7 Year Wedding Anniversary!

Wow guys! I've been slacking on my blog posts! I have been crazy busy lately but hopefully things will slow down a bit here soon.

This is what has been going on:

Nathan and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary on April 17th!!!

Seven years ago, we were married at Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, SC! This June we will have been together for 10 years! I cannot believe how fast time is flying by! <3 I am truly blessed to have found such an incredible man to spend the rest of my life with!

To celebrate our anniversary, we did what we love to do - explore & hike!

We made our way up to Pickett State Park on our anniversary and checked out the second natural bridge!

The weather was certainly in our favor this whole past week, so it was a no brainer to enjoy the sunshine and be outside! It was wonderful to have a "staycation." 

It's exciting to find random spots like the silo emerged in water below:

Or even admiring beautiful flowers:

We headed through Townsend and ended up in the Great Smoky Mountains. We saw a baby black bear! He was surprisingly close to the road, but there was also a ranger there to keep an eye on him (as well as the other people watching). It was such a cutie! I was worried that Mamma bear would be around, but the ranger said after the cubs turn about 2 years old, the Mamma leaves and lets them go their own way. 

I was happy to hear that, especially since I just saw the movie "The Revenant" with Leonardo DiCaprio...

If you have seen it, you know what I'm talking about.

 There is something magical about the mountains! I love when Nate and I have the opportunity to go out and explore! :)

Anyway, the rest of our staycation was extremely enjoyable because we had the chance to relax and try out a few places around town that we never have checked out before!

Holly's Gourmet Cafe:

The atmosphere was really cool! The display of baked goods was incredible - thankfully I resisted (for now). 

I had the egg white scramble with goat cheese. Yum! It was very good! It can be hard finding healthier options sometimes at restaurants that actually taste great, so I'm definitely going back!

I had a little bit of time to volunteer last week. I always look forward to volunteering and spending time with all the animals. It was wonderful hanging out with the cats and giving them love. They were the sweetest and they loved that I was in there giving them rubs! 

I also got to walk two adorable dogs, Princess and Sammy! :) 

Princess

Sammy

For one of our breakfast outings, we went to Best Bagels and Deli. I had the Asiago bagel with bacon, egg, and cheese. Nathan had an onion bagel with sausage, egg, and cheese. There was quite a line, but it was worth it. The bagel sandwich was hot, fresh & delicious! 

For our celebratory anniversary lunch, we went to Copper Cellar! Copper Cellar has amazing prime rib and steaks! Copper Cellar is our go-to for Christmas parties for work, and it is always delicious! I was excited to finally go with Nathan! :) 

Afterward, we stopped at Barnes & Noble for coffee and to look around. Even though the majority of my books are on my iPad, I still love bookstores! Barnes & Noble has such a relaxing atmosphere, it is fun to sit and read books/magazines with a hot cup of coffee. 

Haha, so basically all of our fun consisted of FOOD. At least we went hiking, etc. but we obviously, need to start eating more at home. As fun as it is trying out new restaurants, it can be too tempting to eat unhealthy meals. 

Time to start looking up recipes and figuring out what to make for at home meals! ;)

Question Time:

* Do you prefer reading real books or books on iPad/Tablet?

* Do you enjoy hiking/exploring?

* Have you tried out many local restaurants? Or do you have a favorite local place?