weekendrandosmoothies

This post may be a little all over the place!

Let's start out with the weekend.  As I posted on Friday, Brandon and I went to Greensboro, Georgia for a family reunion to celebrate my grandfather's 80th birthday.  Grandpa just moved to this little town and I must say, I could totally live there.  It's in an isolated location.  Quiet, beautiful, old, yet up and coming.  My grandpa lives on a huge plot of land that overlooks Lake Oconee.  He has wispy grass that ripples when the wind blows & glistens with the sun shines down.  They have horses that greet you when you turn down their (long, gravel) driveway.  The town has an old, historic district that is the cutest thing you've ever seen.  Right out of a storybook.  Beautiful churches and huge, southern homes.  They don't have but one grocery store that I saw, but there's a big farmer's market downtown that has fish, flowers, fruits, veggies, breads, etc.  The "new" part of town is quite ritzy.  Doggy day spas, painting studios, nice salons, etc.  Then drive a mile and you're back to isolation -on the pretty land that overlooks the lake.  No Target or large supercenters in sight ...but I love that.  Their town is about an hour and a half away from Atlanta --so it's close enough if you need to get some major shopping done.  Can you tell I liked it?

Here are some iPhone photos from the weekend.  Some taken by me and some stolen from my cousin, Chrissy!  

My Aunt Kathleen (dad's sister), and my cousins Sloane, Chrissy, Caroline, Meredith ...and then me!  We were eating Grandpa's birthday cake :) YUM.

My cousin, Caroline, and I after hiking a state park on Saturday morning

Here are more photos of weekend happenings:

 ...and here's a backyard view:



My aunt took a lot of photos on a nice camera... those might have to be posted later when I can get my hands on them!

Now for the randoms:

Packing tip I learned from Brandon's mom.  Put your shoes in shower caps!  A lot of hotels will give them away for free to their guests, along with the other toiletries they leave on the bathroom counters.  It's the perfect way to keep the germs from the bottoms of your shoes away from the rest of the items in your suitcase! 

While we were in the car, I painted my nails with Essie ______ (I'm sorry, I completely cannot remember the name!  Will edit this post with the color soon!)

On the way home, Brandon pulled over on the side of the road and jumped out of the car.  I said shouted, "What's wrong!!?"  Well,  turns out that we had this HUGE stinkbug in the back of the car.  Brandon got him out (thank goodness) and he flew up to the tops of the trees. 

I really ate a lot of junk this past weekend, so I'm trying to make an effort to eat cleaner this week.  Yesterday, for a snack, I had this juice.  I know it can be purchased at Bi-Lo.  It's completely natural.  This flavor tastes amazing, surprisingly.  I am so not one to drink wheatgrass juice, but the passion fruit makes it very refreshing.

...and I want to share this because I think it's hilarious.  I found a group of photos online that were taken at the finish line of the Cooper River Bridge Run.  You know-- when we ran almost 6.5 miles a couple weeks ago (a.k.a. our first run over a mile ...EVER). 

In this photo, Brandon and I had JUST stepped over the finish line.  I was ready for more.  Brandon...not so much.  We had volunteered early that morning and I had suddenly sprung it on him that we would run the race, too.  He was so mad at me for making him do it.  Poor guy.  He finished it like a champ though :)

Hee hee!

That's all I've got for today.

Oh, does anyone have any recommendations for a great blender for making smoothies?  I need one that can crush ice like nobody's business.

Xo-M