3rd Annual Phi Mu OCMD Trip!

So, with the awful rainy weather today, I find my brain wandering back to all of the fun adventures I had this summer. And the sunshine! So, please excuse my brief brain vacation while I re-visit one of my summer vacations that I never got around to blogging about. Last year I wrote all about a 2nd trip to Ocean City, MD with a group of my sorority sisters, and this past August, we continued the tradition!

As we've been doing this vacation for a couple of years, there are always a couple of things we know we need to accomplish. First, Seacrets is a must.

It's hard to explain exactly what Seacrets is unless you've been there...but this beachy restaurant/bar/nightclub is always one of our first stops now that we are all 21. There are even tables in the water so you can sit in the (kind of icky) bay while enjoying friends, sunshine, and drinks. And there is always very interesting 'people watching,' too. :)

We also always make sure to take Scopes pictures! We are still all sorority girls even though most of us have graduated, which means lots of picture documentation of our adventures.

Of course, no trip to Ocean City would complete without an all-you-can-eat crab feast at Hooper's...

...or a trip to the boardwalk for Thrasher's french fries, Fisher's Popcorn, and fudge from Candy Kitchen.

One night, we went out to the new Dead Freddies in Ocean City. This weekend trip just happened to be about a week or two after I got engaged. My big sister, Amanda, had also gotten engaged a few weeks prior. The lovely Amber made us "Bride to Be" sashes for our night out on the town to celebrate! So cute! :)

It was such a fun, but quick, trip...I wish time would rewind and we could start the summer over again! I would take several more trips to the beach with friends, and lay out by the pool every free minute I had. I'm not ready for the cold at all!

Wedding Wednesday: The Girls

A lot has been going on in the world of Lauren, which leaves not much time for blogging about it! Hopefully grad school and student teaching give me the time to plan the wedding of our dreams, but lately that hasn't been the case! I really am trying to do a better job of taking some time out for me, and that means keeping up with this blog, too. Anyway, the weekend before last, I tried on wedding dresses for the very first time (which was a kind of out-of-body experience, brought some tears to my eyes, and is still the only time I've done it). The same trip with my mom, sister, and my sorority sisters was successful in picking out bridesmaids dresses. I mean, hey, if I can't make a decision about a dress, it doesn't mean that they can't! One more thing off the list. :)

We also went to my first bridal show, which was overwhelming, but fun! I love tasting cake, but I think I will stick to going and buying slices from the baker who is doing our cake instead of dealing with the chaos of hundreds of other brides and vendors! We did find our ceremony musicians and a fun photo booth, though!

But that's not what this post is about. This post is about my finally complete bridal party. It took me a while to chase down and make dates with all of the girls I wanted to ask. It was really important to me to ask them each individually (which made the process take forever, but I'm still glad I did it that way), and I wanted to do something special to let them all know how much it means to me. I am beyond lucky to have these seven (yes, seven!) wonderful women standing up for Brian and I as bridesmaids on our wedding day.

Jennifer and Rachel, my two younger sisters

Kathy, Brian's sister and my future sister-in-law

Kristi, my sorority Little

Joella, my sorority sister
  

Amber, my sorority sister

Amanda, my longest friend

In addition to these lovely ladies, my cousin Jordan will be a Junior Bridesmaid.

I wish I could put into words how beyond great and supportive these girls have been, not only about our wedding but ever since I've known them. They have truly shown me what friendship means.  I am lucky to be surrounded by so much love on what will surely be one of the most memorable and important days of my life!

Labor Day Weekend Recap

Brian got to fly home from Arizona for the weekend, so we had lots of fun squeezing time together in between Labor Day festivities and time with our families! We...

*...re-lived one of our first dates and went up into the tower at the airport! You can only imagine how exciting that was for me! It is neat to see how the airport works (on a basic level) and watch all of the planes land...it takes lots of coordination! This picture is much better than the first one of me in the tower, as well. Such a fun experience! :)

*...ate at Bobby's Burger Palace in Philly, which is owned by the Food Network's Bobby Flay. It was actually our second experience at one of his restaurants (we went to Bar Americain in Times Square during Yearling Winter Weekend). I had the Crunchburger, which has a layer of potato chips on it! I loved all of the different sauces they had on the tables...like chipotle ketchup and burger sauce.

I think it's safe to say we both thought BBP was delicious.

 *...went out to dinner with some of our friends on Friday night at P.F. Changs. We had a great time hanging out with them, but the highlight definitely came after dinner walking to our car. Out of nowhere, Todd Heap and his wife got into our elevator! Yes, I was just writing about my love for football season and the Ravens, and there he was! Brian said something witty and shook his hand, and I stood there starstruck. Way cool, though.

Loved hanging out with my friends, too, of course!

*...tasted cake and looked at wedding bands! Bands like rings, not bands like rock bands. Brian got confused when I reminded him that we did this over the weekend, and it turns out he was thinking of the second one. We picked out our cake flavors and got a good idea of what kind of band Brian wants; mine is going to be custom made over Christmas break! Both wedding tasks were fun, but I think I liked the cake tasting better. This might be my only wedding update for this week, because grad school is making me into a crazy person. :)

*...went on a date in the town where we are getting married! We ate at the same restaurant on the water where we celebrated our one year anniversary and visited our lighthouse. It was all lit up at night, and so pretty.

*...came upon fields and fields of sunflowers growing not even a quarter mile from Brian's house. Which obviously warranted pulling over and taking pictures. And we were definitely not the only ones!

*...cooked out, made s'mores in the firepit at my house, and enjoyed our last weekend of summer together! The next time we get to see each other, fall will be in full swing!

Hope you all had amazing holiday weekends!

Trip to Training Camp!

With the arrival of September, I see so many bloggers getting excited about cooler weather, Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and other fun fall things. Truth be told, I'm not really all that excited. My summer was kind of strange and random (but so great!) and I just don't feel like I'm done with it yet! Usually by now I'm ready for the temperature to drop and to put on sweaters and sweatshirts. Not this year! Hopefully I'll be able to soak up at least a little bit of sun this weekend (that is, if Earl cooperates) and feel a little more prepared for fall when it's over.

One thing I am excited for, though, is football season! I started watching the Ravens with Brian when we met, and it is now a full-fledged obsession! Now that I understand the rules and can follow the plays, I look forward to Sundays like crazy. I can hardly even believe that I get this excited about football! Even though I technically became a Ravens fan through Brian, I definitely consider myself a bona fide fan on my own these days. :)

A couple of weeks ago, I ventured down to Westminister with Brian's sister to visit Ravens training camp and met up with Amber (who I stole these pictures from because my camera is officially out of commission) there!

Me and Amber

Kathy and Me

 (Did I mention that both of these ladies happen to be among my woooonderful bridesmaids? :)

The Ravens hold training camp at McDaniel College, which is a bit of a drive from our houses...but it was definitely worth it! It was so cool to see these players that we watch religiously on television every week up close and personal. Oh, you know, like Ray Lewis. No big deal!!!

We watched the practice for a while and did our best to keep track of what was happening...there are so many people on the field and so many different things going on at once! After the morning practice ended, we noticed a big group of people gathered around a tent. We decided to walk over to see what the fuss was about...and saw the one and only Todd Heap giving a radio interview!

A couple of minutes later, Haloti Ngata (who is HUGE in real life!) joined him. In Amber's words, we were definitely starstruck!

 Before we left, we made sure to pick up some Ravens gear to commemorate our first trip to training camp. It was definitely a cool experience, and I'm really glad I got the chance to go this year! I love that I can share in all of the excitement of the beginning of football, and I can't wait to very proudly don my purple and black this season. :)