the poop out of me :). Mom had been wanting Seth and I to see Mackay do this - because it is just so darn cute. He wouldn't for a bit and then finally he copied Pops. This kid loves his Pops.

Our Nephew. Blue eyed, cheek squeezing, cutie is what this kid is. He didn't love his E and Uncle Seth over Thanksgiving. He only wanted his Momma and Nana - but that is okay we got to hang out with him and see his cute self.

I love this picture. Dad laughing and Julian not pleased with something.

Karla and Tyson.

Seth's cousin Polly took pictures of us while we were in Camden.

Cook family.

Sweet boy.

They make cute babies for sure :).

All the Cook kids.

The Original Cook kids.

Married in Cook kids :).

We've had a busy but full past few months. Look forward to celebrating Christmas with our nephews and family in less than two weeks - Wow!

Have a wonderful Christmas!

The Cook's :) -

Gosh I married a looker.

Rhode Island & DC

Whew - I am finally starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel! Seth and I have been traveling for the past month and a half straight.

 Every weekend. 

Literally every single weekend.

For over a month.

With traveling, both of us working FT, and this MBA program - our butts are whooped. Seth's been amazing with helping around as much as he is able - but the house has been a wreck. It took me 3 weeks to finally make time to clean my bathrooms - GROSSSSSSS - Please no judging here. I finally got the laundry squared away Monday - only to have it piled high today. We wake up - study - eat - work - study - eat - sleep. Every so often we find time in there to have a small conversation. 

We are certainly tired of traveling and are so looking forward to being able to stay around our home for a few weekends (and start some updating!!!) - but we've had wonderful memorable trips that I wouldn't trade!

We traveled up to Rhode Island for Seth to attend a Land trust conference. I was lucky enough to be able to go with him and we had such a wonderful time.

On the way up we were able to make a stop in Delaware to see the Mt. Cuba Center. That is after we paid almost 50 bucks in tolls - we were stressing  around NY since we only had about $10 in quarters and at this point running out of the cash we had on hand. Yikes! We obviously made it - but we did have to get some cash out for our trip back South. Seth worked there while we were dating one summer. I enjoyed being able to see where he lived, worked, what's changed, and what an awesome worker he is.

Seth showing me one of his favorite views (which was on the other side of the camera).

I loved these purple flowers - going to bring them to the hiz-house in Flo-town.

Walking through the garden.

Such a beautiful place.

We had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect and it was absolutely gorgeous in Delaware.

I was amazed :).

Seth posing by force.

Seth isn't very good with posing for pictures. Thankfully he isn't as bad as Eason - that kid will just get on your dang nerves with picture taking. But Seth doesn't want to pose by himself - he hates when I ask him to do something other than just stand there with his hands behind his back like above. He still looks pretty studly either way though - but I asked him to do something fun. And he didn't know what to do - so I told him to just smile really big and do a thumbs up. He did. It was fun and cute. He forbid me to post it anywhere online. Sorry folks - only my eyes can see that :).

Unless you come to our home and see the thumbs up grinning Seth posing on that 16 X 20 photo I just ordered......

- Kidding of course -

After our pit stop in Delaware we trucked on up and made a quick stop in Connecticut - New Haven to be exact. We wanted to see the coast - and it was beautiful.

Looking back into the city.

So pretty.

We arrived in RI that evening and were ready to find something local and yummy to eat. We urbanspooned a little Indian restaurant and ventured out to find it. It was dark so everything seemed to be extremely sketchy around Providence. We found the Indian place and it literally looked like a hole in the wall, but of course those are the gems. And this was. Delicious. We haven't had Indian food since Tandoori Oven when we lived in Logan. Whew - it just hit the spot for sure. We got back to the hotel and fell out.

The next day was a 'field trip'. I was able to go on the field trip and we had such a wonderful and absolutely delicious time. I'm so glad I was able to join all these nature folks.

We went on a little hike that morning and then went to a local grist mill where we had JohnnyCakes. 

Yumm...

We got to see how the mill works and the story behind it.

Our group.

Such a studly natural looking guy.

This lady and her husband run the mill. She was making the JohnnyCakes for us.

Seth listening to how things move along.

After the mill we went to our lunch site. We had paella.

Gosh.

This isn't the best picture of the paella but man was it superb.

I didn't know what paella was, so let me explain it a little. It is rice cooked over an open fire with all sorts of ocean goodies. Scallops - shrimp - fish - mussels. Divine.

After lunch we were able to walk to the beach.

Such a beautiful place.

All these rocks were built up by the local land trust and retrieved from the grounds.

The waves were HUGE.

After the beach we went back to the site for local oysters and wine.

Seth attended seminars the next few days. We had amazing food every evening while in RI. We had local American food one evening and another evening we had Ethiopian. 

He was a VERY happy man.

 Providence had a fire display that was beautiful - but it sure was chilly!

Fire display getting started below.

A tad blurry but a Cook photo.

After the conference Seth and I started our trip back South. We stopped in Tarrytown NY to eat dinner with Seth's aunt and cousin.

Katherine - Sadie - Seth

And of course the food at Tarrytown was AMAZING. One of the best meals I've every experienced. I wish we would've been able to see this little town a little more. It was so neat from the little we did see.

After NY we made it to Washington, DC and was able to stay with another cousin of Seths. After keeping Whitney up until 4 in the morning chatting - we finally went to sleep and was given a tour of DC on Sunday.

We got to see the White House.

Seth and Whit.

Loved getting to see this place!

One of the main things I wanted to see in DC! 

Whitney and I - She was such a great guide!

Gapper/Tourist Picture.

Seth actually did want this picture of him and the Capital!

We were even able to fit in a big name art gallery - a little DaVinci and Van Gogh. We felt very cultured.

We made it back to SC for a work week and headed right back out the next weekend to visit Joseph, Laurie, Sarah, and Brandon and go to a Clemson game.

I'll have to start back up with that next time. I have lots to get to around here, more school to do, and we get to celebrate my cousin and her fiance this evening!

The Cook's :).