Sweet Outer Banks, North Carolina!

My family vacations in the Outer Banks of North Carolina every summer near the middle of July. The past few years Cory and I have scheduled our personal vacations to be right before my family's vacation, so we can piggy back and make it a longer vacation in general. This year is no exception. The most exciting part about this year, though, is that my step-brother's family is also joining us. I'm excited to spend more time with him, his wife, and daughter, too.

Cory and I have been practicing some card games to play with the family. It's something we've been getting into lately--simple things to keep us entertained!

I'm sure while we're here we'll make plans to see Jockey's Ridge and maybe spend a day out on Ocracoke Island, too. Cory and I have already budgeted and made plans to swing by our FAVORITE indie bookstore in town (they have two locations we love). We're also hoping to take long naps on the beach and cook big family dinners. We're really hoping to soak in a lot of quality time, too.

The one thing my family always struggles with though, is where to eat. We'll probably go out to eat once or twice while we're here, but it takes us the longest time to decide where to go. Do you have any suggestions?

Let me know in the comments!

I'll be back with more blogging as I know our wifi will be much more reliable than other parts of our trip ;).

Take care,

Greetings from Asheville, NC!

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I woke up this morning in Asheville and am feeling really excited about exploring this town! This is the last stop on our trip before we hit the beach! I've been wanting to visit Asheville for years and I'm really excited to finally see what it's all about. Whenever I talk to someone who has visited or lived here, they always say it's a bigger version of Frederick (where I live), so that's promising!

Today we are trying out a few diners and places to eat that were recommended to us by some new friends. We're also going to try to find a cool record shop we searched for online.

We'll be here until late Sunday morning if you'd like to drop a few suggestions in the comments!

Thanks!

Oklahoma City bound :)

(isn't it pretty?)

We're heading a little south today before we start heading back east. We're making our way for a quick visit in Oklahoma City! I don't know much about this town, but am very curious about it. If you have any recommendations for places to eat or things to do, please leave them in the comments or email me at donnasdecembers(at)gmail.com! 

We'll be here only for a night!

Thank you!

Hellllloooo Colorado!

We will be driving into Colorado tonight and I am so excited about this leg of our trip! I am excited to see all the gorgeous mountains, hike out to Red Rocks, visit all the Denver and Boulder universities, and maybe even meet up with a high school friend who lives in Telluride.

We'll be in Boulder (and Denver) until Tuesday. It's the second longest leg of our trip.

Do you have any suggestions for things to do or things to see in this part of Colorado? We're up for anything!

Thanks!

Greetings from Missouri!

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Hello, everyone! Cory and I are headed to the Springfield, Missouri area today! Of course I have big plans to check out Red Velvet's brick and mortar store while I'm in town, but we're also planning on paying some family members a visit, too! We're really hoping to catch a break from the heat while in the Ozarks, but it just doesn't look like it's going to happen. A girl can still cross her fingers, right?

I'll be back later with an update (if I have wi-fi)!

I hope you're excited for the weekend!

xo,

Louisville bound!

 

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Early this morning Cory and I loaded up our car and headed west to begin our 18 day road trip. We are EXCITED!

The first stop on our trip is Louisville, Kentucky and we should be arriving around 3 p.m. this afternoon (hoping that traffic is on our side). We will be in Louisville until Friday and have A LOT we want to cram into our short visit. We want to take in a lot of the downtown area that was recommended to me by a reader (thanks, Heather!). We're hoping to check out all the cute shops and bookstores along Bardstown Road, as well as take a peek inside a few of the local distilleries and factories (Louisville Slugger!). 

What I'm most looking forward to about this stop is that our good friends Rich and Beth are meeting up with us! They left for their roadtrip during the last week in June, so by the time we meet up with them tomorrow, they will be almost finished their tour of the country. It's pretty exciting that it happened to work out just so. 

Anyway, so my plan for this roadtrip is to soak in as much of the local attractions as I can and then if I have wi-fi, blog about it in the evening. If I don't have wi-fi, I'll update as soon as I can with loads of pictures and what not! 

Throughout this trip Cory and I will be keeping a conversational notebook (ie: composition book from Sunday's post) that we're both going to write in while we're driving or are in different towns. I'm hoping to use a nice combination of washi tape and my Instax Mini to keep photos and findings in it, too. I loved the idea when Cory pitched it to me; I think it will be a really great way to keep track of our vacation!

 

Wish us luck!

 

Weekend Review

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It feels so good to be blogging again; it's like hanging out with an old friend. I'm completely rejuvenated by my new look and am ready to blog all spring and summer long! Other than getting back in the blogging groove, this weekend has been really great.

Friday evening I wanted to be as productive as possible to allow for more flexibility later in the weekend. With that being said, Cory and I immediately hit up Good Will to drop off bags upon bags of donations, then did our weekly grocery shopping trip. We decided to get take-out pizza from our favorite pizza place and enjoy it over a bottle of red wine. It was a nice, quiet way to end the week.

Yesterday, I had most of the morning and afternoon to myself as Cory was hosting a Yearbook workshop at his school. I got back into the blogging groove and anticipated my new look (butterflies, I tell ya)! I decided to take a quick jaunt to Smoothie King for lunch and daydreamed about spring as it was a nice 62 degrees outside.

Cory and I wrapped up our evening by taking a trip to Michael's so I could pick up some cotton yarn to work with for a few upcoming items I want to add to the shop. We made a quick stop at Barnes and Noble so I could pick up a new crochet magazine and so Cory could check out a recently published book. We then got sushi take-out and came home with plenty of time and energy to build a fort in the living room and watch a few episodes of Downton Abbey. It was some of the best quality time we've had together in a long time. 

This morning I woke up to Warren Zevon and Bob Dylan playing on the record player and Cory cooking breakfast in the kitchen. What a dream. We ate breakfast in our fort and continued to play records on the turntable. It was a nice, long morning.

Nice, quiet weekends were you eat every meal at home (even if it's not from home) are the best, no?

I hope you had a lovely weekend!

xo,