Maryland/Delaware Trip/Wedding

We flew up to my parents on Friday morning for a fun weekend at home-home.  Let me say this...there is nothing better than being in my home-home bed, with Kevin and my parents under the same roof.  I can turn my phone on silent and not look at it or hear it all weekend.  And I sleep so soundly.  Everyone is there.  I don't have to worry about anything when I'm under that roof.  

We went up for my parent's godson's wedding.

Dad drove the four of us down to Rehobeth Beach, Delaware for the ceremony at All Saints Church.

The mother of the groom is like family to us.  Isn't she gorgeous?  So is my Mama on the right and Dad in the back.  Well Dad, you aren't gorgeous but you're handsome in that slick bow tie.  Dad had two dates for the wedding...wasn't he lucky?!

We arrived at Rehobeth Beach Country Club for the reception.  

The flowers were done by Jim Gray...that's for you Ash...I know you probably could already tell by looking at how perfect they are!

The cocktail hour was full of fresh seafood.  Oysters, bacon wrapped scallops, shrimp cocktail...

The view from the terrace was unreal.  It was the perfect day...not too hot and not much humidity at all.

Ole Pops!

Bride and groom on the dock for pictures...look at her veil!

Introductions.  Dad was honored to walk the mother of the groom in!  

And the bride and groom!

Dad was also asked to say the prayer.  Here he is getting ready.  He denied a gin and tonic from Kevin about 30 minutes prior.  I guess he had decided his limit before praying was one.  Good pops.

There he is.

Brother of the groom saying his crazy toast.  

Cutting their beachy cake.

Dad dancing with Mrs. V.

Later in the evening, the scotch and cigar bar opened.  No detail was left behind on this reception as you can tell.

Brides bouquet...full of peonies.

Kevin and I with Taylor and Joe.

With my parents.

These three were chugging this bottle of champagne with the lights on and reception ending.  Oh my.

Double trouble.  Groom and Kevin.

Awwwwwww.

Since the wedding was on Friday night, we had Saturday to hang with my parents.  I found my rollerblades from growing up.  These bad boys came back on the plane with me for sure.

Saturday evening we took the ferry to Red Roost for some crabs.

Well there was one boy from North Carolina that didn't pick crabs and got the seafood platter instead....;)

But we'll forgive him for not fitting in with the Marylanders.

Mrs. Black came with us.  She's basically my grandmother....she's lived next door to my parents my whole likfe.

Kevin loved Red Roost.  

And he even got a t-shirt.

And I left with the crabmeat I picked and ate it the next morning so I wouldn't be sick from overeating like I was two weeks prior.  

We cruised back to Charlotte Sunday afternoon and tried Three Amigos for "dunch." First time there and won't be our last.  

Actually on the way back to Charlotte, I took a flight voucher and cruised back through Philly.  Kevin stayed on our originally planned flight direct from Salisbury to Charlotte.  I got in 1.5 hours after him...well worth the $600 voucher and we had to wait in the airport area to get Mills at a certain time anyway.  No complaints here!

Hope you all had a nice weekend!  

Five on Friday - Miscellaneous

ONE:

My vacuum is about to blow up.  Like at any moment when I use it.  I've had it since college.  It's time for an adult vacuum.  We have central vac in our house but it just doesn't get things up like this will.

TWO:

My favorite summer re-fuel breakfast.  Peach.  Avocado on a thin bagel toasted with salt and pepper.

THREE:

Lindsay sent me this picture of she and I back in the day.  She thinks we were filming a video on larger folks working out.  HA!

FOUR:

Julie is a friend of ours and she went through a nightmare.  She relived her nightmare by writing a book about it.  She encourages anyone dealing with grief to read this.  She is a strong, amazing lady and she writes about her husband and son being killed when they were t-boned by an ambulance.  Her other son was also in the car and died three times on the way to the hospital but survived.  He says he saw heaven each time.  The book is temporarily out of stock but I think you can buy it for your e-reader.

FIVE:

I didn't get a new dress for this weekend's wedding.  Instead, I went to Luna (a cute shop in Phillips Place) and got fun earrings for less than $30.  I'm excited!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Parent's Gifts

I always feel like our parents are the hardest to buy for.  My parents and Kevin's parents go out and get what they want.  So I always try to think of something unique and special they normally wouldn't buy.

This year for my parents anniversary we got them this lemon tree.  Mom loves all of this kind of stuff on her porch and back patio so this suit them.  Plus maybe their love will keep blooming like the tree! ;)  Thank you Nicole for that saying!

Last year we had this frame done for them for their 40th.  See post here.

For Kevin's parents, we gave them an address yard sign like this one year...then another year we had a party for them.

As for birthdays...

Special golf shirts for Kevin's Dad

the wreath I mentioned for Kevin's Mom

The most popular gift for our Mom's.

Dad loves Woodcraft or Home Depot so usually a gift card from there.  Totally impersonal but he loves them. ... I think.

Other ideas....

 - One of their most special restaurants...send them there and call ahead to the restaurant with your card number and then they never get a bill but got to get whatever they wanted.  I did this once when I sent my parents to DC after I got a big bonus one year.  That trip was a thank you for my education.

 - I think this steak brander is cool.  We gave our Dad's each one for Christmas one year.

 - We love giving Tervis Tumblers because we love them!  In fact, we have an entire cabinet in our kitchen of them.  You can get them monogrammed from the Tervis website here.  If you sign up to receive their emails, they're always running some sort of promotion!

Maybe this gave you all some parental/adult gift ideas?!  Hopefully!